Annoying isn’t it. You send out all these prospecting emails and then… nothing… no replies… what happened?
We’ll take a scenario in which the sales person doesn’t know the potential client.
In fact we’ll take my scenario, I get around 10 prospecting emails a week. This is generally what they say:-
Subject: Increasing your blah blah / you can’t afford not to… act now… or insert ‘boring meaningless subject’.
Opener: Dear Charmaine or Dear Business Owner
Main message: We do /we do /we can do for you/ we are /we will …
Interject with a dose of ‘you should, your industry is experiencing’. This bangs on for around 3 paragraphs.
Ending nicely with: I expect a reply from you/ insert other forward assumption that I can’t wait to reply.
So, in order to see how to do something right it’s often useful to un-pack what’s wrong and then sometimes it works to just apply the opposite thinking!
The wrongs: The subject heading isn’t relevant to me.
The ‘Dear Business owner’ would send it straight to spam, if it starts of that detached it’s unlikely to improve.
The content…It’s 99% about the sales company and less than 1% about me – the Potential Client.
There is nothing in it for me. No reference to anything tangible to show they have actually looked me up.
They have, with an air of authority, pretended that they know my business model and my industry.
The Rights: There is a good time to send this email – if you know your potential client has insomnia.
So, some key pointers in getting an email returned.
In Summary there is one clear reason why someone would return your email with a positive response – and that’s because it’s all about him or her. It really is that simple. If it was also packaged in a polite, relevant, to the point, clear message along with what to do next and arriving in my inbox at the right time – you have my attention and probably my reply.
Lets break it down a bit…
- Who are we sending the email to? There will be another blog on this but cutting to the chase – this approach is for the top targets on your hit list.
- Exploration: take the time to understand what they might need. Look up the individual, the company, the company’s competitors, there is zero excuse for running blind.
- Your headspace. Write it when you are in a buoyant frame of mind and ‘on fire’ the very best time to prospect is when you have won a deal as you are congruent with the help that your solution will bring the client. (You may decide to write it at one point and send it at another, very smart – particularly if you want someone to read it with an objective view).
- The Content.
- a) What’s the purpose of your email? Is it so they know you are there – to start a relationship, to give them some news, is it to get them to reply, call you, for you to go in and see them? You need to be clear.
- b) Chant in your head ‘it’s all about them’ and ensure the email is 90% about them if you want them engaged and invested the whole way through.
- c) Keep it short and to the point. (They could be reading it on their mobile, even more reason to keep it short).
- d) Put your strongest selling line first– don’t risk leaving it until last. (Same with the subject heading, make it worth opening).
- e) What impression it will make? If you are banging on about ‘we do this’ for 4 paragraphs they will assume that’s how you work – if your intention was to get in front of them then this sends the message that you will bang on about yourself and your company for the whole meeting time.
- f) Be cautious telling them about their situation, frankly you don’t know it and also even if you did – what’s the point of telling them – showing off that you know how to do research? So, when you find a clear connection between something topical and your solution make sure you ‘frame’ it right. So not in a authoritarian way but It could be… I’m getting feedback that this situation can be… for companies that look similar to yourselves, if that’s the case for you… … etc. Use the research as a tool knowing it’s based on history.
- Time of day. Think about the time of day you are sending it, avoid ‘before a meeting time’ i.e. 9.45am, 10.45am. If you know their best time/most positive time then send it then. If you know the industry winds down on a Friday afternoon you might send a relevant subjected headed email to reflect that mood.
This highlights some areas of email prospecting, in later blogs we’ll delve into other areas and more about content.
To find out more about how training sessions on how sales people can efficiently and effectively prospect contact me on Charmaine@smarterselling.com.au
