Old-school sales leaders - you might want to plug your ears on this one.

Data is king. In every aspect of business, in almost every industry, data is now the calculator, the calibrator, the informer. It's not smooth talking skills, a strong handshake, a big rolodex, or whatever B2B sales method that you used to land sales appointments as recently as a decade ago.

Whether you like it or not, outbound sales is now a data-driven acquisition channel. Testing, pivoting, and examining engagement from outbound campaigns can deliver so much beyond a sales appointment (though, we know that is an important metric). We're talking market insights, buyer pain points, competitor intelligence - you name it.

That being said, outbound success is no longer the old linear equation: thousands of prospects into a funnel spitting out X percentage of sales appointments to an account executive's calendar. Success is uncovering a better decision maker within your segment base that you never knew about, it's learning why multiple prospects choose one product over another to improve your own product, it's discovering that LinkedIn messages convert at a 4x higher rate than emailing or calling. All hypotheticals of course and custom to every company.

Measuring outbound success for us at Leadium is in the data. Again, we understand setting qualified appointments is a big KPI for our clients, but looking at multiple data points helps us steer the ship for success and shows us and the client indisputable truth on what is working and what isn't.
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What Is an Outbound Campaign?

An outbound campaign, or outbound sales, is the process of reaching out to prospective clients and delivering sales pitches in hopes of nailing a sales appointment. Rather than waiting for a prospect to come to you (which is known as an inbound campaign), you do the work to secure your clients.

One of the most well-known outbound sales tactics is cold calling. With today’s technology, multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns are becoming the intelligent standard to engage with prospects. We're talking a strategic mix of email, calling, LinkedIn messaging, video messaging, and even gifting. An outbound campaign allows you to make personal contact with prospects and control the pace of selling. Measuring multi-channel metrics also provides you with more immediate feedback. 

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Now that we understand outbound sales isn't just dialing for dollars anymore, but rather a multi-channel and strategic campaign, let's take a look at just some of the data points we at Leadium use to examine to measure success.

A reminder - this is actually not an exhaustive list! While we are sharing 17 data points here, our team of experienced SDRs are analyzing way more - and delivering those insights to our clients. These should get you started though if you are just now building a framework for your internal sales development.
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The 17 Data Points We Analyze

1. Number of People within Each Account Contacted

Emailing allows you to contact a larger number of people in a shorter amount of time. If you’re only reaching out to a few people, you may not be getting the sales you’re hoping for.

2. Name and Titles of Decision-Makers Spoken To

You should know who you’re pitching to. This can help you more effectively personalize emails.
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3. Number of Follow-Up Emails Sent

You likely need to send more than one email. Keep in mind that while you want to accelerate the sales process, you also want to avoid coming off as impersonal. Balance is important.

4. Email Open Rate (OR)

This metric looks at the percentage of emails sent that are opened. The higher your percentage, the more of your emails are being opened. Which also usually means that you’re rocking the subject line game. Is it low? Your subject line is the first place you need to test.

5. Number of Email Bounces

The higher your percentage of bounced emails, the more likely you are to have your emails flagged by spam servers. This is not good for your domain reputation and can impact any emails coming from your domain into any inbox. At Leadium, we take domain reputation seriously.

6. Number of Positive Replies

Positive replies are exactly what you’re looking for. A prospect has either agreed to a sales appointment right then and there or they have replied with some sort of interest. Maybe they find what you have to say interesting but need a couple more weeks before connecting again. Everything that you do should optimize for this reaction. 
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7. Number of “No Thank You” Replies

Some people will say no. If too many are giving “no thank you” replies, though, it may be time to test different variables within your email. Look at each section as a test variable and alter one at a time. The intro line may need tweaking. Perhaps the value proposition isn’t quite hitting the mark. Maybe you want to play with trying new brand messaging.

8. Number of “Not My Role/Department” Replies

Sometimes you’ll reach people who aren’t the decision-makers. You can use these replies as an opportunity to get connected with someone who does make the decisions.

9. Number of Objection Replies

While not ideal, objection replies still provide opportunities. You may be able to work into deeper conversations that can turn into positive replies.

10. Email Click Through Rate (CTR)

Your email CTR is the number of people who have clicked on a link in your message divided by the number of emails you send. This rate can help you to assess the effectiveness of your campaign. It is also another metric that really tells you if you are providing the right content in your email. Maybe you have 2 links in your email: one to a case study and one to your demo page. If you see that the case study is getting a way higher CTR, optimize for that. You see your prospects like seeing real customer stories. Incorporate those stories in your emails or maybe link to more case studies.