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Replying to a prospect's email(s) is lazy and a sales rep should break the habit immediately. We’re all busy throughout the day and it can seem like the best way to communicate is to respond to emails. A rep might make the assumption that email is the preferred method of communication for the prospect and will follow suit in this manner. Instead of assuming this is their preferred method of communication, why not assume they’re in meetings and this is their only way to reach out. They are multitasking. Assume this is the case every time and do not reply. Instead view every email as an invitation to call.

Why view every email as an invitation to call? Consider these 8 problems with the email reply: 

1) Loss of Control – when a rep sends a reply the prospect can take the information and do what they want with it. The rep won’t know if the answer was satisfactory or if it wasn’t what the prospect was looking for. No response from the prospect now leaves the rep with nothing but guesswork.

2) Lost Opportunity – every interaction with a prospect is the opportunity to find out more information. Assist in whatever it is the prospect needed and then a rep has the ability to ask such things as, updates on the sale, legal process, decision making process, who else is inquiring (perhaps the email had questions), why is the prospect looking for additional information, etc.  

3) No Accountability – having a prospect on the line makes them accountable to answer questions like those in #2. If these questions are asked in an email it is very rare they will be answered. However, if one has the prospect on the phone, it is hard for them to ignore.

4) No Ability to Sell – additional information might be discovered during the discussion which allows for the rep to take another angle with the sale.

5) Tone Deafness – it is very difficult to understand an email's actual tone. While the prospect’s email may seem innocent in nature, the a phone call and might uncover that there are major hurdles to overcome. On the other hand, the prospect could seem angry and snarky, yet a phone call would have revealed they are very interested and that their office has simply been swamped. Bear in min, this is a two-way street. A sales rep’s tone has just as great a chance of being misread and prospects are not as forgiving with misread tone.  

6) Lost in Translation – it is very easy for things to get lost in translation even over the phone. Email amplifies this chance as you don’t have the ability to quickly ask for clarification and make explanations.

7) Easy to Forward – a rep can hope or assume their answers are only being passed around internally. Don’t make this assumption. The last thing a rep would want is for their email to be forwarded to a competitor and educating them how to sell against themself.

8) Does Not Stand Out – every sales reps replies to email. Don’t be that rep. Pick up the phone and offer assistance.

Ok so you're sold on the idea of viewing all prospect's emails as an invitation to call.  So how does it work? Always call first. If they aren’t there, your voicemail will be the below script and your email will match which will be sent immediately afterwards. Always re-assure them you have answers to their questions or whatever it is they need. In order to get what they need, they’ll have to connect via phone. Make sure to end the voicemail and email with a call to action. Here is an example:

Bob, per my message

It’s nice to hear from you. I’d be glad to help with/answer your questions below. It’s best if we connect over the phone in order to make sure I give the details you need.

I’m open today at 3:00EST or 5:30EST. What works best with you?

Best,

Me

Always leave two suggested open times. A rep should not say they’re open for the rest of the day or available at any time. It’s too desperate and needy. A top performing sales person is busy with other calls and lots in the pipeline. Remember the prospect needs answers to their questions and if those times don’t work they will reply with times that do work. This is also a good indication of their level of interest.

Knowledge is power. Take every opportunity to gather information. View every email is an invitation to call a prospect. Never waste an opportunity, take the invitation, run with it and close some business!

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 You’ve all had the accounts you tried relentlessly to get into. You call multiple people in the company and try month after month. Many sales people do this as tenacity has great pay offs in sales. Sometimes the technique works and other times it works to no avail. There is a smarter way to work – dump your prospects. Yes, dump them. It’s over. Kaput. It’s not you, it’s me. Done. Adios.

Breaking up is hard to do. It’s even harder when you think of breaking up with a potential customer. Let’s think about it from a different perspective as it might actually yield the opposite result. In other words, breaking up with your prospects is a great strategy to solicit a response.

First, understand your prospects are busy. They have multiple meetings and many things on their plate. They receive many calls throughout the day and while they may plan to call you back, you’re pushed to the bottom of the list. The prospect knows you’re in sales and relies on you to be tenacious and to do your job by continuing to call and email. This allows you to fall further on their “to do” list.

At some point a sales rep will move on and stop calling the prospect without knowing if the prospect might have wanted to connect. So to make matters worse, the sales rep doesn’t communicate to the prospect you’re no longer going to be calling. Don’t make this mistake. This leads us to the first and most basic rule of breaking up.

Here are the rules to a successful breakup:

1) Communicate to the prospect you are giving up. This way they know they can’t rely on you to continue calling and emailing. If they had any interest in speaking you have now forced yourself to the top of the “to do” list because you’ve told you’re breaking up.

