August 7, 2023 • 27 mins
Can you spot a 'pitch slapper' from a mile away? We've all seen them in our inbox.
And if you're at all active on LinkedIn, you're probably getting "pitch slapped" daily.
A myriad of messages that say something along the lines of: "I've got the greatest thing since sliced bread here and let me go on about it - in fact why don't we just get on a call?"
This week's guest on the Standout Business Show, agency owner, Megan Killion has an antidote to this cringiness.
Megan brings her 15 years of experience to the table, sharing her refreshing perspective on how to get your brand, product or service across without coming off as insincere or pushy.
She believes that the key to standing out in a crowded market lies in creating your own content & creating your own community.
And understanding that people are a lot more likely to buy from you if they feel like they found you, rather than the other way around.
Join us as Megan walks us through how you can engage and reach out to your target audience - with no cringe involved.
Get ready to rethink your approach to outreach.
Takeaways:
- LinkedIn prospecting and messaging strategies that really work.
- Secrets to crafting an engaging message that strikes a chord with your prospects
- The surprisingly powerful tool of polls for sparking meaningful interaction.
- How your content marketing strategy can make your prospects the hero of the story.
Episode Resources
Connect with Megan Killion
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If you're the best-kept secret in your industry, it's time to change that.
Because when you start showing up with clarity, confidence, and the right content—your ideal clients won't just notice you. They'll choose you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
One of the things I push a lot in sales is to be
authentic, to be transparent, tobe who you are, because people
buy from people, no matter whatyou're selling, so you need to
be that person and put that outthere.
The other side is thinkingabout your ideal client and
really defining that and goingdeep on understanding them.
(00:25):
You have to define yourself andyou have to define your buyer
before you can do anything,because otherwise all of your
messaging, all of your content,it's going to be wishy-washy and
it's not going to feel genuine.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the Standout Business Show, where
it's all about making a biggerdifference by doing business
differently.
So today we're talking about theproblem with pitch slapping,
and this is probably one of thebiggest headaches that anyone
who's active at all especiallyon a platform like LinkedIn,
where we're going live right nowyou know that when you accept a
(01:07):
connection request from anyonewho's out there, it's probably
way more likely than not thatimmediately you are going to get
this message that says, hey,I've got this really cool thing
and it's amazing, and it'ssomething that you really ought
to buy into, and why don't weget on a call and talk about it
(01:28):
and boom like, right out ofnowhere, this complete stranger
has made you a kind of obtrusiveoffer.
And this happens again and againand again, and it's not just on
social media.
Our inboxes, our email, is fullof this kind of immediate, cold
outreach that feels rathercringy.
(01:50):
So today I've invited MeganKillian on today.
She's got tons of experience indoing outreach of an alternate
kind, and so we're going toexplore how you can actually
engage and attract your rightfit audience and your right fit
clients without doing cringyoutreach.
(02:13):
So with that let's start theshow.
All right, megan Killian,welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Hey everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, so as we start this, why don't you talk a
little bit about your background?
I know that you've done lots ofsales kinds of things and a lot
of different types of outreachand so you've really learned in
a hard knock way what not to doand what actually might be a
(03:07):
good thing.
So tell a little bit about yourbackground and experience and
how you've transformed into thisbetter way to do this.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Absolutely so.
I've been in BW Tech sales for15 years and, to give some
perspective, I was a homeless,single mother when I was 18
years old and sales changed mylife, changed my family's life.
But because it was so highstakes for me, I had to do it
well and not make very manymistakes and I had to learn
(03:37):
really quickly from my mistakes.
And I've done a little bit ofeverything.
I've called, called, I've donecold email, I've done cold
LinkedIn outreach, builtcommunities on Slack and
Facebook and all sorts ofdifferent things.
And what I've really learnedfrom my time in the industry is
that just about everyone wantsto feel seen and understood and
(04:04):
nobody likes to get messagingthat is really obviously the
same as what everyone else isgetting.
And that doesn't mean thatthere's no space for automation
in your outreach.
It just means that you need tobe smart about it and that you
you need to combine steps thatare manual with steps that are
(04:27):
automated.
I've done $500 million in techsales in my career, so I think I
know a bit about what actuallydoes work and the majority of my
career I've been focused on topof funnel front of pipeline.
So while I do close businessand have been in a closing role
and carry the bag.
I have always been a hunter, soI'm not someone who's out there
(04:51):
.
You know farming leads thatalready know about our business
and I also have almostexclusively worked for companies
without big brand presences, sowe all know that if you work
for, you know, like a Verizon, aComcast, a Nike, an Apple,
people know your brand beforeyou touch them and they have
(05:12):
feelings about it.
The type of outreach I'm goingto talk to you guys about today
is more for people who are trulygoing out there cold, talking
to people who've probably neverheard of them, never heard of
their product or service andnever heard of their company.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, I think that's a really good place to begin,
because most everybody in myaudience that's where they're at
.
We are not Coca-Cola.
Our brand is not yet ahousehold name.
Most people who encounter usanywhere we go have never heard
of us or have never seen usbefore.
We're really starting fromscratch In that approach.
(05:53):
When I get on LinkedIn and Icreate my profile and now the
world is my oyster.
I can go, and LinkedIn has somegreat tools for hunting in
terms of finding and identifying.
