#199: The Secret To Growing Your B2B Sales Pipeline Lies Within Your Strengths. Here's How To Unlock It.
Luigi: Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Hear this Growth Forum Production.
This is the Skalable Growth Podcast.
I'm your host, Luigi Prestinenzi, and each
week we will go on a journey, A journey
that will inspire you, motivate you, and
help you be the very best you can be.
Our focus will be on mindset, tactics
and the strategies that will enable
you to create more opportunities and.
More deals.
Welcome to the hundred and 99th episode
of the Skalable Growth Podcast.
I'm your host, Luigi Prestinenzi.
As always, I'm pumped, honored,
and excited that you have
joined us for what will be.
Now, I'm not gonna say it.
I usually say for another incredible
episode, but I'll tell you why I won't
say it because this week I received a
message from one of our longtime listeners
who is also my mate, Brian, who said, Is
this episode another incredible episode?
Well, yes.
The reason why I loved saying that
statement, because you know what?
I started this podcast and as I get to
the, the 200th episode, which I'm, I'm
trying to think about, you know, what will
we have installed for the 200th episode.
But, you know, when I started the
podcast, it was a couple of reasons
why I started this particular podcast.
Obviously, the main one was
I really wanted to serve.
The sales community.
I wanted to serve people that were looking
to grow, serve people that were looking
to be the best they could be and in, in
the sales and marketing realm, right?
That was my primary objective.
But what I learned through the
process was, man, the actual.
The content that I was consuming and being
able to talk to authors was, was amazing.
It was making me a much better
sales professional, and I love it
because I talked to someone like,
man, this is incredible content.
I can use this immediately.
So that's why I used that
particular statement.
But now that Brian's brought it up and
shared this with me, I'm now conscious
of saying that every single week.
So I'm gonna change my intro and.
I know you're listening, so when you
listen to this, you better send me a
WhatsApp like you did last week and
tell me, Hey, I heard it, but I'm
gonna change my intro just for you.
But hey, I wanna say just before we
get started in today's episode, I wanna
say thanks very much for showing up.
Um, if as a long time list
for a long time listeners.
Just wanna say thank you.
I'm really grateful for you, um, for
showing up and encouraging me to continue
down this path of producing this content.
And if you're a new listener, welcome.
We hope you take away some value.
We hope you, you learn something that
you can apply immediately to help you on
your path on being the best you can be.
So this week, We've got a
pretty cool episode coming up.
Um, it's a practitioner type episode.
We're talking to someone that's in the
seat, they're running a sales team.
Um, and they're gonna share some
of the concepts that they use, um,
and share their thinking about.
How to leverage your strengths
versus leverage your weaknesses.
And, and that's why I'm really
keen to share this episode with you
because with everything going on with
the economy sort of tightening up
more job layoff announcements have
occurred, deals are slowing down.
A lot of the people that I, I, I, I coach
are sort of sharing that, Hey, you know
what, things are getting a bit harder.
Um, it's important.
We become really disciplined and selfish
with where we spend our time, right?
Because once we use it, it's
gone and we wanna make sure we
are maximizing our selling time.
And there's some interesting data that
showed on average salespeople spend
about 32% of their time actually selling.
And if you think about
it, it's not enough.
So we've gotta get, we've gotta get more
efficient, we've gotta get more effective,
and we've gotta find ways to produce more
in the limited time that we have given
we're, we're so busy doing a whole range
of other things when it comes to selling.
In the modern day sales world,
salespeople often hate their crm.
Why?
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This means leads and
opportunities don't get updated.
Things get missed, and
sales can suffer in.
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This helps you sell.
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For more information,
visit insightly.com/get.
Insightly.
What I love about this episode with,
with Rachel Fox, um, and Rachel will
share a bit about her story in a
moment, but what I love about the
story, she talks about, Hey, these
are the things I'm really good at.
These are some things I'm not so good at.
And what she's been able to do is
leverage off what she's really good at.
Allow her to build a system and look
at tech tools to help facilitate
the things she's not so good at.
So think about this in your own role.
Think about this in what
you're doing right now, right?
There's all this chat about chat, G B T
and AI, and salespeople can lose their
jobs and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But you know what?
We are, we are so far away from the
time where salespeople will be made
redundant because of technology.
What you do need to fear.
If you're not embracing the tools, if
you're not embracing some of the, some
of the items that can help you be better,
then you're not allowing yourself the
best opportunity to be successful and
you will become, you know, there is
risks that you'll create of being made
redundant if you're not leveraging the
systems and the tools and the things
that can make you better at your job.
