12 Sales Outreach Ideas to Stand Out when Prospecting

12 Sales Outreach Ideas

The biggest point I want to express here is that you want to be yourself, but be where your ideal clients are. Okay, maybe that’s two points…but they’re both vital to your success. Reaching out as a salesperson to build relationships — and ultimately make sales — means there are a lot of barriers against you. 

We hope to alleviate some of those with these ideas for your sales outreach strategy to help you stand out so people are happy to connect and more willing to purchase. 

Outreach Idea #1: Go to their office 🏢

When was the last time you went to visit a prospect’s physical location before you knew them? I’m going to guess never or maybe once.

Show your face. Being in person is memorable because we’re on our devices all day every day. Some may have even begun to disconnect from people too much (especially during Covid times). It’s much easier to get through to your prospects in person versus over the phone because it’s an unusual method these days and will quickly boost your B2B sales outreach results.

If you have a specific company you’d like to reach out to, go there. First and foremost, you want to make friends with the receptionist. They are your gatekeeper to help you get to the next step and if you are kind and grateful, you’ll get much farther than lying or demanding things.

It may be a good idea to bring something they can take with them — even if it’s just a business card but it could be as much as a gift basket. This will help them take notice and be much more likely to reach out to you, or at the very least consider your company. 

Outreach Idea #2: Stand out in a crowd 

As the global population continues to increase, standing out can feel a bit overwhelming — especially when networking.

Here are a few ideas to help you stand out from the rest:

• Consider wearing something unique or having a creative business card. It will create a memorable experience for them and they will be much more likely to remember you.
• Be proactive in digital conferences. Some of them now have the option to view profiles, network via video, and chat across rooms. Utilize these tools every chance you get to meet new people.
• Send something to their workplace. If you can’t be there, send something nice; perhaps a thank you card, a special demo package, or a gift card (which can also be digital, but physical is more likely to arrive in their hands).
• Send personalized videos to their inboxes (social media or email). There are options available now to customize videos to personalize your prospecting at scale. If you’re recording one at a time, you can also write their name on a piece of paper to get their attention Love Actually-style and record a 30-second video (no longer than 60) that talks about why you’re contacting them.
• Use fun meme creators if it fits with your brand like Reface and Piñata Farm. Put their names in so they see you’ve put in the effort instead of feeling like you’re just a robot sending the same message to everyone.
• Follow up. Never let a good connection fall by the wayside. This goes for every single one of these ideas to stand out as well. If you do not keep in touch with them, all of that effort was for nothing. Use tools like LaGrowthMachine to help automate so you’ll always have messages ready to go.

No matter the way you plan to stand out — be sure it’s with the intention to help them. This way your message will resonate with them better and you’ll be more likely to get in touch with more people.

Outreach Idea #3: Strategic Partnerships 🤝 

‘No Man is an Island’ — John Donne

As much as some may wish we could, we can’t do it alone. Having people in our corner makes our lives not only easier but so much better. This holds true at work as well, of course, because forming partnerships can be your secret weapon.

There are many different ways to approach this strategy. One is to form partnerships within your company. Go to other departments and determine who you can collaborate with to make the customer journey run more smoothly. Marketing and sales can often provide each other with a vast amount of exchanged knowledge, for example.

Another way is to partner externally. Companies often create partnerships with each other, but it could also be between individuals. If you build relationships with people from complementary businesses, you can help each other with referrals.

Regardless of the partnership that works best for you, be strategic in your choosing. Ensure your goals are aligned or you may come across more challenges than benefits in the long run.

Outreach Idea #4: Give value 💵

When you reach out to prospects, they often are expecting you to sell something. You can stand out from this typical approach by providing them with something they find useful. For example, send them a helpful link that might be relevant to them, a whitepaper with relevant industry information, or a free trial of a product. Write an outreach email that they’ll be glad to read.

Providing valuable things does not have to be ‘tangible’ either. You could also suggest connecting them with someone they’re interested in speaking with. Typically this comes after a conversation based on asking them what they need rather than offering up your contacts without context. You don’t want to burn bridges for no reason.

Whichever way you can help them, they will see the value in keeping in contact with you and therefore put you in front of a pack of others when they’re looking for a product or service. Stay in front of them regularly as well, preferably even after they’ve purchased, with emails and/or social media. 

