As the founder of a software agency, I had to manage the same balancing act between enough employees and enough projects for years. Many agency owners know the situation: you win a project and hire employees for it. In the end, the project is not extended and of course you don't immediately have a suitable follow-up project for the employees. The solution is a predictable sales pipeline, but this requires a lot of time, which you rarely have in your day-to-day business - but there is also usually no money for a dedicated sales or marketing department. This is where AI-based marketing comes into play. With the help of AI agents, cold calling campaigns can be automated within a short space of time, putting the sales pipeline on autopilot.
Cold outbound steps for agencies
Depending on the target group, a targeted cold acquisition campaign can be carried out either by telephone, email or on social media, such as LinkedIn or Instagram. The following steps are typically required to plan and implement such a campaign:
1. Segmentation of the target group
- Analysis of existing customers to understand their specific goals and challenges.
- Formation of target group segments based on similar characteristics and needs.
2. Identification of target accounts
- Researching and selecting companies that are similar to the existing customers analyzed and may have similar challenges.
3. Finding contact persons
- Identifying the relevant decision-makers within the target companies, e.g. via company websites, LinkedIn or specialized databases.
4. Obtaining contact data
- Collection of the e-mail addresses or LinkedIn profiles of the identified contact persons to enable a direct approach.
5. Running the outbound campaign
- Creating and sending personalized messages that address the specific needs and challenges of the target companies.
6. Analysis and optimization
- Measuring the results of the campaign (e.g. open and response rates).
- Analyze the data obtained to further refine the strategy and increase the effectiveness of future campaigns.
Creating a predictable sales pipeline
Continuous outbound campaigns make the sales pipeline more predictable, as conversion rates can be measured precisely at every step. Based on a monthly target, such as a new customer, it is possible to calculate how many contacts need to be approached. In the example shown, 800 contacts are required to acquire a customer, based on the specific conversion rates per step. These values vary depending on the campaign, but reliable key figures can be determined through long-term observation and analysis. This is the decisive lever that agencies have to ensure continuous capacity utilization and manage growth sustainably.
Automating cold outbound campaigns with Venta
As can be seen from the previous example, it is necessary to address several hundred contacts per month in order to achieve relevant results. However, this can be extremely time-consuming, which is why automation is essential. This is where Venta comes into play, a software for the targeted execution of B2B campaigns using artificial intelligence. The following steps can be automated with Venta:
1. Segmentation of the target group
Venta's AI agent helps to automatically research information about companies on the internet and identify similarities between companies. For example, companies with certain certificates, an active social media presence or specific vacancies can be filtered.
2. Identification of target accounts Based on the criteria identified in step 1, Venta's autopilot can automatically find new potential customers that fit the defined segments. Venta can be set to automatically add a certain number of companies to the pipeline every week.
3. Finding contact persons
Venta uses freely definable personas to automatically find suitable contacts in the identified companies that are relevant to the campaign.
4. Obtaining contact data
Through integration with multiple databases and proprietary research capabilities, Venta finds the email addresses, LinkedIn profiles and phone numbers of identified contacts.
5. Running the outbound campaign
Venta enables the automatic execution of email and LinkedIn campaigns to target the identified contacts.
6. Analysis and optimization
Venta not only measures response rates, but also analyzes how many contacts have responded positively, are interested or not interested, and the reasons behind any rejections. This enables continuous optimization of the campaigns.
To summarize, the balancing act between enough projects and enough employees is one of the biggest challenges for agencies. A predictable sales pipeline is key to overcoming this challenge, but building such a pipeline often requires more time and resources than agencies have available in their day-to-day business. This is where Venta comes in, an AI-based software that automates the entire cold calling process. From target group segmentation and identification of new customers to contacting and success monitoring - Venta takes care of all the steps, ensuring continuous and predictive utilization.
If you would like to find out how Venta can help your agency to build an efficient and automated sales pipeline, please book an appointment at www.getventa.ai or contact me directly at lucas@getventa.ai
