Cadence Science 201
Messaging Strategy
Jan 2020
We’ll get started right around 1:03pm
Your Hosts
Brad Ansley
Sarah Kichefski
Engagement Strategy
Professional Services Enablement Manager
-5 years at SalesLoft
-SDR, AE, AM, SDR Leader
-Works with our customers, and our team internally, on
Cadence/Messaging strategy
-1 year at SalesLoft
-7 years of implementation consulting experience
-Works with our consultants to ensure that our
customers unlock the power of SalesLoft
“Two little mice fell into a
bucket of cream.”
Lesson Learned:
Write Like a Human
Data Backed Insights
Crafting the Message
Build a Library for Scale
Data Backed Insights
Crafting the Message
Build a Library for Scale
Data Backed Insights
Crafting the Message
Build a Library for Scale
What’s The Goal?
Generate Demand
Event
Engage
Nurture
Build Pipeline
Inbound
Response
Outbound
Close Deals
Meeting
Setup &
Follow up
Drive Success
(Non-Commercial)
Closed
Drive
Engage
Lost or Adoption & At-Risk
Gone Dark
Usage
Accounts
Renew & Expand
(Commercial)
Exec
Customer
Alignment
Upsell &
Cross-Sell
Marketing
SDR
AE
AM/CSM
Exec
What action are you driving?
Who is Executing?
Who is it for?
Renewal
Outbound Cadence Example
16 Steps over 17 Business Days
DAY 1
Step 1 | Other
DAY 7
Step 2 | Call
Step 3 | Email
DAY 2
DAY 4
Step 10 | Call
DAY 11
Step 4 | Call
Step 11 | Call
Step 12 | Email
Step 5 | Call
DAY 12
Step 13 | Call
Step 6 | Call
DAY 16
Step 14 | Call
Step 7 | Email
DAY 5
Step 9 | Email
Step 8 | LinkedIn
Step 15 | Email
DAY 17
Step 16 | Other
Inflection Point Back in March
Overall Emails Sent
Response Rates
Up ~22%
Down ~20%
Calls Made
Connect Rates
Up ~20%
Down ~10%
The point of a Cadence?
2 BIG Problems
Telling a Story
Combining multiple channels and remaining pleasantly persistent is key.
We know this. Our cadence is the best way to tell the story of why we
should have a deeper conversation.
DAY 1
1. They’re all about us
Step 1 | Email
DAY 7
Step 2 | LinkedIn
DAY 2
DAY 3
Step 3 | Call
DAY 12
DAY 13
DAY 5
Step 6 | LinkedIn
Step 7 | Email
Step 8 | Email
Step 9 | Call
Step 4 | Call
Step 5 | Email
with these stories
Step 10 | Other
2. They End
Issue #1:
All About Us
Using these types of messages is
hurting your response rate
“Dear John,
Our Best In Class Solution Delivers ROI
to companies like SalesLoft, Cloudera,
and your other favorite companies…”
50%
41%
63%
“Best in
Class”
“We work with
companies like
X,Y,Z”
“ROI”
Our Example Email
Subject Line
Greeting
Body
Sign Off
Info and
details
Subject Line
Keep it Short
The more words you use, the
less of your message they’ll be
able to see
Subject Line
Numbers are bad
We are conditioned to see these subject
lines as spam
Phone Notifications:
Valuable Real Estate
These days, it’s likely that a phone
notification is where your message
makes its first impression.
Subject Line: It’s critical that your
subject lines are succinct, relevant,
and don’t distract from the first part
of the message.
Message: You only have so many
characters that can be read at a
glance. The first part of an email
should be personalized to your
prospect
Everyone is Busy. Keep it Short.
You’re email is more likely than ever to be read for
the first time on a phone. It’s imperative that you are
concise.
Example Email
Subject Line
Greeting
Body
Info and
details
Sign Off
88 Words
Email Body
Write your emails like
you’re writing to a friend
Call to Action
You’ve only got 1
question. Make it count
Email Body
Bullets and Dashes hurt
response rates
Got multiple points to make?
Fine, that’s why you have the
entire cadence.
#1 Factor in Increasing Response Rate
Personalize 20% of an Email
This is just one line
Make it the first 20%
This is the first thing they will see
20% - 80% beats 10%-80%-10%
Ideal Email Structure
We looked at the overall response
rate of standard cadences vs a new
cadence with messaging aligned to
this framework
#1 Key:
What’s in it for them?
Aggregate Cadence
Response Rate Increase
167%
Ideal Structure for
Prospecting Email
3 Key Elements Remember: Keep it Short
Personalized Intro
Right at the start, the prospect should be able
to recognize that you’ve done your homework
Their Need, Your Give
Identify common challenges that you solve for
your prospect, and give them actionable
insight related to that
Call to Action
Direct ask to work together with the prospect
on solutions specific to their team
20% Personalize
70% Need and Give
Top 5 Triggers
Colleague
If you’ve been referred, mention it
Conversation History
Has your company had an opp with them in
the past? Any replies from old cadences?
