I’m amazed at how many solicitation emails I receive asking me for an appointment that put the burden on me to come up with the time and place. The call-to-action looks something like this (after several paragraphs of feature selling)…
“Just let me know a good time to schedule a call.”
Really, I’ve got to look at my calendar and then respond to you with a time? I don’t have time to do all of that (actually, I do have the time but I won’t do it). Also, my calendar is color-coded and the colors don’t show up well on my phone, so I don’t like using it if I don’t have to. Does that matter? Yes, not objectively, but it still makes an emotional impact on my decision. Unless I know this person or they were referred to me, there is no way that I’m going to respond to their request.
I read most of my emails from my phone, and most of your prospects probably do the same. The best way to get a response from me is to give me a call-to-action that is so simple that I can reply with one to three words from my phone. Using the above example …
“I’ll be in your area next Tuesday. Can you meet before 9:30 or after 3:00?”
This gives your prospect the option of simply typing: “8:30”
The best way to increase your response ratio from your emails is to make your call-to-action simple enough for your prospect to reply with one to three words from their smart phone without looking at anything else. As with every prospecting idea – it’s not perfect, but your ratio will increase a little bit by using this discipline.
