WHAT YOUR EMAIL TRASH FILE CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT GAINING ACCESS TO DECISION-MAKERS

Warning:  This may sting a little, but like a vaccination, it may be the difference between life and death as a sales rep.

 

Would you be willing to take 10 minutes and go dumpster diving in your email’s Trash folder if it could make you a better sales rep?

(Note:  If you are one of those exceptional neat freaks who keeps their Inbox squeaky clean and you don’t have anything in this file, consider the person sitting next to you. Also, if you are one of the chosen few who doesn’t receive a lot of sales or solicitation emails, see if you can take the challenge by getting a few examples from one of your leaders. They will likely be glad to help, and they’ll be encouraged when they understand why you are interested in going through their trash.)

The Trash email folder hosts the misfit emails that weren’t cool enough to hang out with you, and for any number of reasons, you read and chose to file under “D” for delete. Or maybe you didn’t take a second to look at them because the title smelled so bad you were afraid it might stain your clothes if you even opened it. Either way, these emails failed to accomplish their purpose in life. Or did they? Maybe they were sent to teach us something.

I realize that not everything in your Trash folder is a sales solicitation and that all sales solicitations aren’t bad, but chances are there are quite a few that are that we could explore. The challenge is to see what we can learn from those in the Trash file, explore where they went wrong, and make sure your emails have a better survival rate.

The Breakdown

Just think about the amount of wasted time and money that this non-value added process consumes during any given business day across the globe. 

• First of all, some ill-equipped and overly optimistic sales person actually took the time to compose an email that they were confident would land them the next big Marlin on their sales wall. Or even more likely, they took a six-month-old email they’ve been using, and copied and pasted it, (hopefully) checked that your company and/or industry was updated and pressed Send.

• Secondly, it maneuvered its way through data centers, servers, and spam filters to find your precious Inbox.

• Third, you had to stop doing what you were doing (or could have been doing) to at least smell what was now sitting in your Inbox.

• Fourth, if you actually opened the Shakespearean sonnet that you have been gifted, you are now consuming time and oxygen as you are reading it.

• Now comes the major fork in the road — You either use the button on your keyboard voted “most likely to fail first” (the delete button), or you take pity on the sales rep and reply (or coach them on why you won’t ever respond again).

• And if at first you don’t succeed, keep on sucking. There are also likely three to five subsequent emails of the same quality and generating the same undesired result that are in the sender’s email queue waiting to be sent to you in the coming weeks. 

We will never get this time back again, and time is money. Time and money were lost on both ends of this email exchange. As someone who has seen this crime scene unfold time after time and day after day, I felt compelled to blog about it just to do my part and help save the sales universe from self-induced extinction. 

If you think that this seems extreme, consider. Exhibit A: My own Trash Can Challenge from last week.

A.1 - I have not had much success connecting with you. It might just be that you don't have any interest in speaking with me--and that's okay. I just want to know whether or not to keep trying. So, to make this simple, you can reply with a simple keystroke. Just reply with either A, B, C, D, or E.

A.2 - I recently emailed you to set up a quick 30-min chat to see if we can help you expand your sales results.

Please let me know a few time options that work best for you and I will set up a discovery call to see if we can deliver 50 free leads that would match your Ideal Customer Profile.

A.3 - I appreciate you’re probably busy, I wanted to check you saw the below email I sent you last week?

Do you have a slot this week in your diary for us to show you the real volume of additional leads from your website we could provide for you? 

A.4 - I wanted to follow-up on a note I sent you last week. Do you have some time to briefly sync-up regarding our data & research expertise that aligns perfectly with your value prop?

A.5 - For many years we have been providing roofing services to the area, earning us a stellar reputation for outstanding quality, service, and customer care. I would love the opportunity to discuss our services further. Can we set up a time to meet?

These are just a few examples, and some are better than others. The point is that many look alike, very few get past delete, and none of them got my time. Do these emails look like what’s in your Trash (or even worse, your Sent Items)? , or have you found the key to clearly separating yourself from your Trash Can?

Is it possible that:  

• Quality means more than quantity in selling activity when it comes to results?

• We can actually separate ourselves from those that suck?

• Selling can actually be a fulfilling and rewarding at the same time?

• We have the authority to care about something besides commission?

At this point, you have two options:  Stay the same, or shift - and either option is fine. If you choose to stay the same, you can quit reading at this point and save yourself some precious time. If you think it might be time for better results, keep reading. 

The Shift

Today’s decision-makers are emotionally closed to sales reps and no longer want to be sold. And honestly, they don’t need your sales pitch to make their decision.

Fact:  Decision-makers are allergic to sales reps, and they aren’t interested in filling their days with another pitch or one more Discovery meeting to help you with your quota.

This is going to sound counter-intuitive to what you have learned, so buckle your chinstrap. Don’t sell — shift. 

Shift your focus from selling to receptivity. Why do you think people don’t respond to your email or return your calls after your voicemails? Are they unreceptive to your solution or to the fact that you are a sales rep? Let me help:  It is the latter. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you can begin to really shift to a better sales philosophy and better results. If you can’t get decision-makers emotionally open, you will never close a deal.

If you are a sales rep, every decision-maker can see you coming from a mile away.  And like dogs that can hear high-pitched sounds that the human ear can’t detect, decision-makers hear subliminal messages that sales reps often can’t pick up. Every word you speak, or type, when you try to engage them actually has one of two high-pitched messages that accompany them – self or others. You are always demonstrating your desire, commitment, and ability to serve yourself, or to serve them. 

Hint:  Lose your “self” and choose to be Other-Centered®

if you want people to become receptive to engaging with you.

How to Make the Shift

Part one of this two-part series starts with looking at the breakdown of what is happening as sales reps try to gain access to decision-makers. You’re probably saying “Yeah, that’s great and all, but how do we make the shift?” That’s for next time. For now, let’s start by taking the Trash Can Challenge. 

• Gather three to five random emails from your email Trash can and copy and paste them into a Word document

• Score each email based on the four elements listed below

• Each of the four elements is worth 0-10 points (1 point means that you should take their keyboard away from them forever, and 10 means you are going to use that approach on your next email)

In part two we are going to focus on the buildup, how we can turn trash into treasure, examine the keys to shifting our focus to receptivity, and learn how you can demonstrate your commitment to others instead of self.

P.S.  If you are serious about the Trash Can Challenge but your email system automatically deletes emails that smell like sales pitches,  just shoot me a message, and I’ll send you a starter kit from my Trash file.

What are the results from your Trash Can Challenge? Please comment below.