My golf course architect husband and I were talking golf this morning. More specifically, he was talking about how he goes about his business of “finding” a golf course. He looks for a beginning and an end, he said. Where the golf course might start and where it can finish.
And as much as that may sound like a blinding flash of the obvious, over coffee, it helped me see what I may not be making obvious when I teach Email Selling Skills. That is, without a plan, without knowing why you’re writing and what you specifically want to accomplish, you’re not going to design an award winning message. Or even a good one.
How hard do you work to see the beginning and end of your email before you start writing? Do you know exactly what you want to achieve with that email before your fingers hit the keyboard? If you can’t write your action statement first, you probably haven’t found your starting ground.
And be sure you’re writing for the right reasons. Bill doesn’t design a course for himself. Though he loves playing and loves playing his course designs, he designs for that specific course’s players. He works hard at making the course appealing for the type of play that course gets… public course, resort course, private course.
It’s not about what turns you on but about what turns them on. They may be the same thing but write to get them excited. Talk to them about how successful, happy, smart, safe they’ll be because of what you offer.
The bottom line is this: If you don’t know where you’re going or what matters to them, why should they go there?
