 |
You’ve just been handed a bunch of leads for the week, month or quarter.
You’re salivating.
As you eye the new recruits, you’re in awe of the sweet potential for revenue at your fingertips.
You want to start closing so bad it hurts.
You want that action, traction and fat-back commission.
It’s at this moment salespeople get tempted to step hard on the email automation pedal.
Why not just craft the best cold-email anyone’s ever seen and just blast it?
Who’s got time to cold-call all these leads when I can just hit them all up in one fool fell swoop?
Automating your entire lead list without knowing what you have is a terrible idea.
You’ve got to first bite-size your opportunities and work surgically from there.
Automation Hateration
Technology has changed the way we sell.
Sales Enablement tools are frantically being slapped together to streamline every aspect of the process.
Yesterday I read a piece about 12 Sales processes all salespeople should automate.
Twelve/ really?
If you’re automating that much – you’re automating too much!
In most organizations, you get an assigned amount of leads per period.
These are your babies for awhile so when received, you should perform triage and/ or quality control.
You may have assistants, Marketing or a Lead Gen team that already does this for you.
No offense y’all but I pack my own parachute.
And before considering a prospect email automation campaign, you should too.
Automation Schmautomation
Now, just because you can sequence and automate thousands of emails doesn’t mean you should.
You need a plan that generates interest without alienating prospects.
We know successful selling involves making genuine connections.
But, sometimes we forget.
And we default to push-button email automation modes of selling.
The problem with this approach is it’s sloppy and we know it.
By firing away canned email automation sequences with no personalization, we fail to recognize what makes a prospect unique.
C’mon – you know when you get an automated email, right?
Sure, they got your name and company in there but that’s about it.
There’s absolutely nothing in the message that speaks to you as an individual.
Prospects nowadays expect more and it’s our job to deliver.
Due Diligence and Triage
When you get your leads or accounts, map them out.
Prep them for triage – small, medium large, etc.
As a rule, don’t put your biggest revenue-generating or marquee clients in an email automation sequence.
Those are your Fabergé Eggs that need A-Game Attention.
Instead, create email automation sequences for the small to medium-sized opportunities since they’re not as valuable but still add up.
And even then, don’t let your slip show.
Treat small and medium-sized leads with equal respect.
Because you never know when a minnow will lead to a whale.
Email marketing campaigns in enterprise-level sales work as long as you understand their purpose.
They’re meant for opening conversation, identifying point of contacts and scheduling times for you to shine.
They’re not for pitching or one-time closes.
And if your email campaign is sequenced, send it to yourself first – one at a time.
This’ll give you the prospect’s perspective and feel for flow.
You Are We
As salespeople, we face the same issues.
We always need more of something!
With lead gen, meetings, cold calls, ankle biters, activity goals, sales goals, jaw-jackers and time suckers occupying our days…
It’s a lot to handle.
But we can’t substitute the work with blind automated email campaigns and expect to win.
________
As much as we lean on email, the overall response rate is pretty low.
Most of the emails you send won’t get replies.
But as luck would have it, you can track clicks and opens with a lot of CRM’s or third-party email tracking software.
Those clicks and opens are signs of life even though you haven’t been invited to the party – yet.
And with this sales intelligence in tow…
You can pick up the phone in the know!
Frenemies
Sales teams today use multiple platforms and methods for prospecting.
It makes sense to diversify outreach as long as you remember Sales is still about human interaction.
Email automation isn’t the enemy, but it shouldn’t be your bestie either.