Table of Contents
Note: SaaSwrites is a curated growth marketing hub and resource built to help SaaS founders grow their products. We sincerely thank all our experts for their constant value addition to this world.
Updated on: 14/04/2022
1. Research
All outreach to someone a C-Level must be preceded by research. If you are calling into Fortune 500s, you better have an hour or 2 of research done on the company & person you're contacting. You need to understand their world before they even say a word to you.
Know their goals, recent initiatives, big wins, & most importantly their pain. Showing you know this on a call let's them know that talking to you is not a waste of time.
2. Objective
You need to have a CLEAR objective for the call & make it known quickly. Their time is invaluable & if you don't immediately articulate your value & why they may benefit from speaking to you, you've lost the plot.
They need to know:
- Why your offer is relevant to them.
- Why your offer will provide unique value to their company.
- What they will gain from attending the meeting.
- Why they should trust you.
- Who will be at the meeting
3. Referral
Your credibility going into the call is ZERO. How do you fix that? Name drop someone within the CEO's company. Ideally, you want to talk to another C-level & have them refer you to the CEO (Top - Down and Lateral Referrals work best in general).
If that doesn't work a simple "Who is in charge of X?" call to one of the CEO's colleagues followed by a hangup will suffice. You can then mention to the CEO that his colleague told you to reach out. All sins are forgiven if you provide the value.
Do be careful with this tactic if you are in enterprise sales. You don't want to immediately burn your small pool of prospects with aggressive tactics. Try the organic route first & deploy this strategy when you are a bit more desperate
Don't:
Tell them you already know there is a fit between your offer and their company - that's what the meetings for! Take their time for granted. Getting straight to the point shows them you respect their time and aren't a complete moron. End the call w/o clear next steps
Do:
Lead with valuable information & open -ended questions (no yes or no answers). Anticipate objections & be ready to overcome them. Be confident & unapologetic - you must believe that you are doing them a favor by contacting them.
Remember:
Successful calls with CEOs are short. Unsuccessful calls are even shorter. You will have a successful call as long as your offer provides unique value & these guidelines are followed
B2B sales are lucrative. They can generate 1000x as much revenue as B2C sales. But for most indie hackers, sales is scary. Selling to businesses is SUPER scary.
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4. Make something people already wanted
Observant solves a problem that businesses pay like crazy hourly rates to solve for them. Instant validation! Don't start with ideas. Start with burning problems.
5. Niche down and talk in their language
If your customers get the value proposition, it doesn't matter if nobody else knows what it means. Get it right for customers, then start sending emails.
6. Make us of existing professional relationships
Hopefully you do (or did) great work at your job. Hopefully there are already business people who already know you're smart, capable, & effective. Make your first sales easy. Pitch to those people first.
7. Know your USP and leverage career capital
1st question he got asked when pitching: why shouldn't our developers built it instead?
2nd question: what's going to stop Google doing the same thing?
Anticipate questions about why an indie developer is the right person to solve this.
Bens answers were:
- Because I did this for 7 years at YouTube, so I can do it faster & more effectively than anyone (except people still inside FAANG).
- Because Google is preoccupied with billion dollar opportunities. This is only a multi-million dollar opportunity.
8. Show the value in hard numbers
Every time Ben books a demo, he asks prospects to share confidential data beforehand, process it, and load it into his product. The first thing they see in a demo is how much cash they're leaving on the table.
- "Last month, you earned $184k in ad revenue. But you missed out on an estimated $51k due to [BLAH BLAH]. Fixing those issues could increase your monthly ad revenue by 27.4%."
Find a way to put numbers on your value, and put it front and center.
- Make your product valuable, and tell your prospects how valuable it is in terms they relate to. "Hmm, should I spend $5k to make $20k?" Easy question. Make it easy for demos to be followed by a sale.
9. Call structure to close better
- Short opening
- Introduction about you + why qualified
- Specifically why you reached out to them
- Qualifying questions
- Describe your process step-by-step
- Sell the ROI
- Close in silence
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