Category Archives: E-mails

Would you send the same e-mail three times?

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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.

Unsolicited Calendar Invites

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Would you send unsolicited calendar invites to prospects?

This is a question that came up recently on a LinkedIn sales profession discussion board.

My answer – no. Here’s why –

I know that it can be frustrating constantly contacting the same prospects and not receiving any call backs or email responses in return. You start to get desperate. When you become desperate, that’s when you start making bad decisions that could hurt you.

I know some salespeople who actually have tried sending unsolicited meeting invites, only to have them backfire when prospects refused to ever deal with them or their company again.

Look, sending unsolicited emails is one thing. It’s commonplace and part of being in sales. But sending unsolicited calendar invites is kind of creepy. Its borderline invasion of privacy when you put a meeting invite on someone’s calendar that you have never spoken to before. It’s almost like arriving at your office in the morning and finding someone sitting your chair.

My advice – forget sending unsolicited calendar invites. Stick with the try and true method of cold calling, sending emails and direct marketing pieces. If that doesn’t work, you can always circle back later. There is plenty of other fish in the sea to find.

photo credit: Mo Morgan via photopin cc