Guest Blogger Tyler Garns: Is Email your Worst Sales Rep?
Recently, I spent a few days on a cruise ship in the Bahamas with some of the top business experts and stage presenters in the world. I was excited by the opportunity to join them and pick their brains. Out of curiosity, I decided to ask them about their close rates. When they can talk to someone one-on-one they all agreed that 50 to 75 percent isn't too outrageous. These guys are good! Then I asked them about their close rates are on their websites. The responses varied, but they weren't anywhere close to their close rates in person. Most said 5 to 10 percent. So, I asked them: Why do they close a large portion of sales in person and only a small portion on the Web? Unanimously, they stated that the ability to adapt the message was key to the success of any good sales representative.
Of course, they were right. Good sales reps listen, customize, and respond with the right message for each individual prospect, every time. Bad sales reps will typically memorize a script and repeat it to the prospect, regardless of the feedback they get. Unfortunately, most businesses fit into this category when it comes to marketing online. Email marketing is one particular area where companies fall short; they send the same message to their entire list whether the reader is a customer or a prospect, with no means for readers to respond so that the message can be tailored to the situation. Even messages that are targeted to a certain segment of an audience deserve to be finely tuned to the individual. But with no feedback loop, this just doesn't happen.
Tailoring copy and targeting email recipients -- those aren't new ideas at all. However, your tools and methods will determine if your email marketing process is a good sales rep or a bad one. If your email marketing is promoting product A and your customer prefers product B, how will you know? Does your email marketing system change the message it sends when a prospect buys a product and becomes a customer? Ask yourself, are my email messages smart and responsive like a good sales rep, or are they driving my customers away?
Reflect on the last marketing email you sent out. Did you ensure a high "close rate" by first finding the right segment of people, tailoring the message precisely for them, and making sure that the next email in the sequence can adapt to their response? If not, you're missing out on the secrets of the most powerful salespeople in the world. They don't have secret mind tricks to force people to buy. Instead, they make each person feel like the product they're selling is exactly what they need.
It might seem daunting to tailor every email communication to each person in your audience, but it doesn't have to be time consuming or painful with the right tools and approach. You can do this if you track customer behavior and preferences and then leverage that information to drive your marketing communications. Increase your email marketing close rates and see what it does for your profits.
So, is your email marketing a good sales rep or a bad one?
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About the Author: Tyler Garns, is the vice president of marketing at Infusionsoft. He blogs at Infusionblog and tweets @TylerGarns.
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