10 Biggest Email Pet Peeves of 2013 - SpeakerSue

Posts Tagged ‘how to say it to sell it’

10 Biggest Email Pet Peeves of 2013 May 15th, 2013

If you knew that a habit of yours annoyed people around you, would you continue doing the annoying behavior?

Yes, I wish that was a rhetorical question! It amazes me that intelligent, kind-hearted people think that because they are the ones doing the annoying thing, that the thing is no longer annoying.

Take “Cheers” for example. During my workshops, Cheers and Ciao are always brought up by someone in the group, as sounding inauthentic, unless of course it’s a Brit writing or an email from an Italian counterpart. As soon as one person mentions it, the head bobs begin. (And if they mention one without the other, someone else shouts out, and also…)

It doesn’t matter that you like it if it is a distraction to the other person!

Here is a list of the 10 Biggest Pet Peeves that even you might want to eliminate, in no special order, compiled over the past 6 months:

1. No hello. Or worse, “Hey”.
Hi Bob doesn’t take that long and it starts the email with a friendly tone.

2. One, two or three word responses. “Okay” “Will do.” “This might work”
What will you do? You aren’t being charged for by the word, so you forget the telegram speak. And really, how much time are you saving? You know you’ll just play a game of email ping pong if you aren’t more clear the first time.

3. Getting an email that ends with: Your thoughts?
More likely, you’d like the other person’s approval, recommendation or deadline. Ask for what you want so the other person can give it to you.

4. The never changing subject line
An email with the subject line, Thanksgiving schedule, that is still circulating even though the topic has morphed 12 billion times (or so) is helping no one file, archive or find.

5. Multiple question marks
The only way a recipient can interpret ??? is: WTF (What the fish?). I guess if you’re asking, Are you pregnant??? that could be an exception. Or maybe not.

6. Omitting a complete signature line.
Popping open 12 emails to find a phone number to call is as much fun as drinking coffee grounds. Yes, of course, your phone number should be in their phone/data base. But what if it isn’t?

7. Keeping the thread going and going and going and …
Clean the thread. Inevitably, there is something in the thread that you don’t want someone to read or remember and you can count on Murphy’s Law kicking in. Everyone else will ignore the thread but not that person.

8. Using email to make others look stupid
Yes. You’re right. Charlie and Charlene are wrong. Telling them they’re wrong and copying Diane and Debbie and Dan won’t make you look smart.

9. Using email when a phone call would save oh so much time
It takes courage to talk with another person rather than hide behind an email. Besides,they know what you’re doing.

10. Emails that are complete in the subject line without any indication
People go berserk about this one! It’s not that the message is in the subject line, it’s that you made them take the nanosecond to open the email – you tricked them! – and they wasted their precious time. Okay, maybe they’re wrong but if you annoy the very person that you need to do what you want, guess who is wrong! Either type (end of message) after your message or if you think they won’t know what EOM means, type ” Thanks so much!” on the inside of the email so you at least give them something pleasant to read.

What would you add to this list?

Cold Calling Made Simple May 8th, 2013

“You know what you’re doing and that’s why you’re able to change it up.” Blake Shelton, The Voice, May 7, 2013

I’ve had plenty of sales people tell me that having a prospecting script feels inauthentic and they’re uncomfortable using one. Those are the sales people who end up hating making those calls and struggling to make their numbers.

Cold calling has never been more simple because of how easy it is to sound intelligent to the person we’re calling. With even just a bit of information (plans meetings, for instance, and works for XYZ Corporation), you are ready to go.

Here is the key to success. Okay, that was a lie. This is one key to success (the other is to authentically care about their success more than about making the sale; oh and another is to take control of the next step and give them a reason to want to take that next step with you…).

Create a script and practice it.

The first few times all you’ll be doing is reading it. You’re likely to feel fake and foolish. Massage the script to be sure you’re using your words and keep practicing. What if the prospect says this? How will you respond? Write it down? Was your response good? How can you improve it? Practice it? What if the prospect says this instead?

Practice how you’ll start the convo and how you’ll continue the convo. Practice with a goal of memorizing the best responses.

Then, here comes the good part: As you practice your memorized script, become present. Improvise. It’s only when you know the script so well that you can enjoy the freedom to improvise and make it better.

This has worked for so many successful sales people. High achievers know exactly what they’re doing.

