FAQs

Typically, our outsourced sales development services onboarding takes 2-4 weeks, but we can move as fast as your team. During onboarding, we'll host a kickoff to complete an onboarding questionnaire to help us understand your business, your target market, and your target personas. Following the kickoff, our team will begin to build out a custom outbound strategy in the form of a Sales Development Playbook. After we review the Playbook together, we begin training your sales development reps to have them ready to start dialing after onboarding has concluded. The faster you're able to get us information, the faster we can get your campaigns launched!

Our CEO always says, “always make it as easy as possible for people to pay you.” So that is what we live by. Most of our sales outsourcing clients prefer to pay by credit card, but we also accept ACH invoicing and can do our best to be flexible with any other method you prefer.

Yes you can pause at any time. We only require a small $150 monthly fee to pay for the cost of holding our marketing assets. We understand that companies and industries go through changes and we strive to be as easy to work with as possible to outsource your sales and marketing services. You can’t find a more classy team of outsourced sales development reps. We are the real deal.

Yes. All of our B2B outsourced sales contracts can be structured monthly, all we ask is that you submit a formal 30-day notice if you decide to go a different direction. If you are not happy with your outsourced sales development reps, you can ask your strategists to get reassigned or you can simply end your contract. That being said, our outsourced sales reps are extremely professional and talented and we hope you stay with our team until you are acquired by the company of your dreams. Our success is your success. Our happy clients are a testament to the quality of our outsourced sales development reps. In fact, we still have the very first client we worked with nearly 5 years ago.

One of the big advantages of using our team is you get to “try before you buy.” Before we ever send you the first invoice, you will have a chance to meet your outsourced sales development team and we even build out the entire strategy, so you feel confident with our service before starting payment. We do not start campaigns or billing until final approval from your team. Another great reason to try outsourcing your sales development team instead of building one internally. Trust us, we are worth a shot!

Simply put, leave it to the sales outsourcing experts! When you consider that 83% of internal sales development teams don't hit quota, the chances of building an internal team and being successful is slimmer than the 'thought leaders' on LinkedIn will lead you to believe. We run outsourced sales development programs for 150+ companies and we have fine tuned our process and developed our own technology to maximize meeting rates for your sales team. Outsourcing sales development can sound scary, but all of our remote Sales Development Reps (SDRs) are located in the U.S. and are trained experts in sales and become invaluable assets to our clients. Plus, we're cheaper than hiring and managing an internal team when you factor in costs such as benefits, commissions, data, technology, and the cost of managing and coaching internal reps.

You can get your profile unrestricted by submitting a copy of your ID to LinkedIn, while this is not ideal and seems like an invasion of privacy, it is possible to get you profile unrestricted. Something very important to note here is that if you are using a paid version of LinkedIn, then you will need to make sure you are not getting charged for your subscription. LinkedIn is notorius for charging users for accounts that are restricted because they make it difficult to cancel the transactions with your credit card company or bank by changing their name by a digit on their billing. For example you will see a transaction link this LINKEDIN-506*5839696 LNKD.IN/BILL CA 10/18, then the next one will look like this LINKEDIN-505*123523452 LNKD.IN/BILL CA 10/18, thus they purposfully make it impossible to block the vendor on your credit card or bank. So it is very important to get your account unrestricted or you may billed for perpetuity for the account. They also make it very difficult to call them or get in contact with their team.

LinkedIn profiles can get restricted for many reasons, but here are a list of a few: 1) The profile is manually flagged by several people on LinkedIn as spam. 2) Too many outstanding pending invites (but usually this leads to not being able to send invites not a profile restriction) 3) Sending too many invites in a given 24hr timeframe (we recommend 50-100 invites per day, even if you are using a paid version of LinkedIn).

This depends on the quality of the LinkedIn profile. If the LinkedIn profile has been around for a long time (5+ years) and has many connections (1000+), then we typically send 100-200 invites per day. But if a LinkedIn profile is anything short of that we don’t recommend messaging over 100 invites per day, typically we will send 50-100 social outreach invites per day on average. It is also important to make sure that you don’t have too many pending invites, typically we recommend removing pending invites once you exceed more than 1500 pending invites.

