Even with all the communication mediums we have to start 2024, the best sales training, books, and articles all align to the same principle for effectively engaging and selling to prospects that will close. Today, let's dive into the details of crafting effective email & calling sequences – the proven way to show the value your business can offer to your target prospects.

If you need tools to automate these strategies, check out our Top B2B Sales Software recommendations.

What is a Sales Sequence?

It’s a common sales statistic that it takes over 6.7 “touches” on average to get a live connect on any prospect. The bigger the company and the higher the totem pole you go, the higher that number is.

This means that you NEED a multi-step prospecting motion - otherwise known as a sales sequence; meaning multiple messages across different channels sent in a specific sequence in order to effectively reach & convert prospects into opportunities.

With a sales sequence, personalization is the only way to set yourself apart from hundreds of other salespeople. You need to use messaging that appeals to specific customer problems, the impacts the prospect can get by solving those problems, THEN showing how your product or service can help them bridge that gap.

Strategizing Touchpoints for Precision

While more touches mean more “at-bats” at a prospect and more chances at getting it right; it also means that you have more chances of getting it wrong and ruining your reputation and relationship with a prospect for good.

The good news? There’s a clear method that most business owners respect, using principles repeated in almost every great sales & influence books like How to Win Friends & Influence People, Gap Selling, and more; which simply is to write with your prospect in mind, NOT your product or service.

• Impact over Benefit.

• Problem over Need.

• Value over Price.

Fundamental Sales Principle

This tried-and-tested sales sequence template tells a story that makes a prospect WANT to solve a problem with YOUR solution or service.

To do this, you first have to introduce The Problem (not your product or solution) you’re hoping to solve for the client, laying the foundation for a discussion whether VALUE exists.

If there is no PROBLEM, then there is no VALUE

Second, you highlight The Impacts of solving for those problems, along with social proof like case studies, reports, etc. of other clients or better yet competitors, that have solved that problem before them - using your solution. With complex solutions, only relate the specific features of your product or service that solves the problem in your pitch - everything else, no matter how interesting you think the feature might be, is relevant.

Finally (and most importantly), continue to Be Persistent until you get a NO. If you’ve seen the inbox of any busy executive, you’re likely one of hundreds of unread emails in their inbox. Even if you have intrigued them, the likelihood of them simply not getting around to replying to you is high - so be professionally persistent.

The guiding principle is an outreach that aims to solve a problem for both the business and the PERSON that you’re reaching out to. If you’re writing e-mails that blatantly pitches product, you’ll look like an a-hole to your prospect. Put the prospect first by having at least an assumption of a problem you can solve for the customer before you ever reach out.

Important Tips for Emails & Messaging That Convert

Short and Sweet > Detailed

Like I mentioned, people are busy and inboxes are jammed. Make your point, don’t use a lot of extra words that you think are adding flair, and don’t repeat yourself. Good advice for any kind of communication, really.

• Get straight to the point. Avoid formalities and preamble.

• Remove the fluff — adverbs and adjectives are easy cuts.

• Limit your email to three to four lines with one idea per section.

Aim for both focus and scale

You’re one person having an ongoing conversation. Make each email in your sequence similar in tone, voice, and approach even when the facts of the message change. Then read them back — does this scale out to a broader audience?

• Consider writing a full email campaign in one sitting.

• Let each email focus on a different “pain or problem hypothesis”

• Scale that message to a persona or industry.

Analytics consistently shows it can take around 8-11 touchpoints across a variety of channels to win a deal. Use email sequences — but don’t forget to call behind, use LinkedIn, or even Social Media. Go where your customers are. Vary the content offers you provide. Try different timeslots and CTAs.

Steal This Sales Template (The Only Template You Need)

Ready to put those tips into action? Steal this framework. This four-step sequence is based on 10 years of sales experience and the accumulation of testing hundreds of strategies from books and sales trainers, and an analysis of different sales automation platform messaging results. This structure & approach has open rates of 97-99% — as long as you make sure you’re targeting high-intent personas (Ideal Customer Profiles) using sales intelligence tools like Apollo, ZoomInfo, or Seamless.

Pro tip: Call behind opened emails if you’re sure the prospect is well-qualified. Meaning cold-calling works if you use the e-mail as a pretext. E-mail + Call, LinkedIn + Call, E-mail + Call, etc.

