Who’s Teaching Your New Young Sales Rep How to Communicate in Writing?

Most of the emails I get from printers are fine. They’re well written, short enough, get to the point and include a full digital signature.

I’m referring to ‘cold’ emails from salesmen who don’t know me. They usually want to sell me something. I also get emails from printers who want information or advice.

Sometimes I get really badly written emails, and the bad ones from younger reps who’ve only been in the industry for a few years are particularly horrifying. If their emails to me are this atrocious, I assume that all of their emails stink.

If you’re a company owner or sales manager, and you hire new reps, I’m begging you to look carefully at their written communication skills. Maybe all of their other sales skills are off-the-charts excellent. And they may have wonderful interpersonal skills.

But they’ll be writing a lot of emails and texts and maybe an occasional letter to prospects. These need to be high-quality messages — well-constructed sentences with no typos and good grammar. The company name should be included and also be part of the sender’s email signature. (I know, this sounds obvious, right?)

My next column for PI is on the subject of reps as marketing agents. In it, I give a lot more details about why communication skills matter so much.

Here’s the thing: print customers pay attention to spelling and grammar. Mistakes jump out at us. There’s no excuse for godawful writing.

Check out what sorts of communication your new reps are sending to prospects and customers. It reflects on you. Make sure you can be proud of it.