What are your sales email no-nos?
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We've all read some truly sucky sales emails in our day - one of our own rips apart a message he received the other day here - but what makes you click away? How do you use these examples of lackluster, unconvincing content to inform your own sales efforts? What are the pitfalls you try to avoid when crafting emails to prospects or attempting to upsell clients?
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Template emails. People want to feel like you care. Yes it takes longer and sure the emails are basically the same each time. But I just delete the form ones that are a mass send.
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@Minion-Queen By template do you mean that it formats incorrectly and you see bracket placeholders which were meant to be personalized to your company, like Hi [Name]? If not, are you saying you can sniff out emails that are personalized, but sound forced and like a mass-send?
What are your tips for creating meaningful and individualized emails, but still in an automated way?
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Are sales emails even tenable? Cold emails are just spam, those my filter doesn't catch are simply deleted.
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Well both actually.
Tips for creating emails:
- Take the time to know who you are writing to (the person not a full audience)
- Take the time to personalize your greeting (as in actually have a greeting)
- Take the time to send the email to just that one person or the people from an individual team you are trying to reach (not BCC)
- Follow up in a few days. Not everyone can read every email. Also following up shows your investment and effort given
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@Dashrender I disagree. I have gotten some cold emails from companies that can provide a valuable service to us. If it sounds like it could help, I'll set up a demo.
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Any email that is sent to the sender (and everyone else is BCC'd), is almost instantly deleted.
It's a blanket email, and I don't want to read it, nor their product.
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Generally, any email where the entire contents is in the subject line
Sales wise... well blanket spamming. Prime example: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/839204-cotap-spam
(High five if you get the reference
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Sales emails ARE no-nos..... but since you won't stop sending them, try these tips:
Emails written with the presumption that I am interested in your product or service are really annoying.
The omission of the all important "unsubscribe" link must stop. Now I have to respond to the sales d*** to tell them I want to unsubscribe, to which many respond with more sales pitch BS. <--- that's how you make the brown list (never EVER use these vendors).
No means no - being persistent after I express my non interest also gets you on the brown list.
Skip the buzzwords altogether. In the link above, I can't even read through it because of terms like "proof points". Ick. Stop it already. Those buzzwords are only fun for sales/marketing/C-levels, not IT pros. I, and many others, truly loathe both their existence and use.
Always remember - when we need something, we will determine that need, we will do our own research, and, if needed (which is less often than sales folk think), we will call you.... not t'other way round.
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Never, ever, ever... ever say that the marketing email is a follow up to a recent conversation. I rarely talk to sales people and when I get the "Hey how you doing we talked yesterday about this product, and you seemed interested." emails when I haven't talked to anyone on the phone for a week... that is very annoying. Seriously this gets you put on the spam list.
The other one I've gotten only once was, "Hey we talked to your boss and he wanted us to talk to you about purchasing our product." Don't do this either...
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Good sales email is no email.
If I want or need something, I'll look for it. If I get sales email that makes it through spam filter, it gets marked as spam anyway. -
@coliver where I come from, we call those techniques "lying through your teeth".
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Every sales email I get, I mark as spam and delete. Even if I was interested, I couldn't reply because I would be called and emailed until the cows come home.
I dream of a world where software sales aren't based on commission and the product itself is so good that it actually sells to customers without a salesperson being involved.
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Personally if I get a Template email, I delete it. If I keep getting bothering with constant emails, I will choose another product on principal, even if I liked it. The only way a sales person will influence me is to get to know me, have a honest personal conversation with me about what they have to offer, and not be offended if someone else makes a product that is a better fit for my current needs. Also, there is nothing worse than getting a marketing email from someone who can not even begin to answer the first technical question I ask with with out "Checking on that for me"
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When I sold stuff (granted not electronics) I made a point of calling or doing it in person. Not only will you do more business but it's WAY HARDER for clients to be horrible to you lol. Also it establishes your face / voice as the one who provides stuff to fix problems. Then you're part of the solution.
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Your brand relies more on your voice/face then it does your product.
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@Dashrender said:
Are sales emails even tenable? Cold emails are just spam, those my filter doesn't catch are simply deleted.
I wouldn't think so. I never even look at them. I see if it is someone that I know. If not I block it and report it to the O365 spam filters. I never even read it. Reading email you did not request is how you can phished. I prefer to nip that in the bud as early as possible. I don't get much spam coming through, but that that does does not get read.
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@marcinozga said:
Good sales email is no email.
If I want or need something, I'll look for it. If I get sales email that makes it through spam filter, it gets marked as spam anyway.I'm the final spam filter
And nothing makes it through me. -
I'm not a sales guy, so just wondering, isn't it much efficient to jump on the call with a guy? I mean, thus, you can easily make the contact much more personal comparing to the email conversation. And also, since people are lazy (just admit it), it shouldn`t be the problem to convince the guy to jump on the call with you.
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@original_anvil said:
I'm not a sales guy, so just wondering, isn't it much efficient to jump on the call with a guy? I mean, thus, you can easily make the contact much more personal comparing to the email conversation. And also, since people are lazy (just admit it), it shouldn`t be the problem to convince the guy to jump on the call with you.
Maybe, if you actually take cold calls. In my world, that's why voicemail exists.... for screening out sales calls. But you are also assuming that the "customer" in this example actually wants to be contacted by sales.... people. Most IT pros have the attitude of "don't call us, we'll call you" (are you listening sales folks???)
