Freedom From Business as Usual

E-mail Can Send Sales Soaring or Delete Opportunities

• E-mail is great as a sales tool.

• E-mail isn’t great as a sales tool.

• The e-mailer determines whether e-mail is or isn’t effective.

 E-mail can be a sales person’s friend or foe – depending on how it is used.  To maximize sales results with e-mail, remember to:

• Say thank you.

• State what you need.

• Develop an e-follow-up system.

When I worked outside sales for a drug company, we sales people always fought for prospect attention.  To differentiate myself from competitors I went back to a sales basic – say thank you.  After each sales call, I pulled out my stationery for a quick thank-you note.  I mailed it the same day.

Today, use e-mail and your stationery to say thanks.  Many of you have a Blackberry; use it to your advantage.

jim Golds at File Vault says, “I recently closed an account with a ‘triple-barrel post-call thank you.’”  Sent the e-mail and mailed the card before leaving the building so the client had a touch within minutes and another in the mail the next day.  When I phoned the day after that to set a meeting to review my proposal, it was the third touch within three days.”

One of my bank clients is a power e-mail user, averaging more than 250 daily messages.  Each e-mail competes for consideration.  If you want her attention, the e-mail must have a clear title.  Subject lines that contain “re:re:fwd,” say “Old news here.”  Blank subject lines seem evasive and unhelpful.

Make e-mail subject lines to-the-point.  For example, “Thank You – Proposal Attached,” or, “Confirmed Meeting 4/18.”

To improve your communication more, say what you need in the first sentence of the e-mail.  Example: “The revised price schedule we discussed Thursday is attached and I can provide the 15 percent sales rate on orders before April 20.”

An attorney client of mine mastered these first two steps of e-mail as a sales tool.  Follow-up was the next hurdle.  He sent e-mails and tried to remember if he ever heard back from the prospect. 

Our minds are not effective to-do lists.  So we devised an automated tracking system for outstanding e-mailed items.  Outlook users can write custom rules.  We wrote a rule called “Waiting For.”  Each time he sends a prospect e-mail that needs a response, he “cc’s” himself and a copy of the message automatically hits his “Waiting For” folder.  (Want the “Waiting For” instructions?  E-mail me.)

Once a week he checks this “Waiting For” folder for outstanding items.  Why does he set aside one time a week?  Well, I’m out of column space this week and I’ll discuss that in my next column.

If you'd like more, please consider attending ASTD 2012 where you can hear Jeannie Sullivan & Carson Tate at their session in Denver.