I spent last week Wednesday through Friday in a sales and marketing strategy session with five people at the company that sponsored me in the LLS bike ride around Tucson. On Friday, during a break, I checked my e-mail, and one of the messages I received was from Don, a salesperson responding to an e-mail I had made.

Don’s message opened as follows:

Gill,

I don’t know how this got through the cracks but I just found this e-mail.

After that opening, Don went on to explain about his company’s services and included four promotional attachments with his message – all told, I received 2.5 mg of attached files over my dial-up connection.

As I began to read Don’s lengthy message, a pinprick of light appeared in the deep recesses of my memory and slowly grew until I had a vague recollection of having contacted his company. Then, when I reached the end of his message, I noticed that he had included my original message in his reply. As soon as I saw the date that I had sent my original query, the lightbulb turned on:

Sent: Saturday, September 04, 1999 9:21 AM
(More Than A Year Ago)

In last week’s tip, “Psychology 101,” I discussed the importance of analyzing your contacts with prospects and clients from their perspectives. It’s pretty clear that Don didn’t do this, or he would have saved himself the time of even trying.

I must, of course, commend Don for his blatant honesty, but there was no way he was going to get any business from me when it took him almost two full years to answer my inquiry – any attempt was a total waste of his time and mine.

This week’s tip is about using e-mail to communicate with prospects. The following are some guidelines for setting yourself apart from the pack:

• When you’re at your desk, have your e-mail software download messages at least every 15 minutes (mine is set at two minutes), and configure it to create an audible sound, like a bell, when a new message comes through.  
• Respond to all messages as fast as you would a ringing telephone. I can’t tell you how many times people have replied to my responses by saying, “Wow! That was incredibly fast!” (I personally can think of no better way to start a relationship with a new prospect who contacted you through e-mail.) I shoot for no more than four hours of delay, and I hit that target about 95 percent of the time.  
• Do not place a phone call in response to the e-mail, unless the prospect asks you to, because people who are willing to give you their e-mail addresses typically do so because they do not want to be called.  
• Format all your e-mail correspondence with the same care you would a business letter on company letterhead. Use proper punctuation and grammar, and a standard business letter format. Your e-mail will set your initial quality perception, and people pay more for those who concentrate on quality.  
• Unlike Don did in his message to me, spell your prospect’s name correctly. People spell my name “Gil” all the time, and I ignore it, because life is too short to fret over the little things. However, when I’m the prospect and you’re the salesperson, you had better get it right.  
• Never send an attachment to a prospect unless that attachment was requested. I was at a client site on a dial-up connection when I received Don’s message with four attachments, I sat for 15 minutes watching Outlook download attachments that I did not request. If you use attachments as promotional literature, use your first message to ask the prospect whether he or she wants the attachments, and describe the attachment file types and sizes.  
• To avoid wasting time in lengthy e-mail conversations with “shoppers,” use your first contact to address the typical showstoppers that keep you from getting engagements. Then end your message by informing the prospect of the next step. In a response I sent to an attorney in Ottawa, Canada, just yesterday, I ended with, “If none of these things are insurmountable, then our next step would be to have roughly a one-hour conversation to see if there’s anything else that would stop us from working together. Do you want to schedule that call?”

People who send you an e-mail inquiry typically expect a delayed response, which affords you the opportunity to exceed expectations on your very first contact. Take advantage of that opportunity.

Have a great week!

Gill