You may think you’re sending a great email, but don’t kid yourself.
Chances are you’re making one of the following fatal mistakes.
1. Using the first 15 words in the email to explain how great you are.
Most likely you’re writing your sales prospecting emails while working on a desktop or laptop computer and that alone is going to hurt you.
Reason is simple.
People tend to check their emails on their smartphones, and when they do, they’re making a 2-second judgment based on the subject line and the first few words of the email.
The best solution is to send the email to yourself and take a look at how it comes through on your phone and ask yourself if you would open it or delete it.
2. Putting a title in the subject line that is all about you and has zero importance to the person you’re sending it to.
Telling the recipient you’ve just won an award or you’ve helped others make big money is nothing more than bloviating. I have one recommendation if you’re going to do that: Go look in a mirror and never look anywhere else, because you’ll never find a person who thinks you’re as good as you think you are.
3. Putting a graphic of your company logo in your signature line.
Many spam filters are designed to automatically block emails with graphics. Your company logo isn’t that impressive!
Second reason you shouldn’t do it is that it can easily gum up smartphones. Have you ever looked at an email with a bunch of graphics on your smartphone? Many times they come through as plain garbage or they take up far too much space, making it hard for the reader to determine what the email is about.
4. Writing too much.
Keep it simple. End of statement.
5. Sending the same email over and over again to the same person, thinking they didn’t see the previous ones.
The only thing you’re doing is earning yourself some “junk map” status. Many email systems are set up to automatically flag a sender’s name as spam if the person receiving the email doesn’t reply to the first three or four.
The solution is to make sure when you do send an email it contains a compelling reason for the person to respond.
Commit today to not make the above stupid mistakes when sending email. Your bottom line will thank you.
Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
Click on the below book cover for more info on boosting your profits!
2 Responses
Not being tech savvy, I didn’t take into consideration that many people access their emails via their smart phone (I just jumped into this arena by buying an Iphone). So, today’s blog has impacted me more than usual to make sure I understand the playing field before sending an email. Thanks, Mark.
These are great points. Especially #5 – one of my pet peeves.