Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Santa.
Santa who?
Santa email but you never opened it.

Does your email stand out in your prospect’s Inbox with a clear, attention-grabbing subject line?  If not, your killer email won’t ever be opened, never mind read. Your prospects are crazy-busy, says sales expert Jill Konrath. They’ll likely spend 2.7 seconds—tops—evaluating your email. Make sure your subject line instantly conveys the value of your message to the reader.

Creating email subject lines can be intimidating. However, it need not be if you follow four guiding principles.

Guiding Principle #1: Start your conversation in the subject line.

Treat your email subject line more like a conversation starter than an article headline. Ask yourself, what is the first sentence I would say to this person if I were meeting him or her in person?

If this is the first time you sent email to the prospect, identify who you are in the subject line by stating your connection upfront. If you’re connecting through a mutual contact, be sure to state the person’s name in the subject line.

Examples:

• Subject: Saw this blog post and thought of you
• Subject: Enjoyed meeting you at Sales 2.0
• Subject: Bumped into Sue Johnson…

Guiding Principle #2: Be personal.

Subject lines are instantly more personal simply by keeping the tone casual and including the pronoun “you”. Be conversational—don’t capitalize each word like you might for the title of a paper.

Examples:

• Subject: You asked an interesting question
• Subject: Your ears should be ringing

Guiding Principle #3: Offer something of value.

Sharing timely, relevant information helps prospects want to engage with you. If a web site visitor converts after downloading a white paper, for example, seize the opportunity to offer your insights into the business issues likely inspiring the prospect to download the white paper in the first place.

Note: People generally do value “free” and you can use the word in subject lines without triggering spam filters as long as it’s not capitalized, the first word or used in conjunction with an exclamation point.

Examples:

• Subject: Here’s my aha after reading the GIS report
• Subject: Determine your co’s readiness using free assessment

Guiding Principle #4: Make the reader curious to learn more.

Clever subject lines pique interest and so does compelling content. Ideally, your email is comprised of both. However, rather than getting stuck striving to be oh-so clever in the 50-60 characters of most subject lines, focus your efforts on being relevant. Appeal to your prospect’s natural curiosity about content:

• they’ve expressed interest in
• aligned with their business objectives
• linked to a current frustration or common industry challenge
• educating them to work smarter and faster (How-to’s)
• keeping them current with trending topics
• providing perspective for reflection

Examples:

• Subject: What your peers are saying about the GIS report
• Subject: New benchmarking data to plan 2012
• Subject: How to turn social media into sales
• Subject: Your competition is in the news
• Subject: Metrics to optimize your supply chain

Writing email subject lines that open doors requires doing the homework a good salesperson must always do to earn the first meeting. Your email subject lines will open doors when you convey to the reader you know their personal interests; understand their pain points, tune into their specific business priorities; want them to succeed; are in-the-know; and offer a balanced viewpoint.

Bottom line: Pay attention to the subject lines of emails your prospects open and those they don’t. Experiment over time and you’ll improve your “door-opening” and email-opening rate.

Ever wonder why your email wasn’t opened? Take a second look at the subject line.

P. S. Email subject lines must pass through your crazy-busy prospect’s relevance-for-me filter AND also through software filters—or they won’t even land in your prospect’s Inbox. It’s worth the extra minute or two it takes to test your subject lines using free analyzers available on the web that check for clarity, wordiness and likelihood of triggering spam filters. Testing programs aren’t perfect; use their feedback to make quick tweaks. For example, we choose to override suggestions to omit personal pronouns like “you” in subject lines because using “you” feels…well, personal.

Here’s one free testing program you can try: Free Lyris ContentChecker for Email

188 billion email messages sent each day?! That’s a boatload of email!

We concur with the Infographic’s conclusion—email is here to stay. However, email is not always the most effective way to transmit your message. New(er) technologies—like Facebook and Twitter—introduce additional ways for humans to communicate. Think about what you’re trying to accomplish and select the best media available to you.

