When yous've been in sales a while, it'southward easy to develop bad habits. You option them up from other reps or take a shortcut during an especially busy calendar week and, all of the sudden, yous've added some skills to your repertoire that aren't helping you lot meet your quota. If y'all're not regularly examining your behavior and results, these habits tin can crusade mistakes that stop in deals falling autonomously, bellyaching prospects, or missed numbers. Create a new, on-brand email signature in just a few clicks. Get started here. (It's free.)

And I'm not simply talking near waiting too long to update a contact's information in your CRM. Seemingly innocuous phrases like, "Sorry to bother you," sneak into our regular sales emails and telephone calls and poison our relationships without us fifty-fifty realizing it. Here'southward how to stop it.

Why You lot Should Never Say, "I Am Sorry for Bothering You"

Ideally, sales reps would never accept to write a follow up email because they would avoid the number-1 follow-up mistake: Failing to set a next step before ending the call.

All it takes is one cringeworthy phrase to impale a sales follow-up email. One of my least favorite moves is asking for a prospect to respond "ASAP." Only apologizing for contacting your prospect is naught curt of poisonous to deals, and should be cut from the vocabulary of every sales rep. Information technology usually looks like this:

So, why should y'all avoid saying "Sorry to bother you again?"

  1. It implies you've become abrasive to your prospect. It also reminds the prospect they've reached out several times before ("again") to no success. Even if the sales rep hasn't annoyed the prospect yet, this is the phrase that might practise it.
  2. Information technology implies y'all've done something wrong. In addition, people employ the word "distressing" subsequently doing something they deem wrong. When we make a mistake that negatively impacts someone, the kickoff phrase that ofttimes comes out of our mouths is "I'yard sorry." This phrase ways we've best-selling wrongdoing and know we need to fix it.
  3. It signals desperation. Reps send "lamentable to carp you again" emails in hopes of starting a conversation afterward not hearing back. The bulletin is a concluding-ditch effort to pique the potential heir-apparent's interest -- on the rep's timeline.
  4. It communicates your time and energy is not as valuable as the prospect'southward -- which simply isn't truthful. Maintain potency and equal footing with your prospect by never apologizing for being in their inbox or voice mailbox.

If you lot find yourself using this phrase in an electronic mail -- stop writing. Instead, regroup and focus on providing value to the prospect and grabbing their attending instead of "bothering" them again.

There are a multitude of ways to provide value in a sales follow-upward electronic mail. Here are a few I advise.

Alternatives to Maxim, "Sorry for Bugging Yous"

1. Send a client review

A customer review provides value considering modern-solar day buyers trust their fellow buyers to give honest feedback about a product they've used. Think they might not trust a written review coming directly from you?

Connect them with current and by buyers who can provide honest feedback on why working with you is great as well as some of the drawbacks. For example, y'all might open an electronic mail with, "Instead of sending yous a pitch, I'll let a previous client practice the heavy lifting with their unvarnished (actually) testimonial."

ii. Include a example study

Case studies permit prospects to discover how a business in a like position to theirs solved its problems. Send your latest and most relevant study with a annotation proverb, " This case study made me recall of your business. I know your time is valuable, and I call back this is worth the few minutes it will accept to read. "

Y'all've acknowledged their time is a priority for yous, without discounting your own schedule and what you're offer.

3. Link to a blog post

A weblog post is a way to build credibility with prospects and provide them new data most the product and company equally they start to brand a decision.

If you're trying to grab a prospect's attending, try sending one with an specially snappy championship. You might even piece of work with a marketer to craft a mail service just for them. After all, who isn't going to click the link to a post titled, "9 Reasons Julie Needs ABC Staffing Solutions Today."

4. Reference a common connection

Surfacing a mutual connection allows the prospect to inquire their acquaintance well-nigh the sales rep and gather more than information. It also signifies that if a friend works with this sales rep, the prospect might likewise enjoy working with the aforementioned sales rep.

And it gives you something in common to bond over. For example, "I see nosotros accept a mutual connection: Sansa Stark. Her family bought several dire wolves from me a few years ago." You've given your chat and relationship something to build upon -- and that can be a huge help when conducting outreach.

v. Provide a proposition

A small strategy tip tin help sales reps build credibility and showcase the value of their insight to buyers.

When a salesperson'southward name appears in a prospect'southward inbox, the reaction shouldn't be, "No, not this rep again!" or "Who?" but "I wonder what they're sending me -- I better check it out."

Send them a new manufacture benchmark report or a mention a recent move their company made, and offer unique insight into how your production/service could help.

For example, "I thought y'all might exist interested in the latest criterion study from [insert trusted industry source]. Their findings on the 25% increase in mobile app usage might be especially interesting to yous and relevant to your work."

vi. Drop shop-talk altogether

Want to actually get their attending? Don't talk business at all. Instead, send them a casual email saying, "I watched a documentary on Colorado ski country this weekend and thought of you lot immediately. Have you hitting the slopes yet this year?"

While your prospect might not be ready to hash out business concern -- most people like talking nigh their hobbies and out-of-office interests. Once you have them engaged again, utilize your best sentence to steer them back to the topic at manus: your offer.

7. Offer to walk away

If you've reached out multiple times over the form of several weeks or months and your prospect however hasn't responded, do yourself a favor and walk away.

You lot should exist spending time on deals that actually have a chance of closing, and pleading with an unmotivated prospect to respond to your emails isn't doing either of you lot any good.

Simply say, "Tony, I've tried to accomplish y'all unsuccessfully a few times now. Unremarkably when this happens, it ways my offer isn't a priority for you right now. Is that safety for me to assume here? If and then, you won't hear from me once more."

If your prospect is withal interested, this should grab their attention. If non, it gives them an like shooting fish in a barrel way out. Y'all tin e'er go out the door open for a telephone call or email half dozen months down the line to run into if things have changed.

8. Compliment them

If your prospect recently published a new weblog post or the company unveiled a shiny, new product, let them know you're paying attention.

Chances are, they put a lot of fourth dimension and effort into their recent project, and would dearest for someone to notice. Send a simple notation saying, "I saw your recent characteristic in Forbes and wanted to tell you what a not bad write-up it was. I peculiarly liked your observation that AI will begin to take a stronger concur in sales." It's short, specific, and gratis.

Swell emails build rapport and credibility. By looking for this mortiferous phrase before sending your emails, you can improve your odds of a response, and eventually, a relationship.

Want other ways to ameliorate your sales emails? Check out these killer opening email lines or explore alternatives to saying, "Hope you're doing well" -- guaranteed to put your prospect to slumber before they've even read sentence ii.

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Originally published Jun ten, 2022 2:17:00 PM, updated June ten 2021