Stop The Mindless Email Prospecting

BY Liz Wendling
Featured image for “Stop The Mindless Email Prospecting”

A thoughtful email prospecting plan is an effective way to attract clients and close more sales. Bad email prospecting will result in a complete waste of time, money and effort.

Unfortunately, too many professionals have mastered the art of bad email prospecting: Sending unsolicited, long-​winded, self-​promotional and self-​serving emails. These emails leave prospects uninspired, underwhelmed and unwilling to engage. This approach is not only outdated and old-​school, but it is also entirely ineffective.

Launching into a bad prospecting email is the top reason why professionals are unable to tap into the value and power that good email prospecting has to offer. When professionals use generic templated email language that everyone else is using, their emails produce lousy results. Sending emails that sound like everyone else is the fastest way to the delete button.

Stop sending emails that are all about you! Prospects have no desire to read emails filled with the details of what you do and how you do it. They don’t care about you. They care about themselves. They don’t care about your company. They care about their company. And finally, they don’t care about your products or services. They care about results.

Which do you think is going to get a prospect's attention and deliver more impact: A self-​centered sales pitch that’s all about you, your company and how great you are? Or a powerful email that shows you understand their pains, problems, challenges and issues?

Here's an example of an email I received. It is nothing more than a traditional cold call disguised as a “new email approach” to reach prospects. Names and minor details were changed.

Hi Liz, Hope you're doing well! Hope you are having a fun summer so far. My name is Stan Mertz, an account executive with ABC Corporation. We are the leader in safety solutions and have developed the most advanced programs that are currently being used by companies like yours. I’d like to schedule some time to get together for about 30 minutes and explain some of the more successful programs we’ve created. We pride ourselves on making your business a safer place to work. We also offer the most cost effective solutions. Do you have some time next week Tuesday or Thursday to meet? Please let me know which day is better for you. (Stan could have looked at my marketing and sales consulting website or scanned my LinkedIn profile to see that my company does not need safety solutions.)

You do not have to be like Stan. Nobody likes to be accosted in this way. It is no different than walking into a networking event and jamming your business card in someone’s hand and telling them how impressive you are and all the brilliant things that you do.

You can do better than this!

Ask yourself, would I respond to my emails? Is what I am saying (or not saying) causing prospects to toss my message into the trash? Are my emails piquing interest or creating resistance? What is missing from my prospecting message that is causing me to fail so miserably? What do you think is going to get a prospects attention and deliver more impact? A self-​centered sales pitch that’s all about you, your company and how great you are, or a powerful email that shows you understand their pains, problems, challenges and issues?

Make your messaging mindful, not mindless. Create an email that makes you stand out from your competition, not blend in. Good prospecting emails should educate, engage and enlighten prospects! Every email that you send out is an opportunity to connect or be sent to the trash. You have a choice.

Bad email prospecting is dead. Good email prospecting is alive, appreciated, well-​received and bottom-​line friendly.

Liz Wendling is the author of two books (and counting) — The Unstoppable Business Woman and Everyone Sells Something, a columnist for Colorado Biz Magazine, and one of the first nationally credentialed facilitators for Napoleon Hill Mastermind groups. Learn more at lizwendling​.com.


Share: