Recently home from a week of travelling (in wonderful Prince Edward Island – beach photo included here), I took a few moments to clear out my Spam folder and was reminded of one of the many ways phone communication trumps email.
When you send email to someone you’ve never corresponded with before, or rarely correspond with, the odds are against you in terms of them: 1) receiving it and/or 2) reviewing it.
About one-third of the messages in my Spam folder were valid, information about events and opportunities that held some interest for me. But (and I know I’m not alone) when messages start to accumulate in that folder, I’m tempted to click “Delete All” without taking any time to deliberate.
And for many of us, the same holds true with our inbox. When the messages pile up and the moments to sort and consider are few, if we don’t recognize the sender or the topic, we hit delete or let the message languish unacknowledged … for a very long time.
The best way to use email as a prospecting tool or to promote an event is to pair it with a phone call. It is not necessary that you reach the prospect. You can simply leave a message that draws attention to your presence in their inbox. For example:
“Hi David Potter. It’s Mary Jane Copps calling from The Phone Lady. I have some information on cold calling and prospecting that I believe is of value to you and your sales team, so I’ve taken the liberty of emailing it to you at DavidHPotter@ABCCompany.com. If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at 1-877-404-3290. That’s 1-877-404-3290. And I’ll follow up with you next week to hear your thoughts.”
Not only does this message alert the prospect to keep an eye out for your email, it raises their curiosity, displays your knowledge of their company and clearly portrays your respect for their time.
Mary Jane,
I could not agree with you more! I am finding that I am much more successful when I follow up with an email. You have taught me to do this when we have our coaching sessions, I am now implementing it with my calls and it really works!
In fact I just finished doing this exact task!
Thanks for teaching me that the phone is where it’s at, and e-mail is a good follow up system!
Best,
Robin
Thanks, Robin, for these kind words and so pleased that you are seeing results. Yeah!!!
What an awesome idea. If I cold call and there’s no answer, I often send an email – for which I usually never receive an answer. But pairing a message with an email (telling them that you emailed them) is brilliant. Thanks! Now why is it that it seems like we so often miss the most obvious ?
Thanks, Michelle, for your comments. I think we all fall into patterns of relying on one way of doing things. It takes an independent perspective to help us see that there might be another way. I know I’ve been guilty of relying on the phone too much. It’s only recently that I started using email as a way to book a time for a phone call. So obvious … but it took me a long time to see it.