Read "the terrifying art of finding customers" by Collin Stewart
Very few know more about outbound than he does, and that book is recent.
My two cents: It's unlikely you can make outbound work for a custom software dev studio unless you go extremely niche and have a way to target customers with relevant needs. The more broad your services the more new business depends on trust, and outbound has the lowest trust context of all top of funnel sources. What works best for dev shops is word of mouth.
There are lots of online resources for outbound sales which will likely be better than advice you’ll find on a forum full of engineers (unless engineers are your target market)
I’d focus on zeroing in on a niche (even if it’s an artificial niche). Develop case studies for how you’ve helped people in your specific niche. Then find people in that niche and offer them those same niche services.
Do not try to be everything to everyone. No one wants to work with a software agency that “does anything”. (Well it’s possible but then you’re competing with thousands of other consultancies).
If you develop into a niche well, you’ll have less competition, you’ll be able to target the right people more easily, and youll be able to write messaging that speaks to people in that niche.
Everything gets easier when you narrow in on a small slice of a market. The problem set becomes smaller and easier to solve.
Once you see some traction, start to expand your niche.
Cold sales/outbound sales is dying or mostly dead. SaaS platforms and “growth ops” that made it easy to set up sales sequences and find ICP lists helped kill it. AI making it easy to personalize and do all the work has been the nail in the coffin
This is because sales is a zero sum game. When everyone can do something at scale, like send an email sequence, nobody wins. Now inboxes are flooded with spam that get deleted and phones go straight to voicemail because people have learned it’s not worth it. You can try to create even bigger lists to capture some 0.01% that will respond, but that’s a shrinking game and many B2B companies don’t have the market size for it
Instead, for my company and others I know, we’ve returned to old fashioned human relationships that don’t scale as easily. Building partnerships, asking for warm introductions, conferences, networking, events, hell I even know of someone who knocks on doors for B2B and it works for them. People ignore spam from bots but they’ll listen to real humans. They’ll read emails and take phone calls from people they know. It’s about trust now, not scale
I’d still recommend learning closing and everything needed for once a deal is in your pipeline. I think a book like Founding Sales is good for that, if a bit dated now (skip the stuff about cold sales in the first half of the book). Never Split the Difference for negotiation. For in person cold sales, this is basically what anyone in partnerships and outer sales do. I don’t know of resources on that but I’m sure someone does
Example 1: The other day I was trying to fix a sprinkler. My results were mid, then I saw a truck at my neighbors house with a phone number.
1. I was not in the market for sprinkler repair until that day.
2. I was too busy to make a market comparison, seeing that my neighbor did it was enough.
Example 2: I was thinking about refining my mortgage this year. My current servicer called me one day with an offer. It was a competitive but not t optimal deal, but the lady on the phone signaled to me she understood my values and would get it done.
That’s what you are looking for with outbound, people who are in need, willing to part with cash, but probably not shopping for the thing.
This is why cold calling works and why volume is so important. You aren’t trying to persuade people who aren’t interested, but trying to find those who are.
The biggest fear of people with money is not spending money, but that what they pay for won’t work out.
We have hit channel exhaustion in B2B the way we hit it few years ago for B2C. The key is to build unified data assets and go multi-channel (email, linked, call).
Nurturing prospects go a long way. Familiarity helps a lot in driving sales decisions.
There was an old legendary HN comment around the following concept:
"All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So just make more friends"
If you are confident of your services, just make more friends. Talk to people more. If it is too salesly already, you lost the conversation. Instead try and learn about their lives. I sometimes even open up with "No agenda to sell, genuinely curious"
Note: If anyone finds the link to the comment, please drop it here to credit the author.
Hard question to answer without more details, but I've got a bit of general guidance for B2B sales:
* Know your ideal customer (ICP)—or have a decent idea. Find companies that match that profile.
* Find the right people at those companies. Go on Linkedin and find 3-6 people you think could be decision makers at that company.
* Research those people and figure out how your solution might work for them (RHO).
* Reach out to those people. Communicate what you think their pain point might be and how your solution will help them. Try and get them to agree to a discovery call.
* If they are interested, you'll need to figure out who the decision makers are for buying. If the timing is bad, ask when they renew and reach out again 3-6mos to see how their currents solution is treating them. If they aren't interested, DQ them and move on. Guarding your time here is valuable.
I'm assuming you're a founder or early on. The other comments around MEDDPICC, MEDDICC and other sales methodologies are worth a look, but may be over optimizing if you're still trying to win your first deal.