LinkedIn is not too crowded, particularly if you are going after a niche job title because they wil not be receiving thousands of LinkedIn invites and messages per day. Yes, the CEO of Uber will most likely not respond to your LinkedIn request, but the Head of Logistics at a growing transporation company might love the attention and respond as soon as they see your message. So in short, the more targeted and niche, the better. That’s not to say we haven’t booked meetings through LinkedIn with big companies or executives either, but in general it can be less effective as you target the same prospects hundreds of other companies have tried to target as well.

This always depends on the industry, but when comparing LinkedIn to email using our entire client base, the channel itself is just as effective. In fact, LinkedIn has been the most effective channel for some of our clients. The biggest variations occur when comparing industries or target personas. For specific industries such as IT or Marketing, LinkedIn has been proven to be significantly more effective than email. But, when reaching out to small businesses like restaurants, or target personas that tend to not care about their professional online presense, email and cold calling can be far superior. It all comes down to your market, and we’d be happy to discuss this with you to see what makes the most sense for your business.

The benefit to prospecting on a social platform like LinkedIn is that it can expand your reach and it is also the preferred communication channel for a percentage of your target market. Firstly, it expands your reach because you will not be able to find or purchase the email address of everyone in your target market, but you can always reach out to them on LinkedIn as most business professionals maintain a profile on LinkedIn, as LinkedIn acts as many people’s resume. Secondly, it is the preferred communication channel for 20-30% or your target list, as many people enjoy the fluidity of a LinkedIn chat compared to email or LinkedIn, this is generally because you are able to learn more about the person on the other end of the chat by viewing their LinkedIn profile and you are able to chat in real-time and see when a person is online aka. communication is faster in general.

LinkedIn is a great resource for sales and marketing. There are many different methods to generating leads on LinkedIn, but our primary tactic is to send invites to top prospects with a custom invitation message. Then once the prospect accepts the invite, we thank them and send them a custom message describing how our products can make their life easier or make them more money. The key to social media outreach is to be informal (aka. conversational) in tone. If a prospect does not reply, we send them a follow up message. This is what we call a LinkedIn Messaging Cadence.

We gauge this in a number of ways. First, we start by evaluating the number of cold calls made. Then, we break down looking at number of connections made, number of conversations started, and then finally number of meetings booked. The most important cold calling KPI is call-to-meeting conversion, but that’s only a piece of the puzzle and each of the other metrics are followed/tracked carefully to ensure the best conversions possible from the very start of the engagement.

Primarily, cold callers are using Phoneburner, which is a 1:1 power dialer. By utilizing this advanced technology, our cold callers can make up to 400 dials every single day, which is over 4x the output of an average internal sales development rep. Our cold calling strategists also provide them with lists built using some of the best data available like ZoomInfo / DiscoverOrg and Apollo, which not only includes phone numbers for office and direct dial, but also mobile numbers!

While this varies depending on the size of each clients total addressable market (which we create for free for each client during onboarding!), the average outbound cold calling cadence consists of 5 dials, and 1-2 voicemails. The cold callers will also follow-up their voicemails with an email to help increase conversion rates. This cadence results in the highest conversion rates of any channel.

Our outsourced cold callers are dedicated to either 1 or 2 clients max, depending on which package you choose. Our Growth package includes a cold caller that is working with only 1 other client, and their time is split evenly between both. If you decide you want B2B cold calling services dedicated to your account full-time, the CRUSH package is exactly what you’re looking for. You can also add additional cold callers if you would like to scale beyond a single rep!

Our cold callers can typically make 150 – 200 dials per day on a part time basis, and 300 – 400 dials per day on a full-time basis. That’s an incredible number when you consider the average SDR only makes ~40 dials per day.

Our cold callers go through ongoing training not only when they onboard to SalesHive, but also when they are assigned to a client. Initially, cold callers will go through a SalesHive Certified cold calling training program as well as a 3rd party training with our partners at ClozeLoop. Our QA team provides ongoing feedback based on call recordings and their managers work closely with them for ongoing coaching to continually improve performance and make sure they are hitting their quota.

Our cold callers are fully remote and located across the U.S. — we never offshore this incredibly important role to ensure the highest quality of outreach services for all of our B2B clients. Having a fully remote workforce around the U.S. also ensures we can source and hire the most talented cold calling reps without worrying about geographic location.