The main reason you haven’t closed the sale today May 6th, 2013

Attending my local Arizona chapter of Meeting Professionals International is always a treat. My friend and tech guru, Jim Spellos, was presenting and I was in Arizona so there was every reason to attend.

When registering, the CVent form asked if I wanted to buy raffle tickets and I just wanted to quickly complete the registration (and I didn’t know what the prizes were being offered even though I know I should do it just to support the chapter ), so I didn’t tick those boxes.

No one approached me about buying tickets during the networking time prior to the meeting.

Before Jim speaks, announcements are made including a reminder to purchase raffle tickets. A sweet woman at the lunch table says to us, “Do you all have your raffle tickets?” and she shows us a bunch of the tickets that she has for sale. Two people said yes, and the rest of us each mumbled something, mainly “oh, not yet!” With a few more minutes to go, I was waiting, waiting, waiting that she would say, “So, how many tickets would you like, Sue, Name, Name, Name? You can win great prizes and support the chapter? Sue, will that be 3, 5 or 10?”

She didn’t follow-up her initial question and I’m betting that she thinks that she asked for the sale. In her volunteer debrief, she will be likely to explain that she got her courage up and asked everyone at the table if they had raffle tickets.

And she did.

But she didn’t ask for the sale.

She didn’t motivate us to buy.

She didn’t make it easy to buy.

She left money on the table.

The main reason sales don’t close is because we don’t ask for the next step, give a compelling reason to take it, and make it super easy for them to do so.

Check the last 3 emails you sent. Replay the recordings of your last 3 sales calls. Did you ask for the business? Really? Did you help them want to advance the sale with you? Really?

Tell us what you said and if you’d like, I’m happy to provide feedback and comments on your approach.

The 2 Most Important Types of Questions You Can Ever Ask to Build Sales April 24th, 2013

When the phone rang, I knew the person on the other end wasn’t a professional sales person as soon as he said,

“Hi this is name with company, how are you doing today?”

I didn’t know him, didn’t have time to tell him how I was doing today and really, did he actually care? Why would he care?

More than that, he didn’t give me a reason to want to talk to him or tell him anything.

But I stayed on the phone just to learn more about what not to do when prospecting.

“Great!” I said.

“Great, great,” he said (apparently two greats is better than one). “The reason for my call is that I represent name as I said and we have 3 different ways to help you contact your important leads and what businesses do you approach when you’re trying to sell to new leads?”

I am not making this up though at this point I couldn’t stand it so I disengaged. The thing is that too many sales people do this same thing (okay, maybe not as bad as a company selling leads not knowing what leads I might need or even what I did) but still too many people call without:

•knowing anything about the company/person they’re calling
•knowing how the callee might benefit from the service/product being provided
•wanting to make a sale rather than build a relationship
•being prepared with meaningful questions to start an authentic conversation

Two types of questions
Fact based questions are provide immediate factual, qualifying information. In the hospitality industry, for instance, questions like:

-What dates are you looking at for the event?
-How many people do you expect?
-What other hotels have you used in the past?

provide you, the seller with needed information to move the sale forward.

Fact based questions, however, are not, not, not (did I mention not?) the first type of questions that should ever be asked.

Why?

They’re all about selling to a qualified lead rather than helping the qualified lead want to buy from you. They are the 2nd type of question you need to be prepared to ask, after the first type.

High achieving sales people thoughtfully prepare conversation starter questions – questions that focus on the buyer and help them want to engage in a meaningful conversation.

Questions like:

In your experience, is A or B preferred by your delegates?
In my experience, I’ve found X. Have you found this to be true for you your team as well or is it something else that is more important to you?
In working with your colleagues, they often mention X. Is this something that helps you create success or is this less important to the success of your event?

When you throw in a bit of authentic curiosity when asking conversation starter questions, you earn the right to a genuine and meaningful conversation.

Without both of these types of questions, it’s hard to make a sale. It’s knowing which to use first and unless you start with the 2nd type though, you may never get the answers you want to the first.

Prospecting to build sales can be easy and fun when learning comes before selling.

What Your Email Says About You… April 20th, 2013

You know how when people treat people who can do something for them really well, but treat people who seemingly can’t do anything for them, really not well, and you notice it, how you never think the same about the person. No matter how well they’re treating you, watching how they treat people they consider “unimportant” lets you know their true character. What was that quote about character shows when no one is around to watch (or something).