So this is a great opportunity for you
to really think about, Hey, what are
the things I'm really good at in my.
What are the things
that I'm not so good at?
What do I have to get good at?
And that's an important question
to ask yourself to then work on.
But then what are some things that I
could maybe utilize others or systems
to help turn a weakness into a strength?
Right.
So looking forward to sharing
this episode with you.
Um, now if you haven't already, uh,
checked out Growth Forum and jumped into,
into the community, there are incredible
sessions happening every single week.
Um, we just had Craig Valentine this week
to talk about the Perfect Day formula.
That was, um, Victor Antonio
moderated that session.
Last week was about personal brand
where Darryl Pril interviewed Samantha
Dieback, who is a PR expert and
talked about sort of strategies that
you can use to, to grow your brand.
Um, and there's sessions happening
every single week, plus there's courses
in there and there's a whole lot of
content, um, that you can get access to.
So if you haven't got access
to already jump in the show.
Click the link.
Um, it's free to sign up.
Go check it out.
Introduce yourself.
We'd love to see you there.
Also, next week we have our big 200th
episode, which is really exciting.
It's taken us a long time to get here,
and we've interviewed great guests.
We've flown around the world
to interview some of the guests
for this podcast, so I haven't.
Got the plan yet.
I'm still formalizing it as we
speak, but we're gonna do something
different, so keep an eye out for that.
I will share it on LinkedIn
before we go live, but until
then, check this podcast out.
Listen to Rachel, hear what
she's got to say and let me know.
Let me know what you think.
Send me a note.
Hopefully in Growth
Forum or across LinkedIn.
Rachel: Welcome to the show, Rachel.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Luigi: Happy to be here.
Yeah, thanks for joining us, and
it's really great to see that, um,
we started engaging or I started
engaging with your content first.
Your, your videos caught my attention.
Um, and then yeah, I, I
thought, you know what?
You're actually sharing
some really good content.
Uh, so it's great to see the world of
social actually working and connect
people from different sides of the world.
So thanks for coming on
Rachel: our show.
Yeah, thanks.
I'm always glad to know that people are
watching, you know, you make these kind of
in the dark of the night after the kids go
to bed, and I'm like, is this ridiculous?
Is this, is anybody gonna listen
to this ? Um, but I've had really
great, uh, reception on the videos
and people have asked for more.
So now I have to go back to, uh,
content creation and really think
about what else can I do now that.
Seemed to, it seems to resonate.
Well, it's
Luigi: definitely working.
Uh, like I said, it's caught my
attention and some of your videos
have made me really stop and think.
So, you know, in a busy feed, it's great
to see that, uh, you know, you, what
you're putting out there is working.
But I'm really keen to for
today's discussion, because I was
checking out your profile, doing
a bit of research before today's
episode, and I noticed that.
You don't have a traditional sort
of sales, uh, career, so to speak.
Um, you came from a, a science background.
So first of all, um, can you just
share with us h how did you start in
the world of selling, given that you.
Started in the world of science.
Yep.
Rachel: I did start in
the world of science.
I have a biology degree.
Um, I actually went to uni in
Australia for a good part of that.
Um, and I wanted to go into entomology.
I really love insects and bugs.
I still do.
And so I was very happy to go to uni
in Australia and play field hockey,
field hockey and rugby around.
And then, um, I kind of
graduated with a biology degree.
Um, I was back in the States and, um,
, I, I, you know, did what people do and
data entries kind of stuff, like menial
things that are coming out of college.
And I went to work for, um, a
chemistry, like an organic chemistry
lab, and I was doing a lot of like
entry stuff and labeling of, you
know, samples and that sort of thing.
Then my brother kind of called me
and he was starting an environmental
consulting company and he was like, Hey,
I really need you to come down here.
And, um, I'm doing like wetland
delineations and all that kind of stuff.
I need you.
Speciate all these trees.
I'm like, I took Bonnie in Australia,
like there's no eucalyptus trees
over, I don't know what this is.
And he's like, yeah, but
you can figure it out.
You know how to use the taxonomic
IDs and, and ID the wetland species
from the upland species and all
these other things that I needed.
So I said, that's great.
And I did environmental consulting for a
couple years when I get outta school, but
ultimately felt like I was always gonna
be the boss's little sister and was really
looking for something to make my own.
Yeah.
And I just happened into a
career fair where I met some
people from the insurance.
and um, I thought it really piqued my
curiosity cuz at this point I was kind
of planning on, I was engaged and I was
planning a wedding and I knew that at some
point when I had kids I wanted to be there
for them and I didn't, I wanted to have
the luxury to, to be as home as often as
I wanted to be and still have an income.