It's probably why I likeLinkedIn more than any of the
other platforms, because whenyou look carefully, you can see
(06:16):
anyone you want to in terms ofwho they are, what they do.
Their whole resume is displayed, a lot of their experience, if
they're at all active withcontent.
You can really learn a lotabout them in a variety of ways.
You can really pinpoint andstart speaking to anyone you
want to.
When you're looking at this,like when you're putting on your
(06:37):
I don't know what you woulddescribe it your hunter's outfit
, my camouflage.
You mount your horse on LinkedInand you're going writing off
onto the range.
I've been watching a lot ofYellowstone lately, so I've got
all these Western metaphors.
So where do you begin in thissearch?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So there's two places that you really have to start
defining things before you canget started.
One is in defining yourself.
You need to sit down and saywho am I, how do I relate to my
product or service, what valuesof the company that I represent
(07:19):
do I hold course myself?
And you want to build yourLinkedIn profile around that.
So I think we all know thatLinkedIn can be used as a resume
and probably all of us havegotten outreach from recruiters
on LinkedIn and they found youby searching for something in
the search bar.
I've gotten a lot of jobofferings because the word cloud
(07:41):
is all over my profile.
So we all know how to do thatfrom a job hunting perspective.
We know how the ATS works.
We know that we need to usekeywords and search terms in
optimizing our profile for jobseeking.
You can also do that from theperspective of a salesperson and
(08:04):
from a marketing perspectivefor your product or service.
So if you kind of think aboutwhat types of problems does your
product solve or your serviceand what types of people would
be looking for it, what are thekey keywords and search terms
they would put in to find you?
You want to make sure that yourprofile is optimized for that
(08:24):
and that also, when someoneopens up your profile and they
go look at you because whetheryou message someone, you comment
on one of their posts, whatever, however they find you, they're
going to open your profile andlook.
And you want to make sure thatyour headline very, very clearly
states the value you provide topeople or what your
(08:46):
accomplishments are, somethingbeyond just my title at company.
And then you have quite a lotof space in your about section
to really highlight yourself.
One of the things I push a lotin sales is to be authentic, to
be transparent, to be who youare, because people buy from
(09:06):
people, no matter what you'reselling.
So you need to be that personand put that out there.
So that's the me side, rightFocused on me.
I want to make sure my skillsare there, that I sort of
explain where I sit in the worldand be honest.
Right, if you're a salesperson,don't try to hide the fact that
you're a salesperson on yourprofile.
(09:27):
They're going to figure it out.
And then the other side isthinking about your ICP, your
ideal client, and reallydefining that and going deep on
understanding them.
So obviously, like I run amarketing agency, we really
focus again on top of funnellead generation kind of bringing
(09:48):
in new clients, new revenue andso typically I target mid and
small size BB Tech companies,primarily MSPs and telcos.
So I spent a lot of time myrelationship is usually with the
owner figuring out what discprofile those owners usually
(10:08):
have they're usually high D,high I and the types of
approaches that they appreciateright.
And then Once you know all ofthat, only then can you build
both the content and outreachStrategy you have to define
yourself and you have to defineyour buyer before you can do
(10:30):
anything, because otherwise allof your messaging, all of your
content, it's going to bewishy-washy and it's not going
to feel genuine.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, so you just touched on, you know, developing
your content and outreachstrategy, and it seems like the
problem with pitch slapping isthat there's a ton of people out
there and all they thinkingabout is the outreach half, and
they're doing it in this reallyobnoxious, really loud way that
I can't imagine actually worksvery well for them.
(11:01):
So talk about how you like tomarry Content and outreach
together.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So there there are a couple different strategies and
again it's going to depend onthe disc profile of who you're
reaching out to and Whetheryou're starting with a buyer or
an influencer.
So in the case of, let's justsay, like I am targeting an
owner persona and they're highD's, they're very direct and
(11:27):
they appreciate directcommunication You're going to
send them a connection requestand in that connection request
you can either leave it blank,which I find has probably some
of the highest acceptance rates,because when you leave it blank
, people don't necessarilyimmediately say, oh, this
person's going to try to sell me.
But if you are going to saysomething, make sure that it's
personal and and High D's reallydo like flattery so point out
(11:52):
something that you like aboutthem or their brand or their
product, and Then you just youconnect, give it five days
before you say anything to themand make sure that your content
is Built for that persona.
So, whatever it is that you do,you want to make sure that
you're posting content regularlythat adds value to your buyer.
(12:14):
It can be directly related towhat you do like I post a lot of
sales and marketing tips andLeadership tips, but I
occasionally also will post likea parenting hack or like a
business strategy tip.
I talk a lot about diversityand inclusion and how that
impacts revenue, because thoseare all things that are highly
relevant to my buyers, even ifit's not highly relevant to what
(12:36):
I sell and who.
It's just what I know.
So posting regularly and Givingit at least five days before
you do any outreach is really,really important.
Give them a chance to look atyour profile and see your
content and then, before yousend a message, I highly
recommend Checking out theircontent and what they talk about
(12:58):
, figuring out what's importantto them.
Not everyone that is a prospectof yours is going to be active
on LinkedIn and posting content,but you can still find out a
lot about them just by readingtheir profile.
Take a look at where they wentto college.
Linkedin has a place for you toshow what charities you're
interested in, what types ofvolunteer work you like to do.