Email gets a deserved bad rap from marketing campaigns and spammers pushing unwanted messages that ignore communication fundamentals—such as this basic truth: the receiver must want to receive the message sent!

When your emails are written to be personal, with timely, relevant information the receiver really wants, they can help you build relationships one-to-one. Make your emails better and create relationships using VisibleGains.

Click to download .PDF version

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<a href=”http://www.visiblegains.com/is-email-dead” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.visiblegains.com/Portals/54582/Infographics/visiblegains-emaildead.png” alt=”Is Email Dead? [Infographic]” width=”550″ border=”0″></a><BR><div> courtesy of <a href=”http://www.visiblegains.com/”>Visible Gains</a></div>

I recently realized we’ve taken for granted a powerful shortcut for creating Outlook message templates that’s been in our company toolkit for a while. I was talking to a prospect recently about email workflows and described our process for sending multiple personalized emails containing a similar core message. He was amazed at this shortcut, even though it seems pretty obvious to me. I’m documenting it here to share more widely. Hopefully you already take advantage of using Outlook’s standard signature setup; this just kicks it up a notch for creating multiple personalized emails containing similar message text.

5 Steps to use Outlook’s signature function for creating email message templates

Step One: Click New E-mail

Step Two: Click Insert, then click Signature

Step Three: From drop-down menu, click “Signatures…”

Step Four: Click “New”. Enter a name, as well as text, for a complete email message. (Remember to also include an email signature in this “Signature” template entry!)

Step Five: Select the appropriate standardized message by “Signature” name each time you want to send similar text in a new email. Don’t forget to add a subject line and the first name of the person to whom you’re sending the message in the message body. Also, modify the templated text appropriately to ensure it’s relevant to the individual receiving it.

This shortcut saves me time when I want to repetitively send only slightly different emails over and over again–such as a follow-up to a hands-on product demo I’ve just given. Let me know how this shortcut works for you.

Got any Outlook tips to share with us?

We got a lot of interest in our blog post, Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! where we discussed WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me) and how they make the difference between creating a “resistant donkey” and unleashing a racehorse to the sales finish line.

“So what would I actually ask if I was using STRONG tactics?” asked one participant in our recent repeat of the Hide & Seek webinar presented by Cliff Pollan and Trish Bertuzzi.

Salespeople always want to know what questions to ask prospects. While it’s important to ask good questions, it’s even more important to use reflections in your conversations with prospects.

Let’s bring to life the S in STRONG sales tactics. To do so, I’d like to acknowledge David B. Rosengren’s work on reflective statements as being very influential in my understanding of this tactic.

S: Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting.

Why?
Reflections are known to help individuals gain momentum in the change process. Persistent questioning—without a healthy mix of reflections—has the risk of interfering with your racehorse’s momentum and may instead cause resistant donkey to dig in its heels to stay put with the status quo.

Questions are critical to learning about a prospect’s needs and situation. It is important, however, not to overdo it. Too many questions get in the way of the conversation feeling collaborative. If the salesperson is asking all the questions, then it’s as if the salesperson is directing the solution—like a mechanic fixing a car, the prospect is put in the position of being “worked on”. The important point here: ensure the conversation feels collaborative by actively involving the prospect.

Reflections are very different from questions. Reflections are statements that the salesperson makes to confirm his or her understanding of what the prospect is saying. These statements are asked in a more declarative voice. Unlike questions, your voice does not turn up at the end.  The purpose of reflections is to get the prospect to really listen to him or herself, thereby promoting a conscious and well informed decision.

How?

Here are some examples of reflective statements:

“OK, so it seems you are worried about your software for these reasons…”

“You are curious about how long it will take to learn the new tool…”

“You might be interested in learning about other options for…”

“It seems your current system is satisfactory for these actions…and deficient for these…”

“You seem frustrated with…”

“It feels difficult for you to…”

“So, you want to improve your __ and on the other hand you realize that you need to figure out __.”

