Re-imagining Cold Outreach through Design Sprint: How we transformed LinkedIn connection management with a Design Sprint and CRM Integration

As one of the fastest-growing technology and analytics companies in the United States, we're constantly looking for innovative ways to tackle modern-day challenges. Through a meticulously executed design sprint, we transformed our approach to sales engagement and not only boosted internal efficiency but gained valuable insights for businesses seeking to improve their digital outreach strategies.

35%

of salespeople struggle
with prospecting

22%

find it difficult to get
responses from prospects

Key
Takeaways

Improved sales efficiency and effectiveness by integrating our CRM system with LinkedIn
Reduced administrative tasks and increased the number of successful LinkedIn connections
Fostered a culture of innovation and continuous learning across all departments
Boosted problem-solving skills and collaboration via Lightning Talks, Affinity Mapping, and Solution Sketching

Day 1 - Understand

During the first phase of the project, we set out to understand the common challenges faced by sales teams when managing LinkedIn connections. The most common issue we discovered was the absence of reminders for approved LinkedIn connection requests.

Using the methods below, we brainstormed possible solutions for this problem, like checking email and CRM status, using Zapier for email-CRM integration, and monitoring LinkedIn notifications. Ultimately, we decided that creating a Chrome Extension integrated with our CRM, Salesmate was the simplest and most effective solution.

Lighting Talk Technique

To encourage insights from various business perspectives, we used the Lightning Talk technique.

Affinity Mapping

We also used Affinity Mapping to visually categorize ideas for clustering.

“How Might We” Method

The "How Might We" or HMW method was employed to reframe insights and pain points for problem-solving.

User Journey Mapping

We used User Journey Mapping to map the user experience and identify opportunities and pain points.

Pain Points & Opportunities

Lack of reminder for approved LinkedIn connection requests and the need to manually check them in emails.

Low response rates from potential connections after sending requests, leading to missed opportunities.

Ineffectiveness in personalizing connection requests and messages for individual prospects.

Uncertainty in classifying connection types and running effective email outreach campaigns.

Challenges in gaining insights into customer lifetime value.

Difficulty in analyzing lead data for decision-making.

Inability to track outreach message effectiveness and measure the ROI of LinkedIn outreach efforts.

Calculating lead nurturing time spent on LinkedIn connections.

Day 2 - Define

In the Define phase, we took the findings from the Understand phase to better identify areas of focus, establish context and define desired outcomes. To do this effectively, we used Assumption Mapping technique to break down assumptions into three distinct categories.

Desirability - Do we want this?

To evaluate Desirability, we asked our sales team questions about our target customers, the problems they face, and how they solve them.

Who are target customers for our solution?

What problem do our customers want to solve?

How do our customers solve this problem today?

Forgetting to follow up with connection after they have been added, leading to missed opportunities

Viability - Should We Do This?

To assess Viability, we consulted our product team for insights about the solution's potential to attract new customers, the decision-making process, and the competition.

How will it attract new customers? decision - making

Do we have any requests from existing customer?

Is there any evidence oof people already using such a feature on any other platform?

Who are the primary competitors to our solution?

Feasibility - Can We Do This?

To determine Feasibility, we evaluated our strengths, feasibility, capabilities and technical aspects to build the proposed solution.

What are our biggest technical or engineering changes?

Why does our products team supports this solution?

What may be ROI if we build this feature?

Who are the primary competitors to our solution?

Following the Assumption Mapping, our team further broke down assumptions into two key categories, Important vs. Unimportant and Known vs. Unknown, to help with the prioritization of execution for the next phase.

Day 5 - Test

In the final Test Phase, we focused on validating the solution and gathering feedback to improve practicality and effectiveness. We remain committed to ongoing improvement in order to continuously enhance our sales engagement and prospecting efforts. By following a systematic approach throughout our design sprint, the result was a solution that transformed our cold outreach strategies and increased efficiencies for our internal sale team.

How we did it

Tools & Techniques

Figjam
Figma
White-boarding
Sticky Notes
Salesmate CRM
Chrome Extension

Strategy

Product Strategy
Platform Discovery
Lightning Talks
‘How Might We’ Method
Affinity Mapping

Re-imagining Cold Outreach through Design Sprint

Key
Takeaways

The Challenge