This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube episode titled "Avoid This Lead Generation Mistake | Ep. 2637" (published 2023-12-18) — a conversational, podcast-style discussion between Eric Siu and Neil Patel about lead generation and sales outreach. They cover prioritizing warm signals and marketing-qualified leads, avoiding mass emailing, personalization tactics, recent email deliverability changes (Google/Yahoo/Outlook), adopting an omnichannel approach, and tools like Gong and Apollo that surface and help engage hot contacts. The content is aimed at sales and marketing professionals offering tactical advice for smarter prospecting.
Chapters
All right, so this is actually the biggest opportunity and usually the biggest miss when it comes to leads. So I'm going to kick this off. This comes from a post from a guy named Kevin Xu. He's doing really well on LinkedIn right now. He's co-founder of a company called Catalyst. And he says this over here and we can react to this. So here's— so most SDRs, so sales development representatives, waste a ton of time researching which accounts and which contacts to work in the first place. And so usually, this is for people signing up for Apollo or ZoomInfo or whatever, and then they're just blasting a bunch of people. They're using Demandbase or Sixth Sense or whatever. It's ABM stuff, right? And usually, I find it to be pretty ineffective. But what he said is this, and I think this makes a lot of sense. He's like, the biggest miss of all is smart prioritization and warm signal leads as soon as you log in. So let's say Neil and I are both sales representatives, right? We log into our companies and the very first thing we should be doing is, for example, we should be taking a look at warm contacts with marketing MQLs intent, right? Who's a previous customer? Who's in the community apps, right? And who has worked with a company previously that's a current customer? Where are the exec connections? Who is engaged with posts, right? Champion tracking, LinkedIn. Like, here's a cool thing, Neil. I don't think I mentioned this piece. The best cold email I've received this year was when I engaged on a LinkedIn post. Someone hit me up and they said, hey, I saw you engage on this post. They showed the post itself and they're like, hey, we actually do things better. Would you be open to looking at us as well? And I was like, whoa. And then I didn't respond because I didn't see the email. It went to spam, right? Unfortunately. But then they sent the next one. They sent the next email was a Loom with a background of my website. And when you click on it, it's like, sure, it's not customized. It just starts with my website. But it's like, Going to that level of detail is what's going to help you win deals in the future.
No, totally. So what is he pretty much saying if you had to sum it up in his LinkedIn post?
Be more thoughtful about the targets that you contact and start with the warm ones first.
Yeah. And isn't Google changing stuff up where—
Google and Yahoo.
It's Yahoo too?
Yeah.
Which means Outlook is probably going to end up following and they're going to make it harder to pretty much just send tons of sales emails out.
You can't mass email anymore.
Yeah. Yeah. So you got, but can you do them one by one or no?
You could do it one by one, but I think there's like a limit.
That's a problem. But it, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. This is going to affect sales, right? Does it mean it's going to crush sales? No, but it's not just with sales that things are changing. It's also with like marketing too. There's, you know, you got the cookieless world that's coming. But look, at the end of the day, whether it's them doing that or Apple changing the way links are being tracked in emails and marketers are unsure of that or not being able to mass email out anymore through Gmail or Yahoo, this is all okay stuff. You got to adapt. If you don't adapt your marketing strategies, you're screwed. And sometimes, this is the harsh truth, sometimes they're going to make a change that hurts you and there is no solution around it. So what you have to do is take an omnichannel approach. And this is why Eric and I talk about omnichannel so much, is so that you're not beholden to one algorithm change and then the marketing or the business just gets crushed. Whether it's Facebook or Instagram or Reddit or Google or Bing, they may not make changes that you like, and sometimes they will make changes that benefit you. If you're not relying on one platform and you're omnichannel, you're less likely to have issues in the future.
Yeah. I mean, I just look at it this way. They're forcing sales to be more thoughtful in this situation. And I think sales has been pretty lazy for the last decade or so. And really the ones that win, that go on to be like Chief Revenue Officer or to start their own business, these are the ones that have been smart about it in the first place. It just takes a little more effort to go the extra mile and most people aren't willing to do it, right? So the things we mentioned focusing on, really it's the warmest leads first. And thinking about personalization and thinking of not instead blasting them with the same message, but even a one-liner or a two-liner in the very beginning on something they've done or some interaction you've had with them in the past or something you saw them post, that goes much further than just the same shit.
Yes, and at the end of the day, these platforms make changes. One, sometimes because it makes them more money, but most of the time, They make changes because they're trying to optimize the user experience. My inbox is flooded with sales emails that just suck. I don't get like 5 or 10 a day. I probably get like 30 or 40 a day, no joke. So it's just like, I think some of these things are really good. Yes, it makes marketing and business harder, but who cares? They're making the changes that are best for the end user.
Yeah, look, if you don't adapt, those that don't adapt, it sounds crude, but those are the ones that are going to die. They don't deserve to die, but they end up dying. Not literally, but figuratively. And there's actually one thing. So Neil and I, we both use this software called Gong and we both love it. You still pay for Gong, right? So Gong is—
I don't pay for Gong anymore. I think we use a cheap alternative.
Oh, anyway.
We use something very similar to Gong. It's just like a fraction of the cost. It does the same thing.
Oh, very good. So Gong has Engage now. So it's an AI tool that will serve up the leads that you should be talking to, the ones that are hot, the ones that are starting to go cold. But it'll also tell you, let's say you're taking an account-based marketing approach, which is where you're trying to hit multiple stakeholders at a company. They'll tell you, hey, you should reach out to this person over here. You should reach out to this person. And based on your actions here, you should be emailing this person. Here's the email. So they'll write an email for you and you can edit it. So basically, they're trying to take this approach and there aren't many other people doing this right now. I believe Apollo's leading with a new user experience as well. Apollo is something that will help you find leads and we use both of them. But I really, I just, I've loved Gong for a very long time. Anything else, Neil?
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