Recently, I’ve been keeping terrible sales emails I get just to turn it into a lesson for my clients. Sales email mistakes are the norm. For some reason, sales reps and marketing departments seem to think that committing the below mistakes are a sure-fire way into the hearts of prospects. They are dead wrong…here’s why

Mistake #1 Presume Familiarity

“Hi Chala, it was great to meet you at the conference last week.” went one email. As a speaker, I literally met hundreds of people so a little more info would’ve made me feel less like one of the hundreds this woman met at the same conference. How about this instead “Hi Chala, it was wonderful to listen to your speech on Monday, I got a lot out of it” or “Hi Chala, it was great to meet you at the 2nd day lunch table and have a chat about my marketing. I really appreciated your advice”. Get the picture? More is more.

Mistake #2 Forget Where You Met Me

Oh this one’s a doozy. A prospect of MINE who declined to work with me because his wife didn’t think he needed help with his marketing actually reached out to me on LinkedIn. Here’s what he said ” Hi my name is N. We are connected in LinkedIn, but haven’t had the opportunity to get to know one another.(He watched me do a 60 min lecture for his CEO group 3 months ago and had an hour long sales conversation where he declined my services). Whatever you do, don’t forget where you met people.  Develop a system or something but don’t waste your time doing this.

Mistake #3 Talk About Yourself Yourself Yourself

So here’s how this amazing email continued: “I want to share with you a little about what I do.” If you are writing sales emails that start with you you you, then stop. Start saying something like “I noticed your recent selection to the Top 50 Marketers in Toronto” or “I enjoyed your breakfast TV interview in Reno that I saw on your Youtube channel” anything that’s about ME, the prospect. Not YOU.

Mistake #4 Try To Meet With Me

The key principle in sales and marketing according to the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini is that you go first. You give something of value first. Many sales emails jump this very valuable step of offering a solution to the prospect’s pain as the freebie. Instead, they immediately skip to asking for a meeting. I think it’s like meeting someone for online dating and asking them to meet in person without even texting first. Who the heck would want to meet someone like that (note my references about dating since I’ve been separated, lol). Instead, give your free download, white paper, infographic, video etc that’s a solution to the prospect’s problem. If they are into it and download it, then you can make the bold move to meet.

Mistake #5 Make Me Do The Heavy Lifting

I’m really raging on this poor guy’s email but it’s truly a great collection of everything that’s wrong with sales emails. Here’s what he last asks me to do in his email “Here is a link to my calendar. I look forward to the opportunity to learn more about you and your business.”. I would be so much more impressed if you or your team called me or sent me an automated email as next step if and when I downloaded your free irresistible offer that offers the solution to my pain. I mean, why do I, a busy prospect, have to do the work here?
So, don’t make these mistakes and you can actually get sales emails to convert into physical or virtual sales meetings. Ignore these warnings and you’ll just become one of the 90% of emails that go unopened (worse yet-hated!) by your coveted prospects.

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