So, learning about insurance
sales was really eye-opening for
me cuz I had no concept about like
residual renewal commissions and Yep.
And how all of this gets paid and that
there's this whole industry where people
continue to get paid on sales that they
had made, you know, in prior years.
And I felt like that really unlocked the
door for my future planning for things
that I wanted to accomplish later in life.
I felt like, wow, I could
really get into this.
I could plant seeds now that will
grow later and become more productive
and fruitful for me in future
years when I'm not doing as much.
. And so yeah, I went to work
for, um, uh, an insurance
company over here called Aflac.
And it's a lot of outbound, it's
a lot of cold call at that point.
Um, I didn't always love the cold
part of it, and so I started to
just recruit people who could
cold call, and then my calendar
became filled up with appointments.
So I became known as a recruiter with
Aflac, but we were still all 10 90 nines.
We were still a hundred percent commiss.
Yeah, I really liked the flexibility
of that and that if there was a
month I needed more money, we could
just hustle a little bit more.
But if there was a month when
we had a couple incentive trips
happening, we could take it easy.
Yeah.
So I love that flexibility of it.
Well, what
Luigi: story, so from biology
to insects or in insects?
Yeah, to environmental, then into
insurance, and now into an entirely.
sort of market segment
that is an emerging market.
Um, yes.
We'd love to sort of get
your insight on this.
What are some of the things that
you learned in, in your, in your
science degree, that you've been
successfully able to apply into your
Rachel: sales role?
Uh, ultimately that it's a numbers game.
You know, you think about all of.
The, you know, just cellular
processes and things that happen
in our body on a day-to-day basis.
And I was always really into, um,
into that and just understanding
how many things have to go right
for things to function the way
that it's supposed to look like.
I think on social media we see that a lot.
We see a lot of people talking about the
numbers and the gains they're getting,
and we don't always see the daily.
Minutiae of structure Yeah.
And system and processes that
kind of went into the creation of
this machine that you see today.
A lot of times we're only seeing the
results and we don't see the hustle
behind the building of all of that.
Yeah.
Um, and so much of science is just routine
and it's over and over and over again.
And it's systematic
production of, of very.
Monotonous process that creates
something magical if you continue it.
. Well, that's a pretty
Luigi: cool response.
, . Um, and, and now you're
working in a startup.
Um, yeah.
You are.
It's, it's investor led.
You're growing, uh,
completely new segment.
Yeah.
Um, tell us a little bit about,
you know, how you've sort of, how
you've been able to adapt, you know,
working in that insurance space.
you know, building a, a team of,
uh, people that have been booking
appointments and now having to transition
where you are having to start all over
again and learn completely new skills.
Rachel: Yeah, I mean, I spent
a long time in insurance.
I was there for, you know,
a good 15 years or so.
I, I thought that it
was just gonna be a s a.
Stopping point on my career.
Um, and I thought that I'd have
kids really quickly and that
I could just move right along.
But, you know, we were stuck in
infertility land for a good decade or so.
So I really thrust myself into my
career and, um, you know, worked
the way up in Aflac, which was
really powerful for me because I,
I got to learn so much more than I.
Ever thought that I would, um, given
that I was not really great at setting
appointments, but I love that concept of
like, even though you're not good at this
one part of the sales process, you can
still contribute and be really successful
in other parts of the sales process.
We just have to figure out what
your strengths and weaknesses
are and really learn how to play
to them and be part of a team.
That's why we work on a team, right?
Everybody has different strengths
and weaknesses, so, um, you know, not
trying to cover up the weaknesses and
pretending to be somebody that you're
not, but really embracing and being
like, no, I'm actually really terrible.
Can, can I do something else?
Um, and then again, you figure out what
you're good at, how you can contribute,
how, how you can be a team player and
lean on other, other players, right?
So I feel like I, I always love team
sports and I think there's, you know,
you're never gonna have position
discipline if you don't trust your
teammates around you that they're gonna
be able to do their job successfully.
So I think it's really important to just
surround yourself with people who do
things that you don't do a lot better.
And that that makes the
whole team stronger.
So yeah, I was with Aflac for a long
time and then I finally got to have
my kids and I took some time off to
homeschool them and be with them and do
all the things when they were little.
And then I went to be a health broker,
which introduced me to a whole nother
side of the business still, you know,
working with hr, still working with
businesses, still b2b, sale in benefits.
But really just trying to come at it
from a more holistic standpoint and
seeing the puzzle pieces and how they fit
together and what the different needs are.
