Expanding Sales Beyond Client Meetings

Fact: Outbound sales is broken. Incentives and strategies are misaligned. Tools like Salesloft and Outreach didn’t cause it. They amplified it. Now marketing and sales need to work together to fix it. The real issue is that sales managers push SDRs to prioritize volume over quality, leading to generic outreach that no one wants to read. Fixing this starts with focus. Give SDRs a small set of accounts, 30 per quarter, and tier them into A, B, and C priorities (using tools like Clay, Tofu, Unify). This makes it clear who they’re targeting and allows them to spend their time understanding the industries, companies, and people they’re reaching out to. Instead of chasing volume, they can dive deep into the problems their prospects are trying to solve. With the right tools, resources and 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, SDRs can educate themselves on the pain points, motivations, and challenges of their target audience. They can craft outreach that adds value and speaks directly to what matters most. Take me as an example. If you’re reaching out to someone like me at MoEngage, don’t send lazy, cookie-cutter emails like: “Does getting more pipeline keep you up at night” “Would you be interested in getting more qualified meetings” “Do you want customer lists of your competitors?” “Are you still interested?” “I haven’t heard back. I’ll assume this isn’t a priority.” These don’t work. They’re noise. If you want my attention, show me you’ve done your homework. Understand that I’m focused on growing in North America. Recognize the challenges of expanding into a crowded market. Tell me something valuable about how companies like mine are navigating those problems and how you can help. This approach may lead to fewer meetings overall, but the meetings you get will be better. SDRs and AEs will know their audience. They’ll understand the pain points. They’ll deliver messaging that lands because it’s relevant and thoughtful. And this isn’t just a sales problem. Marketing has to help. Marketing should train SDRs and AEs with insights about the market, the ICP, and the problems worth solving. Outbound sales works best when sales and marketing are aligned, working together to get the right message in front of the right people. Stop trying to get more meetings. Focus on getting better ones.

I need more leads. I need more relationships. I need more activity. The quest for more is common among lawyers struggling to build a legal practice. But "less" is almost always the better way. Let me tell you a story (from my forthcoming book) that drives this point home. When Chet Holmes started working for a small magazine owned by Charlie Munger, he was put in charge of selling ad space. He was given a database of more than 2,000 potential advertisers. His job description was to make as many cold calls as possible in order to generate more leads. But Holmes took a different approach, which emphasized quality over quantity and allowed him to focus his finite time on the most promising opportunities. He got his hands on past issues of hundreds of competitor publications and analyzed the ads. He found that a mere 8% of advertisers purchased 95% of the ad space. This insight led Holmes to focus almost all of his sales efforts on this small target market—what he called his “Dream Buyers.” Instead of trying to reach the masses, Holmes tailored his approach by sending direct mail to each Dream Buyer twice a month, followed by 2 phone calls. The first 4 months of effort didn’t produce any results. But in the 5th month, Holmes closed his first deal, which was huge—a 15-page full-color spread for Xerox. He then closed deals with 28 additional Dream Buyers over the next 5 months, and his efforts compounded over the next several years. As revenue continued to grow, Munger called Holmes into his office: “Now Chet. In all my years, I've never seen anybody double sales three years in a row. Are you sure we're not lying, cheating, and stealing?” They weren’t. Holmes was just focusing on "less but better"—picking a relatively small number of high-potential customers to consistently focus on with a customized sales approach. The lesson here for lawyers is that expanding your practice through business development isn't simply about adding more contacts and clients; it's about continually ascending the value chain. Now let's get practical: If you're hoping to build a practice, instead of focusing on developing hundreds of superficial connections, choose a select group of about 20 to 30 key contacts—your VIPs—and consistently remain visible to them in ways that they perceive as valuable (e.g. send insights, make intros, extend invitations). This number isn't random—it's a manageable figure that reflects the approximate number of business days in a month. If you have a list of approximately 25 key contacts and reach out to one person every business day, you can maintain meaningful connections with all your key contacts on a monthly basis. This approach ensures that each of your most important contacts gets the attention they deserve, and that they're thinking of you when unpredictable opportunities arise. The moral of this story: Focus on less, obsess over quality (relationships, responsiveness, etc.), be consistent and you can't help but succeed.