(Note in this last example the use of the word “and” instead of “but”. The problem with “but” is it’s a natural showstopper. “But” raises anxiety, suggesting there’s a problem and putting a negative spin on the first part of the sentence. “And” sets the tone for calmer consideration of both sides of a situation, letting the show go on.)

Tips:

• Vary your reflections or you risk sounding ingenuine and robotic. Don’t start every question with the same phrase:   “It sounds like…” , “It sounds like…”  ad naseum.
• If you are someone who likes metaphors, try using one to structure your reflection: “So, it’s like having the opportunity to buy tickets to the big game and at the same time having promised your partner that you’re serious about sticking to the budget.”
• Avoid using “charged” words that may be jarring to the prospect and likely to encourage resistance. For example, the prospect might really be feeling afraid but may not want to hear the word “scared” played back.
• Remember you are learning the prospect’s vocabulary and gathering motivational data that will help you later on  to close the deal.
• However you state your reflection, the goal is to communicate genuine interest and empathy in your prospect’s situation while at the same time confirming you correctly and thoroughly understand it. Don’t worry; you don’t have to always get it right. In fact, if your metaphor or understanding is off, your prospect will likely correct you and in doing so maybe even offer additional information to deepen the level of the conversation.

 Are you using reflective listening in your conversations with clients? 

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

In a webinar we presented for the second time today, Trish Bertuzzi and Cliff Pollan offer tips for helping B2B salespeople win at the game of “Prospect Hide & Seek”. They talk about keeping prospects engaged in all steps of the selling process to avoid the salesperson’s nightmare of “being left out alone in the dark”.

While Bertuzzi and Pollan share many things you can do, they also emphatically stress one thing not to do: “Do not create resistant donkeys!” 

How many of you have defaulted to using the weak sales tactics described below (my mnemonic: WEAC) when trying to “convince” a prospect to break from the status quo and purchase your product?

• Warning of consequences for not changing
• Explaining how change should occur
• Arguing for the benefits of your solution
• Convincing someone they need to make a change

STOP!

Psychological research tells us WEAC sales tactics may very well halt whatever momentum in the sales process you’ve established by causing your prospect to behave like a donkey digging in its heels.

Why? The reason has to do with a natural tendency we all have to be apprehensive about change. Prospects, for example, often worry about selecting the very best solution or how a change might impact employee relationships, increase costs or demand more of their time. Pushed externally, a prospect may feel even more off balance. The more out of control a prospect feels, the more likely he or she is to gravitate back to a place of security—the status quo.

Remember, resistance is natural in the sales process. The mere existence of it does not suggest something wrong. The takeaway here is that the relational stance the salesperson takes can either strengthen or reduce this natural tendency.

Q: So what can you as salesperson do to minimize natural resistance and keep your prospect actively engaged in the “daylight” of your sales nurturing?

A: Put the prospect in charge of the change process. Use STRONG sales tactics (another mnemonic coined by me!) to facilitate keeping the prospect actively engaged:

• Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting
• Trust the prospect’s perspective on the pros/cons of change, and the risks/benefits of the solutions available
• Respect how difficult the change process can be
• Offer encouragement for change if the prospect decides to take action
• No judgment—allow all issues to be on the table
• Guide, but do not drive the process—motivation for change needs to come from within your prospect

What sales tactics have you tried to prevent your prospect from becoming a resistant donkey?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Photo Credit: pmarkham flickr

I recently called my satellite TV provider—DISH Network—and asked what they could do for me as a longtime subscriber. I was perfectly happy with DISH Network’s service. In fact, over the years I’ve referred new customers to them by gushing online via social media as well as offline. However, an offer from Verizon for FIOS TV had piqued my interest since we already receive our Internet service through Verizon. Without much hesitation, the customer service rep from DISH Network told me nothing could be done to match Verizon’s offer. Oh, and don’t forget to mail in the last month’s check—thank you very much.

Really? No, really?!

At the time, DISH Network was actively recruiting subscribers and I was truly confused by the service rep’s indifferent response. Guess what I did? I switched to Verizon for FIOS TV, of course.

