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Beyond the Mail Merge: How to Master True Relevance in B2B Sales | Leslie Venetz - 2033

The Sales Evangelist

31m
Transcript

Original podcast

Summary

Written by a model from the transcript; not yet reviewed.

In this episode, the host speaks with author and sales expert Lesley Venetz about mastering true relevance in B2B sales and moving away from outdated, self-centered sales tactics. They explore the pitfalls of fake personalization and mail-merge strategies that merely read back news to prospects without connecting to their actual business pain. Venetz argues that achieving genuine relevance requires de-centering the product and utilizing a five-filter segmentation method to align outreach with the specific outcomes and emotional states of buyers. Listeners get an actionable masterclass on balancing the science of data-driven targeting with the art of human connection.

  • Audit your sales messaging to eliminate self-centered language and shift the focus to the prospect's needs. 27:55
  • Use a five-filter segmentation method starting with firmographics to target specific accounts effectively. 13:03
  • Avoid fake personalization tactics like simply reading the news back to a prospect without connecting it to their goals. 8:12
  • Deploy cadence sequences to tell a story about outcomes across multiple touchpoints rather than packing everything into one email. 18:55

Chapters

  1. 0:00
    Episode Introduction and Sponsorships

    Host opens with sponsor messages and sets the stage for the episode.

  2. 2:15
    Host Introduces Guest Lesley Venetz

    Donald Kelly welcomes Lesley Venetz and highlights her new book and background.

  3. 4:00
    Lesley Explains Motivation for Writing a Book

    Lesley discusses her calling to share knowledge and the influence of mentor Andy Paul.

  4. 5:46
    Defining Relevance in B2B Sales

    Lesley and Donald explore what relevance means and why it's essential for modern sales.

  5. 7:21
    Fake Relevance and Personalization Pitfalls

    Lesley outlines common fake personalization tactics and their limitations.

  6. 13:03
    Segmentation for True Relevance

    Lesley introduces a five-filter segmentation method to target prospects accurately.

  7. 13:38
    Applying Segmentation: Case Study Example

    Lesley walks through a healthcare client example, showing how segmentation changes messaging.

  8. 23:26
    Balancing Science and Art in Sales

    Lesley and Donald discuss integrating data-driven strategies with human connection.

  9. 27:42
    Practical Steps for Sales Leaders

    Lesley offers actionable advice for leaders to audit and improve their team's relevance.

  10. 29:44
    Resources and Closing Remarks

    Host summarizes key takeaways, promotes Lesley's book, and signs off.

Highlights

  • 4:42

    Overcoming Limiting Beliefs in Writingstory

    The guest discusses how mentor Andy Paul helped her overcome limiting beliefs about writing a sales book and encouraged her to share her unique perspective.

  • 7:21

    The Evolution of Personalizationinsight

    The guest reflects on using early mail-merge strategies in 2012 that felt groundbreaking at the time but have since evolved into ineffective tactics.

  • 8:57

    The 10% Relevance Ruledata

    The guest notes from auditing thousands of sales messages that only about ten percent actually connect personalization to why it matters to the prospect.

  • 15:17

    Narrowing Target Demographicsstrategy

    The guest explains how narrowing email outreach from general IT executives down strictly to the CIO increased reply rates by over twelve percent.

  • 26:23

    More Is Not a Strategydebate

    The guest argues that when times get tough, companies wrongly default to hiring more reps and sending more emails instead of adopting a real strategy.

Quotes

  • “The biggest, I think, challenge for sellers is that they are so centered.”
    Unnamed speaker · 6:04
  • “I audit, just like you, I mean, I audit hundreds, probably thousands of people's sales messaging every single year.”
    Unnamed speaker · 8:51
  • “If you are not crystal clear on who you are speaking to.”
    Unnamed speaker · 12:34
  • “And I think that will give you not just the gut check, but give you some of that science, give you some of that data to say, hey, I didn't feel like our emails were very self-centered seller centered.”
    Unnamed speaker · 28:06
  • “More is not a strategy, that does not work.”
    Unnamed speaker · 26:23
  • HubSpot 0:00–0:44
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator 0:46–1:26
  • Blue Mango Studios 1:03–1:42