Sales is won on the field — not in conference rooms. A few years ago, I walked into our meeting room and noticed something odd.... The room was filled with our best sales engineers ( all front end customer facing reps) — eyes glued to PowerPoints, struggling with the formatting, buried in AR (accounts receivable reports), debating customer growth projections, all this preparing for the next "internal" presentation. I asked, “When was the last time we sat across the table with our key customers — not to sell, but to understand their pain points ?” Silence. That moment stayed with me. In Industrial sales - brick and mortar manufacturing companies, being in the office too long isn’t a sign of productivity — it’s a warning sign (red flag). If your sales team is busy inside in internal office meetings , rest assured the competition is outside — taking care of your customers. Here’s what I learned (the hard way): Symptoms of an inward-focused sales team: a) Making more PowerPoint slides (internal) than Customer Proposals b) Spending hours in internal reviews but missing customer site visits. c) Discussing “Account Strategies ” without hearing the customer’s voice d) Over-indexing on AR follow-ups and under-investing in building Customer relationships e) Attending office safety meetings but skipping Plant walk-throughs with clients What changed the game: 1) Sales Force Automation: Freed up Sales Reps for real customer engagement . Also established the Inside Sales Team that took care of order conversions , S&OP and proactive heads up to Sales in case of Credit Blocks 2) Hunter vs. Harvester model: Focused prospecting ( Business Development)  and account nurturing ( Routine account management) 3) Customer immersion: Walking the floor, understanding downtime issues, helping improve OEE, not just selling a product ( more insight from customer) 4) Solution selling mindset: Solving customer problems ( pain areas) with technical / application engineering support > Selling catalogues 5) Sales Enablement Tools: Real-time data, quick proposal templates, mobile CRM with access to Customers on their order status. Bottomline: " In Industrial Sales , the battlefield is the market. Not the meeting room. Your presence is your competitive moat " I am sure that this would resonate with most of you (Industrial sales) .Would love to hear from others — what has helped you keep your sales teams market-focused? #IndustrialSales #SalesLeadership #CustomerCentricity #B2BSales #SalesTransformation #GrowthMindset #SalesExecution #Manufacturing #ProcessIndustry #SalesForceAutomation

Most deals are lost in the silence between meetings - not during them. The reality is if you’re only selling when you’re on a call, you’re already behind. In today’s complex buying cycles, your champion is fighting a battle you can’t see. Between meetings, they’re selling your solution internally - to skeptical execs, finance, IT, and every other stakeholder with veto power. That’s where most deals stall or die. Not because your demo was weak, but because your message didn’t travel beyond the Zoom call. What separates top reps? They arm their champions to sell when they’re not in the room: • Summarise every call with a crisp, shareable recap • Provide tailored business cases and realistic ROI calculators • Anticipate objections and prep champions with answers • Share customer stories that resonate with each stakeholder • Centralise everything into a shared workspace or deal room Who would have thought that by helping your champion to sell internally you'll increase your deal momentum and win rates... Ask yourself: What are you doing to make your champion’s job easier between meetings? Drop your best between-the-meetings tactic below and let’s help each other win more.

Customers can buy your solution from a dozen vendors. But they can only buy you from one. That truth becomes painfully clear the moment a single executive can determine whether your deal lives or dies. Early in my career, I had a year where my entire number depended on one massive renewal and upsell. Everything hinged on expanding the relationship. Then the customer hired a new senior executive. And he wouldn’t take my call. No response to outreach. No introduction. No meeting. Most sellers would keep pushing the same playbook. I did the opposite. I opened LinkedIn and started studying him. What I found changed everything. He wasn’t just an executive. He was a prolific blogger, podcast guest, and industry thought leader. Someone who clearly valued ideas, conversations, and influence. So instead of asking him for something… I offered him something. I sent a short message that flipped the dynamic entirely. 🎯 I offered an executive-to-executive introduction with a prominent leader from my organization. 🎯 I highlighted my colleague’s background and positioned the conversation as a mutual exchange of ideas — where we could learn from him and his perspective. 🎯 I made the conversation about insight, not sales. Ten minutes later my phone buzzed. His reply: “Well played, Heady.” He took the meeting. That meeting turned into several conversations. He began joining our calls. The executive relationship deepened. We still executed all the fundamentals — delivering value, proving our solutions, earning trust. But the relationship unlocked everything. Six months later we closed the deal. Eight figures. A massive upsell. And the largest award in the company that year. The lesson wasn’t about LinkedIn. It was about understanding people. Great sellers don’t just pitch products. They study what matters to the person on the other side of the table. They understand what motivates them. They engage them in a way that respects their perspective. And they create value before asking for anything in return. Because at the end of the day, customers can buy technology anywhere. What they’re really deciding is whether they want to buy it with you. What’s the most creative way you’ve ever earned an executive meeting?

