cluttered with non-relevant companies or people? Resist any temptation to throw in lists of random prospects just because you have them—there is an opportunity cost to marketing to poor-fit prospects. Responses from people who don’t fit your customer criteria will just end up wasting your time and cluttering your database. Step 3. Run Outbound Email Campaigns Don't make this mistake: companies are too dependent on cold calls. Phone skills are critical, but use calls as the second step in prospecting. Begin with email, and then use phone to follow up to people who respond. Simple email templates can get you an 8-12%-plus response rate even from high-level prospects. Send outbound mass emails or mass voicemails to prospects that fit your Ideal Customer Profile. These emails should look as if they are a single email that came from a salesperson. They should be text-based, not fancy HTML (though you can use HTML templates that look like text). Rather than sending hundreds of mass emails at a time in big bursts, the idea here is to send a regular, smaller number (50-100) of emails per salesperson each day, a few days a week, as a rolling campaign. The main goal of this stage is to generate just 5-10 new responses per day. Reps can’t handle more responses than that per day without dropping balls. Step 4. Sell The Dream Do this: Work your responses and referrals to make contact with the right executives, and then “Sell The Dream.” by helping them paint a vision of what kinds of solutions will solve their problems. Then connect your solution to their key business issue(s) and dream. Don't treat your front-line sales reps as appointment-setting machines... setting up all kinds of meetings to which prospects don't show up. Do you have outbound reps that are only trained to push product, read from scripts or push demos? Or can they create a vision with a prospect and start building trust, credibility and rapport? Step 5. Pass The Baton (With Dedicated Sales Development Reps) If all your prospecting is done by your quotacarrying sales reps, you are making a fatal mistake. If you are committed to the results you want, you must have a