Refer back to those.
Content
Check for posts they’ve written, and call out
your takeaways Have they liked or shared
anything on LinkedIn recently? Engage with
them
Congrats
Have they recently changed jobs or gotten
promoted?
Company
What priorities is the company sharing with
the world on their blog? Those are likely
relevant to the prospect
10% CTA
20% Personalize
70% Need and Give
Need and Give
2 Key Elements
Common Problem
Think about the Persona you are
reaching out to. What are the
common challenges they face?
Ideally, this is related back to the
research you did and used for
personalization
Give
What can you give them to make
their job easier immediately? Think
of content that is quickly
actionable, that if they shared it
with their team, it would make
everyone better.
10% CTA
Interactive
Can the prospect provide inputs that
tailor the results and information to
their business?
Fast
The prospect should be able to get
quick wins out of the content we’re
providing. If it is longer form, it is
important to call out specific points
made in the content we’re sharing
Shareable
The Give
Important
considerations for our
emails. Not all these
boxes need to be
checked for every
message
Is this something that the prospect
would want to share with their team
to make them better or make their
lives easier?
Ungated
We’re choosing to reach out. We
want to remove as much friction as
possible between the prospect and
the value. We can use Seismic to get
deeper engagement analytics
400+ Sends
This was made for
Customers, but…
When Sent to Prospects:
5% Reply Rate
10% Shared with team
When Sent to Current Opps:
17% Reply Rate
27% Shared with team
Reminder - No ask in this
email
20% Personalize
70% Need and Give
Call to Action
1 Question
Remember, anything more than 1
question in an email has a negative
effect on response rate. This is
your one chance to ask directly for
time to meet
Work Together
The premise of the call should go
deeper than a demo. Based on the
actionable insight you gave, we
want to schedule a meeting to
collaborate on how their team can
put this into practice
10% CTA
Scaling Across the Team
Well. That Escalated Quickly...
It’s Easy to Get Overwhelmed
When you do the math, you can see how
the number of cadences your team uses
can get out of hand quickly.
5 Industries x 4 Personas x 5 Products
60 Cadences
Industry
5 Different Verticals
5
Personas
4 Unique Buyer Profiles
20
Multiply that by 5 email steps per
cadence, and we’ve got a lot of content
to build. How do we scale this?
Keep It Simple
We need to choose the vector that
covers the most prospects and keeps the
number of cadences a rep has to run at a
minimum
Product
3 Distinct Products
60
You have a better chance of
connecting early on in the cadence
8%
6%
Reply Rate
Response Rates go
down over time
4%
2%
0%
10
20
30
40
Step Day
50
60
70
Creating the Template
Think back to our example email.
What if we did not personalize? Still
a good email, because the problem
we identified and the insight we
gave are so strong. This is the
element that we can most easily
scale
Info and
details
Scaling the Ideal Email
20%
Always Unique
Personalization will always be
custom
Ideal Prospecting Cadence
DAY 1
Step 1 | Other
DAY 7
Step 2 | Call
Step 3 | Email
70%
Scale Here
DAY 2
DAY 4
Step 10 | Call
DAY 11
Step 4 | Call
10%
The CTA will always be an offer to
work together to implement what
you gave them
DAY 5
Step 11 | Call
Step 12 | Email
Step 5 | Call
DAY 12
Step 13 | Call
Step 6 | Call
DAY 16
Step 14 | Call
Step 7 | Email
Rarely Changes
Step 9 | Email
Step 8 | LinkedIn
Step 15 | Email
DAY 17
Step 16 | Other
Step 1
Step 2
Step 1:
Identify the Differentiator
Potential Categories
Where is the messaging
MOST Different?
-Industry
-Segment/Size
-Persona
-Geo
-Product
Step 3
What to think about
Which group faces the
most unique challenges
that would change our
messaging?
Do I have enough valuable,
actionable “Gives” for the
group that I choose?
How do I ask my reps to
segment and prioritize
their accounts today?
Step 1
Step 2
Step 2:
Create a Messaging Matrix
Persona
-Next we’ll do the same with
what we can give them to
prompt a conversation
Need
-Use this grid to help catalog
and identify the unique
problems you can solve
across the vector you chose
-Notice that some will
overlap, cutting down on the
amount of
templates/snippets that
you’ll need
Step 3
Sales Leader
Sales Operations
Marketing
Opp Creation
Tool Consolidation
Lead Conversion
Pipeline Health
Data Integrity
Messaging Alignment
Call Coaching
Pipeline Health
Inbound Speed
Step 1
Step 2
Step 2:
Create a Messaging Matrix
Persona
-These can also overlap.