A bit of background—I was one of the first product designers hired at Salesloft. I've spent a decade building software for sellers.
I generally recommend the book Founding Sales (available for free online), but it's targeted at SaaS founders.
But you're actually doing something even more common: running a consulting business, and there's plenty of content on that for just that reason, so I would go find content on how to scale a consulting business, e.g. this seems like the start of a thread to pull on https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...
Figure out who your target customer is. Imagine yourself in their shoes - how/where do you spend your time, what do you like learning about, under what circumstances would you consider a rando small software company in Michigan.
Not sure if they support US etc., but this is a very cool tool:
www.salesviewer.com
They are analyzing your website data and telling you very much about the visitor. (I guess they are also doing some fancy AI stuff in the background, like connecing/syncing with linkedIn for known static-IPs etc.)
- Go hangout where your potential buyers hangout. It could be LI, IG, TikTok, Golf clubs, High end bars, Charity events. Make those connections.
- Make two (nested) lists - the people you know in real life- and the people they might know. Now, can any of these people be your potential buyers? if they are in first list, good, just talk to them, if they are in second list, ask for an introduction from your connection in first list.
- Advertise where your potential buyers might notice.
Your existing customers probably know of others who have similar needs. They might not want to refer you to a competitor but they might be happy to refer you to a complementary organization.
So please trust me I'm not just ask me to be a reply guy. but... what do you mean by "better at outbound sales"?
Like, you want to call up a company and get them to buy your software? To pay you to make them software?
Because while either way I'd say be more targeted -- try to network IRL and have linkedin (retching noise) just the place you go to get their email... and then make a targeted pitch to a smaller number of people you've met IRL. Budget to go to a few conferences.
But that's a strategy I think works best if you have good product and want to get businesses to pay to use it, and is less effective in selling "consulting" (sarcastic finger quotes).
Either way though, going to conferences where people will be legitimately interested in your product (Think going to HOPE instead of Blackhat)... offer to take people out to dinner, expense it as marketing.
Also I don't reccomend buying people alcohol, just food. For whatever reason, people will overdrink and turn into asshole reasons when alcohol is free... by all means point them to a decent dive bar.
(For example there's one behind Bally's that's attached to a convenience store. They used to let folks buy shit in the store and eat it in the bar if they weren't entitled about it.)
If you're selling that you can make cool stuff, software wise? Try more academic conferences. A lot of people would kill for a decent software engineer, it can be extremely hit or miss with academic CS types, they often would love people who can do stuff like set up a limesurvey server or whip up a nice looking static site for their lab or do really basic stuff like make R scripts to automate stuff done in the opendocument equivalent of excel...
But no course, book, or framework for outbound sales will ever Trump face to face interaction. A lot of companies discount who being the "cool guy at the conference" can lead to sales... especially as people age (because again, I said go for authentic gatherings, not sport coat fests).
Over time, if you combine being friendly with having something of value, sales will happen -- those in person leads will be your most valuable IMHO.
Because to solve someone's problems, they have to tell you their problems.
Or to put it another way, the thing you do is to solve the actual problems other people have. That's what you need to sell. You aren't selling the fact that you know how to use a hammer. You are selling the idea that you can build the right hammer for the job.
So sales is not "out reach." It is "what do you need?" and you will probably do better by optimizing for getting to that conversation, not through optimizing for low effort on your part.
Linked-in is best used for networking not push notification. Networking is about trust. Maybe you can't help with someone's problem but you know someone who can.
1 - Understand the main processes that sales orgs use (MEDDIC or its variations) - you don't need to follow it in all its details but yes in the general idea
2 - Understand what is the problem you're solving and how companies can benefit from it
3 - Understand how companies actually do procurement
4 - Outbound sales are the ones that sucks the most. A rejection is just a rejection, don't take it personally (one part of having actual sales people is being a more impersonal process - they care about the sales but a rejection is taken less personally)
Read "the terrifying art of finding customers" by Collin Stewart
Very few know more about outbound than he does, and that book is recent.
My two cents: It's unlikely you can make outbound work for a custom software dev studio unless you go extremely niche and have a way to target customers with relevant needs. The more broad your services the more new business depends on trust, and outbound has the lowest trust context of all top of funnel sources. What works best for dev shops is word of mouth.
Consider a referral program instead maybe.
There are lots of online resources for outbound sales which will likely be better than advice you’ll find on a forum full of engineers (unless engineers are your target market)
I’d focus on zeroing in on a niche (even if it’s an artificial niche). Develop case studies for how you’ve helped people in your specific niche. Then find people in that niche and offer them those same niche services.
Do not try to be everything to everyone. No one wants to work with a software agency that “does anything”. (Well it’s possible but then you’re competing with thousands of other consultancies).
If you develop into a niche well, you’ll have less competition, you’ll be able to target the right people more easily, and youll be able to write messaging that speaks to people in that niche.
Everything gets easier when you narrow in on a small slice of a market. The problem set becomes smaller and easier to solve.
Once you see some traction, start to expand your niche.
Cold sales/outbound sales is dying or mostly dead. SaaS platforms and “growth ops” that made it easy to set up sales sequences and find ICP lists helped kill it. AI making it easy to personalize and do all the work has been the nail in the coffin
This is because sales is a zero sum game. When everyone can do something at scale, like send an email sequence, nobody wins. Now inboxes are flooded with spam that get deleted and phones go straight to voicemail because people have learned it’s not worth it. You can try to create even bigger lists to capture some 0.01% that will respond, but that’s a shrinking game and many B2B companies don’t have the market size for it
Instead, for my company and others I know, we’ve returned to old fashioned human relationships that don’t scale as easily. Building partnerships, asking for warm introductions, conferences, networking, events, hell I even know of someone who knocks on doors for B2B and it works for them. People ignore spam from bots but they’ll listen to real humans. They’ll read emails and take phone calls from people they know. It’s about trust now, not scale
I’d still recommend learning closing and everything needed for once a deal is in your pipeline. I think a book like Founding Sales is good for that, if a bit dated now (skip the stuff about cold sales in the first half of the book). Never Split the Difference for negotiation. For in person cold sales, this is basically what anyone in partnerships and outer sales do. I don’t know of resources on that but I’m sure someone does
When have you bought something?
Example 1: The other day I was trying to fix a sprinkler. My results were mid, then I saw a truck at my neighbors house with a phone number.
1. I was not in the market for sprinkler repair until that day. 2. I was too busy to make a market comparison, seeing that my neighbor did it was enough.
Example 2: I was thinking about refining my mortgage this year. My current servicer called me one day with an offer. It was a competitive but not t optimal deal, but the lady on the phone signaled to me she understood my values and would get it done.
That’s what you are looking for with outbound, people who are in need, willing to part with cash, but probably not shopping for the thing.
This is why cold calling works and why volume is so important. You aren’t trying to persuade people who aren’t interested, but trying to find those who are.
The biggest fear of people with money is not spending money, but that what they pay for won’t work out.
We have hit channel exhaustion in B2B the way we hit it few years ago for B2C. The key is to build unified data assets and go multi-channel (email, linked, call). Nurturing prospects go a long way. Familiarity helps a lot in driving sales decisions.
There was an old legendary HN comment around the following concept:
"All things being equal, people buy from their friends. So just make more friends"
If you are confident of your services, just make more friends. Talk to people more. If it is too salesly already, you lost the conversation. Instead try and learn about their lives. I sometimes even open up with "No agenda to sell, genuinely curious"
Note: If anyone finds the link to the comment, please drop it here to credit the author.
I found too many sources in Google, one from 1997, but I can't find the origin of it.
Hard question to answer without more details, but I've got a bit of general guidance for B2B sales:
* Know your ideal customer (ICP)—or have a decent idea. Find companies that match that profile.
* Find the right people at those companies. Go on Linkedin and find 3-6 people you think could be decision makers at that company.
* Research those people and figure out how your solution might work for them (RHO).
* Reach out to those people. Communicate what you think their pain point might be and how your solution will help them. Try and get them to agree to a discovery call.
* If they are interested, you'll need to figure out who the decision makers are for buying. If the timing is bad, ask when they renew and reach out again 3-6mos to see how their currents solution is treating them. If they aren't interested, DQ them and move on. Guarding your time here is valuable.
I'm assuming you're a founder or early on. The other comments around MEDDPICC, MEDDICC and other sales methodologies are worth a look, but may be over optimizing if you're still trying to win your first deal.
A bit of background—I was one of the first product designers hired at Salesloft. I've spent a decade building software for sellers.
I generally recommend the book Founding Sales (available for free online), but it's targeted at SaaS founders.
