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Don’t get lost in your prospect’s inbox

By Adrian Miller

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How quickly we have all grown to rely totally on email and text messaging. We get hundreds of emails per day landing in our inbox at a furious pace and providing all of us with a most formidable challenge: How do we find time to read all these darn things anyway?

Time management experts have provided us with all sorts of tips on how to manage our email, and I do think that most of us who are on the receiving end of a large quantity of email have figured out our own method of keeping up with the daily assault.

With this in mind, isn’t it somewhat counterintuitive to do our prospecting by email? To respond to a qualified inquiry by email? To reach out to your contacts by email?

I get it: If you are on the receiving end of thousands of inquiries per day, email is about the only way to go. And if you are reaching out to thousands of contacts in your database, email should also be your tool of choice.

But let’s get real. Let’s say one of your contacts emails you a lead to someone who seems interested in your product or service. Your contact may do this in the form of a “cyber-introduction” or he may simply provide you with the contact’s name.

Do you send off an email reply? (The answer to that question for most people is a resounding yes.) Or do you do a little Google search, locate the contact’s telephone number and give her a call? It’s truly outstanding if you can call and here’s why:

  • A cold email that comes in (even if it includes an identifier in the subject line) can go into spam, and then days/weeks can go by without anyone realizing that the problem isn’t one of being ignored but of being invisible.
  • People get hundreds of emails each day. You’ve probably overlooked an email before. Everyone has. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that your email runs the risk of being overlooked as well.
  • Talk about standing out from the competition. We get so few phone calls each day in comparison to emails that a phone call can truly help you to stand apart (in a good way).

So give it a try. Pick up the phone and see what happens. You might be surprised by the results.

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Adrian Miller is the founder of Adrian Miller Sales Training. To find out more or to visit her blog go to http://adrianmiller.wordpress.com.

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