This Isn't A Sales Call
Jonny Goldstone
On a mission to help 1,000 business leaders get what they want from their businesses by 2035 | Professional EOS Implementer
No greeting makes you know you're being lied to more. Broadly speaking, the same goes for sales emails too.
The subject lines deployed (long-planned-mission-type lingo is not out of place here) to get you to open a sales email are getting ever more "creative". And it's not the best kind of creativity we're talking about here, rather the creativity borne of the mendacious desperation of people in the sales game when it comes to getting your attention; where "attention" equates to any feeling other than the overriding urge to immediately delete an email.
I'm especially partial to the cunning faux-reply email ("Re: Our conversation at...") and its equally manipulative sibling the faux-follow-up - which sports a similar subject line to faux-reply, with the opening line "Jonny, I just wanted to check you received / see what you thought of my email last Madeupday...". ("No, of course I didn't, because you didn't send it. (And even if you had sent it, if I'd wanted to reply, I would have done so.)") Of course, the golden rule here is: Whatever you may think, do not reply. Any reply is a sign of encouragement and you only have yourself to blame for the ensuing perseverance.
So far, I haven't told you anything you didn't know. Not that this makes me unique in the world of LinkedIn posts, but I would like to at least try to add value. So here it is. Voila value.
A Flirtation with Brutal Honesty
I recently sent out a number of sales emails. Out of curiosity, I used the subject line: "Unashamed Sales Email." There followed a very brief pleasantry, a pleasantries-aside segue into the spiel, and a concise spiel explaining with two clear, no-brainer examples, how our product is really useful for their business.
Guess what? Compared to an average (non-abusive) response-to-sales-emails rate of around 0.0003% (source made up in my head, trying to be conservative) I received sincere, interested responses to over 60% of my emails.
No missing decimal point. 60%. Sixty. (Per cent.)
Now, it may just be that what I'm selling is seriously good and that I'm pitching it at people I am confident will be interested. Correct and correct. But why try to sell something that isn't appealing to the prospective customer?
Either way, it seems the prospective customer didn't just appreciate the product and its relevance to their business needs. They were already half-way to being won over before they opened the email. They found the subject line refreshing in its brutal honesty. And that honesty gave them confidence that they would be interested in the sales pitch too.
They say that honesty is the best policy. With cold selling, I'd say they might just be onto something.
Retired
9 年Excellent idea JONNY, will be showing June Dean who does our marketing this post.
Director Of Supplier Operations @ HQ
9 年Excellent post Jonny.
On a mission to help 1,000 business leaders get what they want from their businesses by 2035 | Professional EOS Implementer
9 年Good point Lee Lee Holland - I'm pleased to say I must have learnt some of this from your good self, one of the best in the business. Likewise Paul Grant of course with whom I have also been more than lucky to work for a number of years. Jeremy Butler, you too have been lucky to work with those fine gentlemen ;-)
Contractor
9 年Another great article Jonny. Please add me to your mailing list (so I can add you to my spam folder.....) :-)
Backing Entrepreneurs with Pre Seed & Seed investment, coupled with occasional no BS Mentorship. KVCVentures.com & Earle Street Capital.
9 年So disappointed I didn't get your email Jonny. Great post!