Me, me, me… Why your sales messages get ignored

Death, taxes, an ad 13 seconds into a YouTube video. Add poor prospecting messages to life’s certainties.

When a badly-written sales message squirms into your inbox, it's not unusual for you to feel like there's a wasp hovering round your face. The look of disgust. The cursing as you swat it from your line of sight.

If your inboxes are like mine, you’re probably weary with the 5-10 prospecting emails that spit at you daily. Often, they’re written by self-promoting salespeople that still think me-too approaches work in 2020.

Am I right to call them self-promotional? Me-too approaches? Depends on what your versions of those are.  

Maybe, these opening email lines will help you decide? 

“Hi mark (actual small m), we are the leading provider of…”

“I see you’re also in the cement industry. We are the number 1 supplier of…”

“Hi friend. XYX company makes gel shoes that fit comfortably with your socks...”

If these opening lines aren’t shallow enough, how about those people who take it upon themselves to pen their opening lines with UPPER CASE - or bold text in red with a yellow highlighted background. 

Outstanding, right? Just take my money. I’ve always wanted some self-priming centrifugal pump dies, sold from a livestock trough.

The people sending these messages all have one thing in common. They’ve not thought past their own self-importance.

The real world

Imagine the following playing out:

You’ve arrived at an industry dinner. You take a seat at your table as other guests arrive. The lady next to you says hello and you instantly turn to her an utter, “Hi, I run the leading supplier of office-based solutions and we’re really good. We also offer the cheapest prices. Please let me know if you'd like to buy anything?"

If she doesn’t run off, she’s already turned to the other person next to her to inquire who the idiot from the TV ad is. 

Of course, it wouldn’t happen in real life. So why do people think it’s alright to litter your inboxes with this rubbish?

Rejection

It’s safer to hide behind an electronic message when you don’t have to hear the last remaining breath escape from someone’s lungs, before they hang up, right?

The problem with these messages is, you have to do the hard yards working out how their products or services benefit you – if they happen to at all.

Most of the time, they never will.

And there’s the problem. These salespeople skipped sales school. Or their employers skipped sales school before training them.

At some point, these salespeople will have bombarded enough people, they’ll receive a response from someone who’s interested. To them, the numbers game is a worthwhile exercise and on they’ll continue with their next batch. 

As buyers, purchasers or customers, we want to buy what we need or want. Not what we’re told we need or want. 

We don't want to know what a company turns over. We’re not bothered how big a company is. If a company tell us how good their products or services are, so what?

We really don't give a sh*t. Honestly, we don’t.

That's why these emails or InMails are deleted as quickly as they land in our inboxes. There's absolutely no interest in reading them.

So, if you're thinking of sending us an email that reads like it has been written for yourself - please think again.

On the other hand, if you know the likely conversations taking place in our heads, you might be able to craft an email where you can paint a picture with us in it, giving us a compelling reason to engage back with you.

Imagine that?  

Selling is good

Being sold to properly is an enjoyable experience, when we clearly know what’s in it for us. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes to understand this is a skill that's sadly disappearing.

This article isn’t meant to sound arrogant. It's not bashing salespeople (or recruiters). It’s written to outline where sales emails go wrong. See it as an offering of help.

Finally, if you want to see examples of people selling properly, look at the likes of Benjamin Dennehy and Daniel Disney on here.

Two great salespeople. Two people you'll learn a lot from.

Disclaimer: Not all salespeople are lazy and self-promoting.