SALES QUESTION: “We have a list of targeted prospects that we send emails to – however we aren’t seeing many sales as a result and noticed that our “open rate” is low. How can we get more prospects to open our emails and read them?“
SalesBuzz Answer:
“Email” is a powerful sales tool for salespeople. And just like any powerful tool, if it isn’t used properly, bad things happen.
When it comes to learning what works in getting more prospects to open your email, you don’t have to do much research before you find that most will tell you that the answer is what you say in your SUBJECT LINE. But I’m here to tell you there is a very important step that you have to do first if you want to use “email” as a way of helping you achieve your sales quota.
BEFORE ENTERING YOUR “SUBJECT LINE”…
When a client contacts me and says “we are sending out sales emails but they aren’t working… can you take a look at them?” almost always, their emails are ALL ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR PRODUCTS.
I’ve got news for you… NO ONE CARES. You can tell them you have a better product than their current provider, you can tell them (if it’s true) that you can save them money. You’ll still hear crickets for the most part. Even if you had a snazzy subject line that got them to open the email up.
Ironically, the reason why a lot of sales people resort to EMAILING FIRST (A mistake in most cases in my book) is because they got tired of being rejected on the phone. So now they are emailing first, yet most aren’t seeing the results they need.
That’s because your email made the same mistake as your sales call… You made it all about YOU and what YOU provide, rather than making it about THEM and the PROBLEMS you might be able to help them SOLVE.
Sure, subject lines are important. But what is more important is agreeing to the OBJECTIVE you want to achieve with your email.
I’ve found that using emails as a way of offering HELP without asking for anything in return has produced the highest ROI yet. Meaning, helping my targeted audience solve problems they deal with on a regular basis, via weekly email newsletters (you can also do bi-monthly or monthly emails if you wish) has produced far more positive results over blasting them with emails that say how great our product / service is and then asking for an appointment.
If you change your OBJECTIVE of the email from GETTING AN APPOINTMENT to BUILD YOUR REPUTATION AS AN SME (SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT) not only will you come up with better SUBJECT LINES that will get opened and read, you will also get more prospects to raise their hand and contact you when they need that next level of help that you charge for. And they will be gald to pay it.
Sincerely,
Michael Pedone – SalesBuzz.com‘s CSS: Chief Sales Scientist
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