Cold emails are designed to appear as personal as possible, meaning we don’t use any unnecessary images or HTML and instead send the emails as plain-text as much as possible. This not only has an impact on improving conversion rates but also helps ensure emails don’t get caught by spam filters which impact overall deliverability for the domains we are using. When a prospect receives an email, using multi-variates ensures it will look personalized for them, and it will also look different than any emails their coworkers receive and focus on specific pains they are facing and how we can help.

Yes, our proprietary cold email platform is developed to be able to track both opens and tracks. We even developed a way to track a specific percentage of emails based on a percentage so we can get a baseline of what our open rates are without embedding an open tracking pixel in every single email, which can impact deliverability of the emails.

Rather than relying on standard A/B testing to determine what messaging is the most effective, we developed a proprietary technology for multi-variate testing which allows us to get hyper-granular on not only which cold emails are converting, but also what pieces of the prospecting and outreach program is working. We can test multiple versions of each individual part of a cold email, such as the subject line, opener, value prop, and call to action, and track each version sent individually. What this means is that not only do we have better visibility into what messaging is working, but every email is also unique to each prospect it is sent to, meaning no duplicates emails which can have a huge impact on deliverability.

This varies heavily by client, both on your cold email marketing package and meeting goal, as well as the scope of your TAM (total addressable market). On average, we’re typically sending 200 – 500 emails each day. Our Responders monitor all of the emails that we receive in response to the emails going out to handle objections and book meetings with interested prospects!

Rather than sending cold emails from your current domain and jeopardizing your deliverability, we developed a process to create “lookalike” domains that are set-up with all of the correct specs (DKIM, DMARC, MX, SPF) and redirect all traffic directly to your main domain. We’ll typically create 3+ domains to spread volume across the domains in order to not overload any domains which can trigger spam filters. Once the domains are created, we put them through a warming process we developed called SHWARMING, which warms the domain up properly to achieve higher volume without risking emails going to spam. Note: All of the domains we create are the property of our clients, and ownership of the domains are transferred during the engagement so you don’t have to worry about us squatting on the domains.

All of our marketing emails are sent from your company name, rather than using the SalesHive name. We will either do email marketing from an alias we create (at your approval) or send the cold emails and LinkedIn messages from the name of an existing employee at your company. Either route results in all outreach coming directly from your brand to eliminate any confusion with prospects.

While this can vary widely depending on the size of each client’s TAM (total addressable market — which we build for free for each client during onboarding!), the average B2B email marketing cadence consists of 4-6 emails that are spread out over a 20-30 day period. We will also work with clients to create low-volume drip campaigns for prospects that haven’t been responsive during the initial outreach campaign in order to keep them engaged but not overload them with cold emails before engaging them again after 90+ days.

In an industry crowded with mediocre or even deceitful processes, we're proud of our unique approach to outsourced sales development: We developed our own technology. Not only have we built the best A/B testing platform in the industry, but we also developed integrations with every major CRM so you can have all of your data in one place. We supply you with a full team of US-based sales development experts, not just a single rep. We broke down all of the aspects of an SDR (Sales Development Rep) to create and master specialized roles and processes to optimize the output of our lead generation services. When you hire SalesHive, you are not only getting dedicated reps here in the US, but also the power and knowledge of our entire team. Our contracts are month-to-month and we allow you to pilot us with zero risk during our free onboarding. We'll build out a full custom-tailored sales development strategy for your business during onboarding and get you introduced to your team before you make any final commitments to ensure you feel like SalesHive is the right partner for your outsourced sales development needs. Once you give us approval, our contracts are month-to-month rather than locking you into long-term contracts like most companies in our space.

Yes! There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. We have built out proven processes and technology that will feed your sales team qualified leads, so all they need to do is hold meetings and close the deals. We work very well with existing teams and also frequently work side-by-side with internal lead generation teams, by assisting with list building, optimization, email domain management, and goal tracking. Please note that we do not hold the meetings that we set, we only set the meetings, you still need a salesperson or sales team to hold the meetings and close the leads that we bring in with our outbound lead generation tactics.