We’ve all seen statistics on customer retention versus acquisition. Lots of really smart Ph.D’s have explained the concept of Customers Lifetime Value (CLV). In the simplest of terms, it’s a lot cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one—common sense without the fancy TLA (Three Letter Acronym). Within the past few years, I’ve noticed CLV has been modified to CCLV (Connected Customers Lifetime Value) and CEV (Customer Engagement Value).

Basically, anyone selling anything should expand their thinking beyond their existing customers to their customers’ network and sphere of influence.

Product marketing sometimes casts customer retention in terms of switching costs. Think about what a pain it is to switch cell phone carriers. The Cell Carrier Lobbyists fought tooth and nail against LNP (Local Number Portability) until they could figure out ways to lock up customers. There’s really no reason to have specific phones for specific carriers. Europe doesn’t. Instead of focusing on change penalties, how about improving the value of the services delivered by understanding my needs and what makes me choose to be a loyal customer and refer my friends?

Airlines attracted and successfully retained loyal customers for a while with frequent flyer programs. I know—I booked most of my flights on United even though there weren’t always direct flights to where I was going. But then United and other airlines blew it by instituting too many restrictions.

Most businesses truly do strive to please their customers. Most business people appreciate the power of referral marketing and naturally hope through careful management of customer relationships, we’ll gain new customers via referrals.

I invite you to pause now and honestly ask yourself: when was the last time you reached out to your customers individually? I don’t mean sending a newsletter or some marketing automated message, but making a direct one-to-one connection. And, not when there’s a problem, but when there isn’t—simply as a way to listen, learn and share information.

Connecting genuinely on a more personal level—one-to-one—is a powerful way to cultivate happy customers, and, hopefully, referrals. Here are several tips to help you get started:

• Tweet a congratulatory note or comments to new customers who use Twitter accounts.
• Actively participate in LinkedIn groups around conversations you care about.
• Reward your customers with information that helps them stay on top of their game—even if the data you share has nothing to do with what you’re selling.
• Offer favors, connections and networking opportunities to advance your customers’ careers.
• Find out what makes each customer tick—what they’re passionate about. Do this to find common interests you share and can connect through.

Having said all that, my hope is to personally connect with more of our customers. Please DM me @biasforaction or give me an old-fashioned phone call to chat. My direct phone number is 781-350-3416, extension 113. My email is bcarney at VisibleGains dot com (so the SPAM bots won’t pick me up).

I had coffee with a psychology colleague who is a brain specialist. I told him about my recent post discussing how salespeople can inadvertently paralyze prospects through information overload.

He got thoughtful and asked if I wanted to know what actually happens in the brain when someone is presented with too much information—like when a buyer has to shop in a “superstore” versus a “bodega”. I eagerly said yes and this is what I learned.

First of all, he explained, we humans are motivated to solve problems. Problems create uncomfortable feelings and we are programmed to make those uncomfortable feelings go away. In fact, the feelings (FB) part of the brain (science speak: limbic system) has many lines of communication that are directly connected to the problem solving (PSB) part of the brain (science speak: prefrontal lobe). So when we experience discomfort about something not working right, that feeling gets sent directly to the PSB, pleading:

“Do something about this problem!”

Feeling some pain or discomfort is actually a good thing because it energizes us to gather information in order to find a solution. For example, a prospect may search websites, read blogs, or perhaps ask a trusted colleague for some solutions to his or her problem. The shopping process begins…BUT when a prospect is presented with massive amounts of information, the PSB, craving order, has to work “overtime” to categorize information in order to be able to make a decision.

The FB picks up the strain in the PSB and sends frantic messages to it:

“I’m overwhelmed! I don’t have enough time to figure out the best solution. What if I make a mistake?”

With all these distress signals going to the PSB, guess what happens? The PSB gets exhausted and gives up trying to solve the problem and instead shifts into survival mode. Your overwhelmed prospect is no longer shopping for a solution. He or she is using all of her energy to feel better.