A Lot of people will indicatetheir faith on LinkedIn.
(13:21):
You can see geographicallywhere they're from.
So even if they aren't postingcontent, you're gonna get some
relevant information.
If they are posting content,find something to say about what
they are talking about.
Most people are posting aboutthings that are relevant to
their industry, and this canreally be a litmus test For
(13:42):
whether you even really knowyour industry, right?
So for me, like I sell intoMSPs and telcos and every once
in a while when I'm browsingsomeone's profile, they'll be
talking about some piece of newcybersecurity Software or
legislation that I actuallywasn't aware of, and so then
it's kind of like oh, I'm alsoeducating myself as I go.
(14:04):
So then I need to findsomething relevant to say, and
it does not have to be anythingabout what you do or what you
sell.
You can literally just besaying, hey, I didn't know about
this, thanks so much forposting, or Open up the article
that they posted, and findsomething in there that is
compelling and could help theirbusiness.
(14:25):
So in my case, like if an MSPowner is posting about a New
cybersecurity threat and I gointo that article and I'm like,
hey, I see this like reallyheavily is gonna be impacting
the legal field.
Do you have an outreachstrategy for law offices?
Right, that's that's where Istart, and Once you've done that
(14:47):
, then you can message them, andthere's a couple different ways
to do messaging strategy.
You can highly personalize theone sort of problem with your
first message to someone beingsuper highly personalized Is
that you don't yet know ifthey're going to respond Right.
(15:08):
So the overall statistic forhow many LinkedIn messages are
sent, very few of them are areresponded to right.
So what I like to do is sort ofprime the engine by either
asking them to vote in one of mypolls which I make sure my
polls are relevant to them,right.
So I'll ask something like isyour cybersecurity offering
(15:32):
focused on left of boom or rightof boom?
And then I asked them to votein the poll.
And if they vote in the poll, Iknow that they saw my message
and they responded.
Or I just say something supersimple like hey, can I ask you a
question?
They say yes, I go ahead.
I ask them a relevant question.
You know, like with MSPs, theyprimarily rely on referrals for
(15:55):
their new business.
So I'll just ask, like I seeyou've grown to.
You know this size.
Have you gotten there primarilythrough referrals or do you
have an outbound strategy?
And it's not easily automated.
That, can I ask you a question,can absolutely be automated,
but that higher level of care oftouch is so much more likely to
(16:16):
get someone to talk to youbecause you're being respectful
of them in their time.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, that's like really deep into getting to know
your audience really well.
Like seems to be the primarything and what's interesting
about what you're talking about.
I wanna go back to this onething that you just mentioned,
which is your use of polls,which I think is, first of all,
just a really great like from acontent marketing point of view
(16:43):
polls perform wellalgorithmically on LinkedIn but
also the way you're talkingabout using them in terms of you
make a poll and then you go outto people who are in your
prospecting lists and ask themif they would please respond to
your poll, I think that'sbrilliant.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
One of the reasons that it works is because, in
terms of psychology, we all liketo feel like we're important
and our voices matter, and sowhen you reach out to someone
directly and you say I consideryou to be an expert in this
industry and I really love yourfeedback, that is a much better
place to start a relationshipwith someone.
(17:25):
Which now, don't get me wrong,a lot of this stuff depends on
what you sell.
If you have a huge TAM totaladdressable market, maybe pitch
slapping will work for you,because it doesn't matter if you
piss some people off along theway.
And maybe you sell a piece ofsoftware where you have no
relationship after it sold andyou're just trying to do volume,
(17:46):
and if that's the case, thenthis probably isn't for you.
But if you're in theservice-based industry and
you're gonna have a relationshipwith your client after they
sign, and especially if you havelong sales cycles where it
takes a while to sell thatclient, you do not wanna start
that relationship by being likehey, I just met you and this is
(18:09):
crazy, but buy something for mebecause I haven't met my quota
yet this month.
And it's so transparent at thispoint because we're all
experiencing it, right.
Like every time I log intoLinkedIn I have these messages
that are just the same garbageI'm getting from everyone else.
And it's almost like sometimesI log in and I'll have four
(18:29):
emails and they say exactly thesame thing.
And I'm like are you guys evenchecking your CRM before you're
messaging me?
But regardless, starting with apoll, it also gives you insight
too.
So, like the one I asked aboutcybersecurity that's more
general industry fact-findingbut like I could post a poll
that said something like is yourMSP growing primarily by
(18:53):
referrals, through outbound,through inbound marketing or
something else, and when Iactually get that data back,
then I can send another round ofmessaging to those people.
And we have a product that'svery much based around MSPs that
are relying on referrals,building them an outbound engine
(19:14):
to figure out kind of how to dosales if they haven't been
doing it yet, and that gives methat data.
Like now I know, okay, theseprospects that I thought maybe
would be good targets for methey're not, because they
already have a solution in placeand it's working.
So I shouldn't bother themanymore.
I should just let them kind ofsit in that nurturing flow where
(19:36):
I can still send them content,send them tips and tricks, but
I'm not trying to get them on acall and the people that said,
oh, we're 100% reliant onreferrals, we don't have any
outbound.
Then I can message and be like,hey, most MSPs kind of tend to
cap off at like 2.53 million ayear in revenue and we have
(19:56):
something that can help you and,regardless of what your product
or service is, there's probablysomething you can do like that.
You know.
As long as you know whatproblem you solve, you can make
a poll about that problem andthen follow up with the people
who are confirming yes, I havethe problem.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's terrific , I mean, the nice thing about
that is, with the feature thepoll feature you can literally
look at it afterwards and youcan literally see what the
results were and who the peoplewere who said yeah, I have this
problem, Like it's super clear.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And then you can use that data to make more content
later.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Especially if it's indicative that your solution is
necessary, right?
So if I post a poll like thatand 70% of people say, oh, we're
reliant on referrals, then Ican make another piece of
content that says according tomy recent poll, 70% of MSPs are
relying on referrals to growtheir business.
And we all know that that's nota scalable solution.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Right, and especially if a large number of people are
self-identifying that, yes,this is a big headache for me,
then it gives you a wonderfultheme to run on for the next
month.
Abrahan, I'm gonna write a lotof content about this idea, this
theme, this message, because Iknow my audience, this audience
right here.
They obviously need help inthis area.
(21:19):
That's great.
So I heard you talk on I thinkthis came from a podcast episode
, but it was just a little videoclip and you were saying that
it's really better, from thecontent marketing strategy end
of things, for people to feellike they've discovered you
(21:40):
rather than to feel like you'vediscovered them and you're
banging on their door.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, I don't think any of us like to be prey.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It makes you feel a little icky.
When it's done well, it can bea positive experience.
But pretty much all of us, evenwhen you get a good sales
message, you're like, oh, herewe go again, I'm gonna be
putting someone's pipeline,they're never gonna leave me
alone.
When you create content andsomeone finds you, they track
(22:10):
you down and they see you asthis expert Diamond in the Ruff
that they have discovered.
They're proud of it.
Right, like if I am and I meanI am I'm the CEO of my company.
So let's just say I have areally big problem sourcing
talent.
I don't, but let's just saythat I did and for the life of
(22:32):
me, I've worked with a couple ofrecruiters, but they all came
to me through email and, like,none of them have really been
able to find someone who solvedmy problems, got me what I
really needed.
And then I'm on LinkedIn and Icome across like Sandy Zen or
Ralph Clotere, both of which areincredible recruiters that post
(22:53):
a lot of content on LinkedIn,and I'm like, oh, these guys,
they get it.
I'm gonna shoot them a messageand see if maybe they can find
me the talent that I need.
That makes me the hero in mystory and we all wanna feel like
the hero.
And you can also, even ifyou're not drawing people in
with content which, by the way,content marketing takes a long
(23:16):
time to build you can get luckyand go viral early on and sort
of the types of content that gowide and you get a lot of people
, you get a lot of eyeballs on.
It typically is not highconverting content.
You have to kind of put thosetwo strategies together, where
you're building content that youwant to bring you more
(23:37):
followers and then you'rebuilding content that you want
to convert.
It's a whole strategy but itpays dividends forever.
I have posts from three, fouryears ago that still get
comments, that still get likes,where people send me messages
and are like oh, megan, I sawthis thing and I would love to
talk to you.
But that same psychology canalso be implemented in your
(24:02):
outreach strategy.
When you are messaging people,you always want them to remain
the main character, and so manysalespeople make this mistake.
Where they want to makethemselves the main character,
they want to make their productthe hero and psychologically
(24:23):
that is not what works.
What works is saying you, mrProspect, are the hero and I
want to make you do your jobbetter, look good to your boss,
make more money, be moreproductive, get to take more
time off, whatever that is and Iam just Excalibur, I am just
(24:43):
the sword, I am just the tool,but you're the hero and if you
can make your messaging worklike that, people are so much
more likely to engage with you.
Salespeople, we let our egos getin the way too much and it's an
ongoing, forever battle.
Because you have to have asolid ego to be able to make it
in sales, because you are goingto get yelled at, you're gonna
(25:05):
get hung up on.
You have to have that likepositive mental attitude to keep
going.
But you also have to putyourself in check and remember
that it's really not about you.
It's about your customer, it'sabout your prospect.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah right, totally you wanna be.
You're the hero and you're theguide.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Exactly, and when they find you, they are the hero
.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah well, we are getting really close to the end.
Of our time goes by super fastAlways does.
This is great, terrific and soneeded.
Like I wish that somehow wecould multiply this message
today and get all of thosepeople who've been spamming my
inbox to pay attention.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh, I do that all the time.
When I get those messages, Iwill literally like copy up my
link to some of my content thattalks about not doing it and
I'll just send it to them.
Now, about 75% of the time itjust flies over their head.
But also, replying to thosemessages usually they're
automated, so it usually makesit stop.
(26:09):
So I'll reply with anythingjust to make you guys stop
messaging me, because sometimesyou get them those cadences, day
, day, day, like you'll get amessage every day, and I'm like
in what world do you thinkbothering me every single day
with almost the exact samemessaging is what's gonna get me
to engage with you?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Right, if I keep banging on your head, eventually
you'll roll over.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
No, I'm gonna get a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right, okay, well, this has really been wonderful.
So if people are now wanting tofollow up with you and see some
of the other stuff that you'redoing, what's the best way for
them to hook up?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Absolutely follow me on LinkedIn or connect with me.
It's linkedincom, slash inslash, megan Kelly and I'm easy
to find and if you havequestions, comments, concerns,
you wanna see one of myframeworks, just send me a
message.
