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Don't Be Boring: 4 Keys to Writing Effective Sales Emails

Last week I was cleaning up some old files when I ran across an email account used during my first years in the call center for storing copies of client sales emails I sent. I was glad I had saved these emails, believing that I could use them for educational purposes in the future, and boy, was I right. Some of them made me cringe and think: "What was I thinking? Some of these are awful."

We've talked about voicemail messages in the past and identified points to include and not to include. But what about the emails we send to our clients?

In addition to a compelling subject line, what are some things you should include and how should the email be structured to make your emails more effective at initiating a conversation?

Let's dissect the following email I found in my archive. It's so generic that I see email messages with a similar format land in my inbox today:

Hi Bob,

Hope this e-mail finds you having a great day.

Following up in reference to you getting on our website, [insert your website here] and downloading [insert your reference document] from us. Wanted to touch base to see what led you to the website as well as to see if I could be of any additional help.

Would love to get in contact with you via phone or e-mail. Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

For a LIMITED TIME special "Economic Stimulus Pricing" Contact me for further details.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Have a great day!

Like I said, it's very generic--and not very engaging. But the format is prolific, probably because it's quick and easy to create.

Let's do a review and discover where it falls short.

The Pleasantries

Hope this e-mail finds you having a great day.

In this first line, my plan was to initiate the conversation with some type of pleasantries by referring to the great day I hoped he was having. This was a great plan, unless Bob was not having a great day. He could have been having a wonderful day. He also could have had an accident that morning and had to get a ride to work from a coworker. Or maybe Bob's doctor had called him with some bad news regarding a medical test.

If Bob is not having a good day, my message won't match his state of mind, and my email will likely be passed over at best and deleted at worst before he gets to the "good stuff."

"How are you doing" and "Hope you're having a good day" are such lackluster openers that most of us respond with equally lackluster and automatic answers, like "fine" or "good." Opening lines like these really don't engage your prospect. What you really want is to get their attention immediately and build rapport, just like you would do in a voicemail message. If I were rewriting this email, I would drop this line and open with a relevant fact of some type.

The Reason for the Email No. 1

Following up in reference to you getting on our website, [insert your website here] and downloading [insert your reference document] from us.

This line refers to the prospect visiting our website and downloading a document. At the time, I thought it was a good move because it established a common reference point. In retrospect, I'm not convinced of its effectiveness.

My prospect knew that he was on my site. He knew that he downloaded my white paper, and he knew that in order to download the white paper, he had to supply his contact information. This line says: "I'm watching you. I've got nothing better to do than to sit by my laptop and wait for prospects to get on my site like a spider in her lair waiting for her next meal to wander into her web."

In retrospect, I would leave off all of the extra words and simply confirm the download by stating, "Yesterday, you downloaded the document [name of document]…" and then explain why that is significant. Sounds like a fact to me. Maybe this fact should have been my opening line.

The Reason for the Email No. 2

Wanted to touch base to see what led you to the website as well as to see if I could be of any additional help.

This line tells them the purpose for the email. "I'm just following up to make sure that you found everything and see if I could be of any further assistance." Is that the real reason for my email--to make sure that they found everything that they were looking for or to see if I could be of any assistance?

As sales people, when we make these types of calls or send out follow-up emails, we aren't acting in a customer support role. We aren't calling to discover if they found everything that they needed. We already know the response we'll get: "Yep, found everything I needed. Nope, don't need any further help." And while knowledge of what prompted them to visit our site is helpful, a self serving statement like, "Wanted to see what brought you to our site" shouldn't be in the email unless you are conducting a marketing survey or a website review.

This is a sales letter. When we make these calls or send these emails, we are doing so as sales people looking to move the prospect to the next stage in the sales process. Again, I wouldn't even bother with this line unless I'm calling in the capacity of customer support.

The Call to Action

Would love to get in contact with you via phone or e-mail. Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

This is an ugly line that makes me cringe when I read it. Here, I'm stating that I "would love to get in contact" with my prospect, but there is nothing in my email indicating why this is good for them. They already have the white paper. Why do they need to talk to me? I give them no compelling reason to have further contact with me.

Then, to make it worse, I tell them that they have to contact me "at their earliest convenience." That's never going to happen without a very compelling reason for them to do so.

The Offer

For a LIMITED TIME special "Economic Stimulus Pricing." Contact me for further details.

Lastly, I reference something that might be of interest to them--special pricing. But it's at the very end of the email, added as an afterthought. And once again, the onus is on them to contact me.

The Result

I have plenty of sample emails using this general format. The resulting returns were less than stellar, as you may have guessed. In fact, they were abysmal.

Here are some samples of a typical response when prospects took the time to respond. Again, these responses are so generic that they could have been lifted straight out of a "How to deal with pesky sales people" manual:

We are short staffed this and next week so I do not currently have time to discuss. You can feel free to

send me more information including times and cost; however, currently my time is very limited. Thank you.

Or:

Thank you for the information. All of it looks interesting and worthwhile; however, I will not be able to make any commitment until [insert your favorite date here]. If you want to put me in your tickler file, that would be great.

