A while back, I downloaded an informative white paper from Argyle Social, a provider of social media marketing software and consulting. Within a week, I received the following email (reprinted with their permission):
Hey Maria,
I saw that you downloaded one of our whitepapers and thus, I have a question.
Which one of these categories do you fit into?
A. You’re just perusing and don’t want to talk to me.
B. You’re interested and may want to talk b/c you have questions.
C. You’re dying to talk to me and couldn’t wait a second longer for this email to arrive in your inbox..
D. These options suck and I’m too good to fit into a category.
Let me know which and I’ll act accordingly!
Danny (contact information followed)
In the sea of crap that invades my inbox every day (some by choice, some not). I promptly wrote Danny back that I was not interested (it’s only fair to not waste a good salesperson’s time leading them on. Don’t be a tease. Let them moe on to other, more interested, prospects) but asked a favor. I told him that in all my years supporting sales teams in Silicon Valey, this was the best sales email followup I had ever seen. He told me one of the sales guy’s created it, and various people had tweaked it for their own purposes.
Why is this so great and what can you learn from it?
- Human connection: This is a real person, talking like real people talk. I hate B2B advertising that speaks in a language no one uses in life. To boot, it’s got humor and charm. A natural magnet for my time and attention.
- Respectful of my time: It’s brief and to the point. A sales rep I knew once had a saying posted on his cubicle wall: Be Bold, Be Brief, Be Gone. Words to live by.
- Filters the leads: From a sales perspective, a good sales rep works what is known as a sales funnel. Lookey-loos or tire kickers are at the top, those with actual projects, budgets and decision-making power filter down a level and then those who also have an impending timeline or compelling event forcing them to make a buying decision pass through to possible closed sales. A good sales rep needs to assess what kind of prospect you are quickly and this email does that in a humorous and casual way. I don’t feel like he’s being creepy, and he knows he can put me in a separate “nurture file” for either himself or Marketing to continually follow up.
What kind of follow up are you doing with your leads? Are you able to segment the tirekickers from the serious buyers who will purchase this month or quarter? Pls share some of your best sales emails (good or bad) in the Comments!
