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If you clicked on this video, your goal is probably to generate conversions from your leads through outbound methods. So, today, I will outline how to build a sales pipeline designed to turn your leads into paying customers in the most effective way possible. And it involves just 6 steps. So, let’s get started with step #1. And, right off the bat, we have a very, if not the most, important one. Just like the best Hollywood directors take their time and use a lot of resources in the pre-production stage, you should really focus on defining your Ideal Customer Profile. Now, I cannot imagine a world in which someone would begin any sort of customer-acquisition process without at least thinking about their ideal potential customers, but you, as a professional, should put more than just thought into it. Write down your ICP, discuss it with your team and iterate over and over, not only in this step of the pipeline, but all of them. Ask yourself who would get the most value from your product or service and what type of customer has the highest success potential. It’s important to remember that if you manage to convert those ideal potential customers into paying ones, there’s a high chance they’ll stay with you for a long time, becoming advocates for your brand in the process. If you wish to learn more about this, or any other steps outlined today, you can find specific links to our blog posts in the description. Moving on to step #2 - prospecting. In short, its main goal is to create a list of - you guessed it - prospects, so contacts, whose resources, experience, values and goals match those of your ICP’s as closely as possible. You could either do that yourself, in-house, or outsource this process to a professional agency. Those kinds of organizations generate whole lists of prospects just for you, although their solutions are on the pricier side. But, don’t worry if your only option is to create that list on your own. If you do it right, you’ll get to know your prospects more closely and narrow down your ICP. This way, you’ll be able to build a more targeted campaign which hits all the right notes. Even if that means it includes fewer prospects. In the dark corners of the Internet you could also find ready-made lists of prospects for sale. However, you should never actually use them and I’ll tell you why at the end of this video. Besides LinkedIn, you can visit such sites as G2, Clutch or Quora to look for potential customers. While prospecting on these platforms, you’ll most probably only find company profiles, and not individual contacts. If you wish to go deeper with the information you found there, you may need to use prospecting tools, such as Hunter or FindThatLead. Also, the whole time while prospecting, keep in mind the information you’re looking for, which you’ll later include in your email copy. This will simplify the data-gathering process and shorten the next stages of our pipeline. Speaking of which, let’s move on to step #3... It’s time to write that email template and reach out to your carefully acquired prospects. And I did just say email template - you weren’t thinking of writing and sending them one-by-one, were you? Using email automation software, like Woodpecker, you can schedule your cold emails and follow-ups, just remember to personalize them with all the information you’ve gathered in step #2. Don’t send generic email templates with no personalization. However, you still have to write a compelling email. Besides a natural from line and a convincing, but not clickbaity subject line, you should make sure your core message is… logical, engaging, recipient-focused and not salesy. At the end of your email, make sure to include a clear and concise call to action. A sign-up for a demo or a 15-minute talk are examples of reasonable requests. Don’t go overboard and start asking people to watch a 2-hour long webinar. You wouldn’t want to receive such a request yourself, would you now? Yes, the Golden Rule applies even here - always write emails that you would like to receive yourself. When your campaign is running, you might start getting replies. Prospects who show interest in your offer move on to the next step. And in step #5 we’ll address those who didn’t respond to you in any way. For now, we’re moving on to step #4. And it’s time to conduct a demo. In this stage you connect with the prospects that responded positively to the offer and show them your product or service. The demonstration should be suited to their individual needs and you must be ready to face your prospects’ objections and answer all their questions. Two main objections you will surely come across are… price and readiness to buy. A common strategy that might solve both of these problems is a time-sensitive discount. This stage will vary from client to client, but if you do it right, you are basically there - one step away from closing the deal. You just have to have those strategies ready beforehand. Now, what happens if you’re not yet close to closing the deal… What if your prospects didn’t respond at all or their current situation doesn’t allow them to become paying customers? Then it’s time for step #5, and it’s also an important one - follow up. Now, there can be numerous reasons for why you didn’t receive a reply - people may be uninterested, sure, but also not yet convinced, or just simply too busy at the time. Whatever the reason is, you don’t have to worry about it - just follow up. Our internal research shows that even one follow up email can increase your reply rate by 22%. That’s 22% more replies with just one additional email! Now, if you’ve been with us for a while now, you probably already know that follow up emails shouldn’t be just reminders to check out your offer again, and again, and again… Instead of putting pressure on your prospects, whom you’ve been nurturing for so long, mind you, well, follow ups should focus on providing additional information and value to the recipients and act as a helping hand in overcoming their objections. If your put all of this into practice - and it starts with just being mindful of it - you’ll be drastically increasing your reply potential. Also, let me remind you that following up can get messy and tricky to scale. That’s where email automation can also help you a lot. And that’s it. Armed with the best practices of cold outreach and a lot of patience, the final step can be seen on the horizon. Final step - closing the deal. You may have done it already. You may be really close. But after researching your Ideal Customers, finding them and leading them into your offer, which will surely give them a lot of value, it all comes down to this. After all, this is the goal of the entire process. The prospects have finally signed the contract or entered their credit card information, Of course, we hope that you’ve made this process as easy as possible and will care about your prospects even more now, as they become your dear clients. It’s time to develop your relationship further, gather experience and use it in your next campaigns, starting again at step #1. Now, if you think this whole pipeline sounds too difficult or time-consuming, guess what, there are some ways to simplify it. Well… let’s talk about that. You may be tempted to choose the dark side of the force and buy a ready-made prospect list for cheap or use a pre-made email template from the first page of Google. Here’s the thing - those solutions can damage your domain reputation and, even more importantly, your brand reputation! Just think of how many inactive emails can be found on those lists and how many people have used those pre-made templates. Remember, “If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.” Treat it all as an investment. And you know what else can be treated as an investment? A subscription to our channel, which will provide you with tips and tutorials well worth your time. But, either way, thank you so much for watching this one and see you next time.