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Life Health > Running Your Business > Prospecting

How to strike out via email

By Jill Konrath

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Sales prospecting via email can be really tough. But honestly, some people create their own problems, as you’ll see in the example below.

Today’s post comes from “Ken,” one of my all-time favorite clients. Normal human beings (otherwise known as prospects) would never put up with this kind of sales behavior. They’d delete this prospector’s email in a nanosecond. But Ken was incredulous, so he decided to continue the dialogue to satisfy his curiosity.

As you read through this exchange, keep track of the mistakes you find.

“Hello Ken,

“I am not sure if the information I have on file is still accurate, but I am the new account manager for YourCompany @ XYZ Corp.

Would it be possible to get your ‘vcard’ and a description of what you do so I could have a better understanding?

Please let me know as I would really appreciate the information.”

Ken:

“You can learn about my work on my LinkedIn profile and also on our web site.”

Prospector:

“Great thanks for the email. I’ll look into that. Now that you have my contact, I wanted to know how we can do business and I could share with you our portfolio technology.

I am not new at XYZ Corp. Have been around for sometime and from what I understand on your account is that no one was really involved!!!!”

Ken:

“I would appreciate it if you learned more about me and what I do prior to showing me your technologies. I have very limited time on my hands.”

Prospector:

“Thanks for the heads up. Maybe I got carried away by the excitement of working on such a great company. And instead of just talking about our solutions, I would like to meet and better understand your role, issues and how I can develop a better working partnership.

Or maybe you would want to refer me to someone else? Thanks in advance I appreciate it.”

…And that was where the dialogue predictably ended. When you set out to prospect via email, make sure you don’t come across this like guy.

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Jill Konrath is the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies. If you’re struggling to set up meetings, click here to get a free Prospecting Tool Kit.

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