Hey Ray, do you think cold calling will work for me? Um, well, how about paid ads? Like do you think paid ads would work for us or about, how about LinkedIn? Like if we're doing some content and some prospecting, do you think we could make LinkedIn work for us? I get questions like this all the time, and you know, from MSPs, from other business owners who are trying to make really good decisions about where to invest their time, their focus, their money, their energy, but.
They're asking the wrong question because if you're in a B2B market and someone and I, and, and I mean anyone and your entire industry is landing clients through a particular strategy, then the answer is yes. Yes, it works. Cold calling, paid ads, LinkedIn, all of it. Like the, the real question is will you make it work? And that is really where the game is won or lost.
Because the truth is, most business owners they, you know, dip their toes into new strategies without a real commitment to making that strategy work, right? Like they're looking for the thing that works instead of looking for the thing that they're going to make work. So they, they try cold email for a few weeks. They throw up a landing page and run some ads to it. They, uh, hire an SDR and let them run for a couple of months.
And you know, when they aren't blowing up their calendar with new appointments and new clients in a really short period of time, like they don't get the instant results that they're looking for. They just declare like the whole strategy of failure. But most of the time it's not the channel that failed. It's not the strategy that failed, it's the approach. Um, and I'll, I'll, I'll share a story with you. I was, uh, I was speaking. In Dallas at a, at an IT event, uh, here recently.
And I, I was talking to a guy named Mark and, you know, Mark's got a $5 million MSP and we're talking, and he knows that I have a, I have an SDR accelerator for MSPs. So we've got a program where we'll help you find the right SDR, we'll help you, you know, manage them, train them, coach them, and get them, you know, booking, you know, good appointments on your calendar.
And as we're, you know, we're just talking about the SDRs in general, and he, and he's like, well, you know, SDRs just, they just don't work for my business. They never have. And you know, he, he went on to tell him, he's like, you know, I've, I've hired a few over the years and, you know, it's really, it's the same thing every time, Ray. It's a, it's a flop. Like, and he, he was convinced. That his business was different, his market was different.
And while we could see, you know, success stories all over of people leveraging SDRs to book more meetings and get more sales, like, it was just like, that doesn't apply to me. And I was curious. So like I, I started asking some questions and I was like, well, like I'm curious Mark, like when you were looking. To hire SDRs, like what were you actually looking for? Like, what were you looking for in a new SDR to, to make sure it was like the right person?
And he kinda shrugs and he is like, well, you know, I mean it's it's entry level Ray, like, it's just, I was just really looking for, for someone inexpensive to make some phone calls for us. And I was like. Okay. Um, I was like, well, what were they pitching? You know, like, were they, were you offering like a free cybersecurity assessment? Were you doing like a free training for, for employees? Like on phishing? Were you like even a piece of content? Something?
Nope. Uh, it was, he's like, no, like we were, it was a 30 minute meeting with me. And I said, okay, and I'm, but I'm, you know, I'm thinking, well that's, that's not a clear offer. That's like, there's no real hook to that. There's no real perceived value to that. Like unless somebody wanted to meet with you or is exactly at the right time, right moment, like just pure serendipity. You, you happen to call. Um, that's not like a, that's, that's not a great offer, frankly. Right.
So, and I was like, okay, well, I mean, were you doing any marketing when you had them calling? Were you doing any, you know, any, any emails, any direct mail, anything like that? And he's like, nah, we actually, we tried some emails before and, you know, nobody really opened emails. Like the, you know, the, the open rate was something like 20%. And I figured, you know, if 80% aren't opening, it's not worth it. He said, the.
We did direct mail for a little while and you know, we, nobody called us back. So we know nobody's really reading those. And I'm like, okay. And I'm just going through the checklist in my mind, right? Like, what are the things that an SDR needs to be successful? And I was like, okay, well what about like the data that they were calling? I'm like, where were you getting the data? Did you have that, you know, cleaned?
Like where, what was the source of that, that, that list that they were basically calling? He's like, well, it was a, it was from ZoomInfo. And I said, okay. Did you. Did you have that cleaned or verified or like what work did you do to it before you loaded it up and started dialing? And he said, well, none. I said, okay. I said, okay, mark. I said, tell you what, what's, when you were listening to calls, like, what did you hear? Why, why weren't they booking appointments?
