A session at SaaSBOOMi Annual

1. Making Outbound
Work
SaasBoomi Annual - 2023

2. Who is this
session for?
Do not have a working outbound model yet
Have Product
Market Fit
Exploring outbound
Channel
Have paying customersand clear ICP

3. Shouldoutboundbe an importantpart of your
GTM
How to pick the right outboundmodel:
Cold Emailing, Cold calling, Social,ABM
Case studies of other companies that
have used Outboundsuccessfully
Outboundteam structure and enablement
What will you take away from this session?
Commitmentrequired to make
outboundwork

4. The Almabase
Outbound Journey
Iterations in scaling outbound
Section 1

5. 01
● Used an agency based in Philippines (one SDR)
● High volume cold email and calling approach
(around 100 new contacts per week)
Results: Roughly 1 MQL per 100 contacts, also not
high quality leads
Learning: If we need to scale outbound, we need to
develop the expertise internally.

6. 01
● Fired agency (mid 2019). Hired 2 SDRs in USA along with 1
SDR in India.
● High volume cold email and calling approach + conferences
Results: India SDR brought more meetings than
US SDR. Conferences didn’t give immediate ROI.
Learning: US SDRs weren’t good at figuring out
things on the go. They needed a clear process to
hit quotas.

7. 01
● Fired US SDRs and doubled down on India SDRs. 3 SDRs + 1 SDR
manager.
● Continued high volume cold email and calling approach with more rigor.
Results: India SDRs were able to hit 80-120% quota
Learning: Young folks with the right drive work best
(more than experienced SDRs). We were draining
contact database too quickly.
Pivot to Account-based outreach ?

8. 01
● Doubled down on ABM as our outbound strategy. (Thanks to SGx &
Ankit’s mentorship)
● Each SDR was given 300 accounts for the entire year. Highly
personalized outreach.
Results: 4x increase in accounts to meetings
conversion (email reply rate grew from 5% to 17%)
Learning: ABM has lots of definitions. Took
6 months to figure out what to double down on
and what to skip for Almabase. Also to shift SDR DNA.

9. 01
Scaling ABM by building a larger SDR team and
marketing as an enablement function.
Results: 2.5x more pipeline generated through
outbound in 2022 vs 2021.
Learning: ABM takes time but can be scaled
very intentionally. Marketing’s role is important
to understand.

10. Current Approach (2023)
01
SDR goal - 15 meetings/mo & 2 opps/mo from 200 accounts.
Marketing goal - enable sales with collateral and engagement
opportunities (podcast, spotlight, case studies, etc)
Overall goal - 2x more pipeline than 2022
Tier Outbound strategy Segment Team
Tier 1 ABM $20k+ ACV 5 SDRs + SDR mgr + 3 marketing
Tier 2 Email + call outreach $10k-15k ACV 4 SDRs + SDR mgr + 1 marketing

11. Key Learnings:
01
1. Agency is ok to experiment with, but build expertise in-house
2. Outbound takes time & patience
3. Outbound leads behave differently than inbound leads
4. Minimum Team: Team of 2 Full time SDRs + one ops + manager
5. Once it works, turn it into a repeatable process and scale (think collateral +
enablement)

12. The Various flavors
of Outbound
There are many ways to do outbound
Section 2

13. Cold
Emailing
Adding more channels:
Calls + Linkedin
AccountBased
The various flavors of outbound

14. Benchmarks Enablement Pros Cons
Emails
1000 Prospects/ rep/
month
200-400 emails /day
Email copy,
nurture content
Easy to start
Better for nurture
-Low reply rates
-Deliverability
-High burn rate
Calls
400 prospects/ rep/ m
100 calls/ day/ rep
15-20 connects
Call scripts,
objection
handling
Capture “on the
fence” buyers
Low connect
rates
High hurn
Linkedin
200-300 prospects/ m
100 requests / w
Posts, thought
leadership, brand
content
Relationship
building
Low burn rate
Low volume
Tough to track
Account
based
40-50 accounts/ rep Specific content
strategy for each
account segment
Nurture and Create
demand
Enablement is
critical
Key benchmarks