Really understanding the different needs
and not just like, oh, whatever your
problem is, here's my one solution.
It's always gonna be the same , right?
It's like now we can actually customize
some things and figure out what's gonna
actually be more beneficial for you.
But yeah, but once the startup opportunity
came to me and it's again, a little
bit more on the financial side, it's
not so much on the insurance side.
It's still definitely an employee benefit.
So it was still in my wheelhouse where my
20 years in employee benefits and in in
insurance were really vital and applicable
here, but it was still something new and
I was, um, energized by that opportunity.
I really believed in the mission of
what we're doing and I was excited to
be involved in something that I felt
like, man, this cuz this has legs.
Like we are, we're crafting
the market, we're working with
federal legislators to really.
Changed things at a systems level
for many of the millions and millions
of paycheck to paycheck frontline
workers, cuz I think so many higher up.
Like higher wealthy paid people
are participating in 401ks and HSAs
and a lot of programs that are.
Maximizing employer dollars where
the paycheck to paycheck workers
are not always the first in line
to, oh, let me put money away for
30 years from now when I can't put
gas in my car today, , you know?
Yeah.
So it's really about listening again
to what is our systemic problem
and how can we address it and
Luigi: meet them where they at.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So you're in a, you're in a role where
you'll, you're making a real impact and I
can, I can see, and I can feel your energy
from it, especially in your content.
I just wanna go back a step,
right, because you did mention.
You, you didn't necessarily, like
from a team perspective, you didn't
necessarily enjoy the cold calling
aspect of the appointment setting.
Right?
Right.
Um, but now you're in your, in this new,
new world, um, you're building your team.
Yep.
How have you gone
prospecting in this new role?
Because obviously you're managing a team,
but you're also carrying your own quota.
Sure.
Um, yeah.
How have you actually delivered on
a, on a specific task that, as you
mentioned earlier, was not a strength?
Yeah.
Rachel: And um, again, it's one
of those things where once you
realize what you're good at, what
you're not good at, like yeah.
Figure out how to be valuable.
So I realized I.
Did not love cold calling.
It was not a strength of mine.
. Yeah.
Um, and so all the more reason
that we need to find people who are
really moti, like they're, I love
following the SDR content on LinkedIn.
Yeah.
And those guys are just so inspiring.
Just like their mentality
and their mindset on things.
It's just like, man, I wish I had that
. Um, and it's really great to have like
SDRs who are super motivated to crank out
some calls and find it as a challenge.
And there's some really
awesome tools out there.
You know, like, I think ORMs
really cool where you can do
this parallel dialer thing.
There's so many things out there that.
Just changing the game
of how that happens.
Mm-hmm.
. So we definitely have a, a great sdr and
um, that's something that's important.
I found that we were scheduling
a lot more appointments from, um,
replies to our cold email sequences.
Yeah.
And so I really enjoy writing cold
email sequences and, um, kind of how
that lands with different personas
and spinning those up so that, you
know, some are money, money centric
if we're talking to CFOs or CEOs.
Some are more people-centric if we're
focusing more on HR leaders or d e i
officers or health equity officers.
So really understanding
what motivates them.
Luigi: Yeah, this is pretty cool.
Okay, so what I'm hearing you
say is you might, you don't
like the cold calling aspect.
Yeah.
And you've built a, you've built,
um, the function within your team.
To do the calling, but you enjoy
the actual cold email, writing the
emails to the different personas,
and you're getting success from that.
Yeah,
Rachel: and we've had lots of
really good success on that.
I like, um, you know, all the other
outreach that we're doing, whether it's
from newsletters, I'm obviously involved
in our social outreach and we're, we're
a startup, so we're really lean on
budget and we're trying to find things
that make an impact and trying to get
in front of as many eyeballs as we can.
So LinkedIn's really valuable.
So, you know, from our company page
on the Sunny Day Fund, we have, you
know, company content that goes out.
But, um, I take my position pretty
seriously in BizDev and, um, I'm, I
try to be pretty shiny on LinkedIn and
get a couple eyeballs for us as well.
And again, I can have a little
bit more, I can be a little bit
more whimsy with my own brand than
I can be with the company brand.
So I put all my Lego videos and stuff like
that out there on my own personal thing,
um, as opposed to our Sunny Day Fund page.
But I think it's all done a lot
to generate a lot of electricity
and excitement and energy and
all the things we're looking for.
Um, which I think goes into feed into.
, you know, all these places
that we're speaking and we're
getting speaking engagements.
And so a lot of people are paying
attention to us from things like that.