Outreach Idea #5: Host an informational event 

This idea would also go along very well with the partnership aspect of building connections. Hosting an event can be in combination with your partner so you reach both audiences. Whether it’s in person or online, provide value for both audiences with your topic and content.

A webinar is a great way to get in front of your desired audience because it’s a low-threshold barrier to entry. They can easily provide an email and get the value of watching your webinar any time they want — if you record the event. 

If you choose to run an in-person presentation, you have the added bonus of face-to-face interactions. They can network with each other in addition to learning about your expertise(s) and that in itself is highly valuable to most. 

Outreach Idea #6: Join LinkedIn or Facebook groups

A truism of social media is that it’s meant to be social. This is why groups are so extremely popular. People can congregate online about mutual interests, so take advantage of this. Join the groups that are relevant to you, your industry, and your target market.

Consider what interests your ideal prospects have and find a group that relates to it. For example, if you are in the finance industry, there are hundreds of options available. There is a group simply called Finance Club with over 1.5 million members or an accounting and audit group with 145,000 members. Choose the groups with the most closely related topics and join. 

Don’t join too many, however, or you’ll overwhelm yourself because the goal is to post regularly on them (plus LinkedIn limits your ability to join too many). Identify links you can post that are valuable, tips from experience, or simply interact with others to get your profile seen more. Many of these groups also allow you to post your business link and share what you do — usually once per week on a designated post.

Once you are in the chosen groups, you can also determine a method for automating contact requests for people in certain LinkedIn groups. Using LGM for sales outreach automation combined with LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers a way to connect and build a follow-up sequence. You can reach out to people you are interested in speaking with and send a social media message or email to follow up with them.

Outreach Idea #7: Stay top of mind 🧠

In other words, remind them you’re still there for them. Whether it’s for discussing industry trends or purchasing your services, they will forget what you can do for them. Constantly showing up in their feed will help them remember how you can help.

There are many ways to do this, the top of which include:

• Emails — Reach out directly to their inbox where there are no distractions.
• Social media — Create posts that people will find relevant, interesting, or helpful.
• LaGrowthMachine — For your outreach on LinkedIn, Twitter, and email automation.

Whichever method(s) you choose, make sure it’s one you can maintain consistency with. This way you won’t burn out and you’ll still be in front of people regularly and therefore easily contacted when someone is ready to make a purchase.

Outreach Idea #8: Ask customers for referrals 🗣️

If you’ve been at your company a little while, you’ll have customers who are happy with their service and those who you’ve built a good relationship with. Reach out to them via phone or email and ask if they’d be able to provide a testimonial or referral. Provide them with an example or create one for them so they only need to approve it.

You can also create an automated email within LGM to follow up with each of your clients 2-3 months after their purchase. This will enable you to automatically ask them if they were satisfied if they might give you a review or testimonial, or if they know of someone who could use the service as well. 

Outreach Idea #9: Follow up

Use the golden rule of sales no matter what method you reach out with: Follow up, follow up, follow up.

Use LGM to automate this process and reach out to everyone you’ve contacted. Create a sequence that runs for you to continuously keep in touch with your prospects — without the struggle of manual entry every single time.

Create automation for everyone you meet and receive their business card, everyone you speak with over the phone, and anyone you’ve reached out to on social media. Every contact counts. 

Outreach Idea #10: Work cross-departmentally

Collaboration is your best friend. You’ll be able to produce much better results by working together with other departments in your company. The Marketing team especially thrives in data and works to bring you more customers. You’ll both have insights that can greatly help each other and bring in more business for you and the company.

If your company has multiple departments that speak to the customer such as a different sales department, work with them to see if they’ve discovered any sales techniques that could help. Leadership has a vested interest in assisting these collaborations if the company makes more money, so encourage this supportive culture over the competitive one.

Another great collaboration department for your sales outreach might be the research and development team. They do testing constantly and understand the customers better than they understand themselves. Build these internal partnerships and you’ll combine forces that build in more benefits for the customer as well.

Choose your Strategy

Now is the time! You’ve got the ideas, you just need to take action. Choose what fits best for you and your target audience and simply get started. Build a list, write a few emails, and you’ll kick-start your sales outreach and get your momentum started.

Create automations with LaGrowthMachine to save you time and energy and start selling with ease. Contact us and let us know what you do for your sales outreach.