We all know the rule of making your emails brief enough to ensure your prospect reads it, and then takes action. However, we usually have so much to convey to them that it seems impossible to reduce any of our sentences. There are certain words or phrases that are commonly used and should never be included in a prospecting email. Below is a list…
- Value-add. This actually isn’t a bad term, but it’s been overused in the last decade or so and falls on blind eyes. Your prospects have seen this term so many times that they don’t notice it.
- Greatest service in the industry. First of all, everyone says this. If you’ve got something tangible to prove that your service is the greatest in the industry, great – share that stat. However, don’t use a phrase that is so subjective and used by all of your competitors.
- …introduce myself. No one has time to meet a sales person. Why should they meet you? What are you bringing them?
- …stop by and shake your hand. This was a popular phrase decades ago and it’s still used, but it doesn’t work anymore. This phrase provides a visual of embracing and partnership, a positive image that is supposed to influence your prospect to agreeing to a meeting. Today they don’t care – they’ve got all the information they need online and the thought of a handshake with another sales person irritates them.
- Let me know a time that works for you. If your customer can’t reply to your call of action on their smart phone with three words or less and zero thinking, you’re losing the battle. Don’t make them think. Offer a few times so they can simply type something like “11:30works”. You can add a statement like “If these times don’t work, let me know what will.”
After the posts from March 7 and March 8, 2016, and these examples, I think you get the point: keep your message brief, objective, unique, and bring something of value to your prospects and customers. If you do this, your ratio of appointments to touches will increase dramatically.
