Do you get disappointed when you email a prospect and get an out-​of-​office message in return? Those messages are full of useful information, as Matt Benati points out in a recent HubSpot article.

Reliable Contact Information

First of all, you’ve just gotten a confirmation that you have the prospect’s correct mail address. Not only that, the messages may also include a phone number to be reached by in case of emergency. You should definitely not call while they’re out, but if email continues to not get a response, you have one more confirmed contact method.

Availability

You also now know exactly when your prospect will be back in the office after their time off. With that information, you can plan the best time to reach out to them (probably after giving them a day or two to settle back in to the office. No one wants to be pitched to while they’re still recovering from vacation time).

Additional Contacts

Most of the time, the prospect will give the email address or phone number of a secondary contact as well. It may even be someone who better fits the description of the decision-​maker you’ve been looking for. If nothing else, you’ll have another contact within the company who you could potentially meet with, or who can at least point you in the right direction. Who knows, they may even offer to introduce you.

The out-​of-​office email message will help you save time and effort by giving you the valuable information you may have spent hours trying to track down otherwise. While you wait for the prospect to return, you can perfect your sales pitch and you’ll also have the time to dedicate to researching more potential sales. Yes, it may be disappointing that the prospect wasn’t available at that moment, but the information you’ll gain is potentially invaluable.