LC1:P1 – The Perfect Prospect Correspondence
In our first Listener’s Choice, The Perfect Prospect Correspondence, Bobby and Brian lay out a question from a listener about how to best prospect via email to potential customers. Bobby also plugs Ready Caddy, and how they made him a raving fan!
They cover 4 scenarios in this Listener’s Choice. In part 1, they cover the first two, plus some great do’s and don’ts!
- Building a cold email to a new prospect,
- The art of the follow-up email,
- How to move from an email conversation to a face-to-face meeting,
- Discuss the “will you introduce me” email best practices,
- And finally, the do’s and don’ts of email correspondence
I. BUILDING A COLD EMAIL TO A NEW PROSPECT
- You’ll be delegated to the people that you talk-like, for example, if you send an email to someone in the “business” – such as a CFO, that is filled full of IT terms, it will be deleted or sent on to IT. That could be your objective – but be aware that you’ll be delegated to who you talk-like.
- Congratulate people on career moves and company objectives – with no sales-objective. Just a sincere, genuine note of congratulations.
- The Four Categories of the Perfect New Prospect Email:
- Reference their business – an announcement, positive earnings release (don’t be superficial!)
- Make an educated assumption
- Reference where you have helped another company achieve a similar business goal
- Request for next step. Be specific, “Do you have time to grab coffee next Tuesday at 3:30?
- Don’ts:
- Don’t write the Pulitzer Prize-winning email – be short and sweet!
- Don’t suggest that you’ve made a call if you haven’t
- Don’t capitalize every word – write like a human
- Don’t use their full name, use their short name, be general
- DON’T COPY AND PASTE!!! And if you do, make sure you have setup Bobby’s video on the 1-minute delay for Outlook to prevent mistakes
- Do’s:
- Do the research! (people and the company)
- Set time goals specific to when you are available and when you would like to meet.
- Keep it simple
- Be organized, but don’t make it look too “marketing-like”
II. THE FOLLOW-UP EMAIL
- What you are measuring is the prospect’s interest to continue to engage with you
- Check out Bobby’s video on Quick Parts for Follow-up for a repeatable way to build out these templates.
- The sections consist of:
- Express the genuine interest to do business together
- Action Items –
- Must have 1+ items on the action list for the prospective customer. Maybe it’s their v-card, NDA, org-chart
- You should have 1, 2 actions done! The next meeting on the calendar, a market document that they asked for, or something similar.
- Reverse Timeline
- Work through from today to a successful implementation if possible. It will hold accountability to goals and actions required to achieve those goals, making it less task-oriented and more goal oriented.
- This is a measuring/testing exercise
- Meeting Notes
- Have a good summary of your conversation that will serve as a reminder for the future engagement.
- Don’ts:
- Don’t have mixed fonts, text sizes
- Don’t wait three days before sending the following, do it within 24 hours
- Don’t only have actions for yourself! It doesn’t measure the customers’ interest/engagement!
- Do’s:
- Follow-up same-day, we are forgettable people
- Impose a reverse timeline to stay on track
- Have 1-2 actions already completed
- Have the next meeting already on the calendar!
In the next Episode of The Perfect Prospect Correspondence, we’ll cover the final two email types: 1) The email to get out of email, and 2) the “will you introduce me” email.
Welcome to The Tech Sales Show brought to you by techsalesshow.com! In this first Listener’s Choice, we are aiming to help current and future tech sellers with email marketing. You will hear us often say Average Sucks, Average is the Enemy and Don’t Be Average! The goal of the Listener’s Choice is to answer your questions, and to provide tools to make you a top account exec!
Join our mailing list at www.techsalesshow.com
Follow us on Twitter @TechSalesShow
Follow us on Facebook @TechSalesShow
Subscribe on YouTube Bobby & Brian’s Channel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS