THE 3 most embarrassing business emails/texts: Can you beat it? - SpeakerSue

Posts Tagged ‘sales mastery’

THE 3 most embarrassing business emails/texts: Can you beat it? November 18th, 2012

In my selling skills programs, I almost always spend at least a few minutes with the group talking about what email etiquette is today. One thing groups always ask is how to deal with humiliation like when you send an email/text to the wrong person.

Here are some examples of the most embarrassing messages sent (but you may be able to beat these!):
As a new catering manager, figuring out attrition charges seemed really difficult. So when her client emailed her asking about the costs due, she wrote the following email to her director: “I am so dumb and I am sorry. Can you figure this out for me?” But instead of sending it to her director, she sent it to the client. Wait, it gets worse. She didn’t realize she had sent it to the client until she received an email back saying: “I’ll try but I really thought this was your job.” What an amazing client!

And there is the text-er who intended to text her husband, “Why am I still at work? She won’t let me leave. FML” and yup, texted it to the boss. Her boss texted back, “What does FML mean?” Neither she nor I knows how she kept her job, but she did.

My worst story happened years ago (but I still cringe big time): I worked on a proposal until about 2a for a new client. I was so proud of myself for getting it done, and still awake, so I rewarded my good behavior by writing a long email to a friend asking if she agreed that it was time to break up with my then boyfriend. I was extremely graphic in my descriptions of why I thought it was time to break up. Then I sent the email to the new client. In the morning, I received a brief email from him that simply said, “I concur. Break up.” No, I didn’t book the business but it was a good thing because there is no way I could have met him face to face!

What about you? What is your most embarrassing email/texting story?

Oh, and the solution? Check the to line before sending or be smart enough to add the recipient’s name after you write and review the email. It is so worth it!

And if you do send the wrong email to the wrong person, immediately – do not stop to talk this over with your manager, your BFF, yourself – pick up the phone and fess up. “Hi Name, this is me and I am mortified that I just sent you an email that was intended for someone else.”

Do not try to recall. That just makes it worse and doesn’t make the message disappear.

Depending on your relationship with the person (like with my new prospect, all I did was send a thank you for being gracious about this and I never followed-up, and neither did he), you can continue speaking the truth, “Can we talk about the email? I was feeling really frustrated and never should have said what I did.”

Let them talk. It’s very likely that they’ll say something like, “Thanks for your honesty. I did this myself once and know how it feels. By the way, I still want my concessions plus X and Y.”

Business and relationship saved!

What is your most embarrassing email story? The best one gets a free copy of the ” title=”Power Sales Writing: 2nd Edition”>Second Edition: Power Sales Writing. It may be too late for you for the last time but you’ll learn lots of awesome ideas for your next email!

You may need to get out of sales if you… November 1st, 2012

(With a nod to Jeff Foxworthy…)

You may need to get out of sales if you:
•Say “Please tell me about your main objective” and then don’t use the information you’re given in your response
•Talk more than you listen
•Talk more about your features than how the benefits will benefit them (specifically)
•Don’t offer an alternative solution when you don’t have the exact solution
•Use tricks instead of respect and concern for the buyer
•Send emails that are self-focused rather than customer-centric
•Think great features trump an emotional bond with the product
•Ignore qualified prospects after just one attempt to engage them. Or two.
•Stalk prospects and customers.
•Offer concessions as a wild &^* strategy to close the sale
•Expect your client to want to give up his valuable time so that you can talk about your product/service
•Expect your client to want to read your 59 page brochure
•Expect your client to follow-up with you without a good reason for them to do so
•Expect your client to have to take time out of her busy day to do anything that you could have done for them
•Write long rambling emails
•Write pushy, inauthentic emails
•Email without a clear next step – and a reason for your customer to take it
•End presentations with a procedural or transactional comment
•Think your competition doesn’t offer something equal to what you offer
•Help your buyers feel safe and smart selecting you, your product and service
•Want only to get but not give away
•Think price is the decision criterion
•Ignore the phone and rely only on email to start and maintain relationships
•Forget that when all things are equal, relationships always win the business
•Create emails that sound like spam
•Value your customer’s time more than your own
•Don’t do your “homework” before each call/email
•Believe prospecting is old school
•Don’t help your client envision her success with your product or service
•Forget that you are the virtual bridge that connects what your customers read on your website, TripAdvisor, etc with your brand
•Forget that every interaction should extend your hand and help your customer feel comfortable and confident with what you offer
•Don’t follow up when you say you will
•Don’t have a customer-focused strategy to follow up
•Rely on your product to sell itself
•Aren’t able to diffuse and negotiate difficult situations so that the customer feels valued and special
•Become complacent with the way you’ve always done things
•Attend training to prove the way you’re doing things is best rather than listening for fresh ideas to help you engage today’s buyers
•Too busy selling to improve and polish your skills
•Ignore leads because you’re too busy to respond with complete information.
•Think that how you say it is less important than what you say
•Think gold isn’t in the follow-up
•Believe that loving your customer isn’t the best way to close sales
•Think selling is harder today than ever before.