In my opinion, it’s the same with email. Lots of sales people – and their bosses – take pains to write to their customers in a way that makes the customer feel important. But they don’t bother to provide the same courtesy to the person in the next cube, the next department and especially not to the one in the cube one rung below. It amazes me how people within an organization treat each other in their emails.

Writing in a way that helps the other person feel valued and safe and smart taking the action that you’re requesting isn’t just smart business, it’s just smart. And insulting them can only lead to lower productivity, lower profitability and a rotten work day.

And there is more: Not taking the time to reread and at least try to write with proper grammar and punctuation and correct spelling (consider the above to be traffic signals that help the flow of communication) is simply disrespectful. Expecting the other person to try to figure out what you intended to say is expecting them to use their time to do your job. It doesn’t make great sense and absolutely no business sense.

Finally (for this rant), keep it as concise as possible. No one has time to wade through your thoughts before they get to your point.

The more you consider the other person the more they will consider you. I’m hopeful this makes sense and cents.

Tired of lowering your prices? Good! Don’t… April 10th, 2013

Because I only present customized workshops for my clients (this always negates any concern about conflicts between similar type clients and is more practical for them and more fun for me), I get to review a lot of email that sales people write.

If you (or your team) are like the earnest and eager sales professionals I work with, your emails may sound something like this:

Email from prospect: We’ve reviewed your proposal and it sounds good except for the price. We’d love to use your _______ (product, service, idea) but I have a better price from your competitor. Can you do any better?

Email to prospect: I will speak to my Revenue Manager to see what we can do. Can you tell me who we’re up against?

Email from prospect: (None arrives)

Email to prospect: Hi and great news! I was able to persuade my revenue manager to provide X and Y and also give you A and B off your ______, plus we will throw in __________. If this meets your approval, please let me know and I will send the sales agreement to confirm ____.

Look familiar? I so hope not.

Here is what I see: Not enough work was done up front by the salesperson to create a valuable value prop for the customer. The customer thinks that she is comparing apples to apples because you didn’t help her to envision her success with your product.She thinks that the results she will receive will be identical even though the product is not.

What issue-based questions did you ask during your selling process?
How did you help her feel safe and smart selecting your option?
How did you help her sell your solution to her stakeholders?
How did you stimulate her thinking and take her beyond the success she imagined (without promising that you’ll exceed expectations [please do not ever promise that before hand because you simply raise expectations!])?

One more thing: We teach people how to treat us. If you’re willing to cave in (do I smell desperate?) without an equal concession, what have you taught your customer about your sales strategy? (Yes, I did say without an equal concession from them. If my price is $XXX and you want to pay less, then what are you willing to give up?)

And, stop blaming or crediting someone above you (Revenue Manager) for saying yes or no. If you need to always confer with someone else, you’ll teach your customer to just ask for the person with the authority (which you’ve made plain, isn’t you).

Did this help? Stop giving away the store. Build value. Make yourself different in the eyes of your buyer by helping them to see the value, experience, results they’ll gain from working with you.

Does this make sense? The first person with a question will receive a free copy of my book, Power Sales Writing: Second Edition.

How to Persuade Your Boss to Say Yes – in Email April 4th, 2013

“We’d like to improve the way we sound in email,” said the client. “Not our salesteam, but our operations people, our admins, our internal team, even our execs. If we can persuade each other to do what we need done, and if we can’t be civil and if we can’t do it without playing email ping pong all day – what a waste of time! – , it won’t matter how persuasive our sales team is because we won’t be able to support them.”

Bless you, my child.

If you’ve come to the same conclusion, here are 5 tips that will boost productivity, professionalism and profitability:

1. Know why you’re bothering to email.
Simple: What is it that you want as a result of this email? Not as an end result of a line of emails, meetings, whatever. This email. The one that you’re writing. What approval or decision or understanding do you want?

2. Determine what is in it for the reader to do what you want.
Why should they do it beyond because you said so? How will it help them, the org, the situation? Of course you don’t want to go into detail but by honoring them with a few words (to ensure the initiative’s success, to keep us moving forward, to help me complete this, to get this off your plate, to add your insights into the pool of knowledge….), and treating them respectfully, you’re more likely to get better results.

