When one of our users told us they were closing deals in just 30 days using Dux-Soup, we were intent on finding out more and now we know, we just can’t keep it to ourselves!
Ashish Janiani is the CEO and founder of MotivationalDiaries.com, a leading sales coaching agency in India. Ashish credits Dux-Soup with his company's explosive growth and so we were delighted when he agreed to share with us how he uses Dux-Soup at one of our webinars. If you missed it you can watch the full recording here.
If you’d like to know why and how Ashish uses Dux-Soup and LinkedIn to grow business and reach new clients, keep reading for a summary of the highlights, where we will look at:
- Ashish’s proven methodology for closing deals in 30 days using Dux-Soup
- Who to invest your sales time with to ensure a swift close
- How to think like a CEO to generate LinkedIn messages that convert
If you’ve yet to try our free 2-week trial of Dux-Soup Turbo, you can do it right here and see how Ashish’s strategy can work in practice for your business. No commitment or credit card is needed - why not give it a go?!
How it started with Dux-Soup
Once upon a time Ashish had a team of people who made 80 phone calls and 60 LinkedIn connections every single day. The team worked hard but when the Covid pandemic hit, getting sales from people who were now working at home, distracted by their children and the uncertainty of the world around them, became more and more difficult. Ashish watched his results go steadily downwards. Then one day, he was browsing the internet and came across Dux-Soup as a mechanism for automating his lead generation. He noticed they were offering a 2-week free trial and signed up. The first lead was a CEO with 600 employees and they extended an invite to meet. Never before had finding leads been this easy!
How to connect with prospects
For Ashish, getting people into his LinkedIn network is the start of his sales process. There isn’t a hint of selling in his connection requests, he shows interest in the person and makes a human connection.
Here are a couple of examples he shared:
Dear_FN,
You came up in my search and given our common business interests, I’d be happy to connect with you here on LinkedIn.
Dear_FN,
I saw that like me you’re active on LinkedIn. It would be good to exchange thoughts, I’d be happy to connect with you.
Ashish sends the second message to people who use LinkedIn regularly. When he runs a search and the results total 10,000+ he’ll narrow the list down by selecting the ‘posted on LinkedIn’ button. Only people who have been active on LinkedIn in the last 90 days are listed in the results.
Ashish uses the Turbo edition of Dux-Soup because following up with prospects is key to the sales process and the automation makes light work of it.
How to reduce the sales cycle
Ashish shared an interesting stat about the B2B sector:
60% customers say ‘NO’ 4 times before saying a ‘YES’
That’s the reality, and if you have a long sales cycle of 6 months to a year it's a very frustrating outcome. A shorter cycle - down to 30 days - is ideal, and Ashish has made it possible with the help of Dux-Soup.
Here’s how he does it.
When a campaign prospect accepts the connection request, Ashish waits a day before he sends the sales message suggesting they meet.
The model for a 30 Day flow:
Meeting 1: 45 mins Discovery call & ‘THE HOOK’ for the second meeting
Within 7 days:
Meeting 2: THE HOOK (time with the CXO) & ROI
Within 3 days:
Meeting 3: Proposal and Closure
At the discovery meeting get to know your prospective client. Do some research, work out what you have in common and use it to build a relationship BEFORE you start talking business. Ashish spoke about the difference between a ‘good’ question and a ‘great’ question.
A good question is, ‘How many employees do you have?’.
A great question is ‘What keeps you up at night?’.
Great questions grow the relationship and give a head start to the sales discussions.
The deal rarely closes in the first meeting, so now you give them THE HOOK, a second meeting the outcome of which will benefit them regardless of whether or not they buy your product. The meeting takes place within 7 days and requires all the CXO decision makers to be present. To make sure it happens, book the next meeting before you leave the discovery meeting.
This is the key to a short sales cycle, always book the next meeting in the current meeting, then you really can close a sale in 30 days!
In the second meeting you produce something to benefit your prospective client. When you involve them in the process and they see you working on the output, they’re investing in you and your connection continues to develop.
At the end of that meeting you book the next meeting, this will be the proposal presentation and you schedule it in 3 days time.
Only 10 days have passed and you’re already at the proposal stage, leaving you 20 more days for any follow up discussions and closure.
Suppose the sales cycle does extend to 3 months or beyond, or a lead doesn’t show up for a meeting? Well that’s ok, as long as you maintain a pipeline of potential leads and future prospects.
Increasing the number of prospects
“72% of companies with less than 50 new opportunities per month don’t achieve their revenue goals.”
If you’re selling B2B and want to achieve your revenue goals, lead generation is critical to success.
To find as many qualified leads as possible, Ashish drives activity by managing multiple LinkedIn accounts. They all run in parallel, with each employee controlling several. Each LinkedIn profile will have two Dux-Soup campaigns running at a time, keeping the accounts safely within the LinkedIn limits. It’s a lot of activity, and that’s what keeps the sales funnel topped up.
Note: LinkedIn does have limits on activities so it’s important to be aware of what they will allow you to do on their platform. To find out more read our blog Using LinkedIn automation safely.
Who are you investing your sales time with?
To ensure a swift close on any sale, getting in front of the right people is essential. In each company you target there will be a variety of roles and Ashish describes them as falling into 3 categories:
Seemores: They tend to be managers who ask you for more information; another meeting, another email, but at the end of the day they hold no power to move your proposal forward. Ashish recommends taking them out of your campaign list because interacting with them will inevitably lead to a long sales cycle.
Decision Makers/Breakers: They are there to influence and protect the CEO. Often at VP level they are the gate holders, they protect their CEO and they decide whether or not to let you in.
CxO: They are the approvers. These people are able to take risks to get the results that they want to see. All of Ashish’s time and attention is invested in the CxO’s.
The CxO
Ashish looked at some of the traits of a CEO. Working out which ones he identifies with, he uses the synergies to determine the language for his campaigns and to enhance his conversations and interactions with CEOs.
Which do you relate to?
Note: All the points are #1 on purpose! Ashish referred to Tim Grover, writer of ‘Relentless’ and ‘Winning’ who has helped elite sports professionals and business people achieve success. Tim’s writing has influenced Ashish - if these bullets were listed #1-9, only #1 would seem important and that’s not the case.
The Acid Test
Ashish ended the webinar by sharing a test that proves your value and readiness for closing successful deals.
If you can look in the eye of a powerful CEO and give them your value proposition, you can close your deals with CEOs.
The Q&A with Ashish
At the end of the webinar there were plenty of questions for Ashish from the live audience. If you’d like to hear what he had to say, go to 41:10 mins of the recording.
Here are some that came up:
- Can you give more examples of ‘Great questions’?
- As LinkedIn only allows one account per person, how do your employees manage multiple accounts?
- When would you pause the automated campaign to send a personal manual message?
- What campaign connection acceptance rate are you happy with?
- What sequence of actions do you use for your campaigns?
- Can you share examples of high converting campaigns?