2) Do not breakup too soon. If you pull the plug on a prospect without legitimately first putting in effort the tactic seems, well, like a tactic. You should attempt to connect with your prospects at least 8 times (voicemail or email) before breaking up.

3) Include a tease in regards to strategic advice (not about your product or service) you would like to discuss. This will remind them what value they’ll get if they connect with you.

4) Make it short and sweet, but not too sweet. It should be to the point and don’t be abrupt or offensive. This will defeat the purpose and it will again seem like just a tactic.

5) This is the most import of all rules. You’re previous emails should include increasingly valuable information not about your product, service or company (it’s too soon to pitch). In other words, make sure they care you’re breaking up with them. If you’ve provided value in your previous emails they will care that they’re no longer going to receive them. The valuable information also peaked their interest enough to get you onto their “to do” list in the first place. Voicemail and email attempts solely about your products and service will never even get you to the bottom of a “to do” list. This article discusses how to increasingly add value in each effort to reach a prospect.

Here is an example of a breakup voicemail and email script:

Bob,

I wanted to reach out to you one last time. I have suggestions on how your facebook page and website can work harder in terms of generating new business. If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll assume the timing isn’t right.

My information is below should you have any questions.

Best,

Me

The response rate to a breakup is close to 33%. While most responses are positive and they’ll tell you they’ve been meaning to get back to you, sometimes you’ll also get a response from those letting you know they are not interested. A negative response is still as successful breakup. You now have an answer and can move on; it wasn’t meant to be as they were never going to buy anyway. Breaking up isn’t hard to do once the technique proves itself.  Happy selling and breaking up!

Upcoming Articles:

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How can you be sure there is a 30% increase? I tested it and measured the results. I took 5 reps as the experimental group. They used the below technique with subsequent emails (which will be a blog post to follow). The control group was the rest of the sales team (about 45 other reps) who continued to use the same templates used in the past. I ran the experiment for 5 weeks and tracked the lead attempt to connect rates in Salesforce. The experimental group made 30% more connects than the control group. In data we trust, even in sales.  So here it goes....

In an early blog post I discuss the #1 rule to consultative selling. The below techniques follow the consultative approach by removing the focus from yourself, your product, company and/or service. 

1) The Subject Line should be about the prospect, not about you. The first step is to get the prospect to open the email. If it’s about them, it’ll be more interesting. If it’s an inbound lead, the subject line should be whatever they downloaded. If it’s an outbound or cold attempt, find something about the prospect. Look to see if they were recently in the news, updated or posted something on LinkedIn or Twitter. Make sure the recent news or status updated is related to business. Then make this the subject line.

2) The Length of the email should be short. Most of us are checking our emails via cell phones and mobile devices can make short emails look long. Send the email to yourself first and make sure it’s not overwhelm in length.

3) The 2 to 1 Ratio. In other words, you should reference their company and/or the word “you” at least twice as many times as you see the word “I” or your company name. Most importantly, start the email with the word “You”. This grabs their attention and it makes it about them. Starting an email with “I” is about you and quite frankly, who cares about you at this point.

4) The Give - you should also offer some type of tease alluding to strategic advice. It's best not criticize; add value by offering strategy and not about your product/service. Each subsequent attempt you’ll offer additional value by giving more strategies. I’ll talk about this more in my next coming blog article. Stay tuned.

5) The Get – the email should end with a call to action that stands alone. In other words, they’ll need to respond in order to get the strategic advice. This does not mean to end the email with “Let me know if you’d like to talk”. It's fine to use this with your friends and they get back to you because they like you. Prospects don’t like sales reps, they are not your friend and this is a waste of time. Instead, be very clear and end the email with a question “What time works best with you” or give suggested times (give a couple options as people are busy).

Here is an example of an email/voicemail template:

Bob,

You recently downloaded the whitepaper “Using Facebook for Business”. I've been to your website and your business Facebook page and noticed a few areas where you can increase the amount of business you’re generating from social media.

Would you be able to connect Monday at 1:00 EST or Tuesday at 11:00 EST?

Best,

Me

Your voicemail will match the same format, except you’d add at the end “This is (your name) calling from (company name) and my number is ____“. Yes, at the end not the beginning. As soon as you start a voicemail with “Hi this is so and so from…..” the voicemail is deleted before you can say the company name. If you have to introduce yourself, they know it’s a sales call and they won’t listen. Delete. Starting the voicemail without an introduction will seem very awkward at first. Practice until a it’s habit.

While many of these methods were derived from Jeff Hoffman's Basho Strategies, they've been augmented over time to stay relevant with the changing landscape of sales.