It happened earlier again today.
Among the hundreds of emails I receive each day — both solicited and unsolicited — came what I’ll call the “stupid email of the day.”
If you’re going to prospect via email, don’t go putting out an email that says “just checking in.” Come on, get real and quit being stupid, thinking something like this is going to catch anyone’s attention.
“Just checking in” is not the way you address any email to someone you don’t know, let alone someone with whom you want to do business. The person sending it was trying to be both casual and not obtrusive, but failed miserably. It was such an inauthentic approach.
I am a busy person. I don’t have time for emails that say “just checking in,” and neither does anyone else. The only thing this person is going to get from me is a quick hit of the “delete” key.
Now before you think I’m completely against prospecting that includes email, you should know that I do think it can be a strategy that works well, depending on the industry, the person receiving the email, and so forth.
One thing that is imperative in all email prospecting campaigns is to have the prospect receiving information they will find of value.
Don’t send something that is of interest to you. It must be of interest to the person receiving it.
Second point to remember is this: Due to the number of emails that people read using their smart phones, you have to make the title and the first 30 characters of the email incredibly engaging.
If someone uses their smartphone as their preferred way of handling email, they see only a small portion of the email when they pull it up. They will decide quickly whether it is something they want to keep or delete — much quicker than when someone views an email on a laptop or desktop computer.
I’ve written a number of other blog posts regarding prospecting the last few months, and the reason is simple — it’s a huge issue for the vast majority of salespeople.
As you prospect, remember email is just one of your prospecting tools.
Don’t make it your only tool. If you do, you’ll find yourself with a pretty skinny sales pipeline.
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter” The Sales Hunter. Sales Motivation Blog.
