In this episode, Brian Mattocks and Sean Boyce dive into the pitfalls of cold outreach, shedding light on why it can feel like a poor-quality marketing scheme. The episode emphasizes the importance of providing value, building relationships, and delivering personalized messaging to stand out from the crowd. The hosts also discuss the significance of personalization, credibility indicators, and effective communication in building trust and engagement. Starting with manual processes and prioritizing effectiveness before efficiency is highlighted.
Sean Boyce is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of NxtStep Consulting, with over 14 years of experience. He specializes in helping businesses navigate the challenges of scaling their software products to success, leveraging his own success stories in scaling companies like StaffGeek.com and PodcastChef.com. Sean's expertise in SaaS, product strategy, and development makes him a valuable resource for anyone looking to build a world-class software product business. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Hard to Market:
- Cold outreach often promises quick fixes and magic solutions, leading people to fall for generic mass outreach tactics.
- To stand out from the crowd, skip generic outreach and focus on personalized messaging that feels like it was written specifically for the recipient.
- Personalization and offering value are the keys to success in cold outreach, whether it's by inviting someone to be a guest on a podcast or offering something for free.
- Skip automation in the beginning to focus on building an effective process.
- Invest in steps that work and verify effectiveness before scaling.
- Provide value that resonates with your target market to start the conversation right.
- Keep the end goal as building relationships, not closing sales.
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Quotables:
- 05:25 - “You have to figure out how to stand out from the crowd. First things first, don't do what they're doing. Skip the generic mass outreach brand prey nonsense at minimum here, you have to go personalized, Whatever you're writing to somebody, it's got to feel like it's written for them. And the more it becomes a one-on-one type message, as in this couldn't have been sent to anyone else, the higher the probability that you're actually going to be able to take the next step. Because the spray and prey thing, everybody's radar is like tuned into this stuff for the most part, to the extent where I don't even know why people are still doing it, but they still are. If they're getting any results from it, it's got to be dumb luck.”
- 06:03 - “First things first is skip the mass outreach. You can still build a process around these things, but it's got to be personalized, it's got to be about the person you're reaching out to and the tighter you are with all the variables, who you're reaching out to, why you're reaching out to them, what they might need help with, or a problem that you think they might have based on a track record of success and a history of working with these people gives you the ability to increase the efficiency here.”
- 07:43 - “I want to take the personalization to the next step, and I think it's important as well then to understand that we're no longer in a place where the pitch is enough. You have to deliver value right out of the gate, definitely to a relative stranger. And that delivery of value has to essentially be accessible. So, we don't talk about accessibility much in terms of this kind of stuff, but you have no idea what level your prospect might be playing at, if they are a seasoned expert in the field, if they know your favorite piece of jargon, if they understand your abbreviation. So accessibility has to be built in, and value has to be built into that messaging as well.”
- 16:09 - “When you talk about the end in mind, it's really important to understand what the end is. And the end is not a closed sale, the end is the start of the conversation. I need FaceTime, I need some level of interaction, so I need to satisfy in the same way, you know, a dating profile, you can't put like all of your creeper stuff on there, that's not going to work. You're not going to get the first date with that. I'm not going to get a first date with an email that says, “Oh yes, I can't wait to meet you so I can then sell you all my stuff”. That's not going to work. It's got to be like “Hey, listen, I don't know if we have a match, but you look like somebody that would be into what we're doing. And so let's talk.” ”
- 18:34 - “This is a big part of our process of PodcastChef: get them in your network. Keep them in your network. The value is get them in your network to build a relationship, invest in them, and then continue to keep them in your network. Keep your network alive. And that's to keep you like they know about you. They know what you do if and when they need that help, they may come to you, but for a million reasons that we just went into that time is highly unlikely now, if ever for this individual. But you want them to think of you if and when that does become the right time. And we've seen that time and time again from all the strategy that we invest in.”
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