And all of that's driving
inbound traffic, right?
And then we're thinking about
our marketing campaigns.
Um, and so all of that, again,
from a BizDev standpoint,
this is me looking at things.
A lot higher up.
Yeah.
And from, again, from a more holistic
standpoint, how do all these pieces
of the puzzle, again, fit into each
other so that we can be a really
cohesive team all doing kind of
different things, but towards the same
Luigi: goal?
Yeah.
I love that.
And so obviously in your role now
you have more of a macro view, right?
Where you are trying to leverage multiple
different campaigns to drive the volume
of opportunities that you need to correct.
To keep your team sort of
busy and, and, and converting.
Hey, I, I'd love to just ask, um, You
mentioned you didn't enjoy the cold call.
Right.
And I think we've, we've noticed in the
last few months a huge drop off in, in,
in numbers tech companies laying off, you
know, people, there's been a lot of Yeah.
Um, redundancies or
people losing their roles.
Um, and a lot of conversations, um,
occurring around account executives now.
Not being so reliant on an
S D R and having to, um,
self generate more pipeline.
Right?
Yep.
Um, I have a view on this.
I believe that , even if you've got
an S D R team, you should always be
self-generating pipe if you're an ae.
Mm-hmm.
. Um, I've always done it myself, um, but.
. If somebody's listening to this and
they're like, Hey, I resonate with you.
You know, there's parts of the
sales process I really execute well.
I'm really great, great at,
great at running the discovery
and bringing it to close.
But now they've been told, Hey,
given the changes in our, you know,
the, the economic environment, our
operating model, the GTMs changing
a little bit, our go to market.
Mm-hmm.
model needs to change.
You need to self-generate.
and they're not necessarily
keen on cold calling.
What advice can you give them so,
so that they can embrace and take
a growth mindset to that task and
develop the skills to cold call.
Rachel: Yeah, and I think that, . Again,
under those circumstances where you're
trying to get more from less, right?
You're trying to kind of squeeze
blood from a stone because you
have less resources and we still
need the same amount of results.
That's what we're asking for.
Yeah.
I think it's really important to, again,
look at your efficiency and your tools
and how are you maximizing them the best.
So like we happen to use HubSpot and
um, yeah, so I have a lot of these
cold email sequences go out and
HubSpot and you're really able to
track a lot of awesome data in there.
And I can always go in there and see
from my emails who's opened them,
who's opened them multiple times,
which person opened this email five
times versus this other one one time.
This topic was clearly
more important to them.
Who's clicked on things?
when again, I'm making those calls,
I'm really only calling people
who have engaged in my content.
I'm really only making those cold
calls to people who have somehow
interacted with my content because
I can't call every single person.
So I'm gonna narrow it down
cuz I'm only one person.
Right?
Right.
So if I'm gonna make some calls, , I'm
going to make my calls where I think
that it's a warmest lead, so I'm
going to start with my high openers.
I'm gonna start with my clicks
and, and work backwards from there.
Start with people who are opening,
engaging in my newsletters.
Start with people who have actually
accepted my invites on LinkedIn and have
been engaging with my contact there.
Yeah.
So instead of just like going down
my task list, I'm gonna try to
prioritize based on who I think is a.
Place to spend my time, and obviously
I'm with each call, I'm trying to
pull up their LinkedIn profile.
I'm trying to learn more
about their company.
I'm trying to understand what's
going on so that I have something,
oh, it looks like you guys just
did this latest initiative.
I'd love for you to tell me about it.
I wanna be able to engage and a
little, show me that you know me,
so that they're not just a number.
Um, and again, I can see which
part of my messages have resonated
more to them, and that's a natural
place to start a conversation.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Luigi: I I, I love what you're sharing.
So, um, and I just wanna confirm it,
right, cause I think you've shared
some really good tactics there is to
alleviate the sort of, um, The issue of
cold calling, and because you don't have
an, an endless amount of time, right?
You are strategically engaging with
people that you know have or showing
some form of intent, um, through
email engagement or clicks or social
content, and then you're using that.
Plus a little bit of research
as a mechanism to start the
Rachel: conversation.
Yeah.
Correct.
Cuz I think that that can lead to a better
conversation and a better use of our time.
Um, instead of just a
spray and pray approach.
I really wanna be strategic with my time.
If I've got less time to
give, cuz I'm only one person.
Yeah.
Instead of three people now.
So if my team has gotten reduced,
I really have to make sure that I'm
leaning on my tools a lot more and.
Really understanding the tools.
I mean, HubSpot especially, I
mean they all do different, CRMs
have different workflows and, and
ways that you can automate certain
actions to trigger a task for you.