Reuse the most valuable
content you have
Give
-Think about the resources
you have that are most
valuable to share with
prospects
-They should be something
that the prospect can
implement immediately or
share with their team
Step 3
Sales Leader
Sales Operations
Marketing
Data on Messaging/Cadence
Best Practices
Post on the Cost of Best In
Class Sales Tech Stack
Data on Messaging/Cadence
Best Practices
Post on #1 Metric to Focus on
for Forecasting
Data on the Impact of Bad
Data in Salesforce
Clip From Webinar on
Account Based Alignment
Ideas on Remote Call
Competition/Gamification
Post on #1 Metric to Focus on
for Forecasting
Metrics on How Response
Time Affects Lead
Conversion
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3:
Bring It All Together
-Now you can match up the
identified “Problem” with the
valuable “Give” to create the
messaging for the unique
templates/snippets
-Think back to the template
framework. These should be
written in a way that if they
were sent with no
personalization, it still works
-We’ll use the VP of Sales for
this example
VP of Sales
N
Opp Creation
G
Data on Messaging/Cadence
Best Practices
N
Pipeline Health
G
Post on #1 Metric to Focus
on for Forecasting
N
Call Coaching
G
Ideas on Remote Call
Competition/Gamification
Step 3
I wanted to share with you some data on how other Sales
Leaders are setting their sellers up to engage with their
buyers as effectively as possible. Check out this post on
what types of prospecting emails led to the most
responses, based on data from over 200m emails.
Thought you would appreciate this post from Scott
Leese on what KPIs to focus on for your sales team.
The short version: Less is more. He looks at
pipeline/quota ratio as the best indicator of success.
Wanted to get your take on this - one thing that's hard
to replicate right now is the buzz of the Sales Floor.
We pulled together some ideas from other leaders on
how to create some healthy competition.
Example Messaging Matrix
Use this format to organize and build our template copy
Need
Give
1. Opportunity
Creation
1. Data on
Messaging
Best
Practices
Body
I wanted to share with you some data on how other Sales Leaders are setting their sellers up to engage with their
buyers as effectively as possible. Check out this post on what types of prospecting emails led to the most responses,
based on data from over 200m emails.
CTA
Do you have a good window on Thursday to connect and talk through ways your team can leverage messages like
these?
2. Peer Ideas
on Pipeline
Metrics
Body
Thought you would appreciate this post from Scott Leese on what KPIs to focus on for your sales team. The short
version: Less is more. He looks at pipeline/quota ratio as the best indicator of success.
CTA
I have some ideas how you can build this for your team. Do you have a good 30 min window on Tuesday for a call?
2. Pipeline
Health
Email Body
Body
3.
3.
CTA
Link to Template Here
Step 1
Step 3:
Bring It All Together
Step 2
DAY 1
Step 3
Step 1 | Other
DAY 7
Step 2 | Call
-Once you’ve got the templates
created, you can plug these directly
into a cadence
Step 3 | Opp Creation
-A/B Test different subject lines and
CTAs, and frequently review to select
highest performers
DAY 2
-Personalization should be most
emphasized on Email 1. Use an
in-thread bump as the second email
to double down
DAY 4
Step 10 | Call
DAY 11
Step 4 | Call
Step 11 | Call
Step 12 | Conversion Rate
Step 5 | Call
DAY 12
Step 13 | Call
Step 6 | Call
DAY 16
Step 14 | Call
Step 7 | In-Thread Bump
DAY 5
Step 9 | Pipeline Health
Step 8 | LinkedIn
Step 15 | Inbound Speed
DAY 17
Step 16 | Other
Tell A Story With Your Cadence
DAY 1
DAY 7
Step 1 | Other
Check all person and company data for accuracy, follow the prospect on
LinkedIn while doing research, and enter that research into “Notes”
Step 2 | Call
First Call. Leave Voicemail
DAY 2
New email thread. Consider Vidyard for this step
Leave VM referring back to email
DAY 11
Morning call
Step 4 | Call
Step 12 | Email
Morning Call. No VM
Fourth Email
DAY 12
Afternoon Call. No VM
DAY 4
DAY 5
Step 11 | Call
First email. Personalize based on the research you’ve done on the prospect
Step 5 | Call
Step 13 | Call
Afternoon Call
DAY 16
Step 6 | Call
Step 14 | Call
No voicemail, follow up with an email
Final call. Leave Voicemail
Step 7 | Email
Step 15 | Email
In-thread follow up to first email
Final Email
Step 8 | LinkedIn
Personalized connection on LinkedIn
Video Increases Reply
Rate 2x on Email 3
Step 10 | Call
80% of Best Cadences
Start with Call
Step 3 | Email
Step 9 | Email
82% of Top Teams use
LinkedIn
DAY 17
Step 16 | Other
Where should this person go from here? Anything else on
social you can do to connect? Move to Nurture cadence?
If you take nothing else away
Write like a human
Build a library of templates and snippets with
actionable gives
Think about the Cadence as a story, that builds
on itself
My Give to You:
subjectlinegrader.com
Questions?
Feel free to use the Q&A or Chat, or come off mute
Need more help?
brad.ansley@salesloft.com
sarah.kichefski@salesloft.com