B2B Agility™ Podcast Episode #36: Knowing When and How to Automate Your Sales Processes with Joshua Garrison, Apollo
Release Date: January 21, 2025
In Episode #36 of B2B Agility™, host Greg Kilstrom delves into the intricate balance between automation and human touch in sales processes with Joshua Garrison, Vice President of Content Marketing at Apollo and author of the Amazon bestseller Outbound Sales. This episode offers valuable insights for B2B marketers and sales professionals aiming to enhance their sales strategies through effective automation without compromising the personal connections essential for success.
1. Joshua Garrison’s Journey and Role at Apollo
Joshua begins by outlining his diverse career trajectory, transitioning from a successful sales career to entrepreneurship, facing both successes and failures. His journey led him to Apollo, where he now spearheads the content marketing organization and the product education team. Joshua emphasizes the unique blend of his sales expertise and marketing acumen that allows him to lead initiatives encompassing the academy, knowledge base, blogs, webinars, and social media.
“Now at Apollo, I lead our content marketing organization and our product education team. So that's our academy, our knowledge base, our blogs, our webinars, our social media, all of that rolls into me.”
[02:04] Joshua Garrison
2. Balancing Automation with the Human Touch in Sales
Greg initiates the discussion by addressing the challenge of determining which parts of the sales process to automate and which require a human touch. Joshua advocates for a phased approach:
- Manual First: Understand and execute sales processes manually to identify what truly works.
- Scale with Automation: Once effective strategies are identified, implement automation to handle repetitive tasks, allowing the sales team to focus on higher-value activities.
“First you have to figure out how to do it manually. ... Once you've done that and found what's actually working for you, for your business, you take that and you scale it with automation.”
[03:37] Joshua Garrison
Greg concurs, highlighting the necessity of knowing both what can be automated and what necessitates personal interaction.
“Once you know what success is, then yeah, like automate that. You probably also know what can be automated as well as what might need human touch as well.”
[05:11] Greg Kilstrom
3. Effective Sales Automation Strategies
Joshua elaborates on specific areas where automation can significantly impact sales efficiency:
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Lead Scoring: Automate the identification of leads that are genuinely in the market for your product by analyzing indicators such as company activity, competitor movements, and relevant themes in their communications.
“I'm gonna create an ... AI agent to go look at all of their posts on LinkedIn and all of their colleagues posts and see what the themes are.”
[06:54] Joshua Garrison -
Deal Management: Implement automation to ensure continuous follow-up and progression of deals, preventing opportunities from falling through the cracks during prolonged sales cycles.
“If an opportunity is open and it hasn't been touched in three days, add a task ... to make sure you don't let things fall apart.”
[08:11] Joshua Garrison
4. Insights from Outbound Sales
Joshua discusses key email automation strategies from his book that aim to deliver results beyond mere time savings:
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Persona-Based Prospecting: Define clear criteria for ideal leads and use automation tools like Apollo to continuously identify and qualify new prospects based on these personas.
“I'm only interested in people with these titles and companies like this who also have these four or five criteria.”
[09:58] Joshua Garrison -
Sequenced Outreach: For high-value leads, initiate contact manually to personalize the first interaction, followed by automated sequences for subsequent touchpoints to maintain engagement without overwhelming resources.
“The first email's job is to get you in the door and explain your value prop. The second email's job is to put that back at the top of the inbox.”
[09:58] Joshua Garrison -
Personalization Through Automation: Utilize variables in automated emails to maintain relevance and personal touch, ensuring that automated messages resonate with the recipient.
“Hey Greg, I was looking at your site, I noticed B2B agility is growing. You're hiring for a producer. I'm a producer. Can we talk?”
[12:45] Joshua Garrison
5. Prioritizing Your Pipeline for Increased Meetings
Referencing his book, Joshua emphasizes the importance of prioritizing leads to maximize meeting bookings:
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Focus on the Top 3%: Concentrate efforts on leads that are most likely to convert, ensuring that high-quality prospects receive the attention they deserve.
“Sales is not a numbers game. It's a math game.”
[15:41] Joshua Garrison -
Questioning Outreach Purpose: Encourage sales teams to evaluate the reasons behind each outreach attempt, ensuring that each contact is purposeful and aligned with achieving sales targets.
“Ask the why. And then that's going to naturally lead you to prioritizing those best fit people first.”
**[13:21] Greg Kilstrom]
6. The Power of Social Selling and Multi-Channel Outreach
Joshua advocates for a diversified approach to sales outreach:
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Multi-Channel Engagement: Combining emails, cold calls, and social media interactions significantly increases the likelihood of booking meetings.
“People who send emails, phone calls, and social touches, 70% of them book a meeting.”
[16:31] Joshua Garrison -
Social Listening Over Posting: For those uncomfortable with active social media posting, leveraging social listening to identify and engage with prospects in relevant conversations can be highly effective without the need for personal postings.
“You don't have to be an influencer to be influential.”
[20:18] Joshua Garrison
7. Emerging Sales Trends: The Rise of AI and the Importance of Human Relationships
Looking ahead to 2025, Joshua predicts a surge in AI-driven sales automation but cautions against over-reliance on technology:
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AI Integration: While AI can enhance sales processes, it’s crucial to maintain genuine human relationships to differentiate from competitors relying solely on automation.
“If you want to stand out, be human.”
[22:31] Joshua Garrison -
Human-Centric Strategies: Emphasizing relationship-building, in-person interactions, and providing personalized value remains paramount in an increasingly automated sales landscape.
“Sales has always been about relationships and about solving problems for people.”
[24:11] Joshua Garrison
8. Staying Agile in Sales Roles
Joshua shares his personal strategies for maintaining agility and staying relevant in his role:
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Continuous Engagement: Actively using Apollo’s platform, connecting with prospects, and participating in industry conversations ensures he remains attuned to market dynamics.
“I dog food Apollo. To find people to talk to, to interview them, ... that keeps me relevant.”
[26:10] Joshua Garrison
Conclusion
This episode of B2B Agility™ offers a comprehensive exploration of how automation can be effectively integrated into sales processes without sacrificing the essential human elements that drive successful relationships and conversions. Joshua Garrison's insights, grounded in his experience and expertise, provide actionable strategies for B2B marketers and sales professionals striving to enhance their sales operations in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
“Put yourself in the 0.1%. Good things will happen.”
[25:58] Joshua Garrison
To learn more about Joshua Garrison and his work at Apollo, listeners are encouraged to explore his book Outbound Sales and follow Apollo's initiatives for cutting-edge sales strategies.