Both are very generic, polite rejections. They are telling me that they don't have time to figure out what I'm requesting.

How To Do it Better

When writing an email as a part of your process for developing leads and guiding prospects through your sales process, keep these points in mind:

Keep it short. Long emails tend to scare readers. Remember, the purpose of the email is to get your prospect to the next stage in your sales cycle. If you get leads from your marketing team, or your automatic web form alerted you that someone downloaded your white paper, decide what you want the prospect to do before you compose your email. Write it with the purpose in mind.

Break up large blocks of text. Tight text on a screen looks like a wall of words and is an invitation for your prospect to hit the delete key. Compose your text so that your reader can simply scan it, easily consume it and quickly comprehend it.

Get their attention at the beginning. We've placed plenty of emphasis on composing an enticing email subject line encouraging the recipient to open the email. Now, what do you do once they have the email opened? Get their attention at the start and entice them to read further. Use one of the five methods you use to open your voicemail messages: mysteries, shock, enticing facts, compliments and stories.

Have one call to action. In some of my early emails attempts, I've used multiple product lines with various conditions and multiple calls-to-action attempting to make the decision process easier for my prospect. The resulting action was typically no decision on their part. Use just one call to action and make it easy for your prospect to move forward.

Remember, this is a sales response letter, not a marketing letter. I sent these emails to one prospect in response to one query to get a specific response, not a general letter targeted at a particular demographic to drive interest.

When you send out your email messages, first look at your process. Determine the purpose of your email, decide what you want the prospect to do, and then compose your message to that prospect.

Above all, use your email to drive a real conversation and you'll be better positioned to move your prospect forward in your sales process

5 Secrets to Selling Yourself First

In an episode of "The Flintstones," Fred and the family take a trip to Rock Vegas where Fred and Barney run off to one of the casinos to make some extra cash. Fred explains that he knows the secret to playing the slot machines and proceeds to show Barney exactly how it's done.

After dropping all of his money into the same machine for half an hour, Fred says that the machine is ripe for a jackpot, but neither of them have any more coins to play. So, Barney goes off to find another coin while Fred guards "his" machine. That's when a nice little old lady shows up to try her hand at that particular slot machine, and Fred is powerless to stop her. With one coin, the little old lady hits the jackpot. The next scene we see, Fred is watching this little old lady and her son carry out bags of money--his

winnings--from this one machine.

I'm sure that many of you have had similar situations in sales, where you've put your heart and soul into nurturing a prospect only to have someone else sneak in at the last minute and walk away with the fruits of your labor.

1. Don't Let Someone Take the Credit When You Do the Work

My "Fred Flintstone moment" happened during one of my outside cold calling excursions. I found a potential account and identified the point of contact. I met with him, determined his needs, left him information, sent him emails and left him voice mail messages.

When the prospect was ready to move, he called the office and told the kid at the front desk that he wanted to take the program we were discussing, but he didn't mention my name. The kid said, "I know who you should speak with" and sent a message to another sales rep in the area telling him this was a "hot lead."

Of course, the other sales rep was very apologetic about the misunderstanding, but that was after he had signed up the prospect and established ownership of the account.

At any time, you can lose a prospect or an established account to another member of your team, to a sales rep in a competing company, or to simple customer apathy. Minimize this by selling yourself first and making yourself memorable before, during, and after you begin selling your product or services.

2. Adopt a Servant Mentality

When I was training for my NLP certification, I heard a lecture by M. Scott Peck in which he talked about an attitude of service and the difference between having the mindset of a slave versus that of a servant. He stated that a slave gives his master what he wants while a servant gives his master what he needs, and the servant gets to decide what his master needs.

When I think about this statement, the person that comes to mind is Bruce Wayne's servant, Alfred Pennyworth. The guy doesn't just clean up behind Wayne, he brings him his Cheerios in the morning and his champagne at night. Alfred offers sagely advice, assists Batman in his efforts to clean up Gotham City, and acts as his conscious when Wayne has his moments of doubt.

When we are fighting for our sales and trying to show our prospects and customers value, we sometimes believe that this means being on call for the prospect 23 hours out of the day and jumping through hoops when they say, "I want another quote" for the sixth time. At second glance, however, this behavior seems more like that slave mentality that Peck mentions where we simply give the customer what they want without fully understanding why they need it.

If you really want to act as a servant to your prospects and clients, you need to help them decide on the best course of action with the right resources for the job.

Remember, Alfred Pennyworth makes up a big portion of the Batman mythology and Bruce Wayne's life. However, we never see the doormat at the front door of Wayne Manor. In your daily activity, don't be person that your prospects take for granted and is never remembered. Be the servant that everyone depends on to make things happen.

3. Be Memorable for the Right Reasons

I had an ugly situation while I was traveling with a sales manager to meet with the purchasing agent of one of our larger clients. The purchasing agent had called my sales manager and requested a meeting. Actually, she said, "I need to talk to you in person NOW!"

I was a part of the sales team and considered a trusted technical advisor by the sales manager, so he "invited" me along. However, I didn't like the feeling that I was getting. Typically, purchasing agents don't strongly request a face-to-face meeting with a sales manager.

