Four phrases that will consign your sales email to the junk folder

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.

Sales emails: do you get responses?  

One of the reasons why they don’t work is that many sales people simply don’t know how to craft something that is effective and engaging.

An effective sales email

There are 3 parts to an effective sales email:

  1. The opening section – this is the moment of truth as the recipient sees the subject line and maybe the first 10-15 words in their inbox preview panel. Will they open it? Ensure the subject line is relevant, enticing and personalised.
  2. The WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) or benefit section – why should the recipient read any further or engage? How will they benefit from what you are saying? Relevant features are the key. And even more powerful if you can connect to known needs.
  3. The close or call to action section – the part of the email where you ask the recipient to do something. Keep it simple and quite often you’ll gain a reply; but make it complicated most times you’ll get nothing!

Wasted words

Over the year’s, research has shown that the average salesperson talks more than 80% of the time in a selling situation. The same applies in sales emails when too many wasted words are used – research tells us you have less than 15 seconds to provoke a reply.

Some examples of wasted or delete inducing words:

  1. “I hope you don’t mind” as in “I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to you through LinkedIn.” Or “I hope you don’t mind my asking” or “I hope this email finds you well.” They might seem like a polite opening but they clutter your message and waste precious time.
  2. “Would you be the correct person?” or “Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?” Do you really think they’ll tell you? It’s your job to find out, not theirs.
  3. “As you probably know” – another wasted phrase. Just say it and get to the point to avoid deletion.
  4. “I would love to” or “I look forward to” or “I would enjoy.”  – perhaps you think they sound polite, but these phrases make you sound desperate.

The bottom line to truly effective sales emails is to avoid being boring or “spammy”.

For a different approach check out this Hubspot post “Six Easy Exercises to Improve Your Sales Emails

Until next week good selling!

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.

He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 

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