I'm friendly.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Good, awesome.
Well, that's a really goodoffer.
I'll make sure that links toyou on LinkedIn are in the show
notes and thanks, megan, so muchfor coming on today.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Anytime, I hope you have a great day, Brad.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And for those of you who are listening here right at
the end, I just wanna remind youthat if you wanna go and get
all of the archive of this show,just go to standoutbusinessshow
and it's all there all theaudio, all the video, show notes
, the descriptions, the links tocool stuff, and you can binge
(27:37):
to your heart's content.
We go live every Thursday 11 amEastern time, and until the
next time, so long your Egoist200 moderators.
One of the things I push a lot in sales is to be
authentic, to be transparent, tobe who you are, because people
buy from people, no matter whatyou're selling, so you need to
be that person and put that outthere.
The other side is thinkingabout your ideal client and
really defining that and goingdeep on understanding them.
(00:25):
You have to define yourself andyou have to define your buyer
before you can do anything,because otherwise all of your
messaging, all of your content,it's going to be wishy-washy and
it's not going to feel genuine.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to the Standout Business Show, where
it's all about making a biggerdifference by doing business
differently.
So today we're talking about theproblem with pitch slapping,
and this is probably one of thebiggest headaches that anyone
who's active at all especiallyon a platform like LinkedIn,
where we're going live right nowyou know that when you accept a
(01:07):
connection request from anyonewho's out there, it's probably
way more likely than not thatimmediately you are going to get
this message that says, hey,I've got this really cool thing
and it's amazing, and it'ssomething that you really ought
to buy into, and why don't weget on a call and talk about it
(01:28):
and boom like, right out ofnowhere, this complete stranger
has made you a kind of obtrusiveoffer.
And this happens again and againand again, and it's not just on
social media.
Our inboxes, our email, is fullof this kind of immediate, cold
outreach that feels rathercringy.
(01:50):
So today I've invited MeganKillian on today.
She's got tons of experience indoing outreach of an alternate
kind, and so we're going toexplore how you can actually
engage and attract your rightfit audience and your right fit
clients without doing cringyoutreach.
(02:13):
So with that let's start theshow.
All right, megan Killian,welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Hey everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, so as we start this, why don't you talk a
little bit about your background?
I know that you've done lots ofsales kinds of things and a lot
of different types of outreachand so you've really learned in
a hard knock way what not to doand what actually might be a
(03:07):
good thing.
So tell a little bit about yourbackground and experience and
how you've transformed into thisbetter way to do this.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Absolutely so.
I've been in BW Tech sales for15 years and, to give some
perspective, I was a homeless,single mother when I was 18
years old and sales changed mylife, changed my family's life.
But because it was so highstakes for me, I had to do it
well and not make very manymistakes and I had to learn
(03:37):
really quickly from my mistakes.
And I've done a little bit ofeverything.
I've called, called, I've donecold email, I've done cold
LinkedIn outreach, builtcommunities on Slack and
Facebook and all sorts ofdifferent things.
And what I've really learnedfrom my time in the industry is
that just about everyone wantsto feel seen and understood and
(04:04):
nobody likes to get messagingthat is really obviously the
same as what everyone else isgetting.
And that doesn't mean thatthere's no space for automation
in your outreach.
It just means that you need tobe smart about it and that you
you need to combine steps thatare manual with steps that are
(04:27):
automated.
I've done $500 million in techsales in my career, so I think I
know a bit about what actuallydoes work and the majority of my
career I've been focused on topof funnel front of pipeline.
So while I do close businessand have been in a closing role
and carry the bag.
I have always been a hunter, soI'm not someone who's out there
(04:51):
.
You know farming leads thatalready know about our business
and I also have almostexclusively worked for companies
without big brand presences, sowe all know that if you work
for, you know, like a Verizon, aComcast, a Nike, an Apple,
people know your brand beforeyou touch them and they have
(05:12):
feelings about it.
The type of outreach I'm goingto talk to you guys about today
is more for people who are trulygoing out there cold, talking
to people who've probably neverheard of them, never heard of
their product or service andnever heard of their company.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, I think that's a really good place to begin,
because most everybody in myaudience that's where they're at
.
We are not Coca-Cola.
Our brand is not yet ahousehold name.
Most people who encounter usanywhere we go have never heard
of us or have never seen usbefore.
We're really starting fromscratch In that approach.
(05:53):
When I get on LinkedIn and Icreate my profile and now the
world is my oyster.
I can go, and LinkedIn has somegreat tools for hunting in
terms of finding and identifying.
It's probably why I likeLinkedIn more than any of the
other platforms, because whenyou look carefully, you can see
(06:16):
anyone you want to in terms ofwho they are, what they do.
Their whole resume is displayed, a lot of their experience, if
they're at all active withcontent.
You can really learn a lotabout them in a variety of ways.
You can really pinpoint andstart speaking to anyone you
want to.
When you're looking at this,like when you're putting on your
(06:37):
I don't know what you woulddescribe it your hunter's outfit
, my camouflage.
You mount your horse on LinkedInand you're going writing off
onto the range.
I've been watching a lot ofYellowstone lately, so I've got
all these Western metaphors.
So where do you begin in thissearch?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So there's two places that you really have to start
defining things before you canget started.
