Why nobody reads your prospecting emails - and what to do about it

Last week I wrote a post saying "Why nobody reads your prospecting articles - and why you don't want them to". It generated a lot of comments and some great in-depth feedback and discussions. But several people said words to the effect "Great discussion Steve - but what do you suggest we do about it?" There wasn't space in the post to answer that question so I'm writing this article to answer it.

The original post

Here's what I wrote.

"WHY NOBODY READS YOUR PROSPECTING EMAILS - and why you don't want them to.

"There was a great New York Times article this week on why no-one reads work emails (the link is in the first comment). It's even worse when it comes to prospecting emails.

"Everyone is overwhelmed with messages today - emails, texts, Facebook alerts, phone calls, WhatsApp, ads & more.

"And these are from people they know & WANT to hear from - friends, family, work colleagues, their boss, their employees, their own customers. The last thing they want are prospecting emails from complete strangers - but they get dozens every day. No wonder they usually don't even open them.

"So do we look for ways to get prospects to open them using clever headlines & such? No.

"Because when we do they often feel tricked & are pissed off. Especially as most prospecting emails are, to use a technical term, crap.

#Many salespeople (& marketers) think if they sent 100,000 emails & get an "open rate" of 2% that's "success" - it means 2,000 people 'read' the email. In fact it means 98,000 people ignored it and were potentially annoyed by it & a large proportion of the 2,000 who did open it were even more annoyed at being fooled.

"So what IS the answer? I have my opinion - what's yours?"

The responses

So far there have been 72 comments (admittedly many of them my responses) and while the great majority have agreed with me several have asked "so what do we do about it?" One or two made some excellent points which I'll share here before I answer that question.

Ian Meharg from Perth, Scotland, was so poetically accurate I have to include the first paragraph of his comment:

"Steve Hall, your perspective is correct. I never understood why a response rate in low single figures was considered a good outcome. It was always thus even in the days of mail shots (remember those?). The situation you described is like driving in snow with your headlights on - one of those snowflakes is the one you want but you can't tell which one so you ignore them all. The sales person only sees their own snowflake. not the blizzard that engulfs the customer. So they think all they need is more snow."

The situation you described is like driving in snow with your headlights on - one of those snowflakes is the one you want but you can't tell which one so you ignore them all. The sales person only sees their own snowflake. not the blizzard that engulfs the customer. So they think all they need is more snow.

Wayne Moloney from Sydney's Blue Mountains made some great suggestions when he said:

"Let me tell you what annoys me with email marketing:

1. "the bullshit 'promises' - see Kevin Roy Beck's first point
2. "the immediate next day follow up from an internal salesperson when you have opened an email (or downloaded something from a website) trying to make a sale
3. "InMails that show no value to me and demonstrate the person has not researched me or my potential needs

"How do I position prospecting emails? I don't. I research the individual I feel will benefit from what I offer. I then personalise the approach and that will generally include (and I'm not joking) the use of a letter, envelope, and stamp...and the telephone."

Kevin Roy Beck, referenced by Wayne, said among other things

"Others inundate me with offers via email and through LinkedIn. They open with a line "hello Kevin it seems you and I have a common interest". 

"They have not read the profile nor understood what business I and my colleagues are in and that their offering is totally unsuitable and unusable."

Steve Turberville from Gig Harbor, Washington (we'd spell it Harbour here) expanded on the snowflake analogy when he said:

"Well crafted personal outreach and communication by phone, email and even handwritten note can stick to their windshield in the midst of the blizzard. The next best thing is an introduction from a connection, something that LinkedIn makes reasonably easy. Obviously more to it, but you see where I'm coming from."

Christian DeGobbi from Greater New York City invoked the Who in his answer:

"I agree that the vast majority of people are "pissed off" and unimpressed by how we market to them today. Like The Who said, "God, there's got to be another way!"" to which I responded that another relevant Who song is "We Won't Get Fooled Again".

Bernie Borges of Palm Harbor, Florida correctly identified Sales Leaders as a key part of the problem.

Many other people made valuable suggestions including using referrals, snail mail, express post, the phone and more. So what is the solution?

The Solution - or A solution

First of all, let's put this in context. I'm talking about looking for potential customers - prospecting - in B2B sales. The problems of overwhelm and snowstorms of email also apply to B2C but I'm not qualified to address that.

I'm also talking about selling high value solutions to senior decision makers because that's my specialty.

So breaking it down the problem is twofold:

1. How do I find B2B prospects for my product or service?
2. How do I get them to talk to me?

When people send thousands of emails in the hope of getting 2% - 5% of them as prospects it's the equivalent of Bottom Trawling in fishing. To quote the World Wildlife Fund,

Bottom trawling: Industrial trawlers once avoided coral reefs and other rocky regions of the ocean floor because their nets would snag and tear. But the introduction of rockhopper trawls in the 1980s changed this. The largest, with heavy rollers over 75cm in diameter, are very powerful, capable of moving boulders weighing 25 tonnes. Now, most of the ocean floor can be trawled down to a depth of 2,000m. In heavily fished areas around coral seamouths off southern Australia for example, 90% of the surfaces where coral used to grow are now bare rock. Like removing forest, removing this cover decreases the area available for marine species to live and thrive in.

Bottom trawling "works" in that it catches fish. But it destroys the environment and catches lots of lifeforms that aren't eaten, but that die anyway - including, for example, turtles and dolphins.

