66: The Permission Slap
Read time: 3min
Today you’re getting a proven messaging tactic that can easily double your responses.
Agenda
What is the permissions slap?
My results using it
Tips to make it work for you
Before we get started, grab your seat at the upcoming GTM Games - I’ll be sharing live prospecting tactics :)
The GTM Games are brought to you by Wynter.
Wanna earn some easy cash? Wynter will pay you for literally minutes of your time.
It’s as simple as 3 steps:
Take a 5-15min survey (giving feedback on different websites, creatives, or sales copy)
Get paid $10-$100 (that comes up to $120 to $600/hr)
Go get your bread.
What is the permission slap?
Credit to Harry Sims for the idea. He’s a 10+ year prospecting pro and I highly recommend his newsletter.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the polarizing “pitch slap”. Which I actually don’t mind in certain contexts.
But in my experience, it doesn’t work at scale because no one wants to be pitched right away. They need to be eased into it.
That’s why the permission slap works.
You’re asking for the prospect’s permission and piquing their curiosity with a relevant topic.
So what does it look like?
Here’s an example from Tyler Washington at Falkon. He made a lot of noise on LinkedIn after using it to book Kevin Dorsey:
And if you’re thinking this only works on B2B sales personas, not so fast!
Florin Tatulea recently wrote about how he started 54 cold conversations that led to 10 meetings booked.
He sells compensation software to HR personas.
Wanna know how he did it? You guessed it.
The permission slap.
You can read the full article here (I highly recommend his newsletter as well). But to summarize, his message was this:
“Hey [name] - mind if I ask your expert opinion on a potentially silly comp related question?”
Obviously, swap "comp" for whatever category of product/service you sell.
My results using it
My team has used the permission slap in two ways:
#1 Video CTAs: “if it’s interesting, can I share a 1min video?”
I covered this in the last newsletter. It roughly doubled our reply rates.
#2 Our first LinkedIn message
The first step in our sequence has always been LinkedIn connection request with no message.
Now we’re attaching the following message:
I sent around 50 of these last week (10/day) and booked 4 meetings so far.
Here are a few things to note:
Sometimes prospects will accept my connection request but won’t respond to my message. In that case, I respond: “Thanks for connecting. Should I send the video?”
If I don’t get an answer after a few days, I’ll send the video anyway.
If they ask for the video then don’t respond after watching it, I’ll follow up on phone and email. Here’s my email:
Subject Line: From linkedin
{{first}} - re: my message on LinkedIn. SDR teams use our tech to get 7%+ reply rates on cold email.
It involves boosting your reputation with Gmail and Outlook. As well as some AI messaging tactics.
Mind if I share a <1min video to explain how?
Thanks!
But I get it…
I have a large following on LinkedIn. Many of them are sales leaders. So my results are probably inflated.
Well, one of our SDRs, Lina Castaño, sent out ~80 of these last week and got 16 responses. That’s a 20% response rate!
And Cesar Velez booked 3 meetings in one day using a slightly more direct version of the permission slap:
Tips to make it work for you
Two things make the permission slap successful:
#1: asking a question related to a relevant problem.
My team A/B tested 3 different problem questions. We settled on the one you saw above.
Same thing with Tyler’s message. It was a relevant problem.
Study your personas, list out the top 3 problems you solve for them, and see which one converts.
#2: using unsure phrases
In Florin’s example, he used “potentially silly”. In mine, “unconventional”.
This makes your prospect curious… Why is it silly? Why is it unconventional?
Thanks for reading,
Jed
P.S. Want more? There are 2 ways I can help you:
Upgrade to my paid plan and receive 60+ archives, two eBooks & access to my Q&A (subscribe below)
Promote your company to nearly 10,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter (respond to this email)