“It’s a really in-depth guide on how you can do this for yourself and it doesn’t matter if you’re even in an entry-level sales role, you can definitely get on podcasts and it would really help build social proof so that those are a little bit warmer so that your sales convert a little bit higher as well. ” – Jason Bay in today’s Tip 234
How about you?
Join the conversation below and check out Jason’s LinkedIn post.
Active Sales Podcast
Jason Bay on LinkedIn
Jason Bay’s LinkedIn post
Blissful Prospecting
ListenNotes.com
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jason Bay from Blissful Prospecting. I’ve got some additional thoughts on this whether you’re a sales professional, or if you’re pitching podcasters. Stay tuned at the end for that, but first, here’s Jason:
Jason Bay: One of the big challenges we have as salespeople is you’re really building social proof and utilizing it correctly to either get a meeting with an important prospect or to close a deal. And a lot of us, including ourselves, up until very recently because we’ve made a big push to get on podcasts and really increase our social proof are in a position where maybe very few people in your industry know of you. So when you’re reaching out to a prospect, they may have never heard of you before. They may have heard of your company, but they’re not quite sure who you are. And hopping on a sales call with a prospect, especially as you know, it can be kind of tough if they’ve never heard of you prior to you sending a cold email to them, and we’re going to have any relevant case studies for their industry. One of the ways that we overcame this challenge at Blissful Prospecting was by making a really big push to hop on more podcasts, specifically, sales-oriented podcasts and if you’re wondering well “Hey, you know Jason, I don’t run a business, how is this gonna help me?” Salespeople, you can hop on the podcast as well. I mean Scott’s podcast where he interviews top 1% salespeople is a really good example of that and if you’re in sales getting on a podcast and being able to share that interview, especially if you’re talking about something that’s maybe not sales-related and it is more about something in your industry can really bring in some credible industry expertise as well. And it’s a really great way for prospects to learn about you that are proactive about finding solutions to their problems but also as something that you can share in a follow up after a sales call so that they can listen to you. And again, it’s social proof to hear you on a big platform. So it’s a really good way to offer extra value and get in front of people that may or may not have heard of you before. So let me tell you a quick story cause we’ve wrote a big LinkedIn post on this. That’s linked in the show notes. I definitely recommend you check out. But we were able to get on 27 of the top sales podcasts in the last seven, eight months. And I got on all of these including Scott’s for this. This opportunity just through cold emails. So the big thing that we did when we got started and where you want to start with this is you want some social proof to get on the podcast. So I’m going to talk a lot about social proof in this episode. So you want to get a couple of podcasts under your belt so that you have something to share when you reach out to these other ones. So the way we started is I just asked around in our network and I knew a couple podcasters and I said “Hey, do you know, can we hop on your podcast and I’d like to talk about something. I think it’d be really, really valuable for your audience. And I had a friend, Raj and another friend list in and they helped me get on their podcasts and I could then link to those in other emails when I was reaching out to other ones.” So this is what really helped to get that initial social proof to share with bigger podcasts like you know, seller dive been on recently with Jeffrey Gitomer, a Make it Happen Mondays with John Barrows and a few other of those. If I didn’t have social proof I wouldn’t have been able to get on.
So step number one, build that initial social proof, get on some podcasts. Again, check out that LinkedIn post. It’s a really in-depth guide to not only how we did it but how you can also do it as well. Step number two is finding podcasts. So again, Scott has actually put together an awesome list on the site detailing and listing out all the top sales podcasts. That’s a great place to start and where I would take it a step further is going in and qualifying some of these. So you’re going to build an account list no different than if you’re prospecting for any other type of solution or offering is you’re going to come up with an account list of podcasts and you’re going to come up with qualifiers. So what I recommend doing and what we did was they had to have at least 10 reviews on iTunes of four-star rating and they had to have released an episode within the last 30 days. What I found out doing a lot of this outreach is that a lot of people don’t have active audiences because they don’t post content consistently enough. And if they don’t have a lot of reviews, that’s usually an indication. There’s not a lot of engagement on there. So there’s nothing wrong with getting on those podcasts to get started, but I wouldn’t make that a big part of your strategy. The next thing you’re going to do is find the contact information and you’re going to use a site called Listen Notes and it’s linked in the shownotes.com and then that’s going to help you find who hosts the contact, the podcast, excuse me. And it’s also going to make it easier for you to find the contact information using a tool like Lead IQ let’s say or Apollo IO, where you can find their email addresses. So the last part is what to see in the email. And this is really important. So keep in mind that a popular podcaster getting solicited. Potentially hundreds of times a month from people wanting to be on their podcasts, you’ve got to do something to stick out. So the biggest thing is, and this applies to any kind of prospecting, is make it about them. Make it about the value you can offer them. So the way that I did this was by including a personalized video, so 60 to 90 seconds, I would essentially say “Hey, I’m a big fan of your show. I would actually listen to their show, pick out something that I really liked and then we talk about and mention a topic that I could talk to them about.” And that’s a really important part of it as well, is that if any podcast or we’ll tell you that one of the hardest parts of their, their podcasting is two things. It’s finding quality guests and then figuring out what they want to talk to them about. So if you can, you know, make sure that you show them through social proof that are quality of guests that checks off the first box. And then if you can show them by offering content suggestions and topic ideas that cover the second part. You’re relieving a lot of that work from them of what to talk to you about so include some topics. We do sales prospecting for companies, so I knew that cadences would be a good one and video prospecting would be a good one. So make it easy to say yes to you. So make sure to check out the LinkedIn post. It’s a really in-depth guide on how you can do this for yourself and it doesn’t matter if you’re even in an entry-level sales role, you can definitely get on podcasts and it would really help build social proof so that those are a little bit warmer so that your sales convert a little bit higher as well. So make sure to go check that out in the show notes.
Scott Ingram: As Jason just mentioned there are a ton of links and resources in the show notes for this tip at DailySales.Tips/234. This is also a really big hugely overlooked opportunity for sales professionals. You can get on sales podcasts of course but also think about podcasts that are relevant in your industry. In any niche, there are typically dozens and sometimes hundreds of podcasts covering that topic. I’m confident that you can find those shows and apply Jason’s methods. I’ve also found that Spotify is one of the best ways to discover those niche podcasts. That’s how I’ve found the last few dozen shows on my own list of every active sales podcast I can find that is currently over 200 shows strong. That link is in the show notes at DailySales.Tips/234. Finally a quick comment for anybody that’s pitching podcasts. Just like with most prospecting. The majority of it sucks. I get a ton of requests from people wanting to be featured on my shows. Most of the time it’s not relevant, the message isn’t differentiated at all, and it’s just noise. That also spells opportunity, because the bar is pretty low. When somebody like Jason comes along and actually does the work, listens to an episode to understand the show, sends a personalized video and really makes a meaningful connection. It’s a no brainer to engage and invite him onto the show. So even if you’re not in sales, you can learn from what great salespeople, like Jason do, to massively improve your odds of getting those coveted guest spots that you’re looking for. Oh, and do the outreach yourself. 90% of the agencies offering these booking services do a horrible job and aren’t doing you any favors. Invest in yourself and your brand and do it yourself. Nobody’s going to represent you better than you.
Alright, I’ll get off my soapbox. Jason just got me going and literally has the formula to do it right. Don’t forget. DailySales.Tips/234 to get the details.
Thanks for listening, and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!