Relying on referrals or inbounds is a risky move that can leave you with all of your eggs in one basket. Lead generation is a very difficult and very necessary aspect of any successful sales organization to ensure that you have multiple channels, both inbound and outbound, generating leads for your sales team. We feed sales meetings to our clients’ sales team using outbound lead generation channels (Email Marketing, LinkedIn Outreach, Direct Mail, and Cold Calling). Businesses cannot rely on the prospect to find them online, particularly when companies are in a crowded market or are new to the market and do not have a dominant online presence. This strategic approach keeps a steady stream of leads moving from multiple channels and is why outbound lead generation is so important for growing B2B companies. It is also a key aspect of growing brand recognition and awareness in new markets. While we fully believe inbound marketing is highly important, we strictly focus on outbound marketing because it’s what we’re experts at and don’t pretend to be experts at anything else just to check off the boxes.

SalesHive uses its own custom-built CRM and sales outreach platform for all email marketing, LinkedIn, reporting, and booked meeting tracking. One of the most exciting features of the platform is our multi-variate testing, which makes it simply the best A/B testing platform on the planet. It uses variables for every aspect of the email (subject, greeting, opener, call-to-action (CTA), closer, and any other custom variable you may need) to dynamically test thousands of email variations to optimize for the perfect email messaging. This messaging can then be translated across other channels to optimize LinkedIn and cold calling scripts as well. Our AI for variable testing can also automatically turn off low performing variables to help optimize campaigns and improve results in less time. Additionally, all SalesHive clients receive a login to our platform to track goals, meetings, contacts, and all sales outreach activity. You can also sync data with your CRM to track SalesHive outreach inside your internal Salesforce environment or any other CRM using our Zapier connection.

Channel effectiveness is highly dependant on the industry. We always recommend starting with every channel to figure out which channel is the most effective, and because it increases overall reach. Some prospects prefer to be contacted on specific channels or will be more responsive on a channel, and some contact data can only be found on specific channels, thus it is best to be on every channel. But, once you figure out what channels work best for your company’s sales outreach, then it is important to double or triple down on the best channel. Also, it is possible to simply maximize every channel to see the absolute best results, so while some channels may not be as cost-efficient you are still setting as many meetings as possible. Regarding cold calling, it can be good to start with 2 full or part-time callers as one may be less effective than the other. In order to get your true channel effectiveness for cold calling, it is best to have multiple cold callers. Similarly, it is important to optimize messaging before determining the overall channel effectiveness. It is also important to keep in mind that the most effective messaging can differ by channel, thus just because a script is working well for cold calling doesn’t mean that the same script dynamic will be the most effective script for LinkedIn or cold email/email marketing and visa versa.

When you work with SalesHive you get assigned a complete B2B Lead Generation Team at your service. First, you will be assigned a Sales Strategist that will meet with you weekly, build the entire strategy and documentation, create custom lists for your target market and target contacts, and set up A/B testing using our revolutionary variable testing AI. Then you will be assigned a Responder who responds to all the responses of the campaigns, schedules and reschedules sales meetings, handles all objections, and logs activity and meetings in the platform. Next, you will be assigned cold callers (telemarketers) to contact your top prospects in a systematic process using a power dialer and working with the Responder to set sales meetings and following up with potential meetings. While all of this is happening, you will be getting the full force of our industry-leading operations team that sets up and monitors your email domains to ensure deliverability, tracks open rates and monitors open tracking links, and ensures all campaigns are running smoothly and effectively.

Given the amount of energy, money, and headache that it takes to build a solid SDR team from scratch (with no promise it will ever work) many people find it makes far more sense to outsource this function, especially if outbound hasn’t even been proven as an effective channel to their business. In a survey conducted in early 2020 of several hundred VP’s of Sales/Marketing, 83% of internal sales development / SDR teams were found to not be hitting quota. When you factor in the average cost of a single SDR is over $75k annually and requires an average of 3 months to ramp, it’s hard to argue the benefits of outsourcing part or all of this function to a team of lead generation experts for B2B companies that can produce better results in less time and for less money. Our company consists of dedicated experts that specialize in every aspect of email marketing, sales development, and email operations. Don’t reinvent the wheel, just make it spin faster!

A B2B lead generation agency augments your team and performs sales prospecting, lead nurturing, and lead qualification. A top B2B lead generation agency can also grow your outbound leads, scale your efforts quickly and efficiently, and help you reach your business goals more consistently and without the obvious pitfalls that come with hiring, training, and managing an in-house sales development team.