74. 6 Week Sprints
How to prepare for your first one
In March, I started a 6-week construction sprint at LITTA.
Construction fit-out/refurbishment is one of our target markets. Our top 5 clients are construction companies.
But they were won through existing relationships and inbound enquiries.
Before starting the sprint, we had little idea about selling into construction.
In today’s email:
6-week sprints
Objectives + Goals
Sprint prep
6-week sprints
To fix this, I proposed running 6-week prospecting sprints to LITTA’s C-Suite.
The idea was inspired by this Basecamp article. I read it after listening to Jason Fried on the Tim Ferriss podcast (great episode, well worth a listen).
The concept was simple:
Run 6-week sprint cycles focusing on one market.
Start developing a playbook with the learnings from the sprint.
Analyze the data at the end of the spring - calls made, emails sent, open rates, booking rates, and new business gained.
Rinse and repeat for the rest of the year (5/6 sprints in total).
They nodded; I was on a roll.
Objectives + Goals
Next, I explained that the objective of each sprint is to:
Build prospecting & sales momentum in our target market
Learn the sales cycle and buying process of our target market
Develop LITTA’s value proposition
Develop LITTA’s Ideal Client Profile
Create resources for the playbook - talk tracks, call scripts, email sequences, etc.
I also outlined the goals for each sprint:
input goals
min. 250 calls/week per person
min. 250 emails/week per person
weekly status reporting + feedback (objections/insights)
output goals
new clients generated/week
new bookings generated/week
new revenue generated/week
The team would record their results in this sprint tracker.
Everyone was in agreement.
I presented my plan on 28th February. The first sprint would start on 4th March.
I had 4 days to prepare.
Sprint prep
Preparation for the sprint was straightforward.
Key Decision Makers
First, I needed to identify the key decision-maker roles.
I narrowed these down to the following:
Procurement or Supply Chain Directors/Managers
Construction Directors/Managers
Project Directors/Managers
I spent some time on ChatGPT, asking about each role's responsibilities, challenges, and problems.
I’d use this information in my email outreach.
Data
Second, I needed data. That meant mining leads.
I had two options:
Use my Apollo.io account
Use LITTA’s VA to mine leads
I choose both options.
At the time, you could set up a free Apollo account and export 500 contacts at no charge (now limited to 120/year).
I used 3 different LITTA accounts and got access to 1500 contacts.
I also created this lead mining guide for our VA
You can access it here (with video instructions and SOP).
Messaging
Last but not least, I created a bunch of emails to stick into an outbound sequence.
I used the responsibilities, problems and challenges from ChatGPT to guide me.
Then, I created emails using this cold email framework.
Emails ready, I created some simple 8-10 step sequences in Zendesk to test the messaging.
That was the extent of my prep.
By Monday, I was ready to launch the sprint.
I can’t recommend this approach enough. We have gained so much insight into how to tap into the construction industry.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share the sprint's results, what worked, what didn’t, and the playbook template that I’ve been developing.
Thanks for reading!
Matt @ The Growth Lab
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