Today, I received an email and, as I started to reply, I thought that perhaps I should write my reply in my blog and leave this poor, unknowing soul alone. The email started off with “I hope you can appreciate my professional persistence.” I think you can see where this is going, but let me back up a few weeks. I got an email for a webinar in which I would learn the Top 10 Videos to Have on Your Website. I was intrigued enough to register since I had a few of these video projects to work on. I thought at the very least, I would get some creative ideas.
Well, the day of the webinar rolled around and guess what? I found out that I had registered for another webinar of some interesting topic at the same time. I don’t recall which one I logged into first but whichever it was, I spent about 15 minutes on the webinar, lost interest and logged into the other. Sadly, my attention span for webinars is about as much as a teenager’s interest in getting a job so I also quit this webinar after a few mindless minutes.
This could be the end of the story but oh no! This is where the fun begins! Since ‘webinar day,’ I’ve been receiving emails from ‘Jacob,’ a sales representative of Vidbo (name changed). I’m going to go full disclosure here and tell you that I have no idea what Vidbo does or if I even need any such service. All I know is they were the sponsor/speaker of one of the webinars I logged into that fateful day.
I also don’t know how many emails I’ve deleted/ignored from Jacob but I do know that I’ve been getting them because I have to go all the way to his email signature to find out what company he’s from. So now that today’s email caused me to begin a reply with a snarky message (“Is ‘professional persistence’ the new way of saying ‘salesperson nagging’?), let’s go ahead and analyze the mistakes our friend Jacob is making.
I may be the center of your world, but you’re not the center of mine. If I don’t know who you are or what you do, if I have to look all the way to the end of your email to find the name of your company, you’ve failed. A salesperson has to realize that their prospect gets hundreds of unsolicited emails every hour! I don’t know how many times you have emailed me, so I don’t know if you are being persistent or not! I don’t know what your service or product is, so I don’t know if I’m happy that you’ve emailed me again (so you say) or not! Let me put it this way… Do you recognize that Colonel Sanders shows up on your tv on every commercial break? And if you do, does he apologize to you for doing so? If you’re going to start off apologizing for something, maybe you shouldn’t be contacting me.
Selling the phone call, not the product/service. The next sentence in Jacob’s email reads: I am confident a conversation would be at the very least informational as you would learn not only how your peers are leveraging video to achieve some pretty amazing results but whether or not you could benefit from our solutions. This sentence is packed full of wrongs. For the most part, the entire focus is to get me on the phone, not sell the product or service! So let’s break it down:
“I am confident…” – and who are you again? And what’s in it for me?
“…at the very least…” Sounds like our salesperson doesn’t have much optimism for his sales techniques.
“…informational…” OH! So the email is apologetic and pleading but the phone call is where I finally will get information! Fail. Don’t make receiving information from your company a reward.
“…how your peers are leveraging video …” Is he implying that people in the same role as I at different companies are using video and I’m not? And that I have to learn from them? This sentence wouldn’t have taken on a negative tone if perhaps ‘your peers’ was swapped with ‘our customers’. And really, isn’t that what he’s trying to say, that he has customers who are in similar industries that are doing great things with video and his product/service is what’s making the difference? So why not just say that?
“…pretty amazing results…” Well that’s vague! How about swapping that out with just about any marketing goal like build qualified leads or increase sales, etc. Otherwise, there’s no real quantification to the word ‘amazing.’
“…but …” The word ‘but’ invites opposition. Use ‘and’ whenever possible.
“…but whether or not you could benefit from our services.” And what would those services be again? Oh, that’s right. I have to call to find out. How much better this whole mess would have been if he had just said: “I can share with you how customers in similar industries have used vidbo to increase sales by 30% and how you might also benefit from our service.
Asking me to do the work. As mentioned in my last post, do your research. After asking me to check my calendar and email him back with the days/times I am available, he tosses in “or direct me through the right channels” to cover his bases. It’s a classic sales fail. Who is teaching this stuff?!
Here’s how I would re-write Jacob’s sales email:
Hi Jan,
I’m Jacob with Vidbo. We provide a video interface tool that allows companies to easily incorporate video into their existing web structure, and capture visitor statistics. Our clients have been able to show real measurable results to meeting their marketing goals with video, such as increasing their sales pipeline by 25% and increasing their sales by 30%.
Since you registered for the “10 Videos” webinar last week, maybe you have some video projects in the works, and are open to ideas on how to make video a valuable marketing tool. I’m attaching a case study on a customer of ours in a similar industry who used our technology to double the size of her sales pipeline in less than 6 months. If you’d like to see other case studies, you can find them on our website here (link). Plus, you can sign up for our free newsletter at this link for monthly tips and tricks on video strategies.
Most importantly, you probably want to see our tool in action, so here’s a link to our online demo. Take a look and let me know what you think. If it makes sense to have a conversation about your goals with video and how we can help you meet them, you can contact me directly at (phone number) or anytime by email at (email).
Thanks!
Jacob
I would open the case study and read it and I would most definitely watch the demo of the product in action. I would also likely sign up for the newsletter so I can get more information.
The lessons here are many and sound so very basic that I can’t believe I have to say them but here goes: Tell me who you are, what you do, and why I should care. Be relevant to my needs, and don’t insult me, apologize to me, or make demands of me. GIVE ME INFORMATION. Allow me to interact with you in ways that won’t require a commitment of my time, at least initially. Give me something in my email. Give me some extra information that I can get online. Show me a visual representation of your product or service offering. Give me a reason to engage. It all points back to content: case studies, white papers, newsletters, webinars, one-page overviews, online demos, fact sheets, etc. The more you have, the more you can offer to people to engage with you. And then, you won’t have to apologize or beg.