Alexander Ivanov 🤝’s Post

Why do 1 in 3 companies fire their SDRs/AI SDRs/outbound agencies every year? After rebuilding dozens of failed programs, I can tell you it's rarely about lead volume. The real culprits are: - Non-existent GTM foundation - I've audited $ 50M+ companies that couldn't define basic ICP criteria like industry and job titles - No sales process in place - prospect responds eagerly to schedule a time, sales takes 3+ days to reply, then blames the prospect for "going cold" - CRM being treated like an excel sheet - no automation, no sequences, deal stages, and contact properties are completely messed up and inconsistent - Inbound mindset applied to outbound - AEs handling outbound leads with inbound playbooks (completely different beast) - Siloed outbound strategies - launching outbound campaigns that ignore deliverability basics and exist completely disconnected from other marketing channels Outbound is one of the hardest channels to close from and grow consistently. One delayed follow-up, one mishandled objection, and it could cost you the deal. Any sales problem or process that you already have will be 10 times more obvious. If you want your outbound or even inbound motions to produce results, do this: 1/ Fix your process first - your follow-up process can make or break your pipeline. Responding in 5 minutes makes you 5-10x more likely to convert leads vs 30 minutes. Set up auto-tasks that ping reps instantly when a hot lead comes in. 2/ Set up proper infrastructure - if your email deliverability sucks (this includes inbound and outbound), nothing else matters. This means dedicated domains, proper email warmup, keeping bounce rates below 3-4%, and gradually ramping up sending (30-40 emails/day) 3/ Create a no-show recovery cadence - don't abandon a prospect after 1 "sorry we missed you" email. You can recover at least 15-20% of no-shows with basic sequences like auto-email 5 minutes after missed call, LinkedIn voice note next day, then a call a day after, then 1-2 more emails in 3-5 days. 4/ Rethink your outbound model - your 1:1 SDR/AE model is bleeding money. Most SDRs aren't hitting their 8-12 meetings/month quota. Have 1 GTM Engineer handle all of your outbound tech + 1-2 SDRs focusing ONLY on converting warm responses into meetings. You can easily get up to 40-80 meetings each month with 1 SDR. 5/ Prioritize warm signals - most companies “give up” on their own deals. We open CRMs and find thousands of contacts untouched for months. Your closed-lost deals from months ago? Perfect time to reengage. Ex-customers who changed jobs? They already love you. 6/ Recalibrate sales expectations - outbound deals require more touchpoints and 2x longer sales cycles than inbound. Don't let your AEs get frustrated and abandon promising deals. Create separate outbound-specific metrics and compensation that rewards persistence. Make it worth their effort by targeting accounts with higher ACV potential than your average inbound deal. Anything I missed?

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore content categories