15. Two case studies
01
Xempla
1. Enterprise
2. Vertical
3. High ACV
B2Brain
1. Mid market
2. Horizontal
3. Lower ACV

16. B2Brain case study
01
Very specific ICP: Vertical SaaS Sales teams 5+ people, selling to Enterprise
Target Persona: SDR/BDR (User, does Trial), SDR Manager (Champion)
Product Value Prop: Replaces the role of Google+linkedin for account research
Outbound Goals for SDR: Secure 1st Trial from Target Persona from ICP, Quota: 3 Trials/week
3 Step Process to Trial:
● List Building & Qualification by MRE + SDR (tools: Apollo, SalesNav, Phantombuster)
● Outreach via SDR: Email + LinkedIn + Phone (Apollo for outreach, Hubspot CRM)
● Securing the trial: Phone / Follow-up Zoom / Inputs on target accounts
2 Challenges:
1. Securing conversation with the Champion, for the deal to move forward
2. Complementing outbound with effective marketing, to increase Trials/week from 3 to 5

17. Xempla case study (vertical saas/ enterprise)
01
1. Industry: Facilities management / Enterprise
2. Bottoms up TAM: 700-1000 Companies globally. 20-30 people per account
3. ACV: $ 200-300k
Key facts
- Originally founder run → Today 4 fulltime SDRs
- Outbound is the dominant channel
- Generated total revenue booking of $2 million plus
- 95% of all existing customers acquired using Outbound

18. Xempla: Outbound process
01
- Channels: Emails + Linkedin only
- Persona not accounts
- Each SDR to contact 200 contacts per month (50-75 new + 125 nurture)
- Only 2 touches allowed per month (can’t risk burning prospects if the list is small)
- Highly personalised touches with collateral specific to each customer
- Demand create/ nurture in nature
- Each SDR generates 3 meetings per month.
- Marketing support
- Brand marketing (Podcasts, newsletters)
- Outbound Sales enablement (Blogs, whitepapers)

19. Designing your
Outbound Process
Key questions to ask and choices to make
Section 3

20. What is your business model ?
01

21. Alignment: Outbound strategy <> Business model
01
SMB
$1-5k
ACV
Mid
Market
$20-50k
ACV
Enterprise
$100k
ACV
100,000 Logos 10,000 Logos 1,000 Logos
Account Based
Multi-channel
outbound
Email only
Other GTM channels
may work better
Outbound can and should be an
important part of your GTM
Outbound should be
your dominant GTM
channel

22. Alignment: Messaging <> Customer Intent
01
Demand
Capture
Creating
Demand
Are you capturing or creating demand ?
Meeting to opportunity cycle is long
Messaging
1. Create Nurture content
2. Invest in sales enablement collateral
3. Spend time to build relationships
Channels: Emails / Linkedin
First meeting to opportunity is quick
Approach
1. Customers are already in their
purchase journey (unhappy with the
status quo)
2. Meeting to Opportunity is quick
Channels: Calling can be very effective

23. Intent Data Brand
Buying
Triggers Sales Enablement
Force multipliers
Getting the timing
right
Vendors: Bombora,
6sense, G2, Zoominfo
Investing in Brand
Community, Podcasts,
Events
Specific triggers
which indicate need
Fund raise, hiring,
renewal cycle
Help with nurture and
demand creation
Case studies,
whitepapers

24. Teardowns

25. 1 |
sterlo: The Cutting-Edge Low-Code App Development Platform
Unlock Freedom by Paying only for Developer Licenses, not End Users & Extract Source Code for Upgrades
● ICP: Software Companies, IT Services, Enterprises
& App Development Companies.
● Target Persona: Decision Makers – CTO, CEO,
Strategy, Directors & Founders
● Outbound team size: 2 reps
● Channels Used: Cold Call, LinkedIn, Mail

27. Thank You

28. Annex

29. Almabase Tech Stack:
01
1. CRM - Hubspot
2. Outbound email sequences - Hubspot
3. Calling - Hubspot
4. List building - Agency in Udaipur
5. Marketing pages - Webflow

30. What to look for when hiring SDRs
01
1. Young & motivated >> Lots of Experience
2. Skill: Excellent written and verbal
communication skills
3. Personality traits: Hustler, Coachable,
Persistent, Disciplined, Friendly

31. Sample outreach email - Xempla
01

32. Thank You