Don’t Lose Leads from Inaction or Oversight
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
I once sent out an email to 156 salespeople to verify some information they had submitted to my company. This information was for a printed directory to connect potential buyers to them. There was no charge for the listing.
Several of those email messages bounced back immediately, with varying types of unresolvable error messages. Several more came back after four days of trying. To their credit, some people responded at once or the next day.
After a week, I sent a follow-up email to those I hadn’t heard from yet. A few more addresses were undeliverable on the second round.
With both mailings, I received many “out-of-office” messages. Few of them were the out-on-a-sales-call variety, but rather, they were the on-vacation-for-two-weeks type.
This wouldn’t be alarming, if not for the fact that I sent my message to email addresses specifically intended to receive sales inquiries.
The result was that of 156 original contacts, thirteen (8 percent) were bad email addresses and eighty (51 percent) were apparently good email addresses, but no one bothered to respond. Only sixty-three (40 percent) replied.
Remember, this was not a list that I bought or harvested but the result of self-submitted email addresses from people who wanted prospects to contact them. This was an astoundingly poor 40.4 percent response rate.
Can you imagine if a company was that apathetic about their telephone sales inquiries?
The analogy would be that on 8 percent of attempts the caller would receive a “nonworking number” recording or a busy signal, 51 percent would ring but no one would ever answer, and only 40 percent would have a person answer and respond.
With a record like that, how long would a company stay in business?
Before you criticize me for implying that email is comparable to the telephone, I must point out that email is the default communication channel for an increasing number of people who disregard phone calls.
And these people are becoming the decision makers at your prospects’ offices.
If you want more sales for your company, the simple solution might be to check your email.
And here are some more tips to help ensure email sales success:ereHere
Start with Your Website
Check your website periodically to make sure it’s working. Sites can go down (usually temporarily, sometimes permanently), pages can get deleted, links break, domain names become pointed to the wrong place—or to nowhere—and so on.
Then verify all the contact information listed on your site. Also test each contact option, such as contact forms and posted email addresses.
Keep Track of Your Email Addresses
Assign an email administrator to track all email addresses your company uses. This includes both the ones to individuals, as well as general-purpose ones (such as sales@, info@, webmaster@, and so forth).
When an employee leaves, don’t just deactivate their email, but forward it to the email administrator who can respond or route messages to the proper person.
Test Your Email Addresses
Once you’ve accounted for all your email addresses, check them regularly to make sure they’re working. This is especially true of department and company-wide addresses. Also, test every email address that has an auto-response message or is forwarded to another mailbox.
Both situations are prime areas for problems to occur, and they can easily remain undetected for a long time.
The most critical email addresses are the published ones. This includes those listed on your website; printed in ads, directories, and listings; and posted online on other websites. Test them daily. This testing can be automated.
Just make sure someone checks the logs to ensure the program is running and address any errors.
Develop a Vacation Policy
Establish a policy for staff email when they are on vacation. Short of having employees check their email while gone (an unwise requirement), an auto-response message is the minimal expectation. This message must provide the name, number, and email address of an alternate contact.
A preferred approach is to not inconvenience the client or prospect and simply have someone check the vacationing staff’s email account for time-critical messages.
This is an excellent reason to keep business and personal email separate. Just as you don’t want personal email encroaching on business hours, it’s wise to keep business email from detracting from personal time.
Heighten the Importance of Email
With any mission-critical technology there are backup options, contingency plans, notification procedures, and escalation steps. The same needs to occur with email.
Verify Staff Compliance
Until now, I’ve addressed the technical side of email. Don’t discount the human aspect. Left unchecked, salespeople can become lackadaisical or delete any message that doesn’t sound like an easy sale.
The only remedy to correct this abuse is through monitoring and verification.
Sales Success Tip
Treat email as an essential sales tool and respond quickly to messages, regardless of whether it sounds sales-related or not.
Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
