SDR Superhero Episode 7: Thilde Larsen & Connor Higgins @ Zscaler

Meet Connor Higgins and Thilde Larsen, two of the top-performing SDRs at Zscaler. In this episode, they chat about their best tips for success. 

What’s the craftiest way you were able to get a meeting booked?

Thilde: The craftiest way I was able to book a meeting is probably through sending out a video message. 

After sending multiple emails and making multiple calls, and the prospect still hadn’t responded, I decided to record a more personalized video message.

The prospect actually found my video quite catchy, and he thanked me for being creative. I find that sending out something more personal and visual, such as a video, is great, especially for those accounts that may be hard to break. 

What’s the craziest response you’ve gotten from an email?

Connor: The craziest response I've ever received happened during my second month working.

There was a company that we were trying to outbound, so I sent this person of interest an email. 

The email I got back was probably five paragraphs long. He went into this whole rant on how I'm new, so he'll give me a break on it, but I should know better and that they're a competitor of ours, which they're not.

He said that our company and his company are going to be competing in the near future, and that if I wanted to have a meeting with them, then we would need to bring lawyers, because it would be a conflict of interest. 

He went on to tell me how I should properly research companies before emailing them. He pulled a couple of things from my LinkedIn being like, “you should've known this, you should've known this.” 

It was such a fantastic email to read that I actually sent it around to a couple of people just so they could have a laugh.

What’s your favorite subject line?

Thilde: For subject lines, I like to keep it pretty simple. One that has been pretty successful for me is adding the prospect's name, maybe my name, and then addressing that it's going to be a call.

Typically I like to keep it pretty short, so that it also gives you more space to see the actual content of the email. Short is always best. 

What’s the best sales advice you’ve received?

Connor: The best piece of sales advice I've ever received is to add value.

So the idea of not trying to sell, but to try and demonstrate value so they understand why they might want to use. 

What really sticks out for me is how Apple sells its products at their keynotes. They don't say, “This is how we're better than this company or this company.” They just show you what they've done.

And then everyone sort of learns to love or is interested in what they do because of the value they've just seen. 

So that's a huge one for me, I’m always trying to add value, which builds trust with the person you're speaking with. 

And I think it also just helps you sell the product. If you have a great product, which we do.