Like, what was the reason they said no? Like, were you, was it not enough time? Was it not compelling offer? Like, what was it? And he said, well, we didn't really, we didn't really do the call coaching. He said, I'm, you know, I'm not, like, I don't have your background. I'm not a sales manager. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't know what to change in the script if we did, you know, and I, and you can probably guess where this is going, right? Like I, you know, as we, as we're talking.
I can see just by the questions that I'm asking him, I can see Mark start to like rethink. Hmm. Like maybe I should have done some of these, or maybe I should have rethought some of these. And it wasn't like, I don't say this. To like, to, to paint market a in a bad light. I say this because I see this a lot. Like this is actually really common. And it wasn't that SDRs don't work, right? It was that his approach to doing it didn't work.
And as we, you know, as we, as we have, you know, a few more minutes of conversation, I said, okay, well what did you do instead? Right? Like, you just, so you, you abandoned that strategy. What did you do instead? And he said, well, you know, we've done like a little bit of content. Uh, we've, we've dabbled in some, some SEO we've, you know, done some, you know, some pay per click for, with, with Google. And I said, okay, any of those, like a home run?
None. He said, no, we haven't had really any luck with any of 'em. And this is like tried and true. Like I, this again, I, I hear this and see this all the time and it's, the strategy isn't the problem. Like Mark had gone through multiple strategies and he'd kind of just like written each one off. Well, that one doesn't work for us. That one doesn't work for us. That one doesn't work for us. But the problem wasn't the strategy itself, it was how he engaged those strategies.
It was how he deployed those strategies. It was his patience and, um, you know, the, the focus and the consistency and the iteration. Like he tried, it didn't work initially, and he abandoned it and he, he never really committed to any one of these things and he didn't stick around long enough to learn the thing. To be able to identify why isn't this working so that I can start fixing it to make it work and build something that will actually scale. And that's, that's exactly what I see.
Countless MSPs, I'm telling you. And, and other businesses like jump from strategy to strategy to strategy. I call it the perpetual pivot. Right? And it's like you're, you're just hoping that the next one's gonna be the silver bullet. But the thing is, winning strategies are not found. They are built. Like, and lemme say that again. Winning strategies are not found. They are built. Every one of these things could work if you stick around long enough to learn them.
Iterate, optimize and make them work right. And, and you know, the thing is, most of these strategies, if you do the math on some of these, you can see 10 x returns right from you. Get a great SDR on the phone, give 'em a good list and, and offer and, and know, turn them loose with some coaching, you can 10 x the investment. Right. Same thing with cold email. You know, like we and I, we've done this, like you can do cold outreach and you can make that thing 10 x itself.
You could do the same thing with paid ads. Like it's, most of these strategies have a pretty significant ROI associated with them, but you don't get a really big ROI like a 10 XROI from something that's gonna be plug and play. Right, like you get 10 XRI from something that you got directional, you know, like strategy, but you're gonna have to work at it, right? And you get that from structure, from consistency, from iteration and from doing the work that most people avoid doing. Right.
And, and when we talk about hard work, most of the time we, we quantify it in terms of the number of hours that are being worked, and we don't look at the qualitative component. Like hard work to me is actually doing the stuff that most people avoid doing. Right, and it's this. It's saying, okay, I'm going to stick with this and I'm going to do the things that are necessary to make this damn thing work because everybody else is gonna abandon it.
And like, for example, business owners like who win at outbound, right? Like outbound's not easy. You know, but it, oh, it's insanely like valuable to be able to build a client acquisition system to go get your own clients, like cash is oxygen in your business, and the ability to go generate your own sales without having to rely on an agency, without even having to rely on algorithms and all of those things. If you can build outbound in your business, it is insanely valuable.
But people who win at outbounds, they're not running perfect playbooks outta the gate. Right. Like they just go into it and say, I'm gonna make this thing work. And they, and then they build the systems. They build the systems like, okay, we're gonna get a good offer. We're going to figure out how to dial in the list. We're gonna figure out how to get the right people and get them trained up. We're going to get the right scripts and build a good playbook for 'em.
