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Cadence for VPs: Book Meetings With Senior Prospects in 13 Days

When you sell to a VP of Sales or Marketing, you have to keep a few things in mind. These individuals are usually:

  • Highly focused on ROI - when considering a new product, the one question they want to be answered is: how will it make me more money?
  • Metrics-driven - they live inside the numbers; they’ll be tracking team and individual KPIs daily.
  • Tech-savvy - they’re keen to investigate any new product that’ll impact positively on their team’s processes or workflows.

They’re also, as a rule, time-poor. Their time will be taken up every week with team 121s, strategy meetings and reporting to the CRO/CEO.

So, as a B2B sales rep, what’s the best way of engaging with VPs?

What you need is a cadence that’s going to reach your VP prospects on multiple channels. A cadence that’s going to increase your chances of booking meetings.

How about the ultimate cadence for VPs, as used by Jonty Jewels, Cognism’s Enterprise SDR?

Keep scrolling and you’ll get:

  • A full cadence timeline, including the steps to take.
  • A breakdown of every individual touchpoint, including phone calls and cold emails.
  • Email and InMail templates you can take away and start using today.
  • Cold calling tips for speaking with VP prospects.

Cadence results

Jonty has seen the following results from using the VP cadence:

  • Prospects reached = 175
  • Calls logged = 360
  • Emails sent = 242
  • Reply rate = 1.3%
  • Click rate = 2.2%
  • Open rate = 34.2%
  • Opp rate = 1.7%

Cadence timeline

Day 1

Step 1 - LinkedIn connection

Start the cadence by sending the VP a connection request on LinkedIn.

Step 2 - First phone call

Follow up the LinkedIn connection with a cold call.

Make sure you’ve done your prep before you pick the phone, though. At the very least, you’ll need to know the answers to these questions:

  • Does your product deliver value to someone at the VP level?
  • Is your VP in your target industry or not? 
  • Are they using similar products or technologies?
  • Who are your VP’s top clients?

For more tips on cold calling B2B sales and marketing leaders, check out Cognism’s ultimate cold calling script for enterprise sales.

Step 3 - First email

The opening email in the cadence is all about creating interest. Here’s a template that Jonty uses:

Subject: Cognism

Hi (first name),

What are you doing to plug the gap in EMEA for data coverage, quality & compliance for you & your team?

Cognism is helping teams like yours generate high-quality contact data for key stakeholders from companies with intent for your solution.

Would it be fair to exchange some insights over a few messages?

Best,

Day 3

Step 4 - Phone call

When’s the best time to call a VP? 

Gong has done some extensive research on the best times to schedule sales calls.

According to their data, the highest no-show rates occur between 8-10am; the lowest no-show rates occur between 3-5pm.

So, if you want to maximise the possibility of connecting with your VP, call them in the afternoon!

Step 5 - Email

The second email in the cadence is all about personalisation. You have to dig deeper into the VP’s pain points and position your product as the solution.

Here’s an example:

Subject: Connect rates

Hi (first name),

Senior decision-makers are saying their teams are struggling with connection rates for their target verticals.

Cognism is the market leader for compliant contact data & sales intelligence headquartered in the UK.

Would your team benefit from increasing those connection rates with key decision-makers from companies looking into your solution right now?

Regards,

Day 5

Step 6 - Phone call

The third phone call in the cadence is when you can start pitching your product to the VP.

There are 3 golden rules for a successful sales pitch:

  • Keep it simple - don’t overload the VP with too much product detail; they don’t have the time to hear it. Instead, focus on the offering that’s most relevant or beneficial to them. Jonty likes to pitch Cognism’s intent data to his VP prospects.
  • Make it personal - you must adapt your pitch depending on who you’re talking to; a pitch that works for a VP of Sales will fail for a VP of Marketing. Practice your pitch before you pick up the phone! Make sure it’s honed to perfection.
  • Create FOMO - it’s a good idea to mention your most successful clients and the results they’ve seen from working with you; just make sure the customer you choose is relevant to the VP and their business.

Step 7 - Email

Jonty follows up on the phone call with another email. Like the call, this message pitches the product and namechecks a happy customer.

