To date, over five thousand people have used this article to learn how to write better sales emails using the challenger sale methodology--including...
- Over 1,000 enterprise salespeople
- Over 100 C-level officers
- From companies like Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, Gartner, and Nielsen
It's hard to write good sales emails, as you've probably already learned if you're reading this now.
Because I happen to be superlatively good at it, companies sometimes hire me to just write their B2B sales emails for them.
But when I'm consulting on B2B sales emails and not actually writing them, I teach sales teams how to write their own effective sales emails--according to proven sales methodologies (such as the Challenger Sale), which many copywriters don't do because they can't: they're copywriters, not salespeople.
What makes me different is that I'm both. When I consult, I like to use templates of actual emails I've written and tested to give them a clear benchmark for what good looks like.
...an example of which you can find by reading on.
(If you find it helpful, let me know.)
Pop quiz: how many [ABC Retailer] customers use [ABC Loyalty program] rewards?
Answer: 7.9 million.
Here is why I ask. In 2015, these 7.9 million [ABC Loyalty program] rewards members accounted for
67% of [ABC Retailer] sales.
Two-thirds of the pie!
What does this data tell us?
- Nailing retention overall - [ABC Retailer] has figured out how to do loyalty and retention well. But mostly offline.
- Failing online - E-commerce sales ([ABC Retailer's e-commerce website]) in 2015 accounted for only 17.1% of sales.
Look, I know that omni-channel is the long-term goal, and that we are not too far away from the lines blurring in customers' minds between offline and online.
But that changing consumer perception does not de-emphasize the strategic importance of online as a distinct channel for sales--one whose importance to [ABC Retailer] has only grown in the last six quarters.
As a concrete example (no pun intended), the importance of e-commerce in [ABC Retailer]'s case amplifies every time they close down an underperforming brick-and-mortar store. When a store closes in a given neighborhood, their customers who live in that neighborhood, with no physical store nearby to visit, take their shopping online.
And [ABC Retailer] has closed quite a few stores lately. Plus, even for the stores that are still operating, overall traffic is down.
How is [ABC Retailer] leveraging their lessons learned with offline-retention to grow e-commerce sales through online-retention?
The sales numbers suggest they are not.
I am not sure if this is something they are still doing, but I read a report recently that said [ABC Retailer] is targeting its best customers with direct mail. And at first, I thought, "wow, snail mail...really?" But hey, if it works, keep doing it--just do not stop there.
If they are still getting juice out of the direct mail turnip, then just imagine the juice they could get if they were to add email-based retention to the mix.
I already know they agree with me. I took this from one of their company reports:
Segmenting and leveraging our customer data to frequently communicate with our customers and tailor promotions to maximize customer satisfaction strengthens our brand image and improves customer loyalty.
Yet sales from their "loyal customers" segment outstrip sales from their e-commerce channel 67 to 17.
I am going to pause here to say something about the challenger sale model.
Everything you have read so far I pulled from an actual sales email I sent to an executive at [ABC Retailer] (I just converted second-person to third-person). If you think it would work for you, then feel free to use it as an email template for crafting a challenger sale pitch.
If you are not familiar with the challenger sale model, here is an overview:
- Add value right away
- Rather than ask to interrupt a prospect's day to ask some questions, bring an idea from the beginning
- To do this, you almost always have to do specific research
- I pulled all of the info you see here from various company reports
- Be confident and articulate your idea from the first touch, even if that touch is cold (which this one was)
- If the prospect respects your idea, then you will get a meeting; if they do not think your idea adds any value, then you will not: either way, you are not wasting anyone's time
The challenger sale is hard because (1) it requires that you take the time to research people/companies before you begin prospecting, and (2) the outcome of your sales call will largely hinge on the specific idea you articulate in your first, blind touch. You will not get any explicit feedback unless your prospect likes your idea and responds.
So really, the challenger sale forces a gut check: is there something unique and valuable that you as an individual sales person are bringing to the conversation? If not, then you have failed to answer the "why you?" question, which, unless you work for a company selling something that faces no competition, is the most important thing you can do.
People talk about relationship-selling. But the efficacy of relationship-selling pre-supposes an existing relationship. And rather than leave to chance which relationships you have to work with, the challenger sale suggests that you should create your own based on whom you actually think you could add value to, which requires you to invest time thinking before you waste time speaking.
Notice, this is not, "create a bunch of random relationships and hope that later you can work together." Instead, this challenges you to be the expert in your field and to self-filter prospects according to who you actually think you can help right away. That is scary if you find comfort in the churn-and-burn predictability of long, faceless lists of target prospects about whom you know nothing before you start dialing.
At times, you will invest a chunk of time crafting a challenger sale pitch for a prospect you think you could help, and you will guess wrong. But the appealingly human trait of the challenger sale model is that you leave that ultimate determination up to the people you are seeking to interrupt--and they get to decide this basically even before you interrupt them.
It is the non-poker equivalent of beginning the conversation by putting all of your cards on the table. If they like your pitch, they will tell you. If not, you have spared them the lengthier interruption of asking them intro questions to which you should really already know the answer.
So think of it like this. Be bold enough to suggest right away how you think you could help someone (and do not give people canned pitches). Tailor these suggestions to the individual you are pitching, and be brave enough to risk enduring silence or a no; or rather, be respectful enough to permit prospects that freedom to choose.
Now back to the email I sent to [ABC Retailer], which, you will now notice proceeds in second-person.
If that bothers you (like I think it should), then I would like to help.
You have the data. You have the instincts. You just lack the results.
We are really good at getting results. Our formula is simple:
- Leverage the customer data you already have (e-commerce and analytics platforms, for example).
- Hyperpersonalize all marketing messages to each individual customer via email.
- Automate sending the exact right message at the exact right time based on data science, algorithms, and predictive analytics.
Could you connect me to the person on your team who is in charge of e-commerce sales?
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