Leverage Events, Outreach and Volume to Increase Sales: Lessons from a Sales Training Session
In my recent sales training session we discussed strategies on how to maximize and optimize events, outreach strategies, and personalized marketing to boost engagement and drive client acquisition. This post distills the key takeaways from the conversation and outlines practical tips for marketers and sales teams if you want to improve your strategy, and more importantly, your sales.
1. Secure Strategic Partnerships with Avatar Partners
Your ideal customer avatar is probably your most important KPI if you haven’t already defined them. In this training session, a big win we discussed was the partnership with a local venue that booked similar events with the same customer avatar.
The goal is to increase exposure, demonstrate competence and current engagement and open the door to bigger opportunities.
Lesson: Strategic partnerships with entities that match your brand and sell to your current avatar creates long-term revenue opportunities and establish credibility in the market.
Think about it like this: when you show yourself partnered with someone who already sells to your ideal customer avatar, there’s no way to mistake that messaging. It organically demonstrates that you can help them, without them feeling like they’ve been advertised to.
2. Use Events and Partnerships as the Wide Point of your Sales Funnel
Sponsoring events like this is more than just a branding play—it becomes a touchpoint in the sales funnel. These partnerships serve as opportunities to invite prospects, show your product or service in action, particularly in a social, relaxed atmosphere that encourages relationship-building.
People love events, and partnering with a strategic ally gives both of you multiple opportunities for shout-outs on many different social platforms.
Lesson: Events are great for PR, and they’re valuable tools for engaging potential clients, creating shared experiences, and reinforcing your value proposition.
3. The Importance of Personalized Invitations
A notable challenge discussed was how to send mass invitations that still feel personal. Client wanted emails to come directly from him, with a personalized tone that reflects the exclusivity and community nature of the event. However, tools like HubSpot and Mailchimp posed limitations in this regard, leading to discussions on alternative platforms and workarounds.
A key in this arena is to use organic, off-hand photos that tell the story and engage your prospect. The slicker the pic, typically, the less engagement you get. Face pics are critical.
Don’t get too far from value proposition, though. Make sure there’s always that presence of the problem you solve.
Lesson: Personalization at scale is critical. Tools must align with your brand’s voice, and sometimes investing in more flexible platforms or modules is necessary to maintain authenticity.
4. Build Your List; Always Be Building
Client revealed that he had over 1,000 relevant contacts, all built from our recent activities.
This is the value of stacked habits. Before you know it, you have more than 1,000 people that are relevant to your niche, all grouped neatly in your CRM.
What habits, you ask?
-Use LinkedIn to engage, then request email address to add to your list
-Build free lead magnet to attract new signups
-Leverage events to get emails and signups for giveaways or other inducements
These all add to your contact base, which adds to your addressable market.
Now it’s just down to segmenting the group and developing relevant messaging to each.
Lesson: Segment your audience and tailor your outreach. The same content to all prospects will dilute your message and kill response rates.
5. Social Media for Awareness and Engagement
Client had a visible presence on Instagram, they admitted that they weren’t actively managing posts, or keeping up a consistent volume, particularly on LinkedIn.
This is another massive advantage to strategic partners and events: you both get exposure with sticky, viral material to spread over your accounts. Next, you want to make sure you have well-developed, consistent value propositions, and leverage scheduling tools to maintain a steady presence with a consistent message.
Lesson: Consistency matters. Regular, strategic posts on platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram keep your brand top-of-mind and amplify the reach of your events and messaging.
6. Tips on How to Design High-Performing Emails
The team reviewed recent email campaigns, noting that although open rates were high average (26%), click-through rates were OK (1%). This led to a deep dive into email formatting.
Recommendations:
- Instead of a general company logo at the top of the email, use a personal photo showing the team or leaders,
- Include the logo of any partners (like Austin Pets Alive in this case)
- Be sure to clearly state every relevant value propositions
- Condense and improve the subject line; you want short and punchy, packed with value
This points back to the core idea of maximizing the value of each step you take.
Lesson: Design emails with your audience in mind. Don’t think about what you want (“I want to include all 3 of these value propositions in my subject line”), but rather what your prospect wants: a simple, easy to understand email that delivers on the promise in the subject line. Assume most readers will scan and not fully read, so make value propositions and calls-to-action immediately visible. This will improve conversions, and in turn improve sales.
7. Cross-Promotion as a Sales Process Tool
I proposed an efficient outreach method: cross-promotion with partners who serve the same audience but offer different services. When you align with other companies and personalities that have existing relationships and influence, your sales organization will tap into new audiences with mutual benefit.
Lesson: Strategic cross-promotion extends your reach without adding cost. Choose partners with active, engaged audiences.
8. Measure Email KPIs, Improve Sales
It’s been said that to measure is the first step in improvement.
That couldn’t be more true for email. Know why each metric moves, and how you can move it.
Don’t get lost in the numbers, though. It’s easy to stay focused; all you have to do is try to pay your rent with your open rate.
Lesson: Learn the nuances of each of your analytics tools. Not understanding metrics will lead to ineffective strategy decisions.
9. State Value Propositions Subtly, but Clearly
There was some debate on how much overt marketing copy to include in invitations. While my client felt that value props made the message feel too “salesy,” I suggested subtle but clear reinforcement through email headers and footers that remind the prospect of the core services that your business offers.
Lesson: Depending on the application, clear statement of value propositions in subtle ways (like headers, footers, or taglines) will reinforce your brand message without overwhelming your reader.
10. “Volume Negates Luck” -Alex Hormozi: Post More, Connect More, Invite More
Your primary job as a business owner is one thing: increase your output. Post regularly on LinkedIn, send more emails, and personally follow up with key contacts. With an event deadline approaching, momentum matters. The more touchpoints created, the higher the chances of engagement.
But even if you don’t have an event deadline approaching, you should develop a consistent cadence of publishing; on social media platforms, video platforms, your blog, industry forums, wherever you can.
Lesson: Sales success is never reduced by content production volume. Don’t wait for the perfect message—consistently get your value propositions in front of prospects.