Hey everyone, I’m fairly new to online selling and would love some perspective. LinkedIn feels extremely crowded, and generic “I can solve your problems” messages seem to go nowhere. Email often feels intrusive, and cold calling even more so. For those doing enterprise sales, where are you seeing real traction today? Which channels actually earn attention rather than resistance? Any advice or lessons learned would be much appreciated.
Julien M. What are you selling? What is the market niche?
B2B SaaS, mid-market to enterprise. Buyer is VP Marketing / RevOps. Complex sales cycles, inbound-led motion. Looking for channels that actually work in that context.
Also looking to learn
Due to the long sales cycle, I wouldn't say that there is a specific channel that works (or a precise combination of them). What you need for sure is:
Event attendance. You need to be where these people are and meet with them multiple times to even get on the vendor list. Bonus, once you have a list of good leads, I recommend setting up your own events, where you control the topics and speakers.
Thought leadership. Your company's senior management should be speaking at events, appearing in the media, posting to their networks on LinkedIn. The personal network trump business ones for these type of clients that you are targeting.
ABM & social listening. What are the top 50-100 companies you want to work with, how does the decision making unit look like, who is part of them, what are they talking about? These will then feed into #1 and #2 I was mentioning above.
Partnerships. Identify communities & leaders from the industry that they follow and see how you can build something valuable for the communities that gets you extra exposure for your target audience.
I find that a good way to engage people is by doing a research on a topic they care about - they'll be more willing to answer and it's a foot in the door for you to start that relationship building. And as Manuel H. was saying above, good quality content, that is also shared through a network of partnerships and targeted ads. Hope this helps! Good luck!
Julien M., thanks for the info. How strong would you say your current inbound motion is? Given your ICP, the following channels would be the best; however, not in isolation. All of these need to weave together consistently.
LinkedIn - both organic and paid
Content Marketing (the long game - Manuel H. is spot on with this one)
Events/Tradeshows
Webinars/Podcasts/Lives
If your content is thoughtful and industry-forward, it will feed the LinkedIn beast organically, and then you can retarget to your heart's content. PS. Email is your friend here too as you build your list - but keep it tight with a monthly newsletter.
If you want help with positioning and messaging, feel free to bounce anything you have off me. Always happy to lend a hand.
Julien M. and all - there definitely isn't a silver bullet but there is a way to think more CTM (create the market) then GTM. starting with your unique POV and framing and naming a villain in the status quo - understanding deeply what's wrong. From there evangelize that and build content around it etc... and then the output becomes your brand which builds on differentiation
