In this exclusive interview with Hannah Ajikawo, Founder & CEO of Revenue Funnel, she shares tips to boost cold email engagement, best practices for LinkedIn prospecting, resources & advice for SDRs looking to improve their skills, qualities that successful SDRs possess & how to develop them, metrics that SDRs should pay attention to, plus a habit that motivates her during her workday.
Interview highlights & key takeaways
Top tips to boost cold email engagement
It all comes back down to sales fundamentals. Think about the objective of your outreach: what are you trying to achieve? Try to give them something of value in exchange for their time. For example:
- People like to be educated.
- People like to be entertained.
Focus on delivering that.
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Insane hack for prospect research
Go on the prospect's website and check for job postings. You can determine what the company's top-of-mind programs or initiatives are by reading the job descriptions.
Use that information in the body of the email. The reason for this is if they miss or ignore your email, later on they'll eventually search for that internal term in their inbox, and your email will pop up!
LinkedIn prospecting best practices (do not prospect on LinkedIn)
"Do not prospect on LinkedIn" might sound contrary to LinkedIn prospecting best practices, but hear us out.
People expect you to prospect to them on LinkedIn. As a pattern interrupt, don't do it. Simply connect with as many people as you can, send video messages telling them you're happy they're now part of your network, and send helpful content to them once in a while. And that's it.
Focus on building LinkedIn connections and nurturing those connections instead of trying to sell to them. Eventually, they'll start noticing you and potentially reach out to you themselves.
Narrow down who you listen to for sales trends
There are a ton of people on LinkedIn you can learn from. Find 3-4 SDR leaders who are trying to approach their role or a specific problem in different ways (for example, Will Aitken from Lavender or Josh Braun). Carve out specific people for each part of your outreach, and that's how you can easily stay up-to-date on sales trends.
Don't sit in on your AEs' calls without direction
If you're going to listen to AE calls, make sure you have a specific area you want to focus on and learn from.
For example, tell yourself you want to focus on how they structure pricing, and pay attention to everything that's tied to that. That way, you can focus on building a specific skillset instead of trying to retain everything the AEs are doing.
Four qualities successful SDRs possess
- Drive and grit: They're excited and motivated about their career.
- Curiosity: They ask a lot of questions and they're good listeners.
- Resourcefulness: They don't sit around waiting to be told what to do. They take initiative.
#1 metric to focus on as an SDR
The number of people you've had a two-way dialog with. A quality connection, a quality interaction, a meaningful connect.
Working out + Bruno Mars + Cardi B.
A daily workout combined with listening to Finesse by Bruno Mars ft. Cardi B. 🎧 are great ways to keep yourself motivated throughout the workday.
