Outbound Will Survive AI

There's a belief out there that AI will be the thing that will replace SDRs. Or prospecting. Or that it will eliminate anything that's outbound-related (see Sam Lessin's tweet above). I don't know Sam at all (the closest person I know to him is his partner Dave Morin whom I met over a decade ago, back when he ran Facebook's developer platform). Sam is well-spoken and super sharp from all the content I've seen from him online. But he and others who hold these beliefs are wrong.

Yes, our inboxes on email and LinkedIn will be filled with more messages than ever. An AI-powered tidal wave is coming. Here's the issue, however. We've looked at plenty of tools over the past few years. The promises of personalization at scale are largely overrated. All of the AI-based tools we've tried have been subpar. Certainly not to the standard of personalization we teach our clients. 

You have to remember. Being known is a deeply sought-after human desire. We all want to be recognized as unique. Personalization is a gift you offer. You're telling your prospect, “I care about you enough that I've taken the time to get to know you. I want to make you feel seen, heard, and understood.” In all the personalization we've seen AI come up with, it feels like a lazy, overly formal SDR on the other end. 

Is AI able to scrape and ingest facts from a LinkedIn profile and produce personalized content based on a tidbit of information? Of course. But it usually feels like a vague generalization. Our example below comes from a tool we love and recommend. But as you can see, the personalization feels tepid and generic. It just doesn't fit the prospect like a glove.

If you want to do personalization right, you want to dig in, do your homework, and come up with something engaging. Let your curiosity about the other person lead the way. Try inhabiting their world. Stepping into their shoes. Wearing their outfit. ‘What would it feel like to be them?’, you might ask yourself, as you're thinking about what to write. ‘What makes them tick? What are they interested in or passionate about? What might get them talking?’

If you were going to send me an outbound email, vying to sell me your SaaS tool for sales coaches (stick with me through this fictitious example), writing something like the following would be spot on. It's how we teach our clients how to do high-level personalization, by the way. Our framework/template looks like this:

Subject Line: [PersonalizationLayer1]

Hey [FirstName],

[PersonalizationLayer1]

[Sales Copy]

[PersonalizationLayer2]

If we're to fill out the required sections with content, here's what the final email might look like: Subject Line: hot yoga in India, Paul?

Hey Paul,

I couldn't help but notice that you were a fervent yogi…have you ever considered doing a retreat in India?

Anyways…I also wanted to reach out to see if menial tasks are killing you as a sales coach…if so, we should probably chat. We've spent the last two years building a product that has given back top sales coaches an average of 10 hours per week. 

Have 15mins next week for a Zoom so we can show you how? On that call, we'd be happy to also share the top pitfalls sales coaches fall into that prevent them from making their full earning potential.  

Cheers,

Alfred

BTW: do you think Djokovic will be able to fend off Alcaraz and Sinner next year?

If you were to send me this email, you'd almost guarantee yourself a response. Just as long as I saw it in my inbox. “Now, why is that?”, you might ask. 

Because the personalization in the email hits on two topics I care deeply about. Yoga entered my life in 2015 on the recommendation from a friend and an emphatic directive by my therapist. It has since changed my life; helping me – among other things – increase my flexibility, reduce my anxiety, and improve my balance. Not to mention feeling more centered overall. You can usually find me on a yoga mat twice a week, most weeks. Asking me a question about doing a retreat in the discipline's birthplace is certain to get me going. Tennis was the sport I played at a high level growing up. I competed in it all the way through my mid-twenties. Although I don't play much anymore, I follow the men's professional game closely. Asking me a question about the last of the old guard trying to stave off the young guns is sure to get me engaged. It's a topic I've thought about, and have a strong opinion on. You could have tried to sell me something I have no interest in, and you’d still have gotten a response from me. Just based on how good the personalization is.

In practicing and coaching personalization over the years, we've noticed that personalizing to the individual generally works better. Which makes all the sense in the world. We all want to feel seen as unique individuals. Yes, we might be worried about the overall stressors and drivers of our business. But recognizing the person makes folks feel seen and thus want to respond. With that, your reply rates increase. Which in turn, hopefully, also pulls up our interested reply rates.

As seen above, the reason why the email would have worked on me is because the personalization is so well-researched, and well, tailored to me. All of the AI tools I've seen that tout personalization at scale don't even come close. This means that you could flood the market – or in this case – inboxes – and the good personalization would still stand out. We all get spam in our inboxes today. It doesn't take more than a fraction of a second for minds to recognize what we see land in our inbox and decide whether or not to pay attention to it. The same will be true if the volume of emails goes up. The emails that are personalized well will still hit our retinas, have us pay closer attention, and on a lot of occasions respond positively. The wheat will be successfully separated from the chaff. 

My views are more in accordance with Siqi Chen's tweet. 

We will undoubtedly see a time when AI increases the volume of outbound messages we receive in our inboxes. In a sea of robots, the messages that show human-ness will catch our eye, seduce our minds, and garner engagement. That will still be the golden rule. It's the onus of the person composing the message to craft it with as many human traits are possible. Eliminate vagaries. Cute through the noise. Let your curiosity lead the way. Tailor the interaction to your prospect like an Italian suit. And you'll have a strong chance at making a connection and starting a conversation.