“How can I get out of here? My problem is not so bad. I don’t really need to change anything. Good bye!”

ALAS, PARALYSIS!

So what can a salesperson do to avoid this from happening to a prospect? 

• First and foremost, keep your sales communications clear, concise and well organized.
• Use categories (sales speak-qualifiers) the thinking brain “craves” by spelling out the obvious so the prospect does not have to work so hard.
• Gain a simple understanding of your prospect’s most important problems, identify the key ways you can help him or her and align those two tightly. (If you cannot describe how your solution solves the problem in a few sentences, then you’ve missed the mark!)

Helping buyers categorize information leaves them with more energy to make an informed purchase decision more quickly. Think about going into a superstore to buy a television. When you arrive in the TV area, you’re faced with a dizzying array of choices. Left on your own, you may get overwhelmed and bolt. An experienced salesperson, though, can prevent you from fleeing and promote thoughtful decision making by asking you a few “category promoting” questions such as:“What are you going to watch? How big is your room? Does it have a lot of sunlight? Will you be gaming on it?” This line of questioning enables you to narrow your selection and hone in on a few options to choose between.

Understanding how the brain reacts to information overload is critical to helping your prospect stay focused to make a decision. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog for more tips to help your prospect thrive in our “superstore” culture.

How do you simplify decision making for your prospect?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Sharing content—it seems like everyone in Sales and Marketing is doing it. In fact, it’s not uncommon now for companies to encourage employees at all levels and roles to join in the task—customers and partners, too.

Inside Sales Strategist Trish Bertuzzi from The Bridge Group, Inc. urges companies to consider salespeople as valuable members of the content team.

“The salesperson needs to be viewed as the thought leader, not just the company.”  

Instead of calling your prospect with the standard check-in call, Trish suggests trying this: “Hey I’m going to send you an article with some data I think you’ll find interesting. I would love to chat with you about it—give me call when you have a moment.”

Your role here is to keep a laser focus on the topics of interest to your prospect. Done properly, the very act of sharing a great blog post, industry research paper or white paper from Marketing is a service, providing additional touch points while at the same time building your reputation as an expert who can help.

B2B Marketing Strategiest, Ardath Albee agrees, “The net is credibility and trust for your company AND your salespeople. That’s what wins complex sales in today’s market.”

She goes a step further and suggests that salespeople should not only share content, but their voice should also be reflected in the content. She offers some terrific tips for how marketers can access salespeople’s knowledge and front-line experiences and get it into print. For example, “interview them” and “find out what they’re passionate about”.

As your content-sharing relationship grows with your client, you may decide that it would be helpful to scribe your personal experiences and opinions. What are your reflections on the article you just sent to your prospect? How about commenting on that? Or, writing your own blog about your sales experiences. What’s important is that whatever you do share is genuine. You could even write about how your personal experiences as a buyer inform your professional sales approach.

You may find that this “more personal” style of content sharing is a “win-win”. Your expertise and trustworthiness are much easier to showcase when you are the creator of information and not just the pusher. You are building a genuine relationship, demonstrating you are actively engaged and curious about your prospect’s perspectives and that you “get it”. Your prospect may reciprocate by being more open and honest with you, and, ultimately, become more comfortable making a decision about buying your product or service.

What topic might you write about and share with a prospect?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Photo Credit: ElvertBarnes’ Flickr photostream

In my previous post, Build trust & boost sales by sharing golden nuggets, I shared lessons learned from HiveFire’s content curation user conference. I made the case that every communication we have with a prospect or client is an opportunity to build up our trust capital. What is so exciting for me is that content sharing, when done correctly, has incredible potential for boosting sales. Sharing content is a terrific way to enhance the conversation and build trust between you and your prospect. And it is no secret these days that trust is critical to the sales process.

I’ve already written about qualities of content that engender trust—in short, making it relevant, in the right amount, and without company bias. Here, I want to take it a step further and talk about how to include the prospect in the content conversation.

