#FridayFails - I hope this is not part of an ABM program

Last week, I blogged on the Gartner Blog Network, about the importance of Quality and Comprehensiveness in Account Based Marketing efforts. In that post, I said (and I don't normally quote myself), "Quality counts more than ever. Sending the lousy e-mails that dominate e-mail marketing and social selling (see #Friday Fails on LinkedIn) is a recipe for disaster."

Well, guess what, disaster just struck, particularly if the examples below come from a company that is embracing ABM. As I mentioned in the article, if you are going to target multiple contacts in an organization, you better make sure you've done your homework. Some folks in my network forwarded these #FridayFails to me.

My friend received this first e-mail. As always identifying information is removed with placeholders in [square brackets] and commentary is in <<angle brackets>>.

===Begin E-mail

Subject: [contact being e-mailed] is [companyname] of Interest? <<Note: This is not a horrible subject for an analyst. Most of us (although not me) do spend a lot of time researching vendors, so this could drive some interest>>

Body:

Hank

Can I take 30 minutes of time to give you an online demo of [product name]? <<First, the person contacted did not know this company well and did not know what the product does or where it fits...so this is all about them doing something they want vs. something the contact may want.>> I came across your profile on LinkedIn and understand that you are responsible for gaining insight and reporting on data. <<To be fair, looking at the contact's LI profile might imply some of this, but it is pretty far afield from what the profile says. So this is starting to feel like this is a generic message sent to anyone who appears in a LinkedIn search.>>

Can I show you how [role] <<Okay, there is the search term that was used>> use [productname] to:

• [capability one]
• [capability two]
• [capability three]

<<These capabilities were fine, but fundamentally imply an expectation of a very different role than the contact's>>

Let me know your availability for the online demo. <<Easy answer for my friend. Never. Would not want to waste their time or this sales rep's time>>

Regards,

Thanks, <<Yes, the e-mail did have a double ending >>

[contact info]

===End E-mail

Okay, this is a bad message, but it is not awful message. It is a bit generic and might work for someone actively thinking about the category and product area, but the research to find the contact was too generic and indicated a mini-failure, but not #FridayFails worthy on its own.

But, there was more to this story. My friend that was contacted also forwarded an e-mail sent to someone else. This person was in my friend's sales organization. They received a different e-mail (at least it was different) from the same person. Here is that one.

===Begin E-mail

Subject: If you work with data ..... <<This is an awful subject for a prospecting e-mail. Feels like spam>>

Body:

Hi [other contact name],

I support the relationship between [The contact's company>> and [ The sender's companyname], and understand you'd be a good person to connect with. <<Yes end of sentence, no reason why this person would be good to connect with, just an innocuous platitude>> [Productname] is an intuitive 'drag and drop' platform for [functions]. <<At least this one says a bit about what they are.>> It requires no coding and empowers business users to [do a bunch of stuff]. <<This felt like all about them>> Do you work with data [contactname]? <<Ah, a link to the subject, but a pretty condescending statement. I mean, there aren't very many people that don't work with data, are there?>>

Best,

[contact name]

Thanks, <<Yes, a repeated closing again>>

[contact information]

===End of E-mail

Again, alone this email might not have been #FridayFails worthy---it does repeat many of the mistakes I've blogged about before. But in combination with the other message, it hits the #FridayFails bar (and I don't know if other employees of this company received other similar messages)

Viewed together, it shows a pattern of desperate prospecting. Now lets put an Account Based Marketing lens on this. With a strategy to make broad contact in the organization, ABM can help accelerate awareness and deal cycles. But broad contact of this type can also increase doubt and distain. Who wants to work with a company that works with data that doesn't take the extra step to determine if they are contacting relevant people? Neither of the people contacted were likely to be a decision maker or influencer in any purchase of a product of this category. I guess influence could be a slim possibility, but a little preparation would have shown that to be unlikely (or should have driven the message to be more oriented toward influence).

The whole thing leaves me to wonder of this sale rep, "Do you work with data?"