Hacking Sales

1. Craft a Sales Stack for Efficiency

The Sales Stack is the technology you use throughout the sales process to engage potential buyers and to facilitate them at each stage of your pipeline.

Technology Integration. A sales stack is a suite of technologies used to streamline the sales process, from lead generation to closing deals. It's essential to identify the stages of the pipeline that matter most and the milestones you want to achieve. Each stage should have its own checklist to ensure consistency and thoroughness.

Pipeline Management. Key metrics for managing a sales pipeline include the total number of deals, average deal size, percentage of deals moving between stages, and the average time a deal spends in each stage. A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool is crucial for tracking these metrics and maintaining pipeline health. Integration tools like Zapier, IFTTT, or Bedrock Data can help connect different tools in your stack, reducing manual work and increasing efficiency.

Qualifying Leads. Effective selling starts with leads, making outbound selling and a robust lead generation process vital. Aaron Ross's "Seeds, Nets, and Spears" framework categorizes leads based on their source and quality. Seeds are word-of-mouth leads, Nets are marketing leads, and Spears are targeted leads generated by dedicated prospecting. Targeted leads, or "low-hanging fruit," provide faster results.

2. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Your ICP is a prospect who will most likely and most easily enter into a transaction or a business relationship with you.

Target Customer. Identifying your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial for effective lead generation. Start by asking questions like: What products are my customers currently using? Where do these potential customers live on the web? Which potential customers do I consider my low-hanging fruit? What can I decipher from my previous closed deals?

Finding ICP. Look for commonalities among your existing customers to identify key characteristics of your ICP. For example, if you're selling marketing automation software, target companies already using email marketing services like MailChimp. Consider factors like industry, company size, technology stack, and location.

Example. When Udemy was recruiting instructors, they targeted technology experts who taught top programming languages, had prerecorded content, and possessed a significant social media following. This specific ICP allowed them to focus their efforts on the most promising candidates. Places to look for potential buyers include LinkedIn and Facebook groups, Meetup, industry conference websites, trade association forums and directories, job boards, public legal filings, CrunchBase, AngelList, Glassdoor, Yelp, Shopify, Etsy, and Kickstarter.

3. Master List Building Techniques

Building strong lists to generate leads at the top of your pipeline is arguably the most important part of the sales process.

Web Scraping. Web scraping is an essential technique for mining information and compiling customized lead lists. Tools like Import.io and Kimono Labs allow you to extract data from websites without coding. These tools can be used to gather information such as company names, contact details, and other relevant attributes.

Competitor Research. Keeping tabs on your competitors' customers is a valuable strategy for filling your pipeline. Services like Datanyze and BuiltWith allow you to identify companies using competing or complementary products. For example, if you offer a marketing automation service, you can use these tools to target users of MailChimp, Marketo, or HubSpot.

Targeting Key Players. Focus on key executives and influencers using tools like Followerwonk and Little Bird. Followerwonk helps you analyze the followers of specific brands or competitors to find highly qualified prospects. Little Bird helps you identify influencers by tracking keywords and monitoring connections with your competitors.

4. Uncover Contact Information Effectively

The only thing you're missing now is your potential targets' contact information, which is a very important piece of the puzzle.

Data Hygiene. Before gathering contact information, remove duplicates from your lists to avoid wasting time and resources. Google Sheets add-ons like "Remove Duplicates" can help streamline this process. Also, check your CRM system for existing contacts to avoid redundant efforts.

Email Finding Tools. Tools like Toofr are excellent for finding business email addresses when you have a first name, last name, and domain name. Toofr verifies emails to reduce bounce rates and improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns. ZoomInfo is a SaaS company that sells access to its database of information about businesspeople and companies to sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals. Prospect.io allows you to pull contact information directly from web pages.

LinkedIn Prospecting. SalesLoft and Capture (by RingLead) allow you to extract contact information directly from LinkedIn profiles. SalesLoft is particularly useful for finding contacts when you have a company name and job title. Capture allows you to scrape data from websites, social media profiles, and job listing sites.

5. Research Leads for Personalized Outreach

When you are doing lead research, you'll want to find out as much information as possible on a company and individual contacts before you reach out to important prospects.

Trigger Events. Lead research involves gathering information on companies and contacts to personalize your outreach. Identify trigger events, such as funding rounds, new hires, product launches, or positive press, to use as a reason to connect. These events provide a relevant context for your initial contact.

Research Tools. InsideView is a robust tool for prospecting and tracking company events. It provides updates on business and social events, as well as real-time dossiers on prospects in your CRM system. FunnelFire tracks keywords across news sources to identify companies experiencing specific trigger events.

Predictive Sales. Tools like Infer and Compile use predictive lead scoring to identify companies likely to buy from you. Infer integrates with your CRM and marketing automation software to develop a customized list of buying signals. Compile aggregates data from various sources to identify buying actions.

6. Segment Lists for Targeted Messaging

The first message you send to prospective customers is absolutely crucial, so this first-touch e-mail needs to work in your favor.