Sales professionals, have I been too hard on you? Fight back! Tell me what you agree with and what you don’t.

Why K.I.S.S. Matters More than Ever October 23rd, 2012

How old were you when you learned that K.I.S.S. was an acronym (or initialism) for Keep it simple, stupid? I think I was in 7th grade and so excited to be able to use the word stupid at the dinner table. You may have missed out on the fun if your teacher replaced stupid with sweetie…

Whatever. The point is that it – keeping it simple – matters more than ever. And it’s not just about keeping it concise and easy to understand. Today it also means to keep it simple to do, too.

The third annual Global Brand Simplicity Index released last week surveyed 6,000 customers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America to determine “perceived points of complexity and simplicity.” You can read the survey but here is the point (to be simple): Simplicity equals revenue. The easier it is to do business with a company, the stronger the revenue and stock performance.

Tell that to your sales team. In fact, highlight this: If you make your customer work (even if it as simple as ‘call me if you want more information” or “please tell me when a convenient time is for me to call you” or “Let me know your thoughts”), you run the risk of losing the prospect/customer to a sales team who is willing to take the extra step and do the work for them. (I’ll phone you Wednesday afternoon and if another time is more convenient for you, I’ll follow up as you request.)

Howard Belk, CEO of the firm behind the research, says this, “…people equate complexity with lack of trustworthiness.” The more you can KISS them by keeping your messaging – including your emails! – clear, transparent and relevant, and KISS them by keeping it simple for them to take the next step toward completion of the sale, the more you can expect to sell.

Do you agree?

Sell more at a better rate: Do this NOW in your next email! October 11th, 2012

Can you find the errors in selling and judgement made by this salesperson? Can you figure out why this is a loser’s email and what must be done to sell better?

Here’s the backstory: The customer is interested in the hotel for an upcoming meeting. She emails the salesperson with a few questions. Here is the salesperson’s response (plus my smarmy comments). Ten tips follow to avoid this horror scene:

Hi Sophie,
Happy Friday to you! (UGH!! Do not begin this way! You imply that you are happy the week is over. That might be the case but it doesn’t make it look like you like you like your work very much.)

The best rate I can offer in addition to the concessions offered is $198. (This not only sounds like you’re doing her a favor but it’s all feature and no benefit.)

In regards to high speed internet in the meeting space, the more specific information on the type of usage (wired/wireless, # of users, connectivity speed, etc) the better quote I am able to provide as there are so many variables involved and each with a cost associated with them. (Each with a cost? What information do you need? All of it? How can you make this easy for your prospect or is it that you want to write another email and then go back and forth with this issue and customer?)

Sophie, if the group is looking for a lower rate, we would need to in turn lower the amount of concessions. I look forward to your feedback! (Ewwww! Are you wagging your finger at your prospect? And what type of feedback do you want? Ewww.)

Best regards,

I wish I could tell you that the customer provided “feedback” and that was the end of it. Here is the salesperson’s 17th email:

Sophie!!! (Why the multiple exclamation marks?)

Our The ABC Hotel REALLY REALLY wants your business. We are able to offer you $159. This is coming off of our original offer by $40. Will this work for your group? (Really, really, really? With sugar on top? Oh, please. Stop begging!)