3. Start with what you actually want – your main point. Forget all the “hope you had a great weekend” stuff (if they have time or think you care, they’ll tell you anyway) and begin with your point:

Example:
Hi Sue,
Your help is needed! Would you please review these proposals and add your comments by tomorrow at 5p?
You’re the expert and I’m sorry to rush you on this. The proposal is being presented to the client by 8a, Wednesday.
If this is impossible, please let me know. Your help will help us seal the deal!

4. End by reminding them of why you need them, their approval, their whatever. Repeat the reason you’re writing just in case they skimmed and skipped the first paragraph because they are so accustomed to getting messages that hide the point. Try to always leave then with an authentic, sweet taste rather than a demanding or transactional message.

5. Use a subject line that helps them determine urgency and importance.
Which of these subject lines would you be likely to open?
A. Action required: Proposal review
B. Action request: Client review tomorrow
C. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!!!!!
D. A favor
E. Proposals
F. URGENT: Your help is needed to review 2 proposals
G. For client review tomorrow: Action request

Lots of reasons that some of these won’t work but much more important is which ones will convince your reader that his/her help is needed by tomorrow because business is at stake? Both B and G convey that message. The subject lines indicate the importance (Client review) and are intriguing enough, without being demanding or rude, that your boss is likely to open the message and respect you for writing it.

Of course a phone call would also help…

Your comments?

3 Keys to Qualifying Prospects Now April 1st, 2013

Once upon a time, it may have been possible to qualify a prospect by asking questions that would determine whether you had the goods to sell to them.

Questions like:
• When is the event? (Do we space that day? Is it a prime season and can we add a premium)
• Where have you held events in the past? (Can they afford what I’m offering?)
• How many people do you expect to attend? (Can we fit them into our private dining space? Is this a big piece of business for our main ballroom?)
•Are you looking for meeting space + sleeping accommodations and will they be using the spa while they’re here? (What can I upsell?)

are yesterday’s qualifying questions (that is, if they ever worked).

It’s not that you can’t ask these questions. The information gained from those questions is needed to see if you can accommodate them.

But they shouldn’t be asked at the beginning of a conversation because your prospect knows exactly what you’re doing… and what you’re doing is thinking about your own needs and making the sale.

Instead, here are 3 keys to qualifying prospects now:
1.”Be more interested than interesting” Jim Collins wrote that line in his book Good to Great. Focus entirely on learning from the buyer to see how you can help them be better than they would be without you. Don’t ask self-serving, status type questions. Don’t talk about what you can do for them. Sincerely focus on holding a conversation that isn’t a sales conversation but a convo between two colleagues.

2. Eliminate any questions that build up their current vendor:
•Can you tell me what made your last meeting great?
•What was the best thing that you remember about your last event?
•What did your group really like about ABC?

These don’t even count as qualifying questions to me! They serve to remind the prospect how happy she was with her previous vendor (so why bother with the stress of trying something new?) and provide little meaningful information to you that will help them be better than they would be without you.

3. Ask issue-based questions. My friend, Ron Karr, in his excellent book, Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way, calls questions that start a high level conversation, “issue- based.” Most likely you can figure out that they talk about … (get ready for it)… issues!

Here are 3 examples of great conversation starter questions:

•In your experiences with your group, which aspect of the event is what people talk about and look forward to?

•In working with your colleagues, they often mention that X is …. important. Because your group is in many ways unique, I’m wondering if that is a key driver for you or are there other more important issues?

•In my experience working with planners, I’ve found that at this point in the planning process they often have questions about X and Y. Is that on your mind, too, or is that already covered?

I can hear you now thinking, “But I can’t use those at the beginning of a conversation, can I?”

Yes!

Hi Name,
What do you do?
Oh, really.. may I ask you, in my experience working with planners…

It not only works; it’s an idea whose time has come! You’ll not just qualify prospects by applying these 3 key principles, you’ll help them to want to learn more from you.

Comments?

Add Your Comment

How to Write the Best Subject Line Ever March 24th, 2013

We all know that the subject line is critical to getting your message opened, especially when the recipient doesn’t know you. Readers determine if they’ll read first by checking the email address to identify the sender, then they read the subject line to see if that resonates for them. If your email passes so far, they/we read the first lines – a preview – of the email to make sure we aren’t wasting our time with spam or something that may simply be a time-sucker.

