The Challenge
TTEC lacked a clear sequencing strategy for leads for its customer care and sales business; there were many different sequences active in our multichannel sales engagement tool at any given time with no uniformity to the messaging or approach being used. The outreach channel, cadence, and content were left largely up to sales development representatives’ (SDR) discretion, which led to inconsistent sequencing.
Compounding the problem, our outreach strategy was not led by buyer personas. Instead, we focused efforts on leads in our customer relationship management (CRM) system, often just re-using old sequences with those new leads.
This all led to frustrating results for SDRs, including low email open and response rates.
The Solution
We looked at best practices from our client work to improve B2B sales within our own company. We designed and implemented a sales engagement playbook that gives all SDRs clear guidance regarding outreach sequences. This ensures everyone uses a unified approach that’s informed by best practices.
The playbook outlines the ideal cadence for sales engagement based on lead type, which channels to use and when, tips for effective email subject lines, and best practices about what content to include. Importantly, it also is buyer persona-led; this is crucial because different prospects will respond to different types of touchpoints and messaging depending on their business goals, job titles, and their roles in the buying process.
Now, all SDRs use the same playbook, which tailors sales engagement strategies based on personas and best practices. The playbook provides SDRs with a consistent approach and process, while also giving them the opportunity to customize and personalize their outreach when it makes sense. We continue to refine the playbook based on our ongoing learnings.
The Results
Backed by best practices and a clearly defined strategy, SDRs saw greater returns on their sequencing efforts. Leads received more-relevant outreach from SDRs, with content that resonates in their preferred channels and helped SDRs start more conversations.
Better sales engagement is allowing our team to reach more prospects and better fill the sales funnel. just six months, we saw email open rates jump by 90% and our email reply rate nearly tripled.
