Are you an SDR looking for innovative ways to schedule meetings in 2021? You’ve come to the right place! The level of creativity and effort an SDR puts forward can oftentimes be the difference between scheduling a meeting and being ignored.

Catching the attention of your prospects has never been more difficult and the landscape is only getting more competitive.

In a sea of automation, low quality sales messages, and templated emails, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. So what do you do to make sure your outreach is memorable? Make it unique and memorable!

Here are 5 creative ways to catch the attention of your prospect and book more meetings. 

1. Source leads from popular social media posts

One easy yet effective way to connect with your prospects in a personal way is to find out what content they are consuming. 

Find a few influencers in your industry and search for their popular posts. Are any of your prospects ‘liking’ or commenting on the post? 

Create a new cadence specifically for these people and reference their actions. Why did they like it? Did they provide some additional insight in the comments? 

The ultimate goal is to start a conversation and tie it back to your value proposition. 

2. Utilize G2, Capterra and other review sites

Websites such as G2 and Capterra can be a gold mine for finding new prospects. 

Seek out people who leave mediocre reviews for your competitors. It may take some digging to find the right person, but oftentimes it’s possible to narrow down who left the review based on name, industry, company size, and title. 

Let’s say we found a review of ZoomInfo by an SDR Manager named James, with a low score. We can see from his review that he works in the computer software industry and at a company with 51-200 employees.

If we use LinkedIn Sales Navigator with the following filters:

Industry: Computer Software

Company Size: 51-200

Title: SDR Manager

Keywords: James

Based on those filters, we find the target prospect!

We notice that this person emphasized that the product is expensive and that the UI is confusing. Use this to your advantage in your outreach.

3. The Social Approach

This tactic may take a couple of weeks to take full effect, but you’ll be happy that you did it. 

Start by connecting with 200 new prospects on LinkedIn. If you can reference any of their recent activities (posted an article, liked a specific post, etc.), send a personalized connection request. 

If they don’t have any recent activity, send a connection request without a note. According to several sales leaders at SDR Nation, sending a blank note is better than sending a generic templated message. 

Once a prospect accepts the connection request, send over a Vidyard with a brief message something along the lines of:

“Hey Bob – Thanks for accepting my connection request. Just wanted to put a face to a name. Looking forward to following along with your content. Feel free to reach out!”

The key is to not be ‘salesy’ in this message, keep it casual.

Throughout the next couple of days comment, like, and engage with their content. 

Then after a few days of that, reach out to the prospect via email or call!

4. Handwrite a short letter to your prospect, take a picture of it, and include it in an email

Handwriting a letter takes personalization to the next level. We understand that it’s not always possible to have your prospect’s address on hand, so this is the next best option. 

By combining a compelling message with a unique delivery method, your message is bound to stand out and catch the attention of your prospect.

We don’t recommend doing this for every prospect, but perhaps for a few of those top prospects that engage with your emails.

5. Join the communities of your prospects to schedule meetings

Go where your customers are. Join their LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, public Slack communities, forums, subreddits etc.

Participate in the community, learn what they value, and stay up to date on industry news. Give more than you ask.

Then, when somebody in that community starts talking about a topic related to your company, you can send them a DM to introduce yourself. Make sure to keep it conversational and relevant! Nobody likes an overly pushy salesperson!

No matter what type of product or service you sell, the days of generic and boring sales messages are coming to an end. It’s more necessary now than ever before to stand out and reach your prospects. 

By using outside-of-the-box approaches and innovative prospecting techniques, you’ll be well on your way to book more meetings in 2021. Happy hunting!

Have any additional or unique ways that you’ve scheduled a meeting? Connect with us! 

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