By Dr Lee Eccleshare, AMPLYFI
Outreach opportunities for financial services firms often arise from market signals, such as rumours of mergers and acquisitions. However, the moment these updates make headlines in the mainstream news, salespeople across the sector scramble to capitalise on the opportunity. The key to success lies in acting swiftly and ensuring that outreach efforts are both timely and relevant.
Teams may have a clear understanding of what they want to sell and who their target audience is, but the true challenge is determining how and when to effectively engage with them.
As a result, relationship and key account managers in the financial services industry find themselves sifting through vast amounts of data to identify the most promising targets. Once the right prospects have been pinpointed, the real test is engaging them at the optimal moment. Finding this sweet spot is no easy task, but it is crucial for building trust and establishing strong, long-lasting relationships with potential clients.
The importance of a relationship-focused approach in financial services
Our own research has found that a quarter of B2B buyers (24%) consider a ‘relationship-focused’ sales strategy to be the most effective way to engage them. This is particularly crucial in the financial services industry where trust and credibility are paramount. To succeed with this approach, sales representatives must demonstrate a deep understanding of their prospect’s organisation and wider financial landscape, going beyond surface-level knowledge such as “you mentioned news about an M&A.” They must also incorporate industry-specific insights, as buyers place a higher value on industry knowledge than product knowledge (28% vs 24%) when it comes to outreach.
However, conducting the extensive research necessary to effectively implement this strategy is a time-consuming process, and relationship and key account managers in financial services often find themselves constrained by limited resources. The result is a reliance on generic, ‘light touch’ email templates that fail to capture the attention of busy decision-makers. These emails often end up neglected in prospects’ junk folders, unable to break through the noise in an industry inundated with sales outreach.
The stakes are high in the financial services sector where a single deal can represent millions in revenue. With a staggering 66% of sales professionals believing that they could achieve their targets more easily if they had additional time to conduct thorough research, maintaining the status quo is no longer a viable option.
The pitfalls of generic email outreach
Email has become a double-edged sword for sales professionals. The average B2B decision-maker receives a staggering 11 cold sales emails per day, with countless more likely being caught by spam filters.
The combination of uninspired sales templates and mounting time pressures has transformed inboxes into virtual junkyards, where finding anything of value is a rare occurrence. A significant majority of sales representatives – nearly 90% – admit that the pressure to meet targets hinders their ability to personalise outreach efforts, resulting in generic, one-size-fits-all emails that often fail to resonate with their intended audience.
Desperate to overcome these obstacles, sales teams have resorted to various tactics to capture attention, such as including the recipient’s name in the subject line, employing quirky one-liners, and experimenting with different email formats and lengths.
However, in an industry as serious as financial services, where emoji-filled subject lines are more likely to raise eyebrows than interest, the question remains: how can email be used effectively for outreach?
The answer: AI in market intelligence
The solution to this email outreach conundrum lies in providing key account managers with critical information on markets and prospects, without the need for countless hours spent scouring various channels.
Fortunately, this is no longer a mere pipe dream, but a reality made possible by AI where financial service teams can take market signals, contextualise them to their organisation and drive more effective outreach with less effort.
Effective outreach in this context involves adopting a multi-threaded approach, tailoring communications to different stakeholders and providing them with contextual information.
By leveraging AI-powered market intelligence, financial service teams can breathe new life into email outreach and unlock the full potential of this valuable sales tool. With insights into relevant stakeholders at their fingertips, sales professionals can craft thoughtful, high-value communications that genuinely benefit each recipient, rather than resorting to a “spray and pray” approach that yields little success.
The future of financial services outreach
As AI continues to revolutionise the financial services industry, the potential for transforming outreach efforts is immense and growing increasingly important, especially in a crowded marketplace.
The ability to identify and capitalise on opportunities before they become common knowledge, coupled with the capacity to engage prospects with personalised, relevant information, will set successful firms apart.
