How NOT to Do Sales Lead Management
Last week I published a blog about what a lead is and isn’t. To amplify the points made in A Name is Not a Lead, the words that Anthony Innarino, a sales leader, speaker, and author/blogger, published in a LinkedIn post recently, resonated:
1. We are increasingly choosing prospecting approaches that are harmful to our results.
2. The automation that proposes to solve the problem of getting meetings causes the exact opposite outcome of its intention.
3. We cannot continue to think so poorly of opening new relationships that we choose approaches that destroy any possibility of achieving that outcome.
A couple weeks later, Anthony published the following on LinkedIn, referring to poorly written, not well-thought-out approaches to filling the pipeline with qualified leads.
“Is this what passes for professional selling today? Automated beggars pitching a solution over five emails all nested like a Matryoshka doll, offering nothing worth trading a minute of time to acquire. What Hell have we wrought?”
His sentiments echo those of a lot of us who’ve been frustrated to witness a degradation in the current approaches to marketing.
Read the email Anthony got from a vendor, supposedly a marketing professional (I’m sure anyone reading this post has gotten a similar message):
Hi Anthony,
I have sent you four emails earlier and have not heard from you. I realize that you are not looking for any assistance at this time. I promise you that they will be my last email in this series.
This of course is not a compelling message, and it certainly doesn’t have any potential to turn Anthony, a mere target, into a lead. Who’s directing the writer of this communication? Is every sales resource freelancing. Read on to see how that works out for companies.
There were some funny comments following Anthony’s post, including:
From Donnie Tuttle: “..the last email in this series “
The season finale? But will there be a season 2? 😝
My Two Cents
It’s been my opinion since the first days of marketing automation that marketing technology has made it possible to send more poor-quality leads to sales faster than ever before. Executives must not look at the content their teams are sending out. They would gag and then put an end to it if they did.
To make the point, here are some emails that I received last week (note that I did not change these any way except to make them anonymous):
Example 1:
I sent you email and I never heard back from you. So, I wanted to follow up today to see if you have any question about XYZ.
I hope you don’t find the outreach forceful or aggressive, I was simply wondering if these actions mean you are interested in learning about more and how we provide value to organizations similar to yours.
Do you have some minutes for a brief call?
Takeaway: Poor grammar (three times in one email) and illogical thinking does not support the promise to “provide value to organizations similar to yours.” If I were to respond, what would I be responding to?
Example 2
I'm sure you were busy with some more important work as I sent you a few emails in the last couple of weeks, singing the praises of ABC but never heard back. That's OK - we all get so many emails :)
I'm trying one last time to see if XYZ and ABC can get together to discuss the development of technology initiatives on your end.
With that said, how about a quick call or chat next week? If not, do you really think we should say goodbye?
Takeaway: This looks like about half of the bad emails I receive every day. It is similar to the third example below.
Example 3
Any update on my previous email?
Just pick a number that best describes your response,
1. Send Expense and Count.
2. I'm not Interested.
Thanks and regards,
Takeaway: I get a lot of emails that look like this one too. The salesperson is trying to be cute and different and instead comes across totally disingenuous. Did an executive at this company approve this? Do they know how it makes their company look?
Example 4
Would you be open for a quick call to chat about ABC Lead Generation next week?
I promise it won’t be one of those meetings that could have been an email.
Takeaway: This comes from a lead generation company that appears to be growing. I get similar emails from multiple people in their organization proving they don’t target and don’t even attempt to personalize.
Example 5
Hey Dan,
I’ll be honest, I emailed you some days ago, and didn’t get a reply.
Well, people usually say that an image is worth more than a thousand words.
Here is my thousand words email for you:
[A meaningless image]
If you could hit ‘reply’, even if it’s to tell me to politely ‘go away’…
Fingers crossed!
Have a great day,
Takeaway: Again, does anyone expect a message like this will have the impact this company is looking for?
Example 6
Pls. confirm you received the email below and advise if you can take a call at 11AM EST. tom. Thanks.
Respectfully,
Takeaway: I assume that they get some people to respond to this but WHY?
Example 7
Hi Dan,
We see that you opened the previous email from XYZ Systems and hope you had a chance to read it. We understand that you must be too busy to reply at the moment.
Can you just hit me back with the number from the list below (1, 2, or 3) that best describes your response?
1. Please leave me alone!
2. Too busy. Email me again after 4-6 weeks
3. Reach out to me next week
Warm Regards,
Takeaway: Again, what would compel me to respond?
For the few companies that backed up their emails with a call, the call “scripts” were every bit as dismal as the emails. Over 90% of the emails and voicemails I receive are awful. Sending quality emails and leaving quality voicemails are table stakes.
What Works?
In The Sales Development Playbook by Trish Bertuzzi, here is what she feels matters most with emails:
First, the subject and the first sentence are the first and only shot at keeping the prospect’s finger off “delete.” Here’s a good example:
Subject: Triple your SDR productivity
First body copy section: How to turn one SDR into 3? (Trish likes the immediate payoff of the subject line and the fact that it grabbed her attention.)
Second, the WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) The prospect wants to know what you can do for them (not what you do).
Second body copy section: Industry averages say that gets them 7 conversations a day while our clients’ reps average 20+ conversations per day. (The recipient connects more conversations with more leads. That is WIIFM!)
Third, the ask. A clear and simple call to action increases responses exponentially.
Third body copy section: How can I get 10 minutes on your calendar to share more? (The ask here is simple: please reply with an answer to “how”.)
Remember, grab attention and provide an immediate payoff. Then WIIFM? Then simply ask for the meeting. The book is a must read. Go buy it.
Master content and cadence
In my opinion even companies that are trying to construct and deliver quality emails put too much information into those emails. Too, they read like marketing speak rather than being, as Trish Bertuzzi puts it, “straightforward and human.”
Encourage your SDRs, managers to experiment. Continuously test your best email against new variations. And … finally, don’t let SDRs freelance too much. If you do, you’ll end up suffering from poor, amateurish approaches and bad results.