So you really wanna try to view that
as another part of your sales team,
another person on your sales team.
Yeah, it's something else that's creating
tasks for you and giving you insight as to
where your next appointment's going to be.
Luigi: Yeah, it's just really good advice.
So to help you become more
efficient and you're really
leveraging the tools available to.
, right.
So that you can, you
can do more with less.
Rachel: Yeah.
And I think it's too important for us
to, as salespeople, I'm sure a lot of
people are doing this anyway, but to
really have open lines of communication
with our customer success side, I
think that we can get a lot more
referrals from that as they're engaging
with actual users on a daily basis.
Um, yeah, most companies grow their
own business to the word of mouth.
We shouldn't be afraid to ask for that.
. Um, especially, and on the product side,
like, I mean, we're, we're a SaaS company,
so we have a lot of computer guys and
it's important to just really underst.
, you know, I can con convey back to them,
Hey, we had this feedback from a, from
a prospect or from a, from a customer.
And to really just have a holistic.
Approach to this, where it's
like we really wanna deliver
on what people are asking.
So we have to be able to
work together as a team.
Even I feel like everybody's on
the sales team, even if you're
not on the sales team, right?
Yeah.
Like, as a startup, everybody
that works for me will still have
a job in a year if I can do mine
well, really, really well now.
Um, yeah.
So no pressure, anything, but
it's, everybody's invested
in the sales team like this.
If every, if, if a company's not making
sales, nobody's gonna have a job.
So everybody has to be there to support
the sales team in, in whatever they.
So when I call, like, I need
Luigi: you to talk . Yeah.
And you really are leading
from the front, right?
So you are, you're not, you haven't
just got a macro role, but you are,
you're actually leading your team.
You're out there and you're also
delivering on, on, on, on, on
sales, which is, which is awesome.
Um, I, I did, uh, pick up that you
mentioned that your sequences that you're
creating, I'd love to talk a bit about it.
I'd love to talk a bit.
How do you structure your sequence?
Um, and, you know, what are the steps
that you take before building a sequence
Rachel: and, and sending it out?
So usually ours is, um, based on industry.
Cause I really wanna put industry
specific content in there.
So I really wanna have a
pulse on a specific industry.
You know, has healthcare been
really struggling with retention
or, you know, has the restaurant
industry really been seeing a
whole lot of this specific problem?
So I'm going to.
Create, uh, a sequence around an
industry that I'm familiar with
that I think would resonate.
So with our messaging, I know
that I'm looking for clients.
I'm looking for companies that have, you
know, roughly between 305,000 employees.
That's kind of our sweet spot.
Um, yeah, for what we're looking for
on, you know, the payroll deducted
emergency savings, which is what we do.
Um, and so I am gonna have.
You know, targets in there that I
think this message would resonate with.
And that's either based on, you know,
maybe they have, I've looked at the form
5,500 s and I see that they've got a
lot of existing 401K loans and it's like
there's a problem that we can solve there.
Or I just know that there's a, a big
segment of their workforce that's probably
on the low to moderate income side where
they're likely more paycheck to paycheck.
where unlocking tools to get
them away from debt solutions
and towards saving solutions,
that that message would resonate.
So when I go to build a sequence, I know
what industry I'm targeting and then
I usually sub that out into persona.
So I'll have a certain industry and
then within that industry I'll might
maybe have two different sequences.
One that's really more money
centric, that's more gauged.
With the C E O and the C F O.
And then I'll have another one that's
more people-centric that's really more
targeted towards HR people leaders.
Mm-hmm.
Um, d e i officers,
health equity officers.
Um, cuz the message is slightly
different, but in there I'm
gonna be able to reference.
You know, industry specific articles
where, where it's talking about this
specific problem that we can solve.
So it's again, third party
content that I'm putting in there.
Um, and then just making sure that each
of them are really short and sweet.
Right.
I love following the lavender guys.
Like, I think the way they're
crafting emails is genius.
And as somebody who gets hundreds
of emails a day, I get it.
Like short and sweet.
Don't use big words on me.
Yeah.
I'm only gonna read you
the second sentence.
So I love doing things like that.
Where we can just be creative.
Again, we can engage in a conversation
that has more content later, but in
the initial one, I need it to be short
Luigi: and sweet.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Okay, so I, I, I wanna break this down
cuz I think, again, you've shared some.
a really good structure there.
So you refine your target audience by icp.
Yep.
Or by ideal customer profile, really
get very segmented with your industry.
Yep.
Um, and then you are tailoring
the message per persona.
