Lessons

Lesson Info

Anatomy of a Warm Email Message

So I mentioned this also in session one the idea of the one two punch I wrote a blogger post several years ago now actually called to is the new one because a lot of people were complaining that if they reached out to someone once they would say I never heard back from them and I would say but you only reach out to them once to is the new one you have to reach out twice in orderto actually let them know that you're serious even with our personal friends and family right sometimes don't they have to reach out to you more than once for you to actually respond yes, I admit it um so the point here so now I've evolved it into this thing called the one two punch where the way I want you to think about it is one effort is actually two efforts in one and these they're not separate efforts so to connect is the first effort which is to find a meaningful connection with your prospect find something that you can say to them that is relevant and personal and that connects you and it could be a simp...

le as we're both members of the same length in group that's a connection or if you went to the same school you can reference that or even better if you know someone in common you khun reference that you I defy you to not find a connection with someone right that you're interested in working with it could be I love your website I love your company I am going to show some examples and the two punch so that's the one is you connect in the message and then you make an offer you make an offer that they can respond positively to the most ineffective messages that I see are the ones that I see most often frankly and then the ones that say hi here's who I am here's what I offer hope to hear from you why would anyone respond to that right there is no connection there's no offer it's all about them it's not about the needs of the prospect it's exactly the wrong thing so this warm email prospecting is essentially about the opposite of all of that so I have to sample messages the text of which is also in the workbook and maybe we can tell people what paige it's on it looks like forty one and forty two in the workbook is where we are to khun read along if you have it so the first one was shared by a client of mine greg waddle of waddell creative dot com and he wrote to jen and john he said when I walked by your new space last week I was thrilled to see not only a new establishment taking root in chestertown but also one that is near my heart or stomach so he's going after restaurants my wife and I are super excited to see a place that will offer great cheese as well as wine and charcuterie. My studio in kennedy ville is dedicated to helping small lifestyle brands talked to their customers. Specifically, I specialize in the hospitality industry with years of experience managing restaurants and hotels. I know a thing or two about guest experience and how to attract new customers. I won't bore you with a super long and out of the blue email, but I'd love to buy you a cup of coffee toe learn more about your new business if I don't hear back from you in a couple of days, I'll contact you again so let's, analyze this let's hear from our studio audience? What is it about this that you think fits the description that I gave the definition of a warm email message? And that would be effective? We'll definitely starts in a very personal note, um establishes that connection. Um, he talks about a specific experience that might be relevant to them and then he makes an offer. Is he bragging? No, because often people are afraid they're bragging, and he says, I specialize in the hospitality industry with years of experience managing restaurants and hotels I know a thing or two about guest experience and how to attract new customers that don't sound like bragging, right he's just stating the fact I know a thing or two he's not even being arrogant about it what else what else can we analyze here about what is effective justin I think the cup of coffee is effective offering a cup of coffee I think it's just like only what's who doesn't want a free cup of coffee and just to connect with somebody who's in the neighborhood who could potentially help me and he wants to connect to learn more about their business not to tell you more about mind exactly to hiss from this perspective exactly yeah I mean it's just it's compelling it's personal and it's not like uh says if I don't hear back from you in a couple of days old I'll contact you again it's not like he's expecting a response or anything like that exactly you should not expect a response this is part of the problem with rejection is because you expected a response if you don't expect a response there's no such thing as rejection right? Nobody responded because you didn't expect them to and as I said yesterday you'll be delighted when they do respond it will make your day so yes justin I'm curious we talked about kind of what the you know following up tio this yeah following up to a warm email looks like actually thank you results when I spoke to greg last week he had followed up once and received no response so he said to me, what did I do? He said they didn't they never responded I said they haven't responded yet right that's a very big distinction and I feel like this is a mental problem that a lot of people have like you already are thinking it's never gonna happen so watch the language there they haven't responded yet he was nervous to reach out again my recommendation was another email than a phone call then something in the mail then one more email if he really wants to work with them he has nothing to lose nothing to lose nothing at stake why not? Oh, but they'll be bothering them so what? Who cares? Room please got five other prospects to respond then you know they want someone you wanted to work with first or maybe they got busy and maybe in six months you go there and you have coffee and maybe reference this message or maybe you don't and maybe you talk to them I mean anything could happen, right? But not if you don't try you save yourself, make up those stories oh no, they're not gonna be interested or they never responded they must have disliked my message don't make up stories now interesting top tomato say they really like this email because it is personal it made them the focus and it was brief he also respected their time and this may be an intrusion, but if bridges thie email had an opportunity to make a new acquaintance, absolutely all right here is another example and this is the fifty percent response example. All right, this is from a client of mine, a web design firm. The subject line is a few ideas for your, and they put the company name