Me and a few other former Microsoft employees have started our own consultancy company.
What we did as a first step was to crawl through all our microsoft inboxes and plug anyone we have worked with in a CRM. We managed to get a few projects because of this, but in many cases people just don’t reply and one can only follow up x many times.
What do you guys think would be our best next step? We are currently finishing our website and had planned to hire somebody to help us generate leads using both email and LinkedIn. Is this a good approach or do u have any better ideas?
If you have an ICP lined up and proof of work then the best next step you can take is literally shoot messages at them.
The best mediums to do this are LinkedIn and email as they allow you to be very specific. And as I guess you’re in some sort of tech consultancy, I’d also suggest taking advantage of Crunchbase’s DB.
The actual next step would be preparing for both so whenever someone takes over you can hit the ground running.
For LinkedIn, it’s easy. You only need a strong profile, which shouldn’t be hard considering you come from Microsoft. Then you’d need to find the contacts either using LinkedIn Sales Navigator or another tool.
I wouldn’t recommend going for LinkedIn Ads early on as you’re still figuring this out.
For email, you’ll need to prepare a lot more as you need to set up an alt domain, email accounts, DKIM/SPF/DMARC/Tracking Domain, and warm up the email accounts. Once that’s up you only need to worry about the actual work (writing, sourcing leads, and sending the emails).
Ok yea, that’s all already done. Sounds like we’re on the right track then.
Lots of LinkedIn DMs will help. Probably more so than email. But try all of the above. How many people do you currently reach out to daily/weekly?
We’ve reached out to about 100 companies via email and LinkedIn. This was our initial CRM list, but now we’re running dry so I need to find new leads. I know LinkedIn does some suggestions but I was wondering if there’s maybe other ways to generate leads. I’ve seen some AI tools that look promising but never tried.
I’m at my credit limit with linkedin atm.
Happy to provide more insights/feedback through direct message if needed. It sounds like you are trying to figure out a lot at once.
I would need more background information before being able to answer this question. Did you get permission to crawl through the inboxes? Is this ethical/legal?
Seems like there would be ethical issues there. Legal possibly.
I am personally not too crazy about adding everyone you have worked with to a CRM. It is very sales-y and can be off putting. You are supposed to obtain permission before adding anyone to a CRM.
I would honestly start with your LinkedIn connections, work down the list to connections you had a good connection/rapport with over the years (even if it was a connection of a connection) and combine that list into one. Even then, it is good practice to obtain permission to add them to a CRM.
In my industry cold outreach is pretty common. Sometimes there is industry events surrounding something related to your field. Webinars or industry meetups etc, those will usually have the attendee list which is good for leads.
What type of consultancy are you providing? Large-scale / long-term contracts? Or smaller / shorter term? Who is your target decision maker?
If you are targeting larger contracts, these are long-lead time sales channels that are heavily relationship based with senior decision makers - start with who you know, understanding their problems, and how you can help. Don’t sell, but help. Get one toe in the door.
If it is smaller scale / shorter term work, still need to have the contacts but they can be more mid-management decision makers. With that, need to get more volume as sales cycle can be shorter, but less certain.
Whomever is buying your service, needs it to fix a problem or exploit an opportunity - how can you help??
As for mass emails / LinkedIn messages - personally I feel this has become saturated. Give it a shot, but maybe use a service vs. hiring an employee so you can test it out.