Don’t Give Up on Email Prospecting! | Sales Strategies

Email prospecting: we’re relying on it more and more during this new selling environment. However, unfortunately, the ratio of prospecting emails sent to responses are getting worse.

Before the lockdown, a number of my clients were receiving around one response for every 10 prospecting emails they were sending. However, now, it takes around 20, 30, 40, or 50 emails before their prospecting emails yield a response.

Why Are Email Prospecting Ratios Getting Worse?

Email prospecting ratios are getting worse not because the messages are becoming any less important, there is more competition, or your client’s value is diminished in the marketplace. It’s due to the fact that everybody is not working, more people are working from home, people are overwhelmed with extra duties, or people are just trying to keep their business afloat. 

Nonetheless, we have to pay attention to the fact that our emails are not generating the same response rate as before. Thus, here are four strategies you can implement that will help drive those response rates back up.

1. Familiarity.

Ensure the client sees immediately (right at the top of the email) how you’re connected to them in some capacity. This is because they’re going to respond to people who are familiar to them more often than those who are strangers.

2. Attention-grabbing headlines.

Create attention-grabbing email headlines that will entice them to read the email. For example, the headline can be about profitability, employee safety, or a relevant business issue you can help solve. 

3. Short emails.

Write emails that are readable on smartphones and only a few sentences long. We don’t want the prospects to continuously scroll down their smartphones due to multiple paragraphs. Also, do not include attachments in your prospecting emails. If your core message revolves around an attachment that you want them to read—such as a PDF or Word document—you’re decreasing your chances of getting that message across.

4. One or no calls to action.

Lastly, make sure that you either have only one call to action or no call to action at all. What do I mean by that? Either only ask them a single question or do not ask them any question at all. I suggest you be direct and just tell them what you’re going to do next. Some of the best prospecting emails we’re seeing incorporate such assertive language like, “I will call you next week” or “I will send you a calendar invitation next week”—as opposed to, “Would you like a meeting?”

If you’re going to ask a question about setting up the next step, just make it simple and singular. Don’t ask them to gather everybody in a conference room, invite more people, or to send you back additional information. It’s overwhelming. Imagine they’re reading your email on their smartphone while they’re walking through the facility with other things on their mind. If you don’t make it easy for them to respond or think about, it’s over.