When we arrived, her actions confirmed my intuition. The purchasing agent was hopping mad. Immediately after the sales manager said, "How can we help you today," she asked, "Do you people want my business?"

She then went on a tirade. When I found an appropriate break, I countered with a cushion and apologized.

I said that I was unaware of what was happening and tried to salvage something out of the challenge by saying that I would be more aware of and responsive to their situation.

That's when she said, "Oh, no, I don't have a problem with the way you've been interfacing with the technical team. I spoke with them before this meeting and they said that you've been a valuable resource for them."

It turns out her problem was with "Bob," her sales rep. "When I call, Bob doesn't call me back. I can't get a decent quote from Bob in a timely fashion. Bob doesn't seem to know the product line and certainly doesn't know what we do."

The sales manager tried to repair the situation by asking, "What can we do to make this right?"

Her response: "If you want our business, then I want a new sales rep. I don't want to deal with Bob anymore."

As a sales rep, you need to communicate well with everyone involved in a prospect's buying process. Only a few key people can give you a "yes" in deciding to buy your solution. However, many people in the process can say "no." Show a mentality of service to these individuals as well--and make them feel important to keep the sales process moving forward.

Don't undervalue your services or bend over backward to win business from a prospect that wants you running an obstacle course for their entertainment. You are conducting business.

However, if you are talking with a legitimate prospect and you want their business, part of selling yourself involves being memorable in a positive fashion. That means providing everyone in the buying process with timely, meaningful, and relevant information, offering suggestions to their team, and creating solutions that the competition can't recreate. You want them to remember you for the right reasons. Otherwise, you'll end up getting the boot like Bob.

4. Show Them You're Committed

Sometimes we are so focused on expanding our market, generating new business and picking up bragging rights about our new prospecting conquests that we forget about the mundane activity of keeping up to speed with our current customers. You can't forget about those contacts who have already bought from you. Find reasons to stay in touch with them and they'll stand by you.

In the call center, I would often forward my clients interesting and relevant notes, white papers, and websites that I found during my online travels. These weren't justifications for them purchasing our service. I targeted these informational items at some challenge that they were facing and they could possibly use the information to help resolve their issues.

During one cold calling session, I overheard another inside sales rep speaking with a prospect on the phone. I couldn't hear what the prospect said on the other side of the conversation but I did hear what the sales rep said: "What? You say you are already dealing with a sales rep for this and you're happy with the results? Can I ask whom you are dealing with? Larry Prevost? OK. Thank you for your time."

We've talked about overcoming the difficult objection of "No thanks. We have someone taking care of that for us." But I guarantee you, when you are the sales rep the customer is referring to, this "objection" is music to your ears. Sell yourself by showing your commitment and your clients will reciprocate by staying committed to you.

5. Give Them a Sample Immediately

When I sold technology, one tactic that we often used was to offer the prospect a demonstration. Sometimes that meant inviting the potential client into our headquarters for a demonstration, and other times, it meant that we loaned them a demo unit giving their team time to "play" with it. If the sale was big enough, we always found a way to get their team some time on a machine. When I sold training solutions, I often sat down with the potential client and ran through a few simple exercises with them as a demonstration of what they could expect in the programs. During my NLP certification, one of my instructors let me in on this secret: He said that if you want to gain rapport and get credibility quickly, then show your clients a relevant result immediately and ask if they want more.

You do this when you review relevant examples of what you've done for similar clients in similar industries facing similar challenges. However, if you want to really stand out, provide them with relevant information or solution to a small challenge that they currently face. Give them something that they can use immediately. Then ask if they want more.

Conclusion: Always Stay Congruent and You Will Sell Yourself

We often tell participants in our programs and the clients we consult with to focus on their prospect's or client's challenges and refrain from talking about themselves, their company or their products.

However, here is something that you need to realize. You are always selling yourself, your company, and your products, even when you don't verbally mention yourself, your company or your products. You accomplish this in how you carry yourself, how you present yourself, how you dress, and how you speak. You sell yourself through the enthusiasm in your voice, the sparkle in your eyes and the dedication you exhibit in creating your solutions.

Ultimately, if you don't believe in your product, your company or yourself, then you won't convince your prospects that they are making a good decision by investing in your solution. However, if you are sold on yourself and you believe in what you are selling, your prospects and clients will remember you as the resource they need to get things done, which will make your business endeavors a whole lot more interesting.

About the Author: Larry Prevost is a sales and communication coach and manages the online sales community for ProspeX.

4 Key Ways to Get Your Prospects Interested

During a meeting with one of our clients, Lance Tyson and I heard one of the sales managers make a statement that really shocked me.

We were discussing sales management ideas, how to motivate the sales team, and methods to assess a team member's skills levels when the sales manager stated an observation that had him concerned. He said that he didn't know if sales reps were getting soft, if they were relying on social networking too much or if the lure of Farmville had them in its grip. But he said that too many of them just didn't know how to get on the phone and set up a meeting with a prospect.