So if it's a CFO or hr.
Yep.
And then depending on the persona, you
then will tailor the driver around.
What would motivate them to take
action and then your setting and,
and how does your sequence look like?
Is it a, is it a two step email?
Three step.
Four step?
Like, uh, share how it looks
over what you know, duration.
I mean,
Rachel: I'm usually doing,
uh, an email sequence.
It's heavy on email, so it's
usually, I mean, anywhere between
seven to 10 emails in that.
Each one is going to touch on a
slightly different topic, right?
So yeah, maybe the first one talks about
like their, their 401k leakage and like,
how are we gonna stop the bleeding?
And then another one, we talk
about retention strategies.
And then another one we talk
about building financial
security within the workforce.
And then, so they're, they're
all about the same thing.
But again, I'm top, I'm, I'm separating
it out by topic so that it's a really
concise message that I'm sending with
just these three or four sentences.
Yeah, I will have a task in.
A LinkedIn task on there
to follow them on LinkedIn.
If I'm a third contact with
them, I'll just follow them.
If, if I have a connection in common,
I'm gonna ask for the Connect, um mm-hmm.
. And so that, again, that can help to,
that's another way that we can touch them.
Right.
It's another way that we're
gonna appear in front of them.
Yeah.
, not everybody's active on LinkedIn.
You know, a lot of times you go there
and you can see this person hasn't
posted anything for 90 days, but that
doesn't mean that they're not looking,
it just means they're not posting.
Right?
Absolutely.
So I'm always gonna ask for the connect.
I'm not gonna pause the
sequence and wait for that.
I'm gonna have the sequence
continue on, but I'm gonna
have that be a step in there.
Um, and then my call task, I don't
trigger a call task in that because
again, we're really lean with within
the number of hours that we can call.
So I'm just gonna have calls to high
openers and people who click on it.
It's not just gonna go to every
single person in the sequence.
It's only people that are engaging.
Okay.
So the
Luigi: call part of your
cadence is triggered by how
many emails they open and Yeah.
And with your emails, right?
Where, where, where do you
see most of them engage?
Is it the second, is the fifth?
Is it the second?
Like, are, are you seeing any
data from your sequences to show.
, like what's, what's the, what's
the point of, of that process where
you're getting the best engagement?
Rachel: Yeah.
We've done enough sequences with
enough different email subject
titles that we kind of know.
Um, and again, it's
based on persona, right?
It's based on who we're speaking
to, what matters to them and what
they're likely to engage with.
But I'm gonna come out hard in
the, in the beginning, right?
I'm gonna try to hit 'em with the
things that I think are gonna resonate
the most, um, because it's gonna be a
drip campaign essentially from after.
So, yeah, I'm really gonna try to come
out the gate, but each one I'm gonna try
cuz again, we're a new concept, right?
Yeah.
So nobody's ever heard of this before.
We're not a replacement sale.
They don't have a line in
'em in the budget for this.
This is nothing they've ever heard
of before, so it really has to
drip on them a little bit for that.
This to sink in.
So I'm trying to make my messages
really short and sweet and just.
each time I'm trying to have
them see me and it, right.
They'll get a newsletter and then
they'll get an email from us and then
they'll see me on LinkedIn and we're
just trying to be ubiquitous . Right?
Yeah.
Um, we're also campaigning with brokers,
so we're working with benefit brokers
and retirement record keepers and people
that can make introductions and referrals
as advisors into these companies.
Um, so we're hoping that they.
They'll get hit from multiple angles
until it's like, man, I really need to
pay attention to what these people are
talking about, cuz they will not give up.
Now if somebody tells me to leave
'em alone, I'm gonna leave 'em alone.
But yeah, my job is to, is to do
cold outreach and, um, find, find the
people who my message resonates with.
Yeah.
Luigi: Also.
Okay, so you are also leveraging
like third party influencers.
That talking to your target market
so that they're getting a secondary
message from somewhere else.
Correct.
So you are utilizing different channels.
That's really interesting.
Okay.
Um, and you're following the, some of the,
the, the, the structure on your emails.
You're keeping 'em short.
, um, you're following 11 to process,
which we love the 11 to process.
Um, 50 to, what is it, 50 words?
Yeah.
Um,
Rachel: 11 second.
And I'm really paying attention
to my ICPs on LinkedIn.
Right.
I mean, a lot of them are not
actively posting or engaging, but,
um, if, if they are, I'm all over it.
, you know, and yeah, I'm just
gonna try to be wherever they are.
