Before diving into outreach sequences, let’s start with a joke:
4 people walk into a bar. The bartender, without asking for their order, serves everyone a Martini. Robert is happy with his drink, the others not so much. Does the bartender’s behavior seem obnoxious?
Well, that’s how it feels like when you use the same outreach sequence to everyone on that prospect list you just uploaded to Outreach. Not cool, right?
Everyone has their preference when it comes to emails. Yes, some of them are basic and apply to everyone (shorter, contextualized emails, etc.) but some preferences are not applicable to everyone. If you’re able to tap into the preferences of all these prospects, you can expect a higher response rate to your campaign. Sometimes by over 233%!
And guess what? Studies have shown that personality is a huge subconscious factor when it comes to purchase decisions.
Now enough with the small talk. Let’s look at some of the personality types and how to build personalized cadences that are going to help you book more meetings with each of them.
How Outreach Sequences work
A sequence in Outreach is a series of activities that drive deeper engagement with a Prospect. Sequences are a guide to ensuring the right sales activities are conducted and communications are sent to build a sales pipeline and close deals.
Step types in an Outreach Sequence
A step in a sequence can be of the following types:
Auto email
Emails are delivered automatically at the given time based on the template that you decide.
Manual email
A task is created to edit and send an email to the prospect. You can store some of the content snippets on the email for quickly sending it out.
Alternatively, you can store your snippets (aka shortcuts) in a text expander like FlyMSG from Vengreso.
Phone call
A task is created to call the prospect.
LinkedIn activities
Outreach lets you create multiple LinkedIn based tasks like view the prospect’s profile, interact with their post, send a message, send a connection request, etc.
How to decide the steps in an Outreach sequence
Outreach doesn’t tell you what steps to use in a sequence and leaves it to the judgment of the salesperson. However they do offer some templates that you can use based on the prospect type.
Science has shown that people with different personality types respond differently to different communication mediums and frequencies. Be it a phone call, email or social interaction.
Some people don’t mind a cold call but others prefer email first. Some respond well to social connections and others not so. And even with each of these mediums, there are different things to focus on based on personality.
Following a standard sequence to all your prospects will still get you mixed results, but you’re limiting your potential by doing so. If you want to increase your overall response rate, going that extra mile and incorporating personality based variations of your sequences will help you achieve that.
Now if you want to build such a sequence that converts, here’s our suggestion based on the personality of the prospect.
Note: Not only do you need to alter your sequence according to personality type, but also change your tone of delivery according to your buyer. A phone call to a Goal oriented prospect will be much different from one to a Relationship oriented prospect. We’ll write about tones of delivery in a future article.
Example Outreach Sequence: Goal-oriented prospects
If you’re familiar with the DISC personality framework, people with the personality type D tend to be highly goal oriented. They’re what you would call ‘Commanders’.
Writing to them about having gone to the same college or about ‘mutual connections’ is not going to move the needle. Instead focus on what your product/service can do to help them achieve their goals. They’re likely to respond to communication that shows them the end vision.
Planned calls work the best with them so drop an email first!
Here’s a simple 15-step sequence to use on your goal oriented prospects.
| Activity | Step Interval |
| Auto email – Introduction (formal) | Day 1 |
| LinkedIn connect | Day 1 |
| Phone call | Day 2 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 3 |
| Manual email – Talk about product impact and objective proof points | Day 5 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 5 |
| Phone call | Day 6 |
| Manual email – Talk about competitive differentiation | Day 8 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 10 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 12 |
| Auto email – Do a followup | Day 12 |
| Phone call | Day 15 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 18 |
| Auto email – Do a followup | Day 20 |
| Phone call | Day 20 |
Example Outreach Sequence: Relationship oriented prospects
Next up, we have the ‘Energizer’ – prospects with personality type I. You know, the ones that are high on energy and generally prefer to be friendly.
You might think showing ROI might work on all prospects. But here’s where you went wrong. This is what excites them – Talk to them about their team and how your product will help them do things better and easier. They don’t mind the cold-call during the right time.
Here’s a simple sequence to use on your relationship oriented prospects.
(They don’t mind the extra follow-ups but know when to stop)
| Activity | Step Interval |
| Manual email – Introduction (informal) | Day 1 |
| Phone call | Day 1 |
| LinkedIn connect | Day 2 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 2 |
| Manual email – Talk about their team and goals | Day 3 |
| Phone call | Day 5 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 6 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 7 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 9 |
| Phone call | Day 10 |
| Manual email – Talk about similar deals you’ve worked on | Day 12 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 14 |
| Auto email – Invite them for lunch | Day 14 |
| Phone call | Day 17 |
| Auto email – Follow up on that lunch invitation | Day 17 |
| View LinkedIn profile | Day 20 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 21 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 21 |
| Phone call | Day 23 |
| Auto email – Share a case study | Day 24 |
| Phone call | Day 25 |
Example Outreach Sequence: ROI oriented prospects
Now comes my personal favorite prospect type – The Yogis. Maybe that’s because I’m one 😁
Prospects high on S on the DISC scale prefer outreach to be formal and polite. Anything flashy and they’re out immediately. It’s better to be upfront with them and share information about the process and how it would address all concerns. If there are any pitfalls, talk about it too.
Here’s a sequence to use on your relationship oriented prospects.
| Activity | Step Interval |
| Auto email – Introduction (slightly formal) | Day 1 |
| Phone call | Day 2 |
| LinkedIn connect | Day 3 |
| Manual email – Talk about the outcomes and results | Day 4 |
| Manual email – Share a case study | Day 5 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 6 |
| Phone call | Day 7 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 8 |
| Auto email – Followup on the case study | Day 9 |
| Manual email – Send a different case study | Day 12 |
| LinkedIn message | Day 14 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 15 |
| Phone call | Day 17 |
| Phone call | Day 19 |
| View LinkedIn profile | Day 20 |
| Auto email – Send a third case study | Day 20 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 21 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 22 |
| Phone call | Day 24 |
| Manual email – Talk about the process and how it would address their problems | Day 24 |
Example Outreach Sequence: Risk Averse prospects
Calculative prospects who look into every little detail? They are – The Critic. Any little fluff and they’ll not talk to you again. You’ll really need to focus on the details and make extra efforts to not seem pushy or confrontational.
They usually prefer emails at first and might get into a zone of resistance with a cold call. So keep that in mind!
Here’s a 10 step sequence to use on your risk averse prospects.
| Activity | Step Interval |
| Auto email – Introduction (very formal) | Day 1 |
| View LinkedIn profile | Day 1 |
| Phone call | Day 3 |
| Manual email – Talk about facts and numbers. Share a case study. | Day 4 |
| LinkedIn connect | Day 6 |
| Manual email – Tell them about the ROI they can expect | Day 6 |
| Phone call | Day 7 |
| Manual email – Talk about competition (both in terms of features and pricing) | Day 8 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 10 |
| Auto email – Follow Up email | Day 12 |
| View LinkedIn profile | Day 14 |
| Interact with LinkedIn post | Day 15 |
| Auto email – Share another case study | Day 19 |
| Phone call | Day 20 |
Knowing how to segment your prospects for outreach sequences
Now how do you know which cadence to use for which prospect? After all, we haven’t even interacted with any of them.
Personality AI enters the chat.
With modern AI technology, predicting the personality of your prospect becomes a cakewalk. And the accuracy? Nothing short of astounding! Experts believe that it’s even better than human judgment (without the bias).
Here’s how you can integrate your Outreach account with Humantic Personality AI to get the personality data of all your prospects right within your engagement platform. So you can run personalized sequences that are sure to book you more meetings.