In the past, we've reviewed a number of processes and tactics to improve your chances of getting your target prospect on the phone and engaging them. But there's a piece missing that I think may be the root cause of our sales manager's concerns.

Having a process to open and conduct your sales call addresses some of the procedural issues and

deals with the mechanics of controlling the call.

However, the actual communication process is a piece that we often overlook, probably because of the assumption that everyone knows "how to talk to people." As a sales person, you do not just want to know how to talk to people; you want to communicate effectively with them to achieve an outcome. Regardless if we are face-to-face, on the phone, using social networks, social media or writing a sales letter, there are a few concepts that we need to keep in mind when engaging our prospect and getting them involved in our sales conversation.

Be Someone Who Initiates Contact.

While assisting in the setup of a cold calling seminar, the instructor pulled me aside, asked me to look around the room and tell him what I saw. I did a brief scan and told him I saw a bunch of people waiting for the seminar to begin. He said, "But they are all glued to their seats. No one is interacting. If I were a sales rep in a setting like this, I would be on my feet introducing myself to everyone I could meet."

I often see the same behavior at the start of any of our programs. The majority of people come in as strangers, and limited interaction takes place until the instructor gets up and gives everyone permission to interact.

We are sales people. We are paid to interact with people and make things happen.

This may be the age of enhanced lead generation where sales people are encouraged to talk only with prospects that are ready to move forward. However, you cannot sit back and wait for someone to walk up to you and say, "You look like you've got some interesting merchandise. Let's get together and talk." You have to be willing to go out and begin engaging people in interesting ways. You have to be the one who extends your hand first at networking events. You have to be the one who makes the phone call first after your prospect downloads your whitepaper. You have to be the one to make other people feel comfortable talking with you.

I think turning the sales team loose on qualified leads is a good way to make effective use of the company's time and resources. But there may be a performance cost in the end.

Think of this analogy. I'm a marathon runner who lives in Cleveland, where the weather is not too kind to us most days out of the year. If I vowed to only run on ideal days when the temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees with no electrical storms in sight, I would not be ready to race in the fall marathon season. Sometimes, we simply have to take a chance and operate under less than ideal conditions. In sales, that means talking to some people who may not be ready to sign on the dotted line. It means taking a chance and testing your skills.

Out of all of the people that have contacted me on LinkedIn, there is still one woman who sticks out in my memory because her action epitomizes what we do in sales. After I responded to her request, I thanked her for the connection and asked what prompted her to contact me. She wrote back that she honestly did not know if I would respond, but she decided to take a risk.

That is what all of us do when we initiate contact; we are taking a risk.

We still have to know whom we are contacting and why we are contacting them. We can take steps to increase our chances of making a favorable impression with our prospects. Ultimately, however, we still have to take the risk that they may say no.

If you see someone that looks interesting, take a risk and contact them.

If someone sent you a message stating their interest in your products or they left a message on your blog, be the initiator. Send them a message of thanks and ask to connect with them.

And if a prospect called you because she wanted to buy your merchandise, be the initiator and lead the conversation.

Consider the phrase that has become the mantra for networking groups all over: "It's not who you know, but who wants to know you." Think about this from your prospect's perspective. You are the person that wants to know them. You are interested in them. And the first step in showing interest is to initiate the conversation.

Take a risk. Initiate the conversation.

Take Ownership of the Conversation

So now, you have initiated the conversation. You have stepped forward, extended your hand, made the phone call and started the process.

And you have no results to show for your efforts.

Perhaps you were shuttled into voicemail, or maybe you got a lukewarm response from your audience. Or perhaps they gave you the "not interested" response and checked out, first mentally and physically shortly after.

If you are initiating the conversation, you need to do more than stick out your hand, make the initial call, and say "Hello." You need to take responsibility for the conversation and the outcome.

Remember, you called the prospect. You left the voicemail. You went to their place of business. The burden of making something happen is on you. Don't expect them to embrace you with open arms and drive the conversation.

When you initiate the conversation, they aren't on board yet. How long it takes them to jump in with both feet will depend on your ability to engage them with eloquence, finesse and charisma.

One of the challenges I had when I first started making phone calls was expecting prospects to call back after hearing my very "professional voicemail." A few prospects did return my calls, but most didn't. Naturally, I was disheartened.

It wasn't until I had lunch with a more seasoned sales rep that I learned an important lesson to being effective on the phone.

She said, "Don't expect your prospects to return your calls. They won't do it. Don't ask me why, they just won't."

From that point on, I've taken the responsibility for contacting my prospects, and I would let them know that I was taking responsibility by leaving a time when I would call back.

Here's a view from the other side. As I've mentioned before, I use Google Voice to control all of my phones and voice mail. It allows me to quickly review and organize all of my voicemail messages so I can find what I'm looking for. But it also provides an excellent database of samples allowing me to hear how other people are using voicemail to achieve results.

There are a few messages in my database that start with a lukewarm offer and end with, "if you are interested, please call me at 123-555-1212."

These are prospecting messages testing for interest. There's no interest on the caller's part. They are simply sending out a mass message and waiting for the first few people to call back.