One is in defining yourself.
You need to sit down and saywho am I, how do I relate to my
product or service, what valuesof the company that I represent
(07:19):
do I hold course myself?
And you want to build yourLinkedIn profile around that.
So I think we all know thatLinkedIn can be used as a resume
and probably all of us havegotten outreach from recruiters
on LinkedIn and they found youby searching for something in
the search bar.
I've gotten a lot of jobofferings because the word cloud
(07:41):
is all over my profile.
So we all know how to do thatfrom a job hunting perspective.
We know how the ATS works.
We know that we need to usekeywords and search terms in
optimizing our profile for jobseeking.
You can also do that from theperspective of a salesperson and
(08:04):
from a marketing perspectivefor your product or service.
So if you kind of think aboutwhat types of problems does your
product solve or your serviceand what types of people would
be looking for it, what are thekey keywords and search terms
they would put in to find you?
You want to make sure that yourprofile is optimized for that
(08:24):
and that also, when someoneopens up your profile and they
go look at you because whetheryou message someone, you comment
on one of their posts, whatever, however they find you, they're
going to open your profile andlook.
And you want to make sure thatyour headline very, very clearly
states the value you provide topeople or what your
(08:46):
accomplishments are, somethingbeyond just my title at company.
And then you have quite a lotof space in your about section
to really highlight yourself.
One of the things I push a lotin sales is to be authentic, to
be transparent, to be who youare, because people buy from
(09:06):
people, no matter what you'reselling.
So you need to be that personand put that out there.
So that's the me side, rightFocused on me.
I want to make sure my skillsare there, that I sort of
explain where I sit in the worldand be honest.
Right, if you're a salesperson,don't try to hide the fact that
you're a salesperson on yourprofile.
(09:27):
They're going to figure it out.
And then the other side isthinking about your ICP, your
ideal client, and reallydefining that and going deep on
understanding them.
So obviously, like I run amarketing agency, we really
focus again on top of funnellead generation kind of bringing
(09:48):
in new clients, new revenue andso typically I target mid and
small size BB Tech companies,primarily MSPs and telcos.
So I spent a lot of time myrelationship is usually with the
owner figuring out what discprofile those owners usually
(10:08):
have they're usually high D,high I and the types of
approaches that they appreciateright.
And then Once you know all ofthat, only then can you build
both the content and outreachStrategy you have to define
yourself and you have to defineyour buyer before you can do
(10:30):
anything, because otherwise allof your messaging, all of your
content, it's going to bewishy-washy and it's not going
to feel genuine.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, so you just touched on, you know, developing
your content and outreachstrategy, and it seems like the
problem with pitch slapping isthat there's a ton of people out
there and all they thinkingabout is the outreach half, and
they're doing it in this reallyobnoxious, really loud way that
I can't imagine actually worksvery well for them.
(11:01):
So talk about how you like tomarry Content and outreach
together.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So there there are a couple different strategies and
again it's going to depend onthe disc profile of who you're
reaching out to and Whetheryou're starting with a buyer or
an influencer.
So in the case of, let's justsay, like I am targeting an
owner persona and they're highD's, they're very direct and
(11:27):
they appreciate directcommunication You're going to
send them a connection requestand in that connection request
you can either leave it blank,which I find has probably some
of the highest acceptance rates,because when you leave it blank
, people don't necessarilyimmediately say, oh, this
person's going to try to sell me.
But if you are going to saysomething, make sure that it's
personal and and High D's reallydo like flattery so point out
(11:52):
something that you like aboutthem or their brand or their
product, and Then you just youconnect, give it five days
before you say anything to themand make sure that your content
is Built for that persona.
So, whatever it is that you do,you want to make sure that
you're posting content regularlythat adds value to your buyer.
(12:14):
It can be directly related towhat you do like I post a lot of
sales and marketing tips andLeadership tips, but I
occasionally also will post likea parenting hack or like a
business strategy tip.
I talk a lot about diversityand inclusion and how that
impacts revenue, because thoseare all things that are highly
relevant to my buyers, even ifit's not highly relevant to what
(12:36):
I sell and who.
It's just what I know.
So posting regularly and Givingit at least five days before
you do any outreach is really,really important.
Give them a chance to look atyour profile and see your
content and then, before yousend a message, I highly
recommend Checking out theircontent and what they talk about
(12:58):
, figuring out what's importantto them.
Not everyone that is a prospectof yours is going to be active
on LinkedIn and posting content,but you can still find out a
lot about them just by readingtheir profile.
Take a look at where they wentto college.
Linkedin has a place for you toshow what charities you're
interested in, what types ofvolunteer work you like to do.
A Lot of people will indicatetheir faith on LinkedIn.
(13:21):
You can see geographicallywhere they're from.
So even if they aren't postingcontent, you're gonna get some
relevant information.
If they are posting content,find something to say about what
they are talking about.
Most people are posting aboutthings that are relevant to
their industry, and this canreally be a litmus test For
(13:42):
whether you even really knowyour industry, right?
So for me, like I sell intoMSPs and telcos and every once
in a while when I'm browsingsomeone's profile, they'll be
talking about some piece of newcybersecurity Software or
legislation that I actuallywasn't aware of, and so then
it's kind of like oh, I'm alsoeducating myself as I go.
