It Was Easy to Ignore These Sales Emails. Here's Why.
I have a hobby: collecting emails from people asking for a meeting because they want to sell me something.
I collect them because one of the services I sell is writing business development emails for companies, including printers, wanting to meet with potential buyers. Analyzing how other companies organize their email flows gives me a comparison point for what good (and bad) looks like.
Recently, I received five emails from a company that wanted to meet to discuss my IT needs. This flow is easily ignorable. Let's review the copy and look at the flaws.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Let's start with what is right about this flow.
- The emails are short.
- The sender used my name.
So what's wrong?
- Subject lines like "Let's connect" or "Let's talk" are word-wasters. A subject line like "IT Solutions to Save You Time" would be better because saving time is a benefit that attracts buyers.
- Emails 1 and 3 provide information about the company sending the email, including a few benefits. The other three emails miss the opportunity for that type of value-building.
- Email 2 says, "I recognize your silence might mean you're uninterested," and Email 3 says, "I know how hectic things can get." Do phrases like these motivate buyers to take meetings? I don't think so.
- I also don't like the gimmicky "pick A-B-C-D" format used in Email 3. Do people respond to this? It didn't work for me.
- Email 5 says, "Wanted to check in one final time about my previous messages." Using "one final time" is a FOMO play. Maybe this worked when it was first used a decade ago, but times have changed. In the B2B world, if you think a lead is the right target, but they don't respond to a meeting request, the best practice is to continue to nurture the lead.
When an email requesting a meeting arrives in a buyer's inbox, it serves as the sales professional's proxy. Ineffective messages communicate you will waste the buyer's time — and that is NEVER a message you want to send.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Linda Bishop is the founder and president of Thought Transformation, a national sales and marketing consulting group helping printers and other companies achieve top-line growth through a combination of strategies, tools, training and tactics.
Her expertise includes all aspects of outbound selling and account acquisition, account retention and development, solution selling, marketing, and aligning sales processes with marketing strategies. Most recently, she published The ChatGPT Sales Playbook: Revolutionizing Sales with AI and believes AI will offer sales pros new tools for achieving revenue goals.
Before starting Thought Transformation in 2004, Linda sold commercial printing for seventeen years, working as a commission salesperson for the Atlanta division of RR Donnelley Company. She was one of the top performers in the Atlanta marketplace and had annual sales exceeding $9 million.
Linda has a BS degree in accounting from Purdue University and an MBA in marketing from Georgia State. She has written several books on sales topics, speaks nationally on sales and marketing, and has published many articles.