We 1.5x'd a game design company’s ROAS and increased their new customers by 125% – while cutting ad spend by $20k/month. How? By shifting focus from booked meetings to closed customers. At first, the client was frustrated about a 25% decrease in meetings booked. Until I broke down the results for him. Here’s a snapshot: - Meetings: ↓ 25% - Cost/customer: ↓ 40% - # of contracts sent: ↑ 3x - # new customers: ↑ 1.25x - Ad spend: ↓ by $20k/month Here’s how we did it in 4 steps: (Plus 4 tips on how you can do the same) 1. Shifted budget allocation: We moved ad spend away from campaigns that were generating a lot of meetings but only converting 5% or less into contracts and customers. How To Do It: Measure results against # of customers and cost/customer, not just sign-ups or # of meetings booked. 2. Adjusted CPA targets: We're now willing to pay about 120-150% more per meeting in order to get a significantly lower cost per customer. How To Do It: Scrutinize each campaign individually, paying attention to those that generate real customers and what you’re paying for those customers (vs other measurable CPAs). 3. Excluded low-quality leads: We filtered out competitors and other non-converting leads, increasing our cost per meeting but dramatically improving our conversion rates and cost per customer. How To Do It: Be willing to see certain metrics (like total meetings) decrease if it means improving overall campaign effectiveness. 4. Optimized for customer acquisition: Instead of chasing meeting numbers, we're telling the algorithm to go after the type of leads that are likely to become customers. How To Do It: Have the discipline to reallocate ad spend from high-volume, low-converting campaigns to those that consistently produce customers. _______ A packed calendar of meetings is like a football team that gains tons of yards but never scores. It looks great on paper, but it doesn't win games – or grow your business. Screw the vanity metrics. Go for customers and conversions. Does this resonate?

Shocking stat: 80% of B2B buyers now prefer remote interactions over traditional sales meetings. After analyzing 1,000+ sales interactions across 12 industries in 2024. I've uncovered the blueprint for adapting to modern buyer behaviors. Here's what actually works now. Key Changes in Buyer Behavior: 1. Research Phase - 70% of buying decisions are made before contact - Buyers consume 13+ pieces of content pre-purchase - Self-service information gathering dominates 2. Digital-First Engagement - Virtual meetings preferred 3:1 over in-person - Asynchronous communication on the rise - Multi-channel touchpoints expected Adapting Your Strategy: 1. Content Alignment - Create decision-stage specific content - Develop self-service resources - Provide interactive tools 2. Sales Process Evolution - Shorter, focused sales cycles - Video-first communication - Hybrid engagement models 3. Technology Integration - AI-powered lead-scoring - Digital sales rooms - Real-time analytics Implementation Results: Our clients who adapted these strategies saw: - 40% shorter sales cycles - 55% higher close rates - 3x increase in buyer engagement The winners in 2025 won't be those with the best product, but those who best align with how buyers want to buy. What changes are you seeing in your buyers' behavior? #SalesStrategy #B2BSales #BuyerBehavior #SalesTransformation

How I use Sales Navigator to generate millions in pipeline. If you follow this process, the meetings will start to pour in. Today I want to walk you through Relationship Explorer. Let's say I am a Account Executive at Champify. I focus on three target personas: • CRO • Director of Sales Development • VP of Sales At the beginning of every quarter, I’m given a new list of key accounts to break into. I typically sit down every morning and spend an hour prospecting. This week I’ve narrowed down one account, Slytherin, that would be a fantastic opportunity if I could close it. My best chance at penetrating this account is to go beyond shared connections to find hidden allies or someone already familiar with me or my company. These hidden allies could help expand my relationship footprint. I know Relationship Explorer in Sales Navigator can help me do just that, find the best path and any hidden allies in the account. I visit the Slytherin page in Sales Navigator and see that it’s surfaced 8 of the top individuals that might be relevant for me, based on the Sales Persona I’ve built out. I see that Snape, the CRO at Slytherin, has an Executive TeamLink connection to my CMO. I plan to reach out to my CMO and ask for an introduction! I know multithreading is critical to lowering the risk that a deal does pan out if my point of contact leaves the company. (We want deal insurance people) Since that’s the case, I also want to see if I can engage with the Director of Sales Development, as I expect they would be the primary buyer, and they may be my advocate in the deal. Using the Director+ Persona I’ve built out, I see that Draco is the Director of Sales Development and was a past customer in his previous job! This allows me to look in our CRM to find any details I can from the last time he was a customer, and I reach out with those details. Leverage the insights to break through the noise. P.S. Are you running your Sales Navigator strategy like this?

