Sending e-mail to prospective customers can feel as hopeless as leaving that fifth or sixth voice mail. But your salespeople can improve their results simply by being mindful of the three biggest reasons prospects ignore e-mails, says Kendra Lee, founder of the KLA Group (klagroup.com), a sales consulting and training firm.
1. They never got the e-mail in the first place. Spam filters are becoming more and more aggressive. Messages with attachments (especially large ones), lots of links, extensive marketing graphics and other gimmicks aren’t likely to make it to the recipient’s inbox. Keep your prospecting e-mails simple and image free, even in your e-mail signature. They’ll have a lot easier time making it past spam traps and junk filters.
2. You didn’t give prospects a strong enough reason to take action. Prospects are focused on their own problems and issues. E-mail messages should emphasize common issues and trigger events your company can solve that really matter to your customers and prospects. The point isn’t to tell them more about you, it’s to give them a strong enough reason to begin a sales conversation.
3. It seemed like too much to deal with at the moment. E-mail must sound compelling and be easy to act on. An e-mail that’s more than three paragraphs long, asks a prospect to fill out a lengthy registration form, or otherwise seems like something that’s going to take them away from what they were thinking about is unlikely to draw much response.
