Awesome article by Craig Klein, CEO of SalesNexus.com on how sales reps can use email to generate more activity and revenue. Make sure to subscribe to the New Sales Economy blog so you won’t miss out on my upcoming interview with Craig as he shares how SalesNexus.com can enable more effective selling.
The reality of today’s fast pace sales world is e-mail is a tool more and more Sales Professionals must rely on to make contact and open doors with new customers. However, many salespeople believe that e-mail sent to their prospects will just be “junk” hitting their inbox so they don’t take full advantage of this valuable sales tool.
I have a simple answer for these salespeople . . . don’t send junk! Send something of value. If you send something of value, you can e-mail often and, more importantly, your e-mails will get read.
The leads and prospects you are e-mailing have two common characteristics.
1. They are all in business and are looking for specific kinds of information that can make their business more efficient and profitable.
2. At one time they touched your business or service because they were interested in what you have to offer.
These leads and prospects are your e-mail market. They may not be ready to buy from you today but one day they will be ready. You can magnetize this market by using e-mail to reintroduce your product in a consistent and automated way. In addition, you can become recognized as a knowledgeable industry insider and trusted advisor by giving away industry information and useful tips and tools that are of value to all people doing business today.
By following this simple plan most of your prospects will look forward to seeing an e-mail from you or your company in their in-box. They may not open every one you send – that’s ok. You just want them to come to trust that your e-mails will offer something valuable in exchange for a few minutes of their time. Then when they are ready to buy the type of product or service you offer YOU will be “top of mind”.
Of course, there are a few of your contacts that won’t like what you send and they will opt out. That doesn’t matter. The fact is its good news! The people who stay on your list and accept your e-mails are interested in what you have to say.
When building a sequence of e-mails to send to your list of prospects, remember this is not going to be a series of sales pitches. Don’t slam folks with the features and benefits of your product or service. That’s a guaranteed way to make them look at the From: field and start groaning, and then delete you.
The sequence (e-mail campaign) should contain industry updates, links to white papers or reports, links to relevant social networks, new articles, links to interesting software, and any tips and techniques that you have perfected to help your customers or even your own business. The last sentence or two and the signature line should be the only reference to your company and/or product. All this free content for your e-mails is relatively easy to find. A few hours of internet research can provide enough detail for an entire campaign.
Here are some simple ground rules to follow when creating your email campaign:
Don’t…
- Send out last year’s corporate brochure
- Go on and on for several pages
- Talk about your “unbelievably low prices”
- Talk about yourself or your company
- Expect to close the sale in a single message
Do…
- Keep it short
- Get to the point
- Talk about your customer and their challenges and objectives
- Include a “call to action”
So where do you find valuable information to send to your customers? The answers will be different for every business and every industry. A good way to get an idea of what information your customers value is to get involved in the trade associations your customers are members of. Check out their websites. What “news” are they highlighting? These trade associations may even be willing to let you copy their “news” if you give them credit in your email.
There are also numerous article publishing sites. You can browse their selections, find articles that would be of interest and email your customers a link to an interesting article. Many of these sites are happy to let you “re-publish” their articles as long as you follow a few simple guidelines that they’ll spell out for you. Your email just needs to point to an article on these sites that your audience would find interesting.
Here’s the good part, when you do have something to announce about your product or service, because you have established credibility, your prospects will be open to receiving this information and in many cases setting an appointment with you.
Stay tuned to the New Sales Economy blog for my upcoming interview with Craig Klein and how SalesNexus.com can help you sell more effectively!
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Craig Klein is CEO and Founder of SalesNexus.com, a leading online contact management system for small business sales teams. His passion is helping small businesses hire, train, measure and manage sales people through their sales process.
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