Most people have no clue what makes a great subject line and spammers don’t help the matter. As soon as they figure out what entices people to open email messages, they use that strategy in their subject lines ad naseum and we learn not to open emails that use that strategy (remember when using the reader’s name in the subject line was a great way to gain attention? How about using a “thought-provoking” question? Those and more “strategies” have been exploited by spammers and no longer work for business to business messaging.)

So what can you do to write the best subject line ever? Start by reading How to Write a Killer Headline and Make Your Post Shine because just as a blog post needs to catch attention, so does an email.

Numbers 3, 4 and 5 from that post (Shrink it [eliminate unnecessary words],Summarize [ensure the subject line is an authentic summary of the email message] and Make Your Readers Curious [pique their interest] offer particularly excellent advice.

Here are 3 more tips specifically for best ever subject lines:

1. Don’t sell. Tell.
No one likes to be sold to and everyone likes to buy the best product (best doesn’t mean most expensive; it means best for their needs). Start selling in your subject line and you can feel confident that your email will not be read unless you happen to catch the person on the exact day, time and moment that they need to buy what you are selling.

2. I wanna talk about me.
Remember that annoying but true Toby Keith song from a couple years ago:

“…You know talking about you makes me smile
But every once in awhile

I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see…”

Exactly! Make sure your subject line talks about what matters to them. That means keep your product name out of the subject line unless it will specifically help your buyer. (If they sent an RFP for a meeting at your hotel, your subject line could say: Confirming Availability at ABC Resort – Nov 12 – 14.)

3.Change it.
There are few more annoying things than trying to locate a message about a particular topic but the same subject line has been used for 10 emails. Save yourself and your reader time by changing the subject line every time the subject changes. The subject should be an accurate reflection of the subject of the email the person is reading – not one they read about 10 days earlier.

What else do you suggest to write the best subject line ever?

Add Your Comment

To Say Thank You or Not to say Thank You: The Email Dilemma March 18th, 2013

The workshop participant sent me a very kind request asking for a copy of my workshop notes. I responded by thanking her for her sweet comments and sending what she requested. Then she sent me a thank you email and added another bit referencing something she and I had talked about during a break (how she gets the curl to look just so in her hair!).

Now, do I send another email to thank her for reminding me about the product she uses in her hair or just let it go? What would you do?

I decided to send a quick email thanking her for the new bit of information. But then…

she sent me a thank you for taking the time to send her a thank you.

This would sound absurd except that I’m betting you’ve experienced this same situation. When is it appropriate to stop the thank you game?

Here are 5 of SpeakerSue’s rules to guide you:

1. It’s not a holiday gift exchange.
You don’t have to go tit for tat saying thank you. When there is something legit to thank the other person for, do it. Sending a thank you for a thank you is a waste of everyone’s time and more than that, causes the type of angst we’re talking about here.

2. Use the subject line.
If it’s really driving you crazy to not say thank you (your momma would be so proud), write it in the subject line and then indicate to your reader that that is all that is new in your message, like this:
Subject line: THANK YOU!

stands for End of Message. An alternate code is which stands for Subject Line Only but I don’t ever use that one because a slip of the key and you’re typing which of course stands for *&^*& out of luck, not exactly what you meant to say.

3.Create an internal company policy:
No email thank you’s needed because you prefer to say a genuine and meaningful thank you to them when you next see them. Of course, this doesn’t work when you work with a virtual team because if you aren’t going to be F2F to thank them, an authentic and quick email thank you is critical to good relationships.

4. Write a proper thank you.
Don’t think that by writing, prior to the person helping you, “Thanks for your help with this” that you have properly thanked them. Gratitude before the fact is simply asking them to do you a favor (or commanding that they do it, depending on your position). A proper thank you is be expressed after the person has taken his or her valuable time to do what you ask.

5. Email is the new paper.
An email thank you, unless you’ve received a personal gift, is fully acceptable today. No one is ever offended by a handwritten thank you note though and it’s always special to receive though not always necessary to do. Standing out for your good manners, however, is always a lovely point of differentiation.

Do you agree with these points? What did I miss? What is your email thank you policy?

Add Your Comment

« Older Entries

Posts Tagged ‘how to say it to sell it’

My Latest Book

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

Why Sue?

Preview Sue

Stay in Touch

Latest Blog Posts

Latest Tweets