Here’s what so many agency owners get wrong about lead sourcing (and outbound).
They 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲…
I see so many agencies building lists and sending out messages to any person who matches their buyer persona job titles, i.e. “Facilities Manager”
And then they wonder why they don’t get replies and think that cold emailing isn’t working for them.
Gone are the days where you simply export 2,000 VP’s of Marketing in North America and blast out a generic message.
How to think about ICP’s and Personas
You need to think smaller, not bigger if you want to succeed in outbound prospecting in 2023.
Lead Sourcing process
Steal my process to up your lead sourcing game:
1. Define your ICP’s (the companies)
2. Map out the different personas (the people) within each ICP
3. Search for a list of the ICP’s, this could be databases, directories etc
4. Then find the personas within the companies (from the sources in step 3)
5. Then refine your list using triggers & signals (recently funded, currently hiring, new to role, using a technology etc)
Rather than one huge list of leads, you’ll end up with several smaller lists. I call these segments.
The only way I can get 13-17% reply rates today, is to send highly relevant (without fake personalised icebreakers) to these smaller segments.
Small could mean between 30 and 200 prospects depending on the trigger I’m using.