But you're actually doing something even more common: running a consulting business, and there's plenty of content on that for just that reason, so I would go find content on how to scale a consulting business, e.g. this seems like the start of a thread to pull on https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...
Figure out who your target customer is. Imagine yourself in their shoes - how/where do you spend your time, what do you like learning about, under what circumstances would you consider a rando small software company in Michigan.
Not sure if they support US etc., but this is a very cool tool:
www.salesviewer.com
They are analyzing your website data and telling you very much about the visitor. (I guess they are also doing some fancy AI stuff in the background, like connecing/syncing with linkedIn for known static-IPs etc.)
Give it a try!
I'd recommend learning from Jason Lemkin at SAAStr and from Jen Abel. She did two great podcasts with Lenny on Lenny's Podcasts.
- Go hangout where your potential buyers hangout. It could be LI, IG, TikTok, Golf clubs, High end bars, Charity events. Make those connections.
- Make two (nested) lists - the people you know in real life- and the people they might know. Now, can any of these people be your potential buyers? if they are in first list, good, just talk to them, if they are in second list, ask for an introduction from your connection in first list.
- Advertise where your potential buyers might notice.
Your existing customers probably know of others who have similar needs. They might not want to refer you to a competitor but they might be happy to refer you to a complementary organization.
When I first started new business sales, I used the sales bible by Jeffrey gitomer. He’s written quite a few books and I found them useful.
I'd watch Glengarry Glen Ross.
So please trust me I'm not just ask me to be a reply guy. but... what do you mean by "better at outbound sales"?
Like, you want to call up a company and get them to buy your software? To pay you to make them software?
Because while either way I'd say be more targeted -- try to network IRL and have linkedin (retching noise) just the place you go to get their email... and then make a targeted pitch to a smaller number of people you've met IRL. Budget to go to a few conferences.
But that's a strategy I think works best if you have good product and want to get businesses to pay to use it, and is less effective in selling "consulting" (sarcastic finger quotes).
Either way though, going to conferences where people will be legitimately interested in your product (Think going to HOPE instead of Blackhat)... offer to take people out to dinner, expense it as marketing.
Also I don't reccomend buying people alcohol, just food. For whatever reason, people will overdrink and turn into asshole reasons when alcohol is free... by all means point them to a decent dive bar.
(For example there's one behind Bally's that's attached to a convenience store. They used to let folks buy shit in the store and eat it in the bar if they weren't entitled about it.)
If you're selling that you can make cool stuff, software wise? Try more academic conferences. A lot of people would kill for a decent software engineer, it can be extremely hit or miss with academic CS types, they often would love people who can do stuff like set up a limesurvey server or whip up a nice looking static site for their lab or do really basic stuff like make R scripts to automate stuff done in the opendocument equivalent of excel...
But no course, book, or framework for outbound sales will ever Trump face to face interaction. A lot of companies discount who being the "cool guy at the conference" can lead to sales... especially as people age (because again, I said go for authentic gatherings, not sport coat fests).
Over time, if you combine being friendly with having something of value, sales will happen -- those in person leads will be your most valuable IMHO.
Relationships are the best resource for sales.
Because to solve someone's problems, they have to tell you their problems.
Or to put it another way, the thing you do is to solve the actual problems other people have. That's what you need to sell. You aren't selling the fact that you know how to use a hammer. You are selling the idea that you can build the right hammer for the job.
So sales is not "out reach." It is "what do you need?" and you will probably do better by optimizing for getting to that conversation, not through optimizing for low effort on your part.
Linked-in is best used for networking not push notification. Networking is about trust. Maybe you can't help with someone's problem but you know someone who can.
Finally, you can't sell desperately. Good luck.
Google these:
1) "inbound marketing"
2) The lean startup / MVP
1 - Understand the main processes that sales orgs use (MEDDIC or its variations) - you don't need to follow it in all its details but yes in the general idea
2 - Understand what is the problem you're solving and how companies can benefit from it
3 - Understand how companies actually do procurement
4 - Outbound sales are the ones that sucks the most. A rejection is just a rejection, don't take it personally (one part of having actual sales people is being a more impersonal process - they care about the sales but a rejection is taken less personally)
Hot take, but outbound selling is so ineffective today, that if its it in a playbook, it most likely means it doesnt work
So what would you say should be in the effective playbook for selling going into 2025?
Also running a small consultancy firm like OP and coming from a technical background, building an effective sales motion is the hardest challenge.