Sometimes, however, I'll get a message with a compelling opening, something that indicates that the caller did some research and created an offer tailored specifically to me. At the end, they indicate that they will initiate some type of follow up, either another call or an email as they attempt to connect with me. I'm left thinking that this person knows what they want and they have a plan to achieve it.

Now, this is taking responsibility for the outcome.

8 Steps to Perfecting Your Emails to Sell More

When we first started our call center, our process consisted of a combination of following up on qualified leads and generating new leads through research and cold calls. Part of that process, especially when

initiating the process with new leads, was to follow calls with some type of written correspondence.

In fact, the stats we reviewed regularly were the number of outbound dials, number of contacts made, the number of USPS mail pieces sent out, and the number of follow-up emails sent out.

Writing a follow up email was easy and straightforward. When you consider that I had spoken with my prospect earlier in the day, an email subject line referencing the call was usually enough to get them to open the email. If the discussion was memorable, phrases such as, "Thank you for your time today" or "Thank you for discussing Big Easy Products with me" were enough for them to remember me and associate a certain value to my resources.

But if I did nothing to make our encounter stand out in their mind, then it would take a more elaborate subject line for them to remember me. If our time together was just bad, then I would have to somehow get them to forget the incident--though prospects always seem to always remember the bad.

Getting a prospect's attention after a meeting is simple and easy. But getting a prospect's attention before establishing the relationship takes more preparation and effort.

For the past few years, we've used VerticalResponse and SalesForce to send out preparatory emails in advance of an outbound calling campaign. Recently we've added hooks for monitoring responses using Google Analytics. Here are some observations from our efforts that you can use when integrating email into your sales process.

1. Segment Your Email List Into Relevant Groups

One tactic I've heard sales reps and sales manager discuss with relish is the email blast, a leftover term from the 1990s that entailed blanketing your list with a common email message. The problem with a blast is that it leaves a lot of collateral damage, typically in the form of blacklisted domains, filled spam folders, irate clients and lost revenue.

Your email list likely consists of individuals who describe themselves as managers, sales reps, operations managers, general managers, staff, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, directors, etc.There also might be leads with various levels of interest and clients that have done business with you. Assuming everyone is the same and using a one-size-fits-all approach to connecting with them is a big mistake. They all have different problems, wants, and needs.

Let's create an analogy between your email campaigns and your cold calling prospecting activity. When arranging onsite visits, you typically group your clients and prospects along geographic lines so you don't waste your time traveling back and forth across town. When cold calling on the phone, you group calls along similar industries so you won't have to change your messaging too much when personalizing it to their specific needs.

Do the same with your email.

When we send out emails, sometimes we have time-sensitive offers keyed to a specific geography. It's pointless to send email to a group in Columbus, Ohio, a bout a new program being delivered in Lexington, Ky.

And the individuals who are leads have different interests and expectations from our clients. In several tests we've conducted, we've seen different results between leads and clients using the same email with the same subject line.

When reviewing your list for potential product campaigns, segment your list as much as possible and group your targets accordingly.

2. Write Specifically To Your Audience's Needs

If you've segmented your list into relevant groups, then tailor your email specifically to that group.

Here's something we've tried: We created a message that dealt specifically with sales issue and topics.

When we sent the email to clients and leads with a sales-related title such as sales rep, account manager or sales manager, the email had a decent open rate and a decent engagement rate.

Like in a phone cold call, I can interpret this as meaning that I had done my research and I was addressing the issues that they wanted to know about.

I also sent the same message to an audience of operations people, support people, and executives. I can best describe the open rate as less than enthusiastic except amongst the executives, which included individuals who described themselves as CEOs and presidents, people who likely spent time in sales and understand that sales is the engine driving their company.

We implemented the same test with a message centered on management topics and issues. Again, we saw a decent open rate and engagement rate amongst those individuals who described themselves as CEOs, presidents, directors and managers. And as before, the message wasn't well received by other groups such as operations, sales or support, unless they described themselves as a manager in those particular disciplines.

When sales people are conducting a sales call, they are encouraged to know who they are talking with, their prospect's particular issues, and talk specifically to those challenges. In reviewing our collected evidence, it appears that you have to practice the same behavior when sending email.

3. Keep Your Headlines Short

When reading online, your audience will scan the document for information relevant to them. They use headlines, paragraph groupings, bold fonts, and italics to help identify what they want. This behavior doesn't change when they open their email.

However, they don't have the same structures to help them identify relevant desirable information in a subject line. You need to help them by keeping the subject line short and direct. Again, we can see analogies in our cold calling efforts. Prospects and decision makers tend to delete long, rambling voicemail messages quickly and easily. Short, concise emails that immediately address the audience's interests get your prospect's attention. Use this same philosophy when composing your email subject line.

Here's something else to consider. Some email applications will preview a snippet of the message contents. Other email applications will provide a lengthy view of the email subject line. There are applications, however, that limit the subject line to a certain number of characters.

An email subject line when viewed in Gmail will appear different from that same subject line when viewed in Yahoo mail, which will also look different when viewed in Lotus Notes.

