Strategy Spotlight: Building Your Outreach Prospect Journey Map

Chris Nag, Customer Success Manager

Chris has been a CSM for 3 years and joined Outreach after falling in love with the product. He's passionate about customer success, with a particular interest in optimizing operations, aligning strategies, and fostering collaboration.

The buying experience a prospect goes through is a critical factor for their likelihood to buy, use, and evangelize your products or services. 

When working with customers to build the foundation of their prospecting strategy, I often recommend starting at a high level to see how each Workflow is interconnected. One of the best methods to do this is by creating a prospect journey map. 

In this context, the “journey map” is a visualization for the Outreach Workflows your team will use to move prospects along the funnel.

Without a journey map, you’re likely to experience:

• Lost leads - Prospects slip through the cracks and go cold.
• Prospect confusion - If your reps are confused, your prospects are confused.
• Misaligned content - Prospects don’t get targeted messaging. 
• Slower response times - Reps take longer to respond to interested prospects.

With a defined journey map, you can:

• Identify and address any gaps in your process.
• Effectively funnel prospects from one stage to the next.
• Deliver content specifically designed for your prospects.
• Test ideas and make data-driven improvements.

Here’s one example of a typical prospect journey map, which outlines some of the ways you can leverage Outreach for each step along the path. 

Note: Please click on the image to expand. Once clicked, you'll have the ability to download the file.

When building your prospect journey map, consider the following elements:

• Points of entry - How did the prospect come in contact with your organization?
  For example: Demo Request came inbound from the website, they were found hunting on LinkedIn, or the rep met them at a trade show.
• Stage Updates - What stages should be reflected in your prospect journey map? 
  For example: Prospects just discovered but not actioned are considered "New." Once the prospect is added to Sequence, they update to "Approaching." When the prospect accepts the meeting invite, they update to "Meeting Booked."
• Key decision points - When should reps adjust tactics?
  For example: Transferring from an initial outbound sequence to a drip sequence if they respond with "not right now.”
• Workflow plays - Do reps know what to do next?
  For example: How to book a meeting while on a call, how to respond to a common objection, or the best way to follow up an ongoing thread.
• Points of exit - When should reps stop working a prospect?
  For example: The prospect email address bounces, the rep determines the prospect is a bad fit, or the prospect remains unresponsive even after finishing several Sequences.

Identifying the path your prospects should take is the first step in developing a comprehensive engagement strategy. Next steps include further defining particular sections, and building the supporting Workflows that your team will use to execute on your vision. 

Want to learn more about Workflows? Discover more in our Workflow eBook and get a jump start on building yours in our Outreach Workflows support section.

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