The best way to give your prospect a positive experience—to feel understood, engaged, and trusting—is to make the content sharing experience be personal, two-way, and collaborative. This give-and-take exchange is important because it will: 1-empower you to more astutely identify and help solve your prospect’s problem and 2- establish your credibility as an expert who can help.

Here are four content sharing tips designed to build TRUST, the “new” fashioned personal and collaborative way:

1. Make it easy for your prospect to comment on your content. HiveFire’s solution, according to CEO Pawan Deshpande, is to use Disqus. Creating two-way engagement around the content is a way to show your prospect you really do care about being a thought leader and getting to the “truth”. Furthermore, comments give you feedback on whether your content is actually adding value.
2. Similarly, use analytics to determine which content is read by your prospect. Why? So that you learn over time what topics capture their attention.
3. Encourage your prospect community to contribute content as well. This gives you even more information on what topics they deem relevant and sheds light on their needs and concerns.
4. Share content openly and make it easy to bring a prospect or client back to your site for “more”. Striking this balance will reinforce the connection between the prospect and your company—and YOU—as trustworthy thought leaders.

Is your content sharing strategy building TRUST? What are you doing to make it feel personal and collaborative?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Photo credit Kris Hoet

Just back from attending HiveFire’s user conference for content curators. Content curation has taken off! My learning from the conference is that the reason why has much to do with TRUST!

What is content curation, you ask? Simply put: content curation is the process of sifting through the boatload of information “out there”—blog posts, tweets & news feeds—and passing on the golden nuggets others in your network find valuable.

After sitting in this curation conference and being bombarded with the “T” word, I was struck by the incredible potential content curation has for salespeople to virtually build trusting relationships as the foundation for generating sales and referrals.

I found this trust theme particularly interesting having just read a blog by Steven Woods, CTO at Eloqua, on “Trust, Reputation, and Inside-Sales”.

“There is a significant shift underway in how we establish and build trust… [having] numerous profound implications for society in general, but more specifically, it is causing significant shifts in the way that people buy… the evolution of trust is opening up new opportunities for inside sales teams.”

“As the emphasis on face-to-face interaction as a way to build trust decreases in lieu of other ways of building trust, the need to be “in the field” also decreases. It is unlikely that field sales as a discipline will disappear any time soon, the economic bar at which a face-to-face interaction is “necessary” is in the middle of a dramatic shift.”

Marketers are all over the power of content curation for building trusted reputations of brands and products. According to Hivefire’s B2Marketing trends 2011 survey, 82% of B2B marketers now use content marketing as a strategy in their marketing programs. Forrester Research cites the use of online content curation to build thought leadership and authority relationships as one of four critical emerging technologies for B2B sales and marketing.

Posting a Youtube video occasionally on Facebook to share with friends or sharing links to articles of interest with your network are forms of content curation. Chances are you already do this to some extent. Now think about someone you know professionally you consider as a go-to person or expert. My guess is that they regularly share information on a particular topic you find valuable. By doing so consistently, they’ve established themselves as a trusted source.

Bottom line: every communication you send—and online interaction you have—is an opportunity to build trust capital you can leverage strategically to boost sales. Continuously earn deposits in your prospects’ trust banks by routinely sharing valuable, golden nuggets of information. Here are a few content curation tips to help you get started:

1. Add real value by selecting content of specific interest to an individual prospect or customer. Make sure it’s information your reader truly cares about; do not be guided by what you find interesting or stimuating.
2. Less is more—don’t overload your prospect with too much information.  Remember, too much information and they will shut down (read more in my previous blog).
3. Don’t be afraid to share information about your competition; it is a critical way to show that you are trustworthy.  Nobody wants to do business with an “information censor”.

Stay tuned for future posts with additional practical tips to help you create a simple, disciplined routine for continuously discovering and sharing valuable information with prospects and clients.

How are you building trust virtually? Is content curation one of the trust-building tools you use?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.