VerticalResponse provides a visual warning when the subject line exceeds 40 characters. If you want to have the maximum impact in as many email applications as possible, keep your subject line within the 40-character limit. While exceeding the limit won't bounce your email, part of the message you want to convey won't be visible to some of your prospects.

Take some time, think through your subject lines, and practice your "verbal brevity."

4. Give Recipients an Option to Unsubscribe

Most people subscribe to a number of blogs, feeds and newsletters. When they see your message and it isn't relevant to what they want or need, they can decide to save it for later or delete it. If they believe that your message is unwelcome and pesky, they can put you in the spam category.

Here's the challenge: Many email programs have a delete button and a spam button built in. If you have a Gmail account, for example, you'll notice the delete button and the "Report spam" button are right next to each other.

You want to give your email recipients a third choice by allowing them to opt out of your email. Include an

unsubscribe link in the email.

Naturally, your first option is to send only relevant messages that your audience will find interesting. However, if you do manage to send an email that they don't find relevant, having them unsubscribe is preferable to your prospect classifying you as spam. This can hurt you because if you can enough complaints, the email provider will no longer deliver your emails to the inbox.

5. Use Keywords Your Audience Understands

Sales people understand what I'm referring to when the subject line has words such as "sales process" or "cold call." That is familiar language to them and are concepts they understand. If I mention "time management" or "manage meetings," then I likely have the attention of managers.

Let's return to our cold calling analogy. When you conduct your sales calls, you achieve rapport quickly when you use the language that your prospect uses. If you talk "over their head" or use technical jargon they can't relate to in an attempt to impress them, you won't achieve rapport and you won't move the sales process forward.

But if you use words your prospects can comprehend and package them with words that get them involved, you will get your prospects' attention and facilitate rapport.

Use this same philosophy when creating email subject lines. Use words that are relevant to your audience and will put an image in their minds. Use words that have no meaning or references to your intended audience, and you will leave them ready to hit the spam button.

6. Avoid Yes or No Questions in Subject Lines

Using questions that can be answered with either a "yes" or "no" make it easy for your audience to disengage. Questions like this do have a purpose. But that purpose usually doesn't entail getting your audience's attention or getting them engaged.

If you recall my experience with Bob the phone book sales rep, I mentioned that he was leaving fliers with information about his service and offer. It started with a question right at the top of the page: "Are You Stupid?"

The reply in my head was, "Heck no" and in my mind, I didn't have to read any further.

If you put a question in your subject line, avoid the "yes" or "no" type question. Your audience may not have time to deal with your request directly and supply an answer that shuts you down quickly.

7. Get Your Audience Involved

In reviewing email subject fields, one pattern I have noticed is that the academic, uninvolved subject lines seem to be less effective than subject lines that directly involve the audience. These subject lines use the passive voice and "spoke" in an academic tone.

Subject lines that used the active voice, however, had a higher open rate and a higher engagement rate. Consider these three subject lines used for an email newsletter sent to sales clients: 1Master The Cold Call With These 6 Ideas

2 6 Ideas for Mastering The Cold Call

3Conquer The Cold Call With These 6 Ideas

Line 2 had the least opens and lowest click-throughs. Line 1 had the highest open rate, and Line 3--with an open rate that was slightly less than Line 2--had the highest click-through rate of the three.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use subject lines that start with "How to..." or "5 Tips..." or "7 Ideas..." because we have had success with those types of subject lines. But if you want to get your audience's attention and get them engaged, address them directly for best results.

8. Don't Ask Your Audience to Take a Big Leap

One of the metrics you want to measure is your audience's level of engagement or how many links your

audience is clicking. In reviewing our campaigns, I noticed something interesting. Asking our audience to click on a low-risk offer, such as the rest of an article, a coupon to a free seminar, or a white paper download got them engaged.

However, when linking to high risk offers such as "Sign up for a 7-week program today," engagement was extremely low to nonexistent.

If you want your audience to engage in the body of your email and click on your links, don't offer something that requires a face-to-face meeting or a phone call. An appropriate enticement is required to nurture the lead and develop the relationship. It's the same in your sales process. You can't meet a prospect for the first time and expect them to commit to $50,000 worth of equipment. You first get them engaged, achieve rapport, and then travel with them through the sales process to the point of commitment.

Also, remember that your email has to be concise to keep your audience's attention. Each engagement should get your prospect to the next stage in the sales process. Instead of using your email to sell the product, use it to get them to the sales page on your site--where a lengthier conversation can take place. Offer them additional methods to connect using the phone, social networks or even email. One method we are currently investigating involves adding real time chat to email.

If you want audience participation with your email, ask them to take small steps with you. You'll find it easier to gain their attention, maintain rapport, and keep them coming back for more.

5 No-Cost Tactics for Finding Contacts

It was my second day working with Lance Tyson. I had just finished a meeting with him reviewing various ways to open a sales call. At the end of the day, Lance said: "The next time we meet, come back with the names of 25 companies, names of managers within the company and phone numbers."

"Where do I find the names?" I asked.

Lance replied: "You can find them on the Internet. I'm not partial to how you get them. Just have 25 names when we meet in two days."

