If you must email....be organized!
If you must incorporate emails into your cold calling campaign I suggest you stay organized, focused, and calculated to get the greatest results. Here are a few key tips that increased the rate of return for email correspondence from about 2% to 15%+.
1. Try to reach the prospect directly before defaulted to an email campaign. I cannot stress this enough. Do not over call the person, but I highly recommend you try them at least ten times over the course of two weeks before sending an email.
2. The subject line needs to POP. As tempting as it may be to send a generic email blast, I suggest you personalize each email. Either purchase software that can automatically input the prospects name or take the time to do it yourself. Your target is significantly more likely to reply to your email (even if its with a no) if they feel that the email is personalized. Your subject for instance could read:
John--Follow-up RE: CFO Forum with AT&T Finance Director
You want your subject to not only include the person's name, but send the message that you are following up about something important. Find the most impactful feature of what you are contacting them about and briefly include that in the subject line.
3. Make the content appealing, brief and time sensitive. Make sure it is focused on them helping them and give them an out. My asking for a reply, either way, you may at least start a dialogue to help you build rapport that could lead to future business.
"John, I wanted to follow-up with you regarding the CFO Summit that I am hosting with the Finance Director of AT&T as well as other finance industry executives. You are not registered for the program so I wanted to make sure to reach you directly. If you can't make it no worries, but please advise either way."
4. Keep the email short, but make sure it is exciting and has a call to action. Why are you reaching out? What is in it for them? Why should they react now instead of later?
"The Forum is being led by Commissioner of the State Board of Education. Other contributors are X,Y, Z (again make sure to personalize this part of the email so the individuals you name drop are those that will have the greatest emotional impact to your prospect). Last Forum, our attendees like X, Y, Z company sited that the educational content and networking opportunities they received allowed them to save time and money (make this more specific if possible by adding analytics like they saved an average of X%). Since the Forum is coming up in eight short week I want to make sure your are included. If you can make this work please call me at 555-5555 so that I can answer your questions and finalize your seat!"
5. NOW, follow-up and leave a voice mail drawing their attention to the email you just sent. This is critical to getting a reply to your email. How often to you scan the subject line of an email, but delete it without opening it? How often do you see the name of a sender that you do not know and delete the email before even reading the subject line? We are all guilty of this--it is human nature. Make your email stand out, by leaving a professional voice mail. For instance:
"John--Leslie calling from the CFO Forum with AT&T. I just sent you an email regarding the program. I want to make sure we connect this week. Please call me at 555-5555. Thanks John. I look forward to having a brief chat with you soon."
Note that you repeated the subject of your email, gave another time line and another call to action. REMEMBER, you are not expecting a huge return on this email campaign even with this techniques applied, which is why we take the next step.
I suggest that you send your first email on a Monday afternoon or Tuesday which gives them 3-4 days to reply to you. Then you want to repeat the process by sending a follow-up email and leaving another voice mail. Please make sure you save the initial email you sent as you will need to use it for the next step in the process. NOW:
6. Open the first email you sent and do a REPLY ALL. First you will notice that this changes the subject line to have an RE: which is likely to make them curious. Give them a deadline, repeat some exciting content, give them a call to action, and repeat again the reason for them to act now instead of later. For instance:
"John--I did not hear from you last week regarding the CFO Forum with AT&T. We also have X, Y, Z, A, B, C, companies joining us. I would love to include you in this program so please let me know if you are able to make it work no later then 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, Month, 15.
We are motivated to have you join us, but I will have to move on to other prospective attendees if I do not hear from you by Wednesday. Yes or no, please advise so that I know how to proceed. Thanks John. I hope that we have a chance to work together."
7. One day later leave a final voice mail follow-up. Wait one day after you send this email and leave a voice mail repeating exactly what you wrote in the email.
"John--Leslie following up from the CFO Forum. I sent you a quick email as well. Can you please advise, yes or no, if you will be joining us. I can be reached at 555-5555. Thanks John!"
8. REMEMBER, even with this new and improved, personalized process the rate of return is only going to increase from 2% to 15%+ when executed perfectly. I know that this process works for numerous attempts along the path to perfecting it. The more personalize, exciting, and captivating--the more likely your prospect is to reply.
9. Use any reply you get to start a dialogue. Even if they do not reply with a yes, take advantage of any reply to start a dialogue. You can only help yourself pipeline future opportunities by remaining conversational, but not combative!
Maybe you can ask them: "John--I would really appreciate your professional insight. What was missing that prevented you from attending?" or "John--I would love an opportunity to include you in a future program. Out of curiosity, what do you usually look for when attending events?
If they do reply with a yes, start building rapport by asking them questions like "What made you decide to join us?" "What other events do you consider attending throughout the year?" "Who else in your networking circle would you recommend for a program like this?" etc.
Do NOT stop here. Even if this campaign does not work to get any sort of reply at all, do not give up on this person. They might not be an active buyer right now, but that does not mean they won't need your product or service in the future. I would give them a break before following up again, but make sure you stay in their frame of reference.
10. BE flexible an adapt this process to your particular sale. Maybe you aren't selling something with a set deadline or with a sexy company to name drop. There is still a way to make your product and therefore your sale HOT--find that and use it. Create a deadline if you need to. Maybe you are selling a copy machine and both you and your prospect know that the copy machine is always going to be there to purchase--make your attention to them have a deadline.
"John--I want to make sure that my follow-up is going to create a beneficial situation for both of us. If I don't hear from you by X I will move on to more interested parties. I am very motivated to work with you so please let me know if I should continue to reach out or not."
I hope that these 10 tips of email campaigns can improve the work you are already doing. Please let me know if you have any questions at coldcallingmastery@gmail.com. Otherwise, be flexible, specific, and professional to get the best results. Good luck!!!