If you want to automate this template at scale, sales automation within CRMs like Hubspot, within Sales Intelligence Tools like Apollo, or standalone AI platforms like Reply all make this very simple to scale as long as you have the right messaging & target audience.

Step 1: Disrupt The Familiarity Loop - Use Marketing Hooks

This opening separates and distinguishes your e-mail from the 99% of sales e-mails a prospect gets by immediately adding value along with adding intrigue cues like Surprise, Mystery, or a Knowledge Gap (or all 3). This is the same messaging structure, or "Hooks" that marketers, youtubers, and influencers use to get you to click ads and watch their videos.

Subject Line: (Interesting Statistic) “SMBs spend 83% more on CAC because of inefficiencies”

(Name), did you know (Interesting statistic details) SMBs spend thousands of dollars more than they have to on customer acquisition costs (CAC) compared to larger competitors because of (problem that exists in prospect’s industry) inefficient sales tools?

If you’re open, I’d like to share where and how these inefficiencies might exist in businesses like yours. We can also discuss, if relevant, how to even improve the processes themselves to even drive higher conversions as well.

10-15 minutes is all I’d need to highlight some of these insights and see if we might be able to help you save money, increase your sales, and stop losing unnecessary cash.

Let me know your thoughts, I’m looking forward to speaking with you.

Best, (Name)

Step 2: Double Tap - The Phone Call

After you send the e-mail, you now have your cold calling script (look at that, you saved yourself some time!).

Call the prospect and reference the e-mail quickly, and mention exactly what the e-mail says.

“Hi (Name), my name is Joe and this is a cold call, do you have 30 seconds or would you like to roll the dice?” (Pattern interrupt, radical honesty. Often gets a laugh if they’re open to chat.)

“Great, I just sent you an e-mail so you can reference it after the call, but I’m reaching out because I’ve seen many companies similar to yours are spending on average 83% more than they need to on Customer Acquisition costs because of process inefficiencies. Is this a cost you’re looking to move the needle on this year?”

(If no, ask what their priorities are and see if you can find alignment)

“Great, do you have 15 minutes now or in the near future to discuss where and how these efficiencies might be in the business and how we might be able to help? As background, my company specifically does X.”

If you want to make sure you can coach or improve you or your team’s cold calling process, using a calling solution like Aircall allows you to record both inbound and outbound calls, as well as transcribe them so you can easily find areas of improvement. Best of all, Aircall also integrates with CRMs like Hubspot and Salesforce so your calls automatically get recorded and tagged (including transcripts and call recordings) automatically; so you don’t have to keep nagging your sales team to update the CRM.

Alternatively, if most of your meetings are video calls - you can use a bot like MeetGeek which is an AI Video meeting recorder that syncs with your calendar and joins customer meetings to also record and transcribe them; but with an added bonus of having an AI summarizer that helps automate sales coaching as well.

Step 3: Bump & Tap

It’s generally good practice to bump a personalized e-mail with a follow-up + reinforcement simply saying something like:

Subject Line: (Threaded from previous)

“Hi (Name), Bumping the e-mail in case it got buried in your inbox. I wanted to check if reducing your sales process inefficiencies to reduce your acquisitions costs are a priority this year.

For reference, I’ve included a case study describing one such instance in your industry.

Let me know if you have 10-15 minutes to discuss, you can book into my calendar here (booking link).

Best, (Name)”

Then call the person with the same context as the previous step.

Step 4: Rinse & Repeat

After you send these 4 touches (2 E-mails & 2 Calls), create a new thread with a different impact relevant to your buyer persona. Mix in other channels like LinkedIn, do a video demonstrating the impact with video tools or recordings, etc.

Automation & Scale

While personalization is a key element of any effective sales strategy, creating a balance of scale and automation along with a targeted list of high-intent prospects are key. Check out the list below of different tools that you can use to accelerate your sales efficiencies and automation today!

Joe Guevara is a 10-Year SaaS Sales Veteran & Sales Executive. Rehash Digital has a vetted list of The Best B2B Sales Software & Solutions (From CRMs, Sales Intelligence, Sales Automation, Communication platforms, and more), Sales Tips & Software Reviews on our Youtube Channel, or direct support and coaching for your business.