Do this now
1. Sell benefits and not just features (and you won’t need to beg)
2. Make it easy for your buyer to do what you want
3. Help your reader feel safe and smart.
4. Build excitement for what you have to offer
5. It’s never a seller’s market so create value for your product
6. Focus on your buyer, your buyer’s needs, your buyer’s everything
7. Create a positive emotional bond
8. Love them
9. Tell the truth (See email #1: the best rate…)
10. Pick up the phone

There are so many errors in these 2 emails that my heart breaks for this sales person. Set yourself and your associates up for success by giving them the tools they need to communicate and sell authentically.

3 Tips to Create the Perfect Subject Line August 27th, 2012

After investing way too much money in her new website, a colleague wrote seeking my advice. She plans, she said, to “send out thousands of emails and other communications with one mission – get readers to look at the new site” and she wondered what the subject line should be to capture attention.

Sound like a familiar problem?

She went on to explain that her “response rate on emails is very very low and I think it may have to do with my simple subject lines such as “Hello from Sophie*.” (Of course, Sophie isn’t her name. If you read my blog at all, you already know who Sophie is )

And more, “But everywhere I look to find ways to improve I find slick and spammy answers like “Sophie has a secret for you.” or “Please don’t open this email.” She asks, “Can you point me in the right direction?”

Yes. I can. But first, please consider this: It’s not just the subject line. In fact, eye tracker research shows that readers look at the email address of the sender just before looking at the subject line (which shows how smart we are: we don’t want to trash an email from someone important just because they wrote a meaningless or cheesy subject line.)

Readers read like this:
•Return address
•Subject line
•Preview (first 7 – 17 words)
•”Above the fold” (what they can see without scrolling)
•Entire email

Even if you pass the address/subject line test, your first sentence has to be compelling too or …. delete.

But I digress.

The subject line has to be:
1. Authentic (which immediately eliminates Sophie has a secret for you and Please don’t open this email. Ewwwww! Slimy!)
2. Relevant = meaningful to the reader (which immediately eliminatesHello from Sophie!
3. Purposeful – it must accurately summarize the email

Let’s say you write an email about asking for email advice. Would you use a subject line like:
Hello from Sophie?
Please don’t open this email?
Exciting news from Sophie?

Ridiculous, of course. The email writer (the person asking for my advice) used a perfect subject line:
Your email advice please

That is exactly what she should do with her subject line for her marketing messages. Use something that is truthful, focused and descriptive.

Just like women’s clothing, there is no such thing as “one subject line fits all” and naturally will depend on the email content. Here are suggestions for you to think about:
•New website to use when looking for a speaker (Yes, this is long and all of it won’t show on a mobile device which could be a challenge)
•Speaker details for your consideration
•Website update: Energize your team with Sophie Speaker
•Action request: May I phone you Friday? (because I can’t believe that all she really wants is for her email recipients to simply look at her site; I think she wants to follow-up with them, too)

Here is my truth: The best way to ensure your subject line works is to know something about the person who is receiving it.The more you target your message to his or her needs, the more likely it is that your subject line – and email – will work for you.

Your views?

Which subject line would you select?

What subject lines do you recommend? Please share your wisdom.

Want to sell more? Consider the shape of the table you meet around… August 21st, 2012

Could the shape of the table impact your ability to sell? As always, my friend, Kare Anderson has written another brilliant article called, 5 Ways Storytelling Can Boost Participation and Performance.

The story quickly is this: A federal judge tasked a college class to “research ways to improve the jury deliberation process.” They undertook their study with vigor and looked at typical factors like age, gender, ethnicity and even jury directions and the food the jurors ate. What they found was that jurors sitting at a round table discussed more issues and came up with more accurate and more fair verdicts. When the table was rectangular, the person at the head “tended to dominate the conversation” and jurors were less willing to discuss their opinions.

But that isn’t really the story.

The judge was delighted with the research findings because he found a way to speed up deliberations. All jurors henceforth had to sit at rectangular tables.

Here is the story. The table may matter. But way more important is to ask the right questions. Ask – don’t guess – what your buyer wants. It’s too easy to consider that the feature, what the prospect is asking for, is what really matters. Focus on helping achieve their successful outcome.

My daddy always said, “If you don’t ask, you won’t get.” Or, you may get the opposite result of what you really wanted.

Your thoughts?

Why LinkedIn (and everything else) isn’t working for you August 9th, 2012

Two friends sent me sales letters today to “add to my collection” of awful examples. One wrote, “Here is a sad little sales letter for you” and the other said that he was “laughing so hard that I’m beside myself.” Both were right to be so appalled.

Why are these emails epic fails? Because they forget that the recipient needs to be engaged and that the recipient needs to have a reason to agree to be engaged. The writers are so passionate about making the sale that they disregard how the buyer buys. They forget that it’s about the prospect not the product.

The worst email of the day shows this lack of prospect thought perfectly. And it wasn’t sent by my friends. I received it via LinkedIn.

Hi,
A while back you agreed to connect on LinkedIn and I don’t want to be a pest but I just wanted to keep in touch and see if we can help each other. I am also wondering if your summer is going as quickly as mine seems to be!

I just couldn’t read one more word (which actually started with the fact that the writer couldn’t even personalize the message with my name which made me wonder how many others received the identical message…).

The sales person actually began with an authentic touchpoint (after annoying me with the lack of personalization) but the rest of the message quickly disintegrated into a pile of self-centered drivel.

Stop the madness! Don’t be a pest. Focus 100%, unequivocally, on your customer’s success. Try removing the word “I” from your emails (it isn’t that you can’t use the word; it’s that your message cannot center around your personal universe) and create a vision of your buyer’s success.

The more you love your customer, the more you’ll find that LinkedIn (and everything else) begins to work for you.

“I have a hot lead” and other lies we tell in sales meetings July 26th, 2012

Because every program I present is custom crafted to that specific client’s needs and company culture (which allows me to work with clients who compete because their needs are different and their culture’s always are), I always ask for lots of examples (writing, phone scripts, etc) so I can do what I say I will – design a practical and precise program to help them convert more of their prospects into happy customers.

It’s truly job security (though I wish this wouldn’t happen – really!) when I receive comments from sales teams (as I received today), and this is an exact quote: You can see by the client’s reply that these e mails are well received from the planners.

Except that the planner/prospect wrote back to the salesperson’s prospecting attempt:
Thank you for sending me this information. It is very helpful to have a local XXXX to reach out to me regarding dinners in XXX. I will keep your information on hand when I start making dinner reservations in the upcoming months.

If I were a gamblin’ woman, I would bet that the sales person even reported in the sales meeting, “Woo-hoo! I have a hot new lead!”

And maybe it is a hot lead. And maybe it’s just a sweet prospect trying to brush the sales person off much like I do when a financial planner/new gym calls me (yes, I know they are different but they sound the same on the phone) and I say, “Oh great, please send me information. I’m really busy right now.”

Did I want the info? Maybe? Do I want them off the phone? Most definitely!

Hearing that the prospect will keep your info on file is not good sales news! That sales person needs to:
#1. Write a better prospecting email.
#2. Take control of the next step.
#3. Make it easy, easy, easy for the customer to make those reservations.
#4. Follow up. Not to sell but to serve.

Change your approach and you change your results. And please never again report a hot lead when you have no idea if it is.

4 Proven Tips to Increase your Ability to Engage by 87% July 9th, 2012

At the doggie resort & spa where my 2 springer spaniels vacation while I’m on the road, the owner of the place tells me that they have friends. And when I pick them up, I do see that my dog’s have playmates and BC is always particularly friendly with Abigail (though both have been neutralized so the romance angle is moot).

I’d think that they were quite brilliant (except that I know better) to figure a way to make friends all without the capacity to communicate with words. One episode of Frozen Planet or any other animal documentary and it becomes clear it isn’t that my dogs are smart (hahahahahaha!) but that linguistics isn’t the key when it comes to the ability to understand.

As it turns out, we humans don’t need much language to communicate either.

We communicate as much with our behavior as our words. Our ability to get our point across successfully can be assessed (using RFID technology) sometimes within 45 seconds and with as much as 87% accuracy! (One look from my husband and I can know exactly what he wants [or doesn't]. From just the first words on the phone – the same Hi honey, I can tell if I’ve called when he is busy or has time to talk. Less than 45 seconds and with 100% accuracy!) “Rapid cognition” is what it’s called.

And it turns out, according to a report of research by Mark Buchanan that it’s not content nearly as much as it is intent that we most pay attention to. The unconscious and instinctual parts of our brains (so, without our awareness!) instantly (think Malcolm Gladwell’s, Blink) make positive (this is good – let’s make this decision) and negative (could signal danger – avoid!) choices.

Increase your ability to engage without words and you can count on more persuasive presentations, more successful conversations and greater influence in everything you do.

4 Proven Tips to Increase your Ability to Engage by 87%
Based on combined research from MIT and a slew of others, you can increase your ability to engage when you:

1. Mirror others patterns.
We do this intuitively with people we know and like and it’s the basis for NLP (neuro linguistic programming). Mirroring means that if the other person is a slow talker, then in an effort to help them feel comfortable with us, we slow our pace to almost match theirs. If they are enthusiastic, we pump up our levels to reach theirs. Mirroring increases trust because (and this is an unconscious and instinctual brain choice!) we simply find it easier to like people who are like us. (Caveman: You- friend; You – enemy. Grunt.)

2. Exude a confident (not cocky!) conversational tone.
Others relax when they feel confident that we know what we’re talking about. They can focus more on what we have to say and are more comfortable engaging. (Naturally, this doesn’t mean that we can act like we know stuff we don’t! They won’t be relaxed if they [unconsciously and instinctually] feel/think they are being snowed.)

3. Use authentic empathy in your tone of voice.
Empathy is an other person (think customer-centric) approach. Truly empathetic people care deeply about how the other person is feeling. When the other person grasps this (yup – unconsciously and instinctually), they are happier to engage. Conveying your willingness to step back so that they feel comfortable is a practical way to communicate empathy.

4. Control the pace of the conversation.
Once the other person is engaged, it’s important to return to a natural pace. When the other person begins to authentically mimic and mirror our communication style, they are fully engaged.

Did you notice the pattern? Engaging others requires that you help them feel comfortable with you. We’ve always known that it’s “not what you say, but how you say it.” When you have something to say, and say it well, engagement and persuasion comes easily.

Try this and report on your success!

4 Tips to Avoid “Premature Elaboration” June 26th, 2012

Maybe it’s the whole Fifty Shades thing (book 2 completed) but when I read this term that Jill Konrath used, I had to steal it.

What is Premature Elaboration? The desire to tell your customer everything she never wanted to know about your product or service. It’s the intense pleasure received from delivering features and facts when a prospect makes the mistake of showing just a bit of interest in you or your wares.

This is an actual prospecting call (pre-training). Watch for the premature elaboration:

Salesperson: Hi, this is Name and we met last week at the ABC meeting
Customer: Oh, yes, thanks for the follow-up. We do use hotels like X and if you can email me more information…
Enthusiastic but ill prepared Salesperson cuts off prospect: Oh, yes! I would love to do that. And did you know that we have 15,125 feet of flexible meeting space and a spa – oh it is fabulous, you should really try the Pumpkin Peel – and 487 rooms and 12 suites and we’re located blah, blah, blah,blach…I’ll send you our marketing brochure and a floor plan and a photos of the spa and the sleeping rooms. Thank you. Bye!!!! (All of the above said with hardly a breath taken and not another word said by the prospect which was probably good for her because she wasn’t listening anymore anyway!)

This is more than PE. Do you see all the opportunities missed by this salesperson? All she heard was a bit of interest and boop! – she was off and running (at the mouth) and the client and her needs disappeared from mind. The salesperson was passionate about the wrong thing!

Missed opportunities:
-to further build a trusting relationship with the prospect
-to learn more about how she can help her prospect experience success now or later
-to schedule a next step

What is likely to happen when the salesperson calls back? Her prospect will be busy. Very busy. (And that will be particularly sad because this salesperson probably reported this client as a tentative based on her “interest!” and will then feel dejected and regjected!)

4 Tips to avoid PE

• Be enthusiastic about their success.
• When someone voices interest, that doesn’t mean they’re interested. It’s your job to create that.
• Be better than your website (which lists, explains and often shows photos of all the features). Instead learn which features matter and why.
• Never, ever get off the phone without clarifying a next step.

T-shirts are in the works…”Stop Premature Elaboration” and I’m hopeful you don’t need me to give you one.

Posts Tagged ‘sales mastery’

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