(14:04):
So then I need to findsomething relevant to say, and
it does not have to be anythingabout what you do or what you
sell.
You can literally just besaying, hey, I didn't know about
this, thanks so much forposting, or Open up the article
that they posted, and findsomething in there that is
compelling and could help theirbusiness.
(14:25):
So in my case, like if an MSPowner is posting about a New
cybersecurity threat and I gointo that article and I'm like,
hey, I see this like reallyheavily is gonna be impacting
the legal field.
Do you have an outreachstrategy for law offices?
Right, that's that's where Istart, and Once you've done that
(14:47):
, then you can message them, andthere's a couple different ways
to do messaging strategy.
You can highly personalize theone sort of problem with your
first message to someone beingsuper highly personalized Is
that you don't yet know ifthey're going to respond Right.
(15:08):
So the overall statistic forhow many LinkedIn messages are
sent, very few of them are areresponded to right.
So what I like to do is sort ofprime the engine by either
asking them to vote in one of mypolls which I make sure my
polls are relevant to them,right.
So I'll ask something like isyour cybersecurity offering
(15:32):
focused on left of boom or rightof boom?
And then I asked them to votein the poll.
And if they vote in the poll, Iknow that they saw my message
and they responded.
Or I just say something supersimple like hey, can I ask you a
question?
They say yes, I go ahead.
I ask them a relevant question.
You know, like with MSPs, theyprimarily rely on referrals for
(15:55):
their new business.
So I'll just ask, like I seeyou've grown to.
You know this size.
Have you gotten there primarilythrough referrals or do you
have an outbound strategy?
And it's not easily automated.
That, can I ask you a question,can absolutely be automated,
but that higher level of care oftouch is so much more likely to
(16:16):
get someone to talk to youbecause you're being respectful
of them in their time.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, that's like really deep into getting to know
your audience really well.
Like seems to be the primarything and what's interesting
about what you're talking about.
I wanna go back to this onething that you just mentioned,
which is your use of polls,which I think is, first of all,
just a really great like from acontent marketing point of view
(16:43):
polls perform wellalgorithmically on LinkedIn but
also the way you're talkingabout using them in terms of you
make a poll and then you go outto people who are in your
prospecting lists and ask themif they would please respond to
your poll, I think that'sbrilliant.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
One of the reasons that it works is because, in
terms of psychology, we all liketo feel like we're important
and our voices matter, and sowhen you reach out to someone
directly and you say I consideryou to be an expert in this
industry and I really love yourfeedback, that is a much better
place to start a relationshipwith someone.
(17:25):
Which now, don't get me wrong,a lot of this stuff depends on
what you sell.
If you have a huge TAM totaladdressable market, maybe pitch
slapping will work for you,because it doesn't matter if you
piss some people off along theway.
And maybe you sell a piece ofsoftware where you have no
relationship after it sold andyou're just trying to do volume,
(17:46):
and if that's the case, thenthis probably isn't for you.
But if you're in theservice-based industry and
you're gonna have a relationshipwith your client after they
sign, and especially if you havelong sales cycles where it
takes a while to sell thatclient, you do not wanna start
that relationship by being likehey, I just met you and this is
(18:09):
crazy, but buy something for mebecause I haven't met my quota
yet this month.
And it's so transparent at thispoint because we're all
experiencing it, right.
Like every time I log intoLinkedIn I have these messages
that are just the same garbageI'm getting from everyone else.
And it's almost like sometimesI log in and I'll have four
(18:29):
emails and they say exactly thesame thing.
And I'm like are you guys evenchecking your CRM before you're
messaging me?
But regardless, starting with apoll, it also gives you insight
too.
So, like the one I asked aboutcybersecurity that's more
general industry fact-findingbut like I could post a poll
that said something like is yourMSP growing primarily by
(18:53):
referrals, through outbound,through inbound marketing or
something else, and when Iactually get that data back,
then I can send another round ofmessaging to those people.
And we have a product that'svery much based around MSPs that
are relying on referrals,building them an outbound engine
(19:14):
to figure out kind of how to dosales if they haven't been
doing it yet, and that gives methat data.
Like now I know, okay, theseprospects that I thought maybe
would be good targets for methey're not, because they
already have a solution in placeand it's working.
So I shouldn't bother themanymore.
I should just let them kind ofsit in that nurturing flow where
(19:36):
I can still send them content,send them tips and tricks, but
I'm not trying to get them on acall and the people that said,
oh, we're 100% reliant onreferrals, we don't have any
outbound.
Then I can message and be like,hey, most MSPs kind of tend to
cap off at like 2.53 million ayear in revenue and we have
(19:56):
something that can help you and,regardless of what your product
or service is, there's probablysomething you can do like that.
You know.
As long as you know whatproblem you solve, you can make
a poll about that problem andthen follow up with the people
who are confirming yes, I havethe problem.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's terrific , I mean, the nice thing about
that is, with the feature thepoll feature you can literally
look at it afterwards and youcan literally see what the
results were and who the peoplewere who said yeah, I have this
problem, Like it's super clear.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And then you can use that data to make more content
later.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Especially if it's indicative that your solution is
necessary, right?
So if I post a poll like thatand 70% of people say, oh, we're
reliant on referrals, then Ican make another piece of
content that says according tomy recent poll, 70% of MSPs are
relying on referrals to growtheir business.
