New Evidence Reveals Salespeople Don't Need to Send 8 Emails to Get Meetings

I was recently asked, '"When all else fails, how do I cut through the noise and reach prospects?"

One of the most common answers to this question is to send 8 more emails.

Like this:

Subject: Next Step

John, I'm writing to follow up on my email. I didn't hear back from you. It it makes sense to talk, let me know how your calendar looks.

If not, who is the appropriate person for me to talk to?

Thanks for you help,

Sue

But most of the time prospects delete emails like this. Why?

Here's Beth Renninger, former Executive Director of Verizon (aka the prospect):

"If I Haven't Called You Back Then You Haven't Earned It"

The question isn't "How do I break through the noise?"

The questions you should be asking are:

1. "What new idea can I teach my prospect that will help them kick more ass?"
2. "How can I teach the idea in a way that's unique, charming and clear."

To "earn it" you need to master the art of connecting the dots and teaching.

What is Teaching?

I've never considered the definition of "teaching" - and I'm sure I'm not alone. We all teach people about things differently so why define what we do all the time?

The thing is, we take teaching for granted. For most of us, teaching is just something that happens. Someone asks you to make a presentation, you create slides. Need to get meetings? Just teach prospects how their life could be better in an email. We rarely step back and reflect on how to improve how we teach.

Teaching isn't telling people something they already know. Or "lecturing" your value proposition ("we increase conversion rates").

Teaching is showing how you can help your prospect do something better they might not have considered. And communicating in a way that's charming and easy to understand.

The Too-Awesome-To-Ignore Cold Email

Every once in awhile I encounter someone who is a great teacher, who's approach to cold outreach jibes with the points above. Rather than sending 7 templated emails, these salespeople seek out unique and helpful ways to teach ideas to their prospects. When I bump into cold emails from these people I look for common traits and ask: what do these great teachers have in common?

In a word, it's empathy. The best teachers have the ability to put themselves in their prospect's shoes and communicate from their perspective.

A great example of this is Davesh Khanal's email and corresponding video that landed a contract from a CEO in 1 week:

Crappy formatting? I guess. But the most important part was that Davesh connected a dot and taught Eric something new that would help him kick more ass - increasing the size of his list.

Results

Davesh sent 6 of these emails and has a 100% open rate, a 83% click on video rate (5 out of 6 watched the video), and got 3 deals (50% conversion rate).

This Won't Work For Me

You might be thinking, "This won't work for me. I don't do A/B testing" If you ever have that thought when learning something new, ask yourself, "How might I apply this to my business." This one mindset shift can have a material impact on your business.

3 Things You Can Teach Your Prospects

1. What's Possible: Make an observation about your prospect's business and show how you can make it better. Here's an example of first sentence that virtually guarantees you'll have your prospect's attention: - "In reviewing GEICO's auto quote process we noticed 3 issues that might be effecting conversion rates."
2. Best Practices: Your prospects are focused on improving their business and may not be on the lookout for best practices outside their company or industry. That's where you come in. What best practices can you share?
3. What's Next?: Prospects are interested in hearing about things around the corner they might not know about. Think regulations or technology trends.

One last thing . . .

If you enjoyed this article, you will love 5 Things Worth Sharing This Week. It's my FREE weekly newsletter where you'll learn things like ‘How a 3-minute conversation turned into $45,000’ and ’How to ask for referrals without feeling salesy’.

Even Rick Hussey likes it. (You do know Rick Hussey don't you?)

Subscribe to the FREE 5 Things Worth Sharing This Week newsletter here.

Here's what you missed last week.