Néstor Palao

Here is the checklist to fix your outbound sales. Every outbound team I've worked with lately had at least 7 of these 9 problems. Not every company has all of these. But many have more than they think. --------- 1️⃣ Fix Positioning & Value Prop Positioning: what is it that you are the best at and for who? Very precisely. Your value prop has to answer one thing: how much does the client make or save with your product and how? ❌ "Software that helps your HR team work more efficiently." ✅ "We cut time-to-hire from 45 to 28 days. For a company hiring 20 people a year, that's €80K saved." This is key, in order for you to show the business case and the ROI. 2️⃣ Narrow Your ICP 2–3 Levels Deeper ICP = Ideal Customer Profile Find the exact customer that loves your product because it helps them so much. It's tied with your positioning and value prop. Also, find the trigger: the moment a company goes from "might buy someday" to "I need it now." A company hiring a particular job. That just raised money. Etc. ❌ "Software companies, 50–500 employees." ✅ "Software companies, 50–500 employees, hiring +3 people right now, growing fast, based in Europe, overwhelmed with so many hirings." 3️⃣ Build Lead Scoring & Tiering This is where you prioritize the companies you've identified as potential customers. A scoring and tiering system. More points/higher tier = better fit. This helps close deals faster and avoid losing time on bad fits. A = perfect fit + trigger. B = good fit, no trigger. C = everything else. 80% of your team's time goes to A leads only. 4️⃣ Use 2026 Prospecting Tools Here I usually use Clay or custom with Claude Code. It makes getting potential clients 100x easier. And doing the initial research and prioritization really easy. It makes the difference between targeting the right companies or spending months on the wrong ones. 5️⃣ Personalize outreach with enrichment Don't just get these companies and stay on the surface If you have detected 4–5 key parameters about potential clients, do the research with these tools. Enrich them. Prioritize them. Then do a very personalized outreach. ❌ "Hi [First Name], I wanted to reach out about your sales process." ✅ "Saw you just hired 3 SDRs and moved off HubSpot. Here's exactly when we help." 6️⃣ Set Up Your CRM Properly Whether it's HubSpot, Attio or whatever. Be disciplined here. Structured. It's important for visibility and reporting. 7️⃣ Set Output & Input-Based KPIs Output goals tell you if it's working. Input KPIs tell you where to look and what to fix. Focus on input goals and sales executive capacity. Deals will follow. ❌ "Close 5 deals this month." ✅ "20 sequences/week, 40 calls/day, 8 meetings/month per AE." 8️⃣ Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome No new AI tool or Claude prompt will change your pipeline generation or close rate overnight. Focus on the basics first. Use the minimum tools necessary to run a good process. Then get moving. Later iterate. 9️⃣ Build Daily & Weekly Sales Rituals Treat your sales team as a team. Daily standups. Weekly pipeline reviews with shared call recordings. Stop having your sales reps go on their own and make sales a team sport in your company. It will be the best thing for you and for them. ------------- Almost every outbound problem I've seen traces back to these steps. Particularly: acting with almost no information, not prioritizing well enough, and not following a well-established process. Or using outdated tools. If you manage a sales team, save this. If it can help someone, tag them. What would you add? Any tool or process you'd call non-negotiable? And if anything here is unclear, you disagree, or you want to go deeper on any step, drop it in the comments. Happy to answer!

This is so bad ass. I don’t even know what else to say.