So, Not necessarily maybe on their
posts, like I will, like their posts
and stuff, but I'm, I'm going to the
places where they're posting, I'm going
to the places where they're commenting.
I'm going to the places where I see them
liking, and I'm gonna comment on those
threads so that they, again, see me more
organically and it's not so predatory.
Mm-hmm.
. And it's just a little bit like, oh,
that's, I've seen that name before.
Checo keeps emailing me.
So, um, yeah, I just wanna just in a
nice way, start appearing everywhere.
Yeah.
Luigi: Awesome.
. Well, you've shared a lot of really good
tactics here, so, um, it's really good to
see that you're using a multichannel, like
you're not just dependent on email only
you are, you're leveraging social as well.
And, uh, you're, you're also
trying to use, uh, influencers
to engage target market.
Yep.
Hey, would love to know,
like if you could go back.
and, and start your career all over again.
I was only the reason why I asked
you, somebody asked me this last
week, if you could go back and
start your sales career again.
Hmm.
What advice would you give yourself?
I
Rachel: think it took me a long time
to realize that it's okay to not
be good at the entire sales cycle.
Right.
Okay.
Like cuz when you first start stars,
you see all these superstars up on
stage winning awards and it's just
like, man, never gonna be that guy.
Right?
It's like I how to drive a stick shift.
It's like, this is never
gonna come natural to me.
I'm gonna stall out on every
hill for the rest of my life.
But of course that's not
what happens eventually.
Some of the parts become rote and you've
done it so much that it does become
effort and so much of life and, and our
lessons is just through doing, right?
Like stop reading product
brochures and stop like learning
about all of this minutia.
None of that matters if
you don't have any clients.
Right.
Like stop getting in the weeds on
different stuff that like, just have a
conversation with people and, and the,
the whole key is top of funnel, right?
Pipeline.
It's a numbers game.
Yeah.
Don't get hung up on one win.
Don't get hung up on one loss, but
it's okay to not be really great at
every single part of the sales cycle.
Figure out what you can contribute,
what you're really good at.
What are you like a dog with
a bone on that Nobody else is.
And then just surround yourself with
people who compliment you on that, right?
Surround yourself with people who
are really, really amazing at the
stuff that you're terrible at.
Mm-hmm.
. And that what's what makes a good team?
Like I'm not trying to clone
other versions of myself.
I'm trying to surround myself with
people who are smarter and better
than me all the time, so that I'm
constantly getting better, right?
I mean, If you play a competitor that
you're gonna beat every single time,
that's not gonna make you better.
You have to go against people who
are gonna challenge you and get you
outta your comfort zone and actually
teach you things that you don't know.
Um, and so for me, you know, I think
when you're starting out, you just
expect you wanna be really good at
everything and you just wanna have those
accolades and that praise, and it takes
a while to just say, you know what?
I am who I am.
I have good things about me.
I have bad things about me, but I'm
done pretending to be somebody else.
And I think it took me 20 years in
this business to be like, I don't, I
don't have to be really good at that.
If you're good at that, that's awesome.
Let's pa pair up because
I'm terrible at that.
And it took me a long time to be okay
with saying I don't have to be great at
Luigi: everything.
No, I love that.
I love that.
You know, focus on.
Focus on what you can control.
Yeah.
Um, really identify your strengths
and then build a really strong network
around you so that they can elevate you
and help you be the best you can be.
So I think that's incredible
advice, not just to give
yourself back then, but even the.
Advice for us today, right?
I think we constantly
need reminding of that.
So this has been really great.
Hey, before I let you go, um, I
wanna make sure our listeners know
where they can connect with you.
Um, where is the best place for
them to connect you and we'll make
sure we put that in the show notes.
Rachel: Yeah, so LinkedIn is my land.
I live on LinkedIn a lot, , so find me
on LinkedIn and that, that's definitely
where you'll find me and we'll put
my email and things on there too.
Um, but I really like to, to be on
LinkedIn cuz I'm, I'm a firm believer
in, in going there to support people,
going in there to learn from people and
going in there to find your clients.
Awesome.
Well,
Luigi: we'll make sure we
put that in the show notes.
Um, and I just wanna say thanks
very much for coming on our podcast.
Uh, I know that we went sort of a couple
of different realms, spoke about your
early career, spoke about some of your
tactics and your strategies and what
you didn't like about cold calling.
Um, so I just wanna appreciate
you sharing your story.
Um, and I'll make sure that we pop that
in the show notes, your link so people
can connect with you and find you.
But thanks very much for
coming on our podcast.
Hey,
Rachel: thanks for having me.
It was a great time.
I really appreciate it.
