Mass emails generated by algorithms to look as though they were written specifically to you have become significantly more common over past few years. You know the ones I mean: “Hi Chris, as Founder of President of Vector Firm, I’m sure that you experience some of the same problems we’ve solved for other sales and marketing consulting and training businesses.” Whether in my email inbox or LinkedIn messages, I get several of these every day. I find these messages insulting. I understand the strategy and shouldn’t be offended, but I am. Do these companies really think I’ll fall for one of these bogus emails? Yes, I’m annoyed. Yes, I waste time deleting and unsubscribing from them. But more than anything, I’m pissed that they think I’m that gullible.
The bright side of this dynamic is that genuine personal notes are being more and more appreciated today. When someone knows that another person - even a salesperson - has taken time to manually type a message, they appreciate it more than they used to. This is great news for salespeople, but they must follow some guidelines:
Within the first sentence, mention something that only another human would know. Perhaps you’re following up after meeting a potential customer at a networking event. In this case, mention the event and at least one detail about your meeting.
- Don’t try to be cute. Be yourself, but don’t add words assuming people want to be entertained by email. Cheap jokes are red flags of machine-generated emails.
- Follow up with a phone call or text. Just let them know that you emailed them and you didn’t want to be lost in all the spam they probably receive.
Just like fast food has made good food appear excellent, these machine generated emails will make your personal notes incrementally easier to open and read. Just be yourself - not a machine!
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