Would you send the same email to a prospect three times?

That is what one salesperson suggested doing recently in a discussion on a sales LinkedIn discussion board.

My answer – no. Here’s why –

It makes you look lazy and unprofessional. Look, I know we are all busy. You have lots of calls to make. You may have a tight quota to achieve. But it only takes a few minutes to reword an e-mail. Maybe add something of value, like a white paper, case study or an interesting article that may apply to your prospect. But whatever you do, take a few extra minutes to make a few changes before sending out another email to the same prospect.

Related to this, recently someone sent me an e-mail to my LinkedIn profile asking me if I would be interested in a lead generation tool. I politely replied that this was something that I wouldn’t be interested in, but since we are both in sales, I requested that we connect with each other and stay in touch. She accepted my connection request.

And then – amazingly – she sent me the same e-mail again about the lead generation tool – after I already told her that I wasn’t interested in it. No change in the wording!

Was she lazy? Was she busy? Didn’t she even read my e-mail? Who knows. But it was all very improper.

Take a few minutes and reword your email. Your prospect will be grateful.