When the appointed day arrived, I showed up with my 25 names. My colleague, Bob, also showed up with 25 names. And that's when Lance told us that we were going to begin our cold calling training. He told us this session wasabout how to effectively engage a prospect starting from zero--no prior contact, no knowledge, nothing. All we had was a company, a name and a phone number.

Lance also asked us how we got our information. Bob had spent a couple of hours online sifting through websites and collecting contact information. When Lance asked me where I found my names, I told him that I had cheated. I discovered a website that provided contact information for managers in the manufacturing industry and for $25, I could download a list of 50 names. So I ponied up the $25, and in less than five minutes, I had more names than I needed.

Lance's response was: "That's not cheating. That's called effective use of your time. I never stated any requirements about how to get the names, just that you had to have them."

From that initial cold calling training session to my time in the Call Center, we've always had a large contact database to work from. We had paperwork and contact information on past clients dating back to 1980. In 2004, we had a large influx of "new blood" when we purchased a targeted list from Harris Infosource. And anytime anyone performed a seminar, a workshop or even an hour-long talk, people who indicated that they wanted to stay updated were entered into the CRM.

However, that didn't stop me from occasionally exploring additional methods for finding new contacts and turning some of them into loyal clients.

If you feel that your current contact database needs to undergo some aggressive expansion, but you

have very limited financial resources, here are five places to look for new contacts that won't break your budget.

1. The Search Engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo

Anytime someone had questions about a particular company such as, "What does company ABC make?" the standard answer around the Call Center was "Just Google it."

Google, Bing and Yahoo, which is now a part of Bing, will provide you with plenty of information on your target prospect. In fact, search engines have become the first line of attack for all sales people when researching their contacts and companies. They are excellent at pulling up indexed information from numerous sources, some more reliable than others.

One day during my lunch break, I was bored with doing the same type of searches on prospective targets.

I wanted something new and different.

So as I sat in front of my computer staring at Google getting ready to type in the name of the next company on my list, I idly typed in, "manufacturing companies in Ohio." Do you know that Google returned a list of manufacturing companies in the state of Ohio?

The list was long and it was raw. I still had to dig through the companies, look for contacts, and look for ways to position my services. However, this was a list of manufacturing companies in Ohio, and most of them were not in our CRM. Intrigued, I stayed behind that evening and spent some time refining my searches and reviewing the list of companies returned.

These days, most brick and mortar companies use Google Places to give their business a larger presence for local searches. Google Places gives them the ability to manage their online reputation while providing extra information to their customers through their company profiles including a business description, a map, contact information, and client reviews.

If you want the option to do some door-to-door cold calling, or maybe you want to make phone calls within a confined geographic region, try this:

1Determine keywords that describe your target market.

2Decide on the geographic location for your search.

3Type your query into Google and hit the search button.

4Go to the left side of the page and click on the "Places" button.

5Click through the returned listings to select relevant companies.

For example, let's say that I am selling services that are best suited for manufacturing companies and I'm looking specifically for steel manufacturers. Furthermore, let's say that I'm looking to do some door-to-door cold calling in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. I can type in the search box "Steel manufacturers in Cleveland Ohio," hit the "search" button and then hit the "Places" button in the left hand column. Google will return more than 1,600 entries for companies that use the term "steel manufacturers" in their business description and have an address in the greater Cleveland area. Clicking on any entry will pull up their profile, contact information, website address, and even web search results for further research. You can perform the same process with Yahoo and Bing and you will get a similar listing but with different results.

Go ahead and use a keyword that describes your target market, define your geographic region and start your search.

If you are looking for ways to generate contacts and you have limited financial resources, your first stop should be the search engines coupled with knowledge of the keywords that describe your market. It's a good way to secure relevant information, find additional contacts, and explore new markets.

2. Manta

One of the newer resources that have sprung up over the past few years is https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html,. With more than 63 million businesses listed, owners have the ability to take control of their business profile, optimize it for certain key terms, and promote their products and services in the business community quickly and easily. When we first started using Manta, our in-house database was filled with company names, addresses, phone numbers, and even email addresses. However, when members of our Inside Sales Team pulled up the day's call list from our CRM, they needed relevant information about the contact's company so that they could hold an intelligent conversation with the person they were calling. Most of the time, the team just needed a company overview before making the call.

So when Lance discovered that Manta was an affordable resource--since it's free--he told all of his sales people that he wanted them to start using it to perform additional research on their prospects to increase the effectiveness of their sales calls.

Now, there are still quite a few companies that don't have updated profiles, so the business description will read like a Dun and Bradstreet listing. However, the ability to generate a list of small businesses based around keywords is an asset. The business descriptions have helped our team hold relevant conversations with their prospects. And our sales people have been able to use the other resources at Manta to manage and develop their opportunities.

One member of our team consistently makes contact with prospects and nurtures them through her Manta research. After making contact by phone and collecting an email address, she then creates a personalized follow up program where she emails them relevant sales and small business articles along with a quick note to stay in touch with them until they are ready to move forward.

Try this now--go to the search box at the top of this page, type in the keyword "manufacturing" in the search box and hit return. The search will return on the order of 175,000 companies that have the word "manufacturing" somewhere in their business description.