About this episode

Only 10 percent of sales messages actually explain why something should matter to the buyer. The other 90 percent are just decoration on a generic pitch. That stat comes from Leslie Venetz https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslievenetz, who audits thousands of sales messages every year and just released her USA Today bestseller, Profit-Generating Pipeline. She broke down what real relevance looks like, and the exact method she uses to build it. What Relevance Actually Means (And Why Most Sellers Miss It) Leslie defines relevance simply: a message has to be relevant to the person receiving it, not to the seller sending it. The biggest problem she sees is that most outreach centers on the seller's process, product, and company goals instead of the buyer. When she audits sales messaging, and she reviews thousands of messages a year, only about 10 percent actually explain why a piece of information should matter to the prospect. The Mail Merge Era: When "Fake Personalization" Felt Like Magic Back around 2012, Leslie ran a basic mail merge strategy that felt groundbreaking at the time. Prospects were genuinely impressed just to see their name and company pulled into an email. That tactic hasn't disappeared. It's evolved into things like mentioning a prospect's new job title or congratulating them on a funding round. The problem is the same one it's always been: something can be true about a prospect without being relevant to them right now. Personalization Versus Relevance Leslie draws a clear distinction: personalization is a fact about the prospect. Relevance is why that fact should matter to them today. I shared my own experience of digging through my inbox after the pandemic and realizing most pitches weren't even relevant to my actual role, let alone my actual problems. The real gap, in Leslie's words, is that most sellers never get into the buyer's emotional state, the specific pressure a person is under right now, not just their job title or industry. The Earn the Right Philosophy: De-Centering Yourself From the Pitch Leslie's core philosophy is called Earn the Right: before asking for a meeting, a call, or a contract, a seller has to earn the right to that person's attention. That means shifting language away from "I'm an account executive at [Company] and we sell [Feature]" toward messaging built entirely around the buyer's specific situation and outcome. The shift shows up in something as simple as word choice. Leslie says the biggest difference she sees in client messaging is emails that stop being about I, we, and our, and start being about you and your. The Five-Filter Segmentation Method Leslie's starting point for anyone new to territory planning is the five-filter method: four firmographic filters plus one demographic filter, layered together to turn a broad list into a hyper-specific one. She recommends starting with the demographic filter first, since narrowing a title, like going from "IT executives" down to just "CIO," forces a seller to ask what that exact role actually cares about. That one change alone, narrowing from a broad title to a specific one, has increased reply rates by more than 12 percent for her clients. A Real Client Example: Narrowing a Healthcare IT List Leslie walked through a real example from a global software company: a list originally aimed at "IT executives in healthcare" got narrowed down using all five filters. The firmographic filters included US-only, hospitals specifically, revenue between 100 million and a billion dollars, and customer service departments over 100 people. They also added a signal: whether the hospital had missed a recent best-of list. That detail alone reframed the entire pitch around better patient outcomes and service rankings, instead of generic product features. Shorter Emails, Longer Cadences A common mistake Leslie sees even after sellers embrace outcome-focused messaging: trying to cram everything they want to say into a single email. Her fix is to trust the cadence. Spread the story about a buyer's likely outcomes across multiple touches instead of one dense pitch. That shift also means holding off on a hard call to action early in a sequence, and letting later touches carry more of that weight. Why "More" Isn't a Strategy When results slow down, Leslie sees most teams reach for the same lever: hire more reps, send more emails, make more calls. Her pushback is direct: more is never the answer on its own, because it skips the harder work of understanding who you're actually talking to. Good segmentation is what makes every other activity, calls, emails, cadences, actually worth doing in the first place. The Marriage of Art and Science in Sales Leslie pushes back on using AI as a way to fully remove the seller from the process. If a prospect is expected to give their time and attention to a reply, the seller owes them a message that was actually written with care. The science side is the data: confirming you're talking to the right person, at the right account, about the right thing. The art side is judgment: knowing that just because something is technically personalized, like mentioning a promotion, doesn't mean it's the most relevant or human thing to say next. One Thing to Do Right Now to Get More Relevant Leslie's starting point for any sales leader: audit your current sales messaging and count how often it uses I, we, my, and our instead of you and your. That audit gives you real data on how self-centered your outreach actually is, even if it doesn't feel that way from the inside. From there, use AI for research instead of mass automation. Learn what a specific persona at a specific type of account actually cares about, then build that into the message. "More is not a strategy." — Leslie Venetz Resources Grab Leslie's book, Profit-Generating Pipeline: A Proven Formula to Earn Trust and Drive Revenue. https://salesledgtm.com/bookVisit Leslie's company, The Sales-Led GTM Agency. https://salesledgtm.com/Connect with Andy Paul, Leslie's mentor and host of The Win Rate Podcast, on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/realandypaul/Join our LinkedIn cohort and learn to prospect the right way. https://thesalesevangelist.com/linkedin-prospecting-course/Visit Blue Mango Studios for help creating podcast production content. https://bluemangostudios.com/ Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey http://thesalesevangelist.com/survey. https://tsesales.typeform.com/to/lc5yAa8P We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sales-evangelist/id788738885, Google Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RoZXNhbGVzZXZhbmdlbGlzdC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5kaXI3Pj2AhVKcjABHW5PDVwQ9sEGegQIARAC, Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-sales-evangelist-sales-trainingspeakingbusiness-marketingdonald, or Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1NjzsFjQwVrgboUfDvbzd5?si=LdQOJDc1T-WBPMxr1h3RsA. Audio provided by Free SFX, https://freesfx.co.uk/ Soundstripe https://soundstripe.com/, and Bensound http://www.bensound.com/. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.

Transcript

0:00
31:11

5,559 words · 2 speakers

Topics

  • Sales Evangelist Podcast
  • Profit Generating Pipeline
  • Sales Evangelist Sales Training Organization
  • TSC Studios

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