Sales Email Best Practices

Three Reasons Your Sales Email Fails to Get Appointments

Sales email has become the preferred method of outbound prospecting by most SDR’s for a while now, and I understand the appeal. You can reach out to more prospects in less time without feeling the sting of rejection when a prospect says, “No, thanks,” “Not interested,” or “We’re all set (click).”

There are always two sides to the coin, and sales emails are a lot easier to ignore, compared to picking up the phone, so you have to weigh both sides (call first vs. email first) and decide which is best for you, your team, and or your company.

No matter which option you choose to go with, both have a few things in common that can lead to the success or failure of your sales prospecting outreach efforts.

In this post, we are going to look at a real live sales email I received, and I will break down the three reasons it and others like it, fail to get the response SDR’s want: more confirmed bookings/sales meetings.

The email below was sent to me after I attended a webinar.

PS… I REMOVED THE COMPANY NAME AND PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE SALES REP. I am not looking to embarrass anyone. Lord knows I’ve made my share of mistakes selling by phone and email. My goal is to help those who want to be better, be better.

Sales Email Best Practices: Post Webinar Email

“Michael, Thank you for your interest in our webinar. I hope it was helpful. A lot of people looking at our content are looking at ways to improve their sales process. The reason I’m reaching is out is to learn more about you and see if our sales engagement platform could add value to your team. Do you have time this week or next week to connect?

Best,
(SALES REPS NAME)
Enterprise Business Development Unit
P: (SALES REPS PHONE NUMBER):

Sales Email Best Practices: Breakdown

So let’s break down why this sales email failed and then see how we can fix it.

The First Sentence: “Thank you for your interest in our webinar, I hope it was helpful”

This is wasted space and offers no value. You are already starting off on the wrong foot, as I see no value to me. I know they are trying to use the webinar as a “connection,” but this is a bad sales practice. The BEST sales to prospect connectors are getting the prospect to see what you can do for them.

A better option could look like this:

The first sentence revised: “It looks like you might be interested in learning ______.

The blank is the problem or desired results the prospect wants. It’s their real motivator for signing up for the webinar in the first place.

“It looks like you might be interested in learning new sales skills and techniques.”

Let’s look at the next sentence:

“A lot of people looking at our content are looking at ways to improve their sales process.”

Ok, not bad. But then they follow it up with:

“The reason I’m reaching is out is to learn more about you…”

This is the kiss of death, in my opinion.

Here’s why:

I don’t believe you want to learn more about me… I believe you want to sell me something.

I have no desire to stop what I am doing and educate you. You should already know what problems I would have to have that would cause me to stop what I am doing and want to have a conversation with you.

A better alternative would be:

“There’s a (product/service) that helps (target audience) overcome (problem) and (solution) that (benefit).”

Something like this:

“There’s an out-of-the-box training program that helps sales reps overcome call reluctance and teaches them how to create customized sales scripts that sell.”

Moving on to the next sentence:

“Do you have time this week or next week to connect?”

If you are not using a calendar link in your emails, you are missing out on 26% more appointments. Using a tool like ScheduleOnce, Hubspot’s Calendar, Calendly, or TimeTrade makes it easy for your prospect to book a sales call with you.

And no, I don’t want to hear complaints if your company won’t pay for one of those tools for you. Whip out your own credit card and pay for the service. It’s worth it 100x over.

Sales Email Best Practices: The Signature

The last problem with the email has nothing to do with the content of the message but rather the sales rep’s signature.

I noticed it said “Enterprise Business Development” Rep which means, he focuses on Enterprise level accounts. I’m a small business owner. So even if I did respond, once he discovered I’m a small business, I would have gotten passed to someone else and would have to start the conversation all over again, wasting MY time.

With all of the sales tools available today to quickly review a lead and get basic information, there is no excuse to make this mistake.

It’s clear they don’t want to know anything about me or my business. They want to sell me something, which is what I thought.

I hope this helps give those reading it some sales email tips that will generate better, more qualified, less resistant sales appointments.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – An online sales training company.