You can further refine the search by localizing it to your state and region by clicking on the "Browse by Location" link immediately underneath the number of companies returned. From there you can search according to your state and greater metropolitan area before embarking on your calling campaign. Manta also has other filters to narrow your results, including annual revenue and number of employees. It's another way to discover the companies in your area and in your target market. If you are looking to put together a quick door-to-door campaign, this should be one of your starting points.

3. LinkedIn and Other Professional Social Networks

Fairly recently, LinkedIn made modifications to how it performs searches and opened its doors to outside applications. Now, it allows members to develop profiles for businesses, making this an ideal place for building a professional business network. The platform is still very much people-centric so you won't find companies existing by themselves. However, it does give you an added dimension when searching for prospects and researching companies.

Last spring, I was holding a social networking training session for some of our sales people in Cleveland. We were reviewing steps on setting up and configuring their LinkedIn profile for managing their online reputation. After getting everyone's profile set up to a basic level, one sales rep asked, "So now that this thing is set up, what can we really do with it?"

I told them to go to the search box in the upper right hand corner. Type in the word "manufacturing," select companies in the pull-down to the left and hit return. While they were doing this, I was doing the same.

LinkedIn returned more than 30,000 companies. It also sorted them according to my connections. At the top of the list were the companies where I knew someone directly. After those companies were listed, the

LinkedIn database revealed the companies where my connections had a contact and I could gain access by asking for an introduction.

So I asked the group, "How much ‘damage' could you do if you knew someone, or could get a strong referral, at 30,000 different companies in your target market?"

In fact, which would you rather do?

1Call a name from a phone book and start probing for points of commonality after you got the contact on the phone.

2Call up one of your professional contacts, who already knows you, to get the inside scoop on their company?

Making connections on LinkedIn is fairly straightforward. But remember that the majority of people in the LinkedIn community are primarily business people, have an average income of more than $100K, and are looking to make relevant business connections themselves. So sending someone a connection request that says, "Yo Homey, what's happening? Let's hook up" probably won't give you the desired result. Your audience is friendly, but professional. They are looking for relationships that reflect professionalism and provide business value to both parties. Your initial contact should do the same.

For those looking for other options, you can give https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html, and https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html, a test drive. However, for the price and functionality, you won't find anything else that comes close to what LinkedIn can offer.

So dust off your writing and communication skills, polish your human relations skills and start getting connected.

4. Professional Organizations and Conferences

Here is an easy tactic I stumbled upon while performing some of my early Google contact searches. In my early search activity for manufacturing companies, other organizations were naturally picked up and displayed in the results pages as well.

One result that was returned was the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. I was curious about the organization, trying to think of ways I might possibly position my services. So I clicked the link.

I was taken to the SME website, which was promoting a conference at the time. Still curious, I clicked the conference link and was taken to the promotion page for the conference.

There I found a really interesting link that read, "For a list of exhibitors, click here."

Following that link produced a page of 50 manufacturing-related companies, each with a team of sales and marketing people who had volunteered, or were drafted, to stand in a booth, interface with prospects, communicate with clients, and perform presentations.

And I was selling communications and presentations training!

Now think about your own target market. What professional organizations are listed when you run a search on your keywords? Do these organizations hold regular conferences? If you can get a list of exhibitors or maybe even the presenters, and position your offering against a common problem that they all experience, you have found yourself a target-rich environment.

5.Career Boards Such as https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html,, https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html,, https://www.360docs.net/doc/7f11201448.html,

These sites were once great for putting your resume online and getting found by potential employers. However, the water has gotten muddier as third-party job brokers have jumped in with both feet to play. So you are more likely to speak with a recruiter rather than the hiring manager looking to fill a spot. However, there is a feature that still works, and you may be able to leverage it in building out your contact list. When you create your account, you can set search agents as a part of your profile. These agents will search through the career board's database of job postings and trigger on your selected keywords and geographic region. You can even set them up to send you a regular email, much like Google Alerts.

Be mindful that some of the results in the listing will be from temp agencies. But there are still quite a few companies that post jobs on these job boards for potential candidates to find. And if a company is looking for a potential employee, then they potentially have discretionary money to use and they have a problem to solve.

Look at the job description, the job requirements, some of the tasks that the person will perform and determine how your offering can pick up some of the slack or impact their working environment.

Get Started and Take Action

These are just five ideas for finding target companies and contacts when you don't have huge financial resources at your disposal. We didn't explore other alternatives, such as the paid listings from Harris Infosource, InfoUSA, and Jigsaw. We didn't touch on leveraging the local Chambers of Commerce or other local organizations. We didn't discuss how to use seminars, presentations and workshops to generate contacts and leads. Nor did we talk about using online tactics to generate leads.

We didn't even cover the old standby, asking for referrals.

However, we did cover five ways to leverage some of the information that is widely available but probably overlooked on a daily basis. The key, as always, is not to wait for the best application or look for the best way.

The key is to act now, notice what works for your target market, and work it like a rented mule.

Go make some connections!