Personalization at Scale. Segmenting your lists is essential for personalizing your messaging in a scalable manner. This allows you to tailor your outreach to specific groups of prospects while still maintaining efficiency. The Storefront, a marketplace for pop-up shops, segmented its lists by neighborhood to create personalized messages for store owners in specific areas of New York City.

Segmentation Criteria. Segment your lists based on various criteria, such as industry, location, company size, and trigger events. For example, if you scraped a list of companies that sponsored Dreamforce, you can use that information in your message. The deeper you can segment your lists, the more personal you can get while still contacting multiple companies.

Whale Accounts. For top-tier accounts, focus on highly targeted and authentic messaging. Save the mass emailing for the rest of your accounts. These big deals require a personalized approach that provides value and attracts attention from the beginning.

7. Optimize Outbound E-mailing and Messaging

You can track, measure, and optimize like never before. You can see when, where, and how long someone is reading your e-mail.

A/B Testing. Optimize your email campaigns by A/B testing different elements, such as subject lines, calls-to-action, and message bodies. Measure open rates, click-through rates, and response rates to determine what resonates best with your audience. Aim for open rates of 30-50%, click-through rates of 20-35%, and response rates of 15-30%.

Cadence Strategies. Develop a cadence, or sequence, for your outbound messaging that includes a mix of email, social media, and phone calls over a set period. HubSpot recommends nine touches, while others suggest five to seven touches over a week. Persist until you receive a definitive "no."

Email Tools. Several tools can power your outbound sales efforts, including Cadence (from SalesLoft), Outreach.io, ToutApp, Yesware, SalesforceIQ, Cirrus Insight, PersistIQ, LiveHive, and Sidekick (from HubSpot). These tools offer features such as email tracking, A/B testing, and integration with CRM systems.

8. Leverage Outsourcing for Sales Support

You should be leveraging these inexpensive, but qualified, workers.

Virtual Assistants. Virtual assistants (VAs) can handle many menial and tedious tasks in the sales process, freeing up your time to focus on higher-level activities. VAs can assist with lead generation, list building, lead research, segmentation, and email campaign setup.

Hiring Platforms. Platforms like Upwork and TaskUs connect you with qualified VAs. Upwork offers a wide range of talent with robust time-tracking and payment tools. TaskUs provides high-quality VAs with a fully managed back end.

Training and Management. Provide VAs with exact directions and set clear, trackable goals. Create a step-by-step training manual with screenshots and screencasts. Encourage VAs to ask questions and provide regular feedback.

9. Choose the Right CRM for Your Needs

Good CRM software can be debated all day long.

CRM Selection. Selecting the right CRM software is crucial for managing customer relationships and tracking sales activities. Options include Close.io, Pipedrive, Base, and Salesforce. Choose a CRM that is simple, intuitive, and scalable to meet your specific needs.

CRM Features. Close.io offers VoIP calling and two-way email syncing. Pipedrive provides pipeline visibility. Base offers a suite of tools for sales reps and managers. Salesforce is highly scalable but may be too complex for startups.

Integration. Integrate your CRM with other tools using platforms like Bedrock Data and Zapier. These integrations allow your tools to communicate and share information automatically, increasing efficiency and reducing manual data entry.

10. Nurture Leads and Spark Engagement

You're at the point now where you've finally started your outbound e-mail campaigns and are beginning to see responses come in.

Social Media Engagement. Engage with leads on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Like, share, retweet, and favorite their content to stay on their radar. Use social media management tools to track conversations and automate messaging.

Content Sharing. Send leads relevant information, news, and content to provide value and build relationships. Take advantage of trigger events, such as funding rounds, new hires, and product launches, to reach out with personalized messages.

Follow-Up. Follow up with leads consistently using tools like Boomerang, MixMax, and Rebump. These tools allow you to schedule emails to send at a later date and remind you to follow up with unresponsive leads.

11. Prepare for and Ace Sales Calls

When you're planning your first sales call, you'll need to become less reliant on technology and trust more in yourself, your ability to sell, and your passion.

Pre-Call Research. Prepare for sales calls by gathering information on your prospects using tools like Crystal, Refresh.io, and Charlie App. These tools provide insights into their personality, job history, social media activity, and company information.

Qualifying Questions. Ask questions to qualify your prospects and understand their needs. Inquire about their past experiences with similar products and their decision-making process. Use the "virtual close" technique by asking, "What would it take for you to become a customer of ours?"

Call Scripts. Develop call scripts to guide your conversations and ensure consistency. Use tools like InsideSales to prioritize leads and track call performance. Remember to articulate an agenda for the call and then ask him or her if it is okay with them.

12. Master the Art of Business Development

A great business-to-business (B2B) introduction is an art as well as proper etiquette.

Introduction Etiquette. Follow proper etiquette when making introductions. The requestor should respond first, and introductions should require double opt-in. Move the connector to Bcc after the initial reply.

Mutually Beneficial Connections. Make introductions only when you believe there's real mutual benefit. Close the loop by following up to see if the parties connected. Always say "thank you" to the connector.

Asking for Referrals. Ask for referrals after closing a deal. Use language that presents it as an opportunity rather than a favor. Be thoughtful and customize the introductory email.

Last updated: April 17, 2025