Similarly high volume email marketing destroys the business environment for everyone else. People who do this are trying to solve both problems at once - finding prospects and getting them to engage at the same time with the same process.

Part of the answer, therefore, is to separate these problems and solve them differently.

• How do I find B2B prospects for my product or service?

Here's where automation can help. The single biggest waste of time in sales is targeting people who have no need for what you sell. It may theoretically be possible to sell ice to Eskimos but why on earth would you when you can sell ice in a desert? Trying to sell ice to Eskimos requires huge effort, will usually send you broke and annoys the Eskimos.

So Step One is to narrow your audience. Identify your ideal customer - that is, in B2B sales, the type of company that is likely to have issues you can help them with, that isn't to remote to service, that can afford what you sell and that's likely to need to solve the issue in the not too distant future.

Once you've defined your ideal customer you can use Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics and other means to identify companies that fit the bill.

Step Two is to profile the ideal decision maker (or in my methodology a hierarchy of decision makers - e.g. CEO, then COO, then CIO) to contact.

Step Three is to get a list of the actual names of (for example) the top 3 executives to contact in the top 50 targets. LinkedIn and other tools can help with this, as can an keen trainee with a phone, Google and a brain.

So far so good. Now to the next problem.

• How do I get them to talk to me?

OK, we have a list of (for example) 150 people in 50 companies. We now need two things:

1. A compelling message that will make them want to talk to us
2. A way to get that message to them that will grab their attention

The message

The message is simple. Not always easy, but simple. "I want to talk to you about X. I know it's an issue for you and we may be able to help - can we explore the possibilities?" The objective is also simple - to get them interested enough and curious enough to give you a small portion of their time so you can explain/learn more.

The challenging bit is working out what "X" is - where "X" stands for something that is a priority for them, something that they care a lot about. This requires thought and research and YOU CAN NOT AUTOMATE THIS.

Every industry has different issues; every company in an industry has different issues; every executive in a company has a different perspective on their issues. So "X" will differ from company to company, person to person.

The more specific you are the better your results will be. On the other hand the more specific you are the more research you need to do.

Sometimes you can come up with a message that hits the mark for an entire group of companies or an entire industry. Other times the message needs to be specific to a particular company or even a particular individual.

But the general rule is the broader your message the less effective. That's the problem with most Value Propositions - too generic.

"Hi, I want to talk to you about helping you increase your profits by 5%" may sound compelling - but you're just one of dozens of people making the same claim.

So finding the right message is an art that requires thought and work, which is why generic emails just don't work in the main.

Getting the message delivered

Next, how do you get the message to them so they will notice it and act on it? Email alone won't work - chances are they won't even open it and if they do they probably won't read it in any depth. If there's a possibility they can misunderstand it they probably will and the likelihood of them answering is slim in the extreme.

There are many methods which can be used in combination. By far the best is a referral from someone they trust - but even if you have a referral you still need to get a message to them telling them you have a referral.

Here are some of the delivery channels:

• Phone to office/EA
• Phone to mobile
• LinkedIn message
• Text
• Email
• Executive assistant
• Registered mail
• FedEx
• Drive up to the front door and walk in
• Referral
• Industry event
• Join their Rotary club
• Marry their son or daughter

The big question is "for this person at this time in these circumstance what is the best combination of these tools to get my message to them in such a way they will take notice?"

So sorry, I can't tell you "do this and it will always work". I can give my own preferences though. I'm a great fan of the phone. Why? Because it's the only medium where you get feedback.

If you send a text, email, LinkedIn message or even a FedEx parcel you often hear back - nothing. But if you speak with someone you get a response. It may be "go away and never darken my door again" but at least you know where you stand.

So my standard approach is pretty simple. If the target has an Executive Assistant (which senior executives often do) I call and say "hi, I'd like to organise a chat with Mary, how do I do that?" If I have a referral (which is much better) I say "Bill suggested we talk" or words to that effect.

Pretty much always they say "what about?" I give them a VERY simple answer "<Referral> suggested we talk, would it help if I sent details in an email?" Then I have permission to send an email, I know it will get read and I can call back and get feedback on how effective my message was.

There are many other questions such what happens if I can't find their number?

(This happened to me recently with the biggest Health Care provider in Australia - every listed number was a call centre. Eventually I looked at their press releases, found the mobile there of their director of corporate communications, called him and said "I want to speak to your CEO, can you forward an email to his EA?", sent the email, got a meeting with the CFO)

I can't cover every eventuality here. But there is one big piece of advice I'd offer.

One big piece of advice

If a new customer has a lifetime value of at least $250,000 it's worth putting in the effort to get the right message to the right person.

By all means automate your search for prospects to approach using AI and Predictive Analytics. By all means delegate research to a junior person.

But when it comes to crafting your message and getting it delivered, personalise and DO NOT automate or delegate. In this case less is definitely more.

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion on this - I'm sure people will have much to say.

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If you find this article interesting, useful and/or amusing please help it to reach a wider audience by "liking" it - and ideally by sharing it because the LinkedIn algorithm gods give points to articles that are shared and show them to more people.

I'll personally thank everyone who shares it of course (especially if you tag me). And I'll answer all questions or comments.

If you want to sell more to "C" level executives call me.

You may also want to join my LinkedIn group, Executive Sales Coaching.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/7049883

Oops, forgot hashtags #stevehallsydney #sellingatClevel