{"id":2077,"date":"2016-10-27T04:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2016-10-27T10:21:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T17:21:42","slug":"redundant-sales-prospecting-sequence-everyone-hates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesfolk.com\/blog\/redundant-sales-prospecting-sequence-everyone-hates\/","title":{"rendered":"That Redundant Sales Prospecting Sequence Everyone Hates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although Mattermark provides valuable data that can be used by venture capitalists and salespeople for prospecting, their own sales prospecting emails miss their target.<\/span><\/p>\n

I received this redundant sequence of emails from them a few weeks ago. It immediately caught my eye because the emails were supposedly from their CEO, Danielle Morrill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at their first email below:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-4-37-26-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From the start, the sender comes off as too self-focused when she introduces herself and her company. Instead of just talking about Mattermark with a boring introduction, Danielle should have used a more tantalizing hook to immediately catch my attention. Sharing an interesting insight or offering value would have been one option, but she could have also poked at a pain point or tried to cajole me by creating a sense of fear of loss or competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe helped {!Competitor} find 125 qualified leads last month\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If she had started with how many leads she had helped my competitor find, I\u2019d be much more likely to notice this email. Better yet, focus on something even more tangible she helped my competitor do, like how many deals were closed, or how much additional revenue was added from those leads.<\/span><\/p>\n

While she might not have a case study like that to use in her cold email, another example of social proof could have also worked. Likewise, sharing an actionable insight or valuable tip with me would have created a sense of trust and reciprocity between us. <\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what happened. And I\u2019m still not convinced that this email actually came from Mattermark\u2019s CEO, Danielle, since she’s also a writer, and probably could have written better emails. <\/span><\/p>\n

The tactic of sending mass sales prospecting emails \u201cfrom the CEO\u201d was something that former Zenefits CEO, Parker Conrad, used to do. While this approach might have worked for Zenefits back in the day, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as effective or credible anymore. In fact, it now creates the immediate knee-jerk reaction that you\u2019re being deceived, which is a terrible way to start a sales conversation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-4-48-08-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few days later, I got another email from \u201cDanielle\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

This one is even more weak and boring compared to her first email. If I was reading this email, and had no idea what Mattermark was, I would think to myself:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>What does a partnership really mean here? This sounds like BS to me. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure what part of lead qualification\/generation Mattermark could help me with…if they had some stats or case studies, I would have more clarity and possibly trust them more…\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-4-48-34-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then I got another follow-up email, (the third in this sequence) that was just as redundant and generic as the previous email, with no clear new value add. It was only designed to obnoxiously bump itself up to the top of my inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, Mattermark\u2019s emails aren\u2019t the worst I\u2019ve seen. They\u2019re not offensive or stuffed with giant paragraphs or bulleted lists; just super weak and boring, without much substance or value. If they had only sent me one lame email, I might not have decided to put them on the Hall of Shame, but the redundancy of their sequence, and the fact that they\u2019re in the lead generation space,\u00a0themselves, made this one hard to resist. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-7-57-34-pm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What a better sales prospecting tactic would have been:<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s address the elephant in the room: It\u2019s highly unlikely that these emails were personally sent one at a time by Danielle herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the point of lying about this? I realize that theoretically \u201cgetting an email from the CEO\u201d could make the recipient feel more special, and help them take the sender more seriously than a junior sales rep. But no one expects the CEO of a 48 person company to be doing sales prospecting either, though. In fact, having the CEO \u201csend\u201d untargeted sales prospecting emails can actually undermine the reputation and image of that company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, what would have happened if I had responded? Would Danielle have taken a sales call with me, and everyone else this email campaign went out to? Almost certainly not. <\/span><\/p>\n

So how would that hand-off between \u201cDanielle\u201d and the salesperson have worked if I had responded? If I had actually believed it really was her sending me a personal email, I would feel entitled to speak with her after I responded, which would lead me to feeling either disappointed or misled. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sending mass sales emails \u201cfrom the CEO\u201d starts your relationship with your prospective customers on the wrong foot, creating a sense of distrust before they even respond to you (which I wasn\u2019t compelled to do).<\/span><\/p>\n

So please, fix the sender issue first, and then the introduction sentences in each of the emails, along with everything else I already mentioned above. Then I might be compelled to respond. <\/span><\/p>\n

Have bad cold emails in your inbox? Send them to us!<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Help us fight the thoughtless spammers, one crappy cold email at a time by sending us the worst cold emails you\u2019ve ever received.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll put them up anonymously on the \u201cHall of Shame,\u201d and shoot you an email when they go live.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Please send all submissions to \u201c<\/span>shame@salesfolk.com<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

(And feel free to suggest what you want to nominate the \u201cbad cold email for!\u201d)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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