Prospecting Technical Buyer Personas and LinkedIn Outreach (Robin De Vries, MongoDB)

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1. 7:13

   That is a main tool that I would use to find accounts that have some mongo and that are going through those events, that are scaling, that are hiring more people. “LinkedIn pages is one built-in, well-found, their own careers pages, like what kind of engineering skills they're hiring for.” Those are all tools that we would use to really scrape and find those accounts that either have mongo or would have technology that plays really well with it. So I think one of the things that I struggled with as a sales rep a lot, and as I'm hearing you talk about the sources you're going to, is sometimes when we do that, we have a great reason for reaching out, right?

   In Account research sources

2. 21:52

   In your initial first touch outreach, those feel more personalized. But I think where people get into trouble is when you try to personalize every single touch along the way. And I like the way that you think about events as valuable enough because people want to come together that that can be enough weight in those messages. Yeah, I think as long as we have a good reason “to reach out to them, that's really what we need.” An event is a good reason. I agree. You're right. I think obviously depends on your number of accounts you have, segment space, type of sale, et cetera. But I think folks sometimes over-rotate on the personalization and will double personalize where it's like, I need to research you and personalize this email. And we're both going to be at this trade show or event.

   In Offer and messaging

3. 21:54

   those feel more personalized. But I think where people get into trouble is when you try to personalize every single touch along the way. And I like the way that you think about events as valuable enough because people want to come together that that can be enough weight in those messages. Yeah, I think as long as we have a good reason to reach out to them, that's really what we need. “An event is a good reason.” I agree. You're right. I think obviously depends on your number of accounts you have, segment space, type of sale, et cetera. But I think folks sometimes over-rotate on the personalization and will double personalize where it's like, I need to research you and personalize this email. And we're both going to be at this trade show or event. When I was selling to law firms,

   In Trigger-based personalization

4. 26:34

   But I noticed your company is doing XYZ. You just got funding to scale. Notice you're using a SQL solution that we have seen historically that makes it very difficult. Is that something that you're running into? And I'll just open it like that. I never ask, hey, do you have a minute or two? Nobody ever does. You get hung up on immediately. “But if you lead with your POV, they'll try to correct you very often.” It seems like from the outside that this is maybe happening. People have a tendency to want to correct you. So I really like just leading with why I'm actually calling. And I'll think about that for every person that I call. What am I going to say if this person picks up? What is my value that I'm providing? That's what I try to think of. That's what I lead with.

   In Belief-based messaging

5. 26:44

   And I'll just open it like that. I never ask, hey, do you have a minute or two? Nobody ever does. You get hung up on immediately. But if you lead with your POV, they'll try to correct you very often. It seems like from the outside that this is maybe happening. People have a tendency to want to correct you. “So I really like just leading with why I'm actually calling.” And I'll think about that for every person that I call. What am I going to say if this person picks up? What is my value that I'm providing? That's what I try to think of. That's what I lead with. Can you give me an example of what a POV might sound like? Hey, noticed that you just got funding. It was called out that you're looking to scale your platform and launch three new applications.

   In Cold call openers

6. 29:41

   success rate. Amazing. Robin, thank you for joining us. Everybody, stick around for a 60-second recap coming up soon. Your top four actionable takeaways from this episode with Robin. Number one, when you are looking for intel around an account, don't neglect looking at “the LinkedIn profiles of past employees.” Those folks often include details around their tech stack and big initiatives that they helped complete, and so you can actually learn more from past employees sometimes than current employees. Number two, if you're just not the best-looking person in the world... and the last one is a very, very simple one.

   In Account research sources

7. 30:56

   Number three, on the same topic of personalization, don't overdo it. I love the way that Robin talked about that personalization is having a good reason to reach out. If you have an event in the area where they have the opportunity to meet with other similar roles, that might just be on its own a good enough reason to reach out. “We don't have to do overkill and eat into our productivity.” And number four, LinkedIn outreach. Don't believe the hype. Just because you sell into engineering or product does not mean that you cannot use LinkedIn as a channel. I love the way that Robin talked about using video outreach on LinkedIn to immediately connect with folks in engineering and product roles.

   In Personalization depth levels