3 Takeaways Ep.49 – When You’re Behind The New Business 8 Ball And It Shows

It’s never a good situation to be behind the new business 8 ball.

And there are many agencies who paused new business over the past several months that are now kicking things back in. 

That’s good, I commend that, but many of you may also be in a place where you need that closed business NOW, essentially. 

Being behind that new business 8 ball is always tough, whether it’s reemerging from this lockdown, or any time, really. 

Behind the new business 8 ball  

What you can’t do though, is let that urgency and immediacy turn into desperation that shows through in your prospecting outreach. 

And I’m seeing a lot of it lately-overly pushy, ineffective, unresearched sales outreach. 

It will not pay dividends. 

For example, about 30% of our agency clients see closed business in the first six months of a program-it does take time. 

So for your three takeaways (and three more bonus takeaways), we’re focusing on a series of emails, all from the same person, our intrepid man behind the camera, Craig Acree, received from a very pushy video production firm. 

Let’s dive right into your first takeaway:

Alternate your prospecting channels and adjust your frequency appropriately. 

This person, we’ll call him Alfred, because The Last Kingdom is an amazing show and I can’t stop watching it, over the course of 17 business days, sent Craig 7 emails, some of those on back to back days. 

Now, this frequency may not sound outrageous to some of you, and if a prospect is showing interest in some way, maybe. 

But as we’ll see these emails had zero value.  

And, Alfred used only one channel, email: no phone, no social platforms, nothing else. 

Had he alternated between multiple channels and platforms, Craig would have been slightly less annoyed with the overall frequency. 

You can’t use just one channel, you never know which they’ll respond to.

Now, for your first bonus takeaway, it’s this:

Review your prospecting database for mistakes.

Let’s be clear, this is tough. 

We, at RSW, took the time over the last several months to do just that.

Back to Alfred: on his first email to Craig, the greeting was just “Hi, space, comma”. 

Is that a travesty? 

No, but it’s immediately obvious it’s an email blast. 

And that’s fine, but then in emails two through six, the greeting was to “Maggie”. 

So just the completely wrong name.

And then the 7th changed to “Hey comma”. 

Has this happened to me before, yes, so glass houses and all that, but it doesn’t change the fact, that you need to clean your database at least once a quarter. 

Alright, your second takeaway:

Please don’t ask if I got your last two emails. 

That’s what old Alfred does:

I wanted to check back to make sure you received my last two emails.

Sure, there are times when it’s legitimate to ask if a prospect has received something when they don’t respond-a proposal, further information, etc. 

Otherwise, asking like this is annoying and a waste of prime real estate.  

Alright your second bonus takeaway:

Don’t tell your prospect what they want. 

If you have never interacted with them, you have no idea what they want. 

So Alfred throws out this first sentence in email five:

Let’s be real – you don’t want video. You want the result that video achieves.

At this point, you’re starting to think you’d like to reach through your screen. 

OK, let’s keep moving, here’s your third takeaway: 

Knowing a person’s title is not providing value. 

In almost all of Alfred’s emails, he points out that Craig is a Marketing Campaign Manager, as if to point out, see, I’ve done my homework, you’re a Marketing Campaign Manager. 

Simply looking up someone’s title is not homework of any substance. 

I mean it’s good, that’s something you should know, but never once did Alfred show he knew anything about Craig’s business. 

Also, as a capper, that’s not actually Craig’s title. 

Nice homework Alfred.  

And your final bonus takeaway:

Review your communications for typos. 

Have I ever had a typo in a sales email, yes, it happens, but do your utmost to make sure it doesn’t. 

Our friend Alfred has multiple typos in multiple emails he sent to Craig.

Case in point: 

Maggie, My #1 frustration with video marketing has always been around driving real results and proving a return on investment. If this sounds familiar, you might want to check out our free training here.  In the training you will teach you the same methods that we’ve used when working with brands like Coca-Cola, Cisco, Dropbox, Philips, Hilton, Whole Foods, and more.

I’m questioning that you’ve worked with these brands, Alfred, but anyway.

It may seem like I’m just beating up on Alfred, but all these issues just start to snowball.  

Take all these to heart and make sure you’re not going down Alfred’s path when you’re prospecting.