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It’s great when a client seeks you out for your expertise, service or products, but everyone has to market – especially in this economy. Why shoot yourself in the foot with poorly thought out e-mail marketing sales pitches?
As a writer, I personally prefer an e-mailed story pitch, followed by a call. It’s an opportunity to get a better idea about what the person wants before we have a conversation. But pitching a story is so different from pitching a service or product that costs money.
People like to do business with people that they like and trust. A form pitch letter, sent by e-mail, hardly leaves a good impression. Sure it can be done. But trust me, it’s not easy getting over a bad first impression.
Business coach Diane Helbig calls sales pitches through this medium, “worse than a waste of time.” People do it for one reason: It’s easy.
“It sends a really bad impression that you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re blindly prospecting,” she said. “You’re hoping for anything from anybody and that’s not how people do business.”
“Sales is about permission. When people prospect by e-mail they haven’t gotten permission to reach out to you,” she said.
Clearly this is one of Helbig’s pet peeves. But something tells me she wouldn’t care about the medium nearly as much if the salesperson bothered to do some research before pushing the send button.
Just last week, a woman e-mailed her a sales pitch because she thought Helbig was still on the board of directors for a local chamber of commerce. One problem: She left the board four years ago.
Who wants to feel like a number on a sales prospect list. Business etiquette involves feelings. And people want to feel valued. They want to feel like someone really wants their business.
Lately, Helbig has been so frustrated by e-mailed sales pitches that she’s taken the liberty to respond with advice. The author of “Lemonade Stand Selling: Accelerate Your Small Business Growth,” let’s them know exactly how she feels.
“I tell them, that as a business coach and author of a sales book, I think e-mail prospecting is a really bad idea,” she said. “They didn’t ask for my opinion. But then again, I didn’t ask to be contacted.”