that they're reaching out to website, right? That's the subject line, she says, dear name greetings from one women based group to another, I realize how important time is, especially given the incredible mission that your company is focused on, so I'll get right to it. I'm the founder and creative director of the all women run design and technology firm j p d studio were also passionate about addressing the gender imbalance in the tech industry, which is why we would love toe work with your amazing organization. In fact, I have a few specific ideas related to your website. If you're interested, I'd be happy to share them with you what's working about this one lana it's um it's very enticing. I think you would respond, yeah, because it shows they've already looked at what you have out there and they have ideas about it, so of course now I want to know what those ideas because it's about you, it's, not about them it's about you justin, um, I think just honoring, um, a company's mission and kind of being in their shoes that, you know, we don't have a lot of time, you know, what time is it? It was very respectful. Yeah, so I think that that that's really nice, same like the fact that it's shorter that's more effective. Usually I find the most effective e mails to me no more than three sentences. My favorite part of this message is we would love to work with your amazing organization, you can actually say that to anyone, and they could be taken in by it because it's flattering because people are vulnerable to that type of thing, they're susceptible, and especially if it's true, right again, you're choosing very carefully who to send this message to they've clearly done their homework, they've got the ideas, they're ready, in fact, is anyone asking for actual responses in the chat room? Because I've got them here are actual responses. I'm the communications coordinator at company and maya forwarded your email to me. I'd love to set up a time to connect about j p d studio and explore ways in which we might benefit from your services are there good times to chat in the next few weeks? They're asking for an appointment. These are actual responses thanks for reaching out jessica and we'll be back in touch to discuss how we and you may be able to work together in the future that's a little bit more open ended but a positive response by the way there were responses that said sorry we don't need you that's a reject and write very painful very painful I have more actual responses thanks for reaching out sure I'd love to hear your ideas when is a good time simple we want what you have I'd be happy to meet with you if you'd like to schedule a capabilities presentation please contact me I'd be interested to learn more about your services happy to set up a call are you free on the twenty eighth right these air really live responses to that message fifty percent response this stuff works I'm not making it up it's totally echoing she said the second email is so much stronger than the first because it also shows with the good you've done their research and the respect of time and how clear their gold is outlined and that seemed much more genuine there's so many different approaches to it it depends on who you are and what you're interested in and what the prospects are and what you can say about them but there's so many different ways you could do this well let's do that what would you do if that's what we have next so what would you do if you got a positive response from a prospect that you really want to work with? Then you got busy and dropped the ball and didn't follow up, right? So the situation is someone gave you a positive response you got busy and didn't follow up. This happens all the time. What would you do? Justin? Just be honest, be honest, you know, just let them know and I think it's nice to say, you know, my work is just overwhelming I'm still really interested and I used the cup of coffee or the lunch technique take you out to lunch. You I owe you one. Excellent. Raina, what do you think? I agreed I would probably just try to pick it up a soon as possible and reinvigorate that connection. Yeah, same thing I guess just be honest and just let him know that I want to put my best effort into the project, and right now I'm just occupied it all the time, so those are all definitely the right answer, but not what people usually do, right? Because what people usually do is make up a story that says, oh my god, I didn't go back to them and now they're going to think I'm really unresponsive or unreliable or that I forgot about them or that I'm not interested in them but you have no idea. So if that happens to come to your mind in this type of situation, remember that what you said was I would just be honest, all right? So let's do the exercise with this lesson, and then we will have our skype chat with edgar india. So in the workbook, we do have the actual text from these samples. You are welcome to copy it. I mean, obviously you're going to adapt it to your own situation, but it's a good template or cook? Good couple templates that you can adapt for your own situation. So the exercise we've talked about this already in the room, but I want you to think about it for yourself at home. Pause and think about it. What is it about these examples that makes them effective? Mate, we may have missed some of the details. You may disagree with some of the things that we said you may think the first one is more effective than the second one. There's no right answer here. These are all just different ways to approach your best prospects. All right. Anything else in the chat room? Before we moved to our skype tak? Well, I've lost who actually said it was somebody said, you know what, it's never too late. That's. Right? But I thought that that was very clean and simple and that's absolutely true. It is absolutely never too late. The only who was it stuffed? Beautiful stephanie. Thank you, stephanie. I agree completely. And the whole point about when you follow up it just determines what you say you can say you know you have you may have to remind them who you are and what they said. The beautiful thing with email is that you just pick up the thread and the whole conversation is right there. That's. A new beautiful thing about email, right? But you may have to if it's been a year. If, for example, you met someone at a networking event and you never followed up with them and you found they're busy is hard buried under a pile of papers. Then you can say, I just found your business card buried under a pile of papers. I'm so sorry I didn't follow up. Let's, have coffee let's, have a phone conversation, right? Itjust determines what you say when it isthe.