How to close deals from leads that came through outreach

You have appointments on your calendar, but the deals aren't closing. I'll tell you what I do and highlight the main mistakes I encounter. The process isn't perfect yet, but I'm closing 15% of cold leads into deals in a 2 month cycle.

1️⃣ Discovery. Research the lead to put together an offer that they simply can't refuse.

To make such an offer, you need to know the inputs that you will build your commercial offer around. I usually allocate the first call for this, but you can do it asynchronously - it depends on the lead.

Your offer either saves the business money or helps them earn more:

1- Make sure the person you're talking to can drive the deal through the company.

2- Find out all the details in numbers, from the lead's words, where they are now.

3- Find out where the lead wants to be and what kind of effort in terms of time/money they are willing to put into it.

4- Find out how much of a priority it is.

5- Find out what options they are considering other than you and what criteria they use to compare them.

And only then can you go ahead and make an offer. But pay attention: at this stage, it may turn out that they don't need your product, it is overpriced, or lags behind in terms of functionality. However, you can already work with this information instead of wondering what happened to the lead and why they didn't buy.

2️⃣ Trust. The lead came in cold and most likely didn't know you before. Even if the offer turned out perfect and reached everyone in the buying center, they'll still ask a reasonable question: “Can we really trust this person?”

And besides being a nice person and an expert, only case studies and references from real people in the industry can resolve this concern. Based on my experience selling to US-based companies with 1000+ employees, even a case study written on a napkin can work—as long as it’s clear and specific.

That's why we only provide outreach for ourselves and clients where we can back up the trust with solid cases. If there’s no trust in the industry yet, then cold selling is too early.

3️⃣ Deal Cycle. Unfortunately, companies don’t buy right away. For larger companies, the approval process can take months, even if there’s a motivated champion inside pushing the deal forward.

For smaller companies, priorities can shift by the hour, and initiatives often take months to move forward.

The solution? Regular follow-ups and publishing new case studies and content to stay on their radar.