We're going to build the right systems to coach them, to give feedback to, to iterate all of these things. And I would say that probably the most important thing. For somebody that's gonna be effective at outbound is they're just gonna go into it with the expectation that I'm talking about, like the expectation that it's going to take a minute to figure out, right? Like they're not gonna bounce as soon as things get bumpy. They're not gonna get 30 days into this thing and be like.
Well, you know, we didn't 10 x that, that investment like Ray said. So we're out, like we're gonna go try the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. 'cause they all have the same learning curve that's associated with it. Right? Um, like, so the people that will win at this, like they're gonna solve one small problem at a time and they're gonna trust that by treating it like the scientific method.
If I keep doing this, if I keep tweaking this and just finding the next constraint, fixing it, success is inevitable. Right. Like that mindset, that expectation is what it takes to really succeed. And it's, and it's really what separates the winners from everyone else. So, you know, if you're saying, okay, Ray, I got it. Like how do I, how do I make this actionable? Well, one, like pick your channel, right?
Like pick your channel, pick your strategy, whether it's gonna be cold email, whether it's gonna be cold calling, whether it's gonna be paid ads, whether it's gonna be direct mail, whether it's gonna be LinkedIn, whatever it is. Like they can all work. So. Pick the strategy, pick the channel, and then two, commit to the long game. Right?
Say like, I would say 12 months, like say, I'm going to focus on this channel and I'm going to give it 12 months because I'm committed to making it work and I know it can work, other people are doing it, so I'm gonna commit to it. But at minimum, I would say six. Six months. Right? And then number three is, you know, just look at that. And during that six months, you're only.
Focus, your only job is to just find and uncover all of these, the obstacles that are standing in your way to getting the, the, the numbers that you want, right? So as soon as you start, you get a few weeks in and you're like, okay, we're doing cold email where nobody's opening the emails. Okay, are they getting delivered? Cool. If they're not like, let's, let's look at, let's look at that. If they're getting delivered and they're not getting opened, then let's look at the subject line.
If they're getting delivered and they're getting opened and they're not getting converted, just work piece by piece by piece, and. And then four, I would say like, get support. Like if you need it, if you're like, if you want to fast track this, like if it's a game of learning how to iterate piece by piece by piece.
One thing that I've learned, uh, is, that's a shortcut for all of these things is basically go out and find somebody who's done it or who's doing it really well, or who I know knows how to do this, has some like a track record associated with it. And hire them to teach me how to do it. How can I fast track this? Like, that's what we do. Like the, the SDR accelerator that we have for, for MSPs. What we do is we, we've identified all the things that we know are necessary to succeed, right?
Like there's, there's a recruiting process, there's a training com component to it, there's a, you know, onboarding, there's a, uh, script component, there's a, you know, uh, coaching and, and support. And we've put all these things into that program to fast track it, but even if it's something else. Right. Like it's whatever that is, go find an agency, go find a partner, go find another, I don't know, another business, right.
In a or another business in a different market, and see if you can find a way to get the lessons without having to get the scars, right. So it's like, you know, my, my best advice is like, if you are, you know, I'm picturing like staring out at my backyard. Like if you're, if you're standing at the pool and you're kinda like dipping your toe in. You know, like, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try this. And you're waiting to find a strategy that just feels right.
Like, oh, hey, this hit right, it's not gonna happen. Right. They just, um, another way of looking at this is, um, you know, it's like when we, when we think about people who are overnight successes and you actually peel back and you go, holy cow. You know, like an overnight success in music and then you realize. Wow. They have been playing in bars for free for years.
They have been hustling in, you know, music clubs and they have been doing this, and they have been doing this, and then it looks like an overnight success. Like, just think about it the same way. Right. And now it doesn't, it doesn't have to take years. But you get, you get what I'm saying, like the overnight success is not necessarily the overnight success.
So you don't, you're not necessarily like just dipping your toe in the water to find the thing, like that's not being strategic, that's gambling. Right. And that's like, that's like looking for and crossing your fingers that you're gonna get the one hit. Wonder like winning strategies can all work, but only if you're willing to make them work. So pick one, commit to it, solve the small problems along the way, and then just keep going. Until you get the breakthrough that you want.
That is the best piece of advice that I can give you. And it's me speaking from experience, and it's me speaking to myself, frankly, like as I have the same tendency, like we are impatient, we wanna move quickly, we want to get results instantly. But that impatience can also be a huge liability. So best advice, I hope it helps audios.