And we all know that that's nota scalable solution.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Right, and especially if a large number of people are
self-identifying that, yes,this is a big headache for me,
then it gives you a wonderfultheme to run on for the next
month.
Abrahan, I'm gonna write a lotof content about this idea, this
theme, this message, because Iknow my audience, this audience
right here.
They obviously need help inthis area.
(21:19):
That's great.
So I heard you talk on I thinkthis came from a podcast episode
, but it was just a little videoclip and you were saying that
it's really better, from thecontent marketing strategy end
of things, for people to feellike they've discovered you
(21:40):
rather than to feel like you'vediscovered them and you're
banging on their door.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right, I don't think any of us like to be prey.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
It makes you feel a little icky.
When it's done well, it can bea positive experience.
But pretty much all of us, evenwhen you get a good sales
message, you're like, oh, herewe go again, I'm gonna be
putting someone's pipeline,they're never gonna leave me
alone.
When you create content andsomeone finds you, they track
(22:10):
you down and they see you asthis expert Diamond in the Ruff
that they have discovered.
They're proud of it.
Right, like if I am and I meanI am I'm the CEO of my company.
So let's just say I have areally big problem sourcing
talent.
I don't, but let's just saythat I did and for the life of
(22:32):
me, I've worked with a couple ofrecruiters, but they all came
to me through email and, like,none of them have really been
able to find someone who solvedmy problems, got me what I
really needed.
And then I'm on LinkedIn and Icome across like Sandy Zen or
Ralph Clotere, both of which areincredible recruiters that post
(22:53):
a lot of content on LinkedIn,and I'm like, oh, these guys,
they get it.
I'm gonna shoot them a messageand see if maybe they can find
me the talent that I need.
That makes me the hero in mystory and we all wanna feel like
the hero.
And you can also, even ifyou're not drawing people in
with content which, by the way,content marketing takes a long
(23:16):
time to build you can get luckyand go viral early on and sort
of the types of content that gowide and you get a lot of people
, you get a lot of eyeballs on.
It typically is not highconverting content.
You have to kind of put thosetwo strategies together, where
you're building content that youwant to bring you more
(23:37):
followers and then you'rebuilding content that you want
to convert.
It's a whole strategy but itpays dividends forever.
I have posts from three, fouryears ago that still get
comments, that still get likes,where people send me messages
and are like oh, megan, I sawthis thing and I would love to
talk to you.
But that same psychology canalso be implemented in your
(24:02):
outreach strategy.
When you are messaging people,you always want them to remain
the main character, and so manysalespeople make this mistake.
Where they want to makethemselves the main character,
they want to make their productthe hero and psychologically
(24:23):
that is not what works.
What works is saying you, mrProspect, are the hero and I
want to make you do your jobbetter, look good to your boss,
make more money, be moreproductive, get to take more
time off, whatever that is and Iam just Excalibur, I am just
(24:43):
the sword, I am just the tool,but you're the hero and if you
can make your messaging worklike that, people are so much
more likely to engage with you.
Salespeople, we let our egos getin the way too much and it's an
ongoing, forever battle.
Because you have to have asolid ego to be able to make it
in sales, because you are goingto get yelled at, you're gonna
(25:05):
get hung up on.
You have to have that likepositive mental attitude to keep
going.
But you also have to putyourself in check and remember
that it's really not about you.
It's about your customer, it'sabout your prospect.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah right, totally you wanna be.
You're the hero and you're theguide.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Exactly, and when they find you, they are the hero
.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah well, we are getting really close to the end.
Of our time goes by super fastAlways does.
This is great, terrific and soneeded.
Like I wish that somehow wecould multiply this message
today and get all of thosepeople who've been spamming my
inbox to pay attention.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh, I do that all the time.
When I get those messages, Iwill literally like copy up my
link to some of my content thattalks about not doing it and
I'll just send it to them.
Now, about 75% of the time itjust flies over their head.
But also, replying to thosemessages usually they're
automated, so it usually makesit stop.
(26:09):
So I'll reply with anythingjust to make you guys stop
messaging me, because sometimesyou get them those cadences, day
, day, day, like you'll get amessage every day, and I'm like
in what world do you thinkbothering me every single day
with almost the exact samemessaging is what's gonna get me
to engage with you?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Right, if I keep banging on your head, eventually
you'll roll over.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
No, I'm gonna get a restraining order.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right, okay, well, this has really been wonderful.
So if people are now wanting tofollow up with you and see some
of the other stuff that you'redoing, what's the best way for
them to hook up?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Absolutely follow me on LinkedIn or connect with me.
It's linkedincom, slash inslash, megan Kelly and I'm easy
to find and if you havequestions, comments, concerns,
you wanna see one of myframeworks, just send me a
message.
I'm friendly.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Good, awesome.
Well, that's a really goodoffer.
I'll make sure that links toyou on LinkedIn are in the show
notes and thanks, megan, so muchfor coming on today.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Anytime, I hope you have a great day, Brad.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And for those of you who are listening here right at
the end, I just wanna remind youthat if you wanna go and get
all of the archive of this show,just go to standoutbusinessshow
and it's all there all theaudio, all the video, show notes
, the descriptions, the links tocool stuff, and you can binge
(27:37):
to your heart's content.
We go live every Thursday 11 amEastern time, and until the
next time, so long your Egoist200 moderators.
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