Emails are a business development rep’s bread and butter. Without them, it can be extremely difficult to prospect potential customers and give them valuable information that could lead to great conversations and deals. I have found that a few things work really well with emails that might work well with your team as well.
1. Always send a Thank You. If you have a conversation with someone, whether it is short, long, a polite no thank you, or a great potential fit, you want to send that person an email saying, “Thanks for your time” and your contact information. No matter how great a conversation goes, having an email to reference is going to help keep your name in their memory.
2. Make it personal. Having the prospect’s name and company in the email is simple, and shows you put some effort into writing it, making it feel like it came from another human, not a robot shooting out referrals and request left and right.
3. Do not product dump. If you forget to mention something in a voice mail or conversation, usually you will want to put it into an email, and that works fine, but be aware of how much company/product information you are dumping in there. Unless the prospect asks for certain information or whitepapers, be cautious and do not overload your message with too much.
4. Respond promptly. Of course you can’t get back to everyone right away, but keeping up with email correspondences makes it easier for prospects to get respond to you if they see you are on top of your game. A good rule is to reply within 24 hours.
5. Have a consistent signature. Your name, position, office number, and link to a company website are good things to have as you sign an email. If gives prospects the ability to look into your company quickly and have your information on hand if they see something they like.
If you are having trouble with your emails, try some of these strategies to see how you might improve. We have also recently released our Email Strategy Guide for Prospecting Success, a detailed look at email strategies complete with messaging examples.
Do you have any strategies that work well for your inside sales team?
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