1. Try to reach the prospect directly before defaulted to an email campaign. I cannot stress this enough. Do not over call the person, but I highly recommend you try them at least ten times over the course of two weeks before sending an email.
2. The subject line needs to POP. As tempting as it may be to send a generic email blast, I suggest you personalize each email. Either purchase software that can automatically input the prospects name or take the time to do it yourself. Your target is significantly more likely to reply to your email (even if its with a no) if they feel that the email is personalized. Your subject for instance could read:
John--Follow-up RE: CFO Forum with AT&T Finance Director
You want your subject to not only include the person's name, but send the message that you are following up about something important. Find the most impactful feature of what you are contacting them about and briefly include that in the subject line.
3. Make the content appealing, brief and time sensitive. Make sure it is focused on them helping them and give them an out. My asking for a reply, either way, you may at least start a dialogue to help you build rapport that could lead to future business.
"John, I wanted to follow-up with you regarding the CFO Summit that I am hosting with the Finance Director of AT&T as well as other finance industry executives. You are not registered for the program so I wanted to make sure to reach you directly. If you can't make it no worries, but please advise either way."
4. Keep the email short, but make sure it is exciting and has a call to action. Why are you reaching out? What is in it for them? Why should they react now instead of later?
"The Forum is being led by Commissioner of the State Board of Education. Other contributors are X,Y, Z (again make sure to personalize this part of the email so the individuals you name drop are those that will have the greatest emotional impact to your prospect). Last Forum, our attendees like X, Y, Z company sited that the educational content and networking opportunities they received allowed them to save time and money (make this more specific if possible by adding analytics like they saved an average of X%). Since the Forum is coming up in eight short week I want to make sure your are included. If you can make this work please call me at 555-5555 so that I can answer your questions and finalize your seat!"
5. NOW, follow-up and leave a voice mail drawing their attention to the email you just sent. This is critical to getting a reply to your email. How often to you scan the subject line of an email, but delete it without opening it? How often do you see the name of a sender that you do not know and delete the email before even reading the subject line? We are all guilty of this--it is human nature. Make your email stand out, by leaving a professional voice mail. For instance:
"John--Leslie calling from the CFO Forum with AT&T. I just sent you an email regarding the program. I want to make sure we connect this week. Please call me at 555-5555. Thanks John. I look forward to having a brief chat with you soon."
Note that you repeated the subject of your email, gave another time line and another call to action. REMEMBER, you are not expecting a huge return on this email campaign even with this techniques applied, which is why we take the next step.
I suggest that you send your first email on a Monday afternoon or Tuesday which gives them 3-4 days to reply to you. Then you want to repeat the process by sending a follow-up email and leaving another voice mail. Please make sure you save the initial email you sent as you will need to use it for the next step in the process. NOW:
6. Open the first email you sent and do a REPLY ALL. First you will notice that this changes the subject line to have an RE: which is likely to make them curious. Give them a deadline, repeat some exciting content, give them a call to action, and repeat again the reason for them to act now instead of later. For instance:
"John--I did not hear from you last week regarding the CFO Forum with AT&T. We also have X, Y, Z, A, B, C, companies joining us. I would love to include you in this program so please let me know if you are able to make it work no later then 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, Month, 15.
We are motivated to have you join us, but I will have to move on to other prospective attendees if I do not hear from you by Wednesday. Yes or no, please advise so that I know how to proceed. Thanks John. I hope that we have a chance to work together."
7. One day later leave a final voice mail follow-up. Wait one day after you send this email and leave a voice mail repeating exactly what you wrote in the email.
"John--Leslie following up from the CFO Forum. I sent you a quick email as well. Can you please advise, yes or no, if you will be joining us. I can be reached at 555-5555. Thanks John!"
8. REMEMBER, even with this new and improved, personalized process the rate of return is only going to increase from 2% to 15%+ when executed perfectly. I know that this process works for numerous attempts along the path to perfecting it. The more personalize, exciting, and captivating--the more likely your prospect is to reply.
9. Use any reply you get to start a dialogue. Even if they do not reply with a yes, take advantage of any reply to start a dialogue. You can only help yourself pipeline future opportunities by remaining conversational, but not combative!
Maybe you can ask them: "John--I would really appreciate your professional insight. What was missing that prevented you from attending?" or "John--I would love an opportunity to include you in a future program. Out of curiosity, what do you usually look for when attending events?
If they do reply with a yes, start building rapport by asking them questions like "What made you decide to join us?" "What other events do you consider attending throughout the year?" "Who else in your networking circle would you recommend for a program like this?" etc.
Do NOT stop here. Even if this campaign does not work to get any sort of reply at all, do not give up on this person. They might not be an active buyer right now, but that does not mean they won't need your product or service in the future. I would give them a break before following up again, but make sure you stay in their frame of reference.
10. BE flexible an adapt this process to your particular sale. Maybe you aren't selling something with a set deadline or with a sexy company to name drop. There is still a way to make your product and therefore your sale HOT--find that and use it. Create a deadline if you need to. Maybe you are selling a copy machine and both you and your prospect know that the copy machine is always going to be there to purchase--make your attention to them have a deadline.
"John--I want to make sure that my follow-up is going to create a beneficial situation for both of us. If I don't hear from you by X I will move on to more interested parties. I am very motivated to work with you so please let me know if I should continue to reach out or not."
I hope that these 10 tips of email campaigns can improve the work you are already doing. Please let me know if you have any questions at coldcallingmastery@gmail.com. Otherwise, be flexible, specific, and professional to get the best results. Good luck!!!
Comments
Post a Comment