How NOT to Cold Contact Me (Or 5 Tips on Sales Calls from a Marketer’s Perspective)
Many organizations take it for granted that their staff, especially junior staff, know how to communicate effectively. But truthfully, good communications skills must be taught, practiced, and honed.
Most business owners, principles, and managing directors will find themselves inundated with cold emails and phone calls. As a professional services company, I’m not against the idea of reaching out to new contacts if you think you have something worthwhile to offer them.
But when those cold contacts are not personalized, not relevant, or plain thoughtless, it puts a bad taste in your prospective customer’s mouth. And first impressions may not be everything, but with cold contacts (those that you don’t have any existing relationship with/ties to), it’s pretty much make or break.
Here are examples of bad outreach that I’ve received in the last couple of months, so you can focus your staff on how to do better!
5 Examples of Real Outreach We’ve Received
1. Explain what the heck you do and why it matters to them.
Hi Zontee,
I noticed that Media Volery will be attending [CONFERENCE] in NYC, my team and I will be at booth #311.
Hopefully you could swing by to discuss your communication / outsourcing needs and the benefits [BRAND] might derive from working with your firm as well.
Best Regards,
[NAME]PS. Please be sure to enter one of our “cool” giveaways of a YETI cooler or one of the YETI mugs. See you soon!
Yes, this company has explained a shared experience we’ll be having (both being at a conference), but they haven’t explained what the heck they do or why I would potentially be interested in connecting with them.
Why should I use my valuable time to swing by their booth when I don’t know how it will benefit my company? Like most business owners, my time is precious, and I don’t know that a YETI mug is going to be enough for me to get over the fact that I literally don’t know what this company is about. (And in case you’re wondering, the company name doesn’t give you any clue either.)
2. Do your homework!
Phone call…
Me: Hello, this is Zontee.
Her: Hi, I see you’ll be attending [CONFERENCE]. What brings you there?
Me: Oh, I’m a speaker at the event. So quite frankly, I probably won’t be there for the whole event, just my session on Thursday.
Her: Oh, okay. And I see that you guys…are a consultancy?
Me: We’re a digital marketing agency.
Her: Oh, okay. Well, if you stop by our booth, we can show you our sales enablement software.
Me: Okay…? Thanks.
If you’re going to cold call people, be sure to do your homework and learn about their companies! Nowadays, a quick Google or LinkedIn search will tell you a HECK of a lot about a brand.
Instead of the above (which sounds awkward, stilted, and un-researched):
- Start by explaining how you got their information/giving them context for the call.
- Then explain what you’ve learned about them through your research, and what challenges you think they probably face.
- Then let them confirm those assumptions.
- Then explain to them how you might be able to help them.
- If it resonates, then invite them to stop by your booth.
Think of a good sales call more like a job interview. Go in showing them you’re well prepared and that you understand how you can serve their needs.
3. Don’t treat email like a text message, especially to a stranger.
I got your details from Linkedin. Do you still provide marketing consulting services?
Let me know,
[NAME]
The above is a real email I received from a company that was interested in selling me their services. As I said in #1, my time is precious. I’m not interested in getting into a back and forth of one-line emails. Email isn’t texting. I don’t know you.
If you waste my time, I am going to be pissed off, which is not a good first impression to make! Get to the point.
Make your first email a strong opening gambit.
4. Don’t imply what you want. Just say it.
Hi Zontee, I recently read a fantastic article your wrote for [PUBLICATION] about blogging challenges and benefits. I manage an inbound marketing blog and wrote a post about business blogging lessons after reviewing 35 blog posts. I think it will add even more value to your post for the audience. Here’s a link for your reference: [LINK]. If this interests you let me know and I’ll be happy to help! Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Best, [NAME]
Most people will tell you that clear communications are the basis of all good relationships. And yet, I receive “soft” asks like the one above all the time. What’s the actual ask here? Do you want to write for me? Do you want me to add a link to your blog post because it will benefit us both to exchange links for SEO?
Be clear, concise, and value-oriented. Focus on why I should do it for my brand, not on flattery.
5. Write like a person, not like a bot.
Hello the SEO Expert, Hope you are doing well! I am [NAME], a freelancer SEO consultant specializing for helping many clients’ and agencies in acquiring High-Quality Editorial Links from High SEO value Links so Google always has been up ranking you better in Search Engines and make their websites a trustable and Authority Brands! I have direct access to many Web’s Renowned Niche-Based Blogs and Bloggers from English Native Speakers mostly from UK and US with High-Quality Metrics and Organic Reaches where we can write crafted, business-centric, Audience-Segmented, High-Quality Informational researched contents to bring you in best Link Juice results. Please let me know if you are interested to see some example of quality and niche based blogs Content-Publication Services and our Manual Outreach and Link Placing Procedures and our recent posted contents. Thanks in advance for your future collaborations!
—[NAME]
Just the salutation in this email makes me cringe. Everything about this email makes it seem pretty unlikely that it ws written by a native English speaker, which is (apparently) part of the value proposition made.
Make sure that your basics are on point. Avoid run-on sentences. Watch your capitalization and formatting. Write like a person communicating with another person.
Good communications require investment.
Here’s the key: If you’re not going to take the time to craft effective communications that respect your prospective client, why should they trust you to be a good partner or vendor? Why should they work with you when you’re putting only 2% effort into the very first interaction? You wouldn’t be this callous if you met someone at a party and you wanted to get to know them, so why take this approach when it comes to sales engagement?