We came. We learned. We scored a ton of free swag. This year’s Rainmaker conference was another runaway success, packed with insanely helpful sales development and engagement insights, deep dives into B2B Account Based Marketing and an even greater appreciation for our team back home.
Now that it’s over, we’ve rounded up the best and brightest ideas from the smart marketers and sales professionals we listened to. These are ideas you can apply to your sales development strategy today, and we’re pumped up to put it into practice!
Modern sales teams need more than the right technology. Today they need to know more, connect more, want more. And that’s just scratching the surface. Here are the best gems from Rainmaker 2017.
1. B2B Account Based Marketing is everything.
We live in a world where marketers are being inundated with cold outreach. The batch and blast approach has returned some effectiveness, but overall, it’s leaving too much to be desired. The quality of demos you’re booking simply isn’t the same as a targeted campaign. And, more importantly, trying to navigate an organization with a generic message in hopes of connecting with decision makers will, most likely, send your emails straight to the trash.
When reaching out, especially for the first time, a message should resonate with your reader. Personalize the content by tagging in content your prospect has written. Or try skimming through their Twitter or LinkedIn page to add a personalized touch. And it should be relevant. How can you (a real person) relate to the prospect, (another real, live human) and their needs within the organization?
Lastly, your message should include a product pitch and call-to-action. By doing this, you’ll acknowledge their needs and expand on how you can help. Then, work to engage them through as many channels as possible to gain trust and loyalty, and eventually advocacy, of your product.
2. Your team and your people are your most important asset.
Product is important, but your people and your service make your brand. We live in a world of perpetually growing and fascinating technology. That means, though, marketers simply expect products that allow us to work smarter and help customers in a more meaningful way. So, we need to listen to our customers, and move in a way that will help. Take, for instance, our friends at Salesloft. I spend hours upon hours in my Salesloft every day. They’ve helped me cadence, track and measure my outreach.
But (and this is a big ‘but’), the people at Salesloft are the assets that take the company from great to a rocket ship. (A phenomenal term borrowed from our founder Dan Hanrahan.) The Sigstr team owes a big thanks to Kyle Porter, Tami Mcqueen and the entire Salesloft team, for reminding us that every interaction is a brand impression. And every impression matters. Another quick shout out to my friends at Everstring, who live this, too.
3. To be more than great, you must constantly push yourself to learn and change.
It’s easy to do your job good enough. But conferences, like Rainmaker, shed light into what it takes to be more than good, and more than great. Success, at least in my opinion, isn’t the pursuit of perfection, but rather a constant improvement. To be successful as marketers and sales pros, we must continue to learn. There’s just way too much content and information living among us to stay stagnant.
On a more personal note, I’m lucky to live and work in a culture that promotes constant improvement. While I’m prospecting potential Sigstr clients, I use my email signature as an actionable, trackable, CTA that relates to the people I’m reaching out to. We have an amazing crew that I’m incredibly proud of. Our people are truly some of the best out there. Lastly, we’re all constantly learning. We’re absorbing what our customers are saying to better our product and better our sales approach. We’re learning from each other, and pushing one another to be better than we were yesterday.
And now I’m counting down the days until Rainmaker 18!