Subject: Exceeding targets in EMEA

Hi (first name),

Cognism is Europe’s leading B2B prospecting tool that sales & marketing teams are using to generate high-quality phone numbers & email addresses for their target verticals.

Goude Mind is a UK-based marketing agency that was able to close £70,000 worth of new revenue in the first month of using Cognism, generating full ROI and a significant profit in a short period of time.

Are you open to a multi-channel contact data vendor that will help your team exceed its targets right now?

Best, 

Step 8 - InMail

At this point in the cadence, Jonty likes to send the VP a LinkedIn InMail.

You can get even more personalised with this message. Use whatever you learned during your initial research to get the prospect to engage - for example, if you discovered they’re a sports fan!

Here’s an example:

Hi (first name), 

Cognism is like the British & Irish Lions in the data space - everyone wants it but not everyone gets the opportunity!

What are you doing as VP of (company name) to make sure you have an effective GTM strategy & would your sales team be better off with an EMEA-focused sales intelligence tool?

I hear it every day that US companies give their European teams’ US-centric tools and expect the same results, this just isn't the case. 

Interested?

Best, 

You can also throw in a meme or GIF - anything that will make the prospect sit up and take notice, or even make them laugh!

Cognism Sales Meme

Day 7

Step 9 - Phone

Over the next few days, it’s time to ramp up engagement. Give the VP another call and try to book a meeting.

It’s likely that the VP will have some objections for you to resolve. Cognism has a five-point plan for cold call objection handling:

  1. Listen - the best sales reps always let their prospects speak more than they do.
  2. Ask - open-ended qualifying questions are the best way of drawing out more information from the prospect.
  3. Solve - provide practical, clear guidance for fixing the issue; if you really can’t solve it, agree on next steps and a timescale for you to reply.
  4. Confirm - check with the prospect that they’re happy with your solution; if not, ask more questions to get to the root of the problem.
  5. Move on - don’t linger on an objection any longer than necessary; once you’ve addressed one objection, quickly proceed to the next.

Day 9

Step 10 - Phone

If at first you don’t succeed - keep calling!

When speaking with VP prospects, Jonty’s number one tip is to always assume the close. You want to make it seem like having a demo is a logical step forward for the prospect.

So instead of saying something like:

“Would you like to see the platform?”

Jonty would say:

“When’s the best time for you to see the platform?”

A small change in emphasis can make all the difference between a win or a loss!

Day 11

Step 11 - Email

We’re entering the cadence’s final days. 

If the VP hasn’t responded by now, send them another email. 

Here’s an example from Jonty’s SDR library. It’s focused on benefits, rather than features, and it references a successful client.

Subject: More success globally

Hi (first name),

Would it be a waste of your time to find out how your team could be increasing connect rates with key decision-makers? 

More conversations mean more qualified opportunities & more revenue for (company name). 

MindBridge is an AI-powered financial risk platform that works with us. They were able to identify 10k prospects each month, booking in meetings with 5 Fortune 500 companies in their first month.

When do you have 4 minutes?

Best, 

Day 13

Step 12 - Email

This is it. We’ve reached the end of the ultimate cadence for VPs.

Before throwing in the towel, however, it’s always good to give it another go. Persistence often pays off in outbound sales.

Jonty likes to use this email, going all-in with some dad jokes!

Subject: Dad jokes

Hi (first name),

I woke up this morning and decided I'm going all-in on trying to get a moment of your time. So here it is - all the reasons why I think Cognism is Europe's market-leading B2B sales tool and all the reasons why giving me 5 minutes is worth your time:

We're so much more than a list of emails - we have 400M profiles, 20M direct dials and we'll give you social profiles and company phones on top. 

We're an in-house tool for you. No more slow responses from outsourced list builders. 

We've got integrations for you. Your current workflows and software, we'll make better. 

We've got intent data and event triggers for you. To tell the team who they need to be reaching out to right now.

We can make sure your CRM data is up to date as well.

Plus, I have a very strong repertoire of dad jokes!

So...

Can I grab 5 minutes of your time to tell you my best joke and make your team's tech stack the envy of every other sales leader?

Best, 

Step 13 - Phone

The final step in the ultimate cadence for VPs sees Jonty try the phone one last time.

After all…

As we always say at Cognism...

One call could change your life...

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