Why do you keep sending emails to your prospective clients instead of calling them?
You know that most people get too much email, and because they are already too busy, a salesperson’s email is among the easiest to ignore.
You know that an email finds its way to the bottom of a never-ending onslaught of emails that accumulate day and night, moving to a place where it is both out of sight and out of mind.
The information you provide to your prospective client about what makes your company so great isn’t useful or helpful to your potential client as an email. More still, more PDFs are not better than fewer PDFs. Fewer PDFs aren’t better than no PDFs (unless it is serious insight with your handwriting all over it).
An email is a lousy place to ask for the Commitment for Time, especially when it is your very first communication. It’s doubtful that you can pitch enough value in this format to gain the commitment you seek.
You make it easy to say no when you ask over email. You make it possible for your prospective client to reject you without even having to tell you no by merely pressing the delete button.
You have established that you are no different from the dozens or hundreds of salespeople and sales organizations that seek efficiency instead of effectiveness, trading less effort for even less effectiveness. Your effort should match your desire for the outcome you want, and your unwillingness to exert that effort is proof positive you don’t want the outcome enough.
The person receiving your email knows something about you, namely, that you are afraid of them. They know that you prefer to hide behind a computer screen, which indicates a lack of confidence and suggests you don’t think of yourself as a peer and a value creator.
You send the email believing that your dream client will read your words, pick up the phone, call you directly, and ask you to drive out to see them so they can buy from you. But the phone never rings, and you rarely receive even a rejection email. When you do receive an email, you believe it indicates engagement and become your dream client’s penpal, arguing for a meeting.
Email has a place in your prospecting sequence and cadence. However, it should not be your first attempt, and it isn’t the right place to ask for the commitment for time. If you want to schedule a meeting, and if that meeting is important to you, start by picking up the telephone.
