Cold email works best with soft offers that are low friction and do not require a significant risk or commitment on the part of the prospect.
The goal of cold email is not to sell them on your product or service, it’s to get them to reply to you.
If we assume that your offer has a long sales cycle–say, for example, it’s intangible like HR consulting–it’s unlikely a cold email campaign with a hard sell will be effective.
The only time you’ll get a positive response is when the prospect needs your services right now.
At any given time, the number of prospects who fit these criteria are 1-3% of the total pool of leads.
This is a problem because in order to win one deal, you’ll need 300-1000 leads.
But what about the 97-99% who fit your ideal customer profile and aren’t ready to buy right now?
That’s where Sideways Prospecting comes in.
We’re not going to ask them to buy “HR consulting.”
We’re going to ask them to do something else.
Like be interviewed on a podcast.
You’ll be following all the steps of a consultative sales process.
We’re just calling them a different name.
Your mini-webinar can be sent as background information about the podcast host.
The discovery call is the pre-interview “vibe check.”
The podcast interview is the sales call.
And so on.
Obviously the podcast must be authentic.
You must, in fact, publish a podcast featuring the people you interview.
A good place to start would be your past and current clients.
The added benefit to this approach is you’ll be building a brand and creating marketing assets you can repurpose anywhere.
In keeping with the HR Consulting example, a cursory Googling shows there are only two podcasts about HR in the UAE.
How does this make you money?
Well, a few of your podcast guests will be ready to buy right now.
And you’ve just done them a favour by making them micro-famous.
The rest of your guests will need HR consulting down the line.
Guess who they’re going to think of?
As long as you maintain the relationship, you’ll be converting 100% of your prospects.
Now or later, doesn’t matter.
This is not the only way Sideways Prospecting is done.
But if you sell an intangible offer or you have a long sales cycle e.g. Enterprise B2B sales,
Develop and publish a niche podcast where your customer avatar is the star of the show.
Write your cold outreach with this strategy mind.
And watch your positive replies, sales calls, and revenue skyrocket.
This is the way.
If you want our help writing cold outreach campaigns, reply to this email.
Hell, we can produce the show for you, soup to nuts.
We’ve done it before.
We can even build you an in-house media company capable of (eventually) generating 100,000,000 impressions per year.
That much exposure would cost you $10,000,000 per year in online advertising.
You’ll be paying 1000X less for it.
Yours Beardly,
Nabeel
P.S. If you’re not interested in investing $10,000-$20,000 per month to have someone build an in-house media company for you…
We can still help you inside CopySkills™.
Several business owners and marketing professionals have joined and are getting, essentially, a Micro-CMO in their back pocket.
We’re reviewing their copy.
We’re collaborating on marketing strategy.
We’re advising them on tactics.
We’re coaching them during office hours.
And a whole lot more.
Individuals can join CopySkills™ for $19.99/month.
And you can also…
Enroll your entire marketing team for $99.99/month.
P.P.S. Mason just opened up his CopyMBA Inner Circle to the public.
I asked him how much it costs.
It’s $4,000.
$19.99/month vs $4000.
Up to you.
P.P.P.S I didn’t invent Sideways Prospecting.
My former client Mike Mark did.
He’s the founder of Coaching Sales.
If you need sales reps, don’t talk to Cole Gordon unless you want to get ripped off or you enjoy working with lemons.
Talk to Mike instead.
Tell him I sent you.