Personalized B2B Customer Engagement at Scale Cold calling hasn’t been relevant for five years Using AI just to cold call faster isn't a strategy, it’s just more noise To achieve true personalization at scale, we’ve shifted away from automated outreach and toward AI Agentic teammates We are currently rolling out a system where sales teams get three distinct AI layers built on an “Ecosystem of Reference.” Here is how we are changing the game: 1. The Business Context We integrate the "DNA" of the brand, ICP data, brand guidelines, and white papers. This ensures the AI isn't just guessing; it’s operating with deep internal knowledge 2. The Professional Identity Engagement starts with showing up. These teammates allow salespeople to leave thoughtful, brand-aligned comments on prospect posts, building trust through consistent presence 3. The Authentic Voice Salespeople can finally create social content and have conversations that sound like them. It stays within brand guardrails while remaining relevant to the specific pain points of their ICP Does it actually work? We are only six weeks into implementation, and the results are already outperforming traditional methods: Growing Engagement: We are seeing a steady climb in impressions and organic reach 3 Meetings Per Week: Our sales reps are already hitting this milestone consistently In-Quarter ROI: If you sign a purchase order at the start of the quarter, we are generating meetings for you within that same quarter If you’re ready to move beyond the "spray and pray" era of sales, my book “Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Change Makers” is available now on Amazon worldwide. Stop calling. Start building influence #Sales #Marketing #Leadership #SocialSelling #Speaker

Here is a 7-steps Expansion/Cross-Sell playbook I used to grow 4 of my key accounts when I was an ABM lead at KCC and Biosphere. Note: I've adjusted this playbook to our clients at FullFunnel.io to drive expansion revenue in the tech space. 1. EMBED EXPANSION/UPSELL SIGNALS IN THE CLIENT SUCCESS PROCESS. I asked CS team to run in-depth customer interviews with Champions and power users during onboarding. During the meetings with Champions, I also touched: * Srategic initiatives and how they are impacting other regions, business units and teams.  * Champion's JTBD and KPIs. 2. ACCELERATE TIME TO VALUE. We incentivize CS team to accelerate time to value for accounts with high expansion potential. 3. TRACKING MILESTONES. We track customer satisfaction and set up milestone interviews tracking before/after. Then, debrief our Champion and power users on the positive impact of using our product. 4. CREATE AN INTERNAL CASE STUDY AND UPSELL COLLATERALL. Even if you under strict NDA, agree with your Champion to create an "internal" case study that you'll be sharing only with the teams and units of this account. Define which units are likely to benefit from your solutiuon. 6. VALUE-ADDED ENGAGEMENT WITH THE NEW BUSINESS UNITS. Despite you have a contract with an account, other business units simply might not be aware of your product. We add engagement and relationship building with the buying committee members of target business units on the channels they are active in. 7. DEVELOP A SERIES OF ACCOUNT-BASED EVENTS CO-HOSTED WITH OUR CHAMPION. The best way to nurture a bigger group from a target account -> hosting an event (field or virtual) where you address a strategic challenge while your Champion presents how they solved it. 7. STRATEGY SESSIONS. To create a logical bridge between the challenges and needs of our target buyers and our solution, we suggest 1-1 strategy sessions with your SMEs. The goal of the session is to audit & refine strategic challenges of other units and show how they can be solved, where our product plays a role as a central solution. ---- Expansion and retention are new revenue, yet here is the reality. 1. AEs desperately send outbound messages to other business units or regional teams. 2. Relationship with enterprise accounts is managed by account owners that don't cross-share the insights about the strategic initiatives of the key client, the value they get from the product, improved jobs-to-be-done. 3. There is no culture to leverage client success process to build relationship with key clients and accelerate their time to value.  ⠀ To upsell successfully, you need: - Accelerate time to value for strategic accounts - Build a strong relationship with your Champion - Start value-added engagement with other business units