LeapFish Teaches Sales Professionals About Email Do’s and Don’ts…and Click Fraud

Now, I don’t want to get off on a Friday Rant, here, but let’s talk a little bit about email, as it relates to your job – Selling.  It is a 2 edged sword that can be the great equalizer or a giant headache because it provides a record – a permanent journal of your exchanges with someone.  Let’s look at a couple of Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s

DO Use it As a Communication Supplement During the Sales Cycle – Email provides a mechanism for you to quickly coordinate with prospects during the early stages of the sales cycle:

• Email prior to your first interaction (“Before I call”) to make introductions
• After a first impression / voicemail (“I just tried to call”) to follow up
• during the middle of the sales cycle (“Is there a good time to reconnect?”) to continue building the relationship.

DO Use it as a permanent record of previous prospect communication – Did the prospect indicate that the contract would be signed by Monday?  Replying to her email on Tuesday may help reinforce why you are reaching out.

Don’ts

DON’T Assume the Recipient Is Sharing Your Mood – Although you may write it with the best of intentions, Email is generally read in the mood of the recipient…not the sender – Did the recipient get unexpected bad news prior to reading your note?  Did they kick the dog or learn of a mis-behaving child?  Regardless of the mood you intended, the recipient will read it in their current mood.

Here’s a tidbit for newbies – DON’T SEND BAD NEWS VIA EMAIL, WITHOUT A CORRESPONDING PHONE CALL (generally making the call before sending is best).  They will get the news, see red, and send an angry dart your way

DON’T Write It Down Unless You are Ready to Back It Up – When you put something in writing, always assume that it may be seen by unintended individuals, not the intended recipient – Quick Story – When my Uncle was an intern during his senior year of Auburn, he wrote a note about his intern supervisor (not email…a note…to Mail), calling the individual in question a “Sissy” (which was strong language for a college kid to use on an adult in the 60’s).  Long Story Short – The supervisor found his note, contacted his professor, and had my Uncle sent back to Auburn for punishment.  His professor’s advice – “I’m not saying that what you thought (him being a sissy) isn’t true.  You just should never have written it down.”

Combining DON’T #1 and DON’T #2 is the most important DON’T – DON’T Get Frustrated AND Write Something Stupid Down – If you’ve been following the blogs this week, you likely saw TechCrunch’s article on LeapFish.  If not – Let me give you the Reader’s Digest version:

The sales person from LeapFish (who is now unemployed) got frustrated that a company, who it appeared he had targeted as a prospect because of their lower ranking in Google (good qualification skills), called the prospect 2 times back-to-back and was rebuffed as not needing LeapFish’s service.

The salesperson was obviously growing agitated, allegedly ended the call with a veiled threat related to Google AdWords spend.  (AUTHOR’S NOTE – The sales person has now let mood get into the email, since both he and the recipient are now in an adversarial role)

What happens next is pure magic – The sales person breaks DON’T #2, by sending an email containing the following statement:

“I just clicked on your link 50 times. Pay per click hurts. Found you on page 2 of the sponsored links. Call me for an advertising solution “ (AUTHOR’S NOTE – I love the audacity to financially hurt the company and then ask for their business – ABC)

Instead of getting the business, the sales person got the ax.

So here’s the deal – Be careful with email – Much like fire was to the cavemen – It can hav positive aspects like cooking food and providing warmth, but it can also burn your village down if you aren’t careful.

Buying Leads and Sys-Con Media

So buying names for a Marketing blast is a bad idea.  “Why” you ask?  Because the recipients (AKA “Victims”) don’t know you, are unfamiliar with your services, and generally respond poorly to this tactic.  Buying a list of “Victims” normally results in 3 things:

1. High Bounce Rates – Because the names and addresses are often gotten unscrupulously (unless a double opt in is utilized, which is less shady)
2. High Opt Out Rates – Again…they have no idea who you are.
3. Feelings of Violation on the part of the Recipient- How would you like it if some purchased your credit card or social security number from some unscrupulous source and started using it without your permission?

I’ll quickly give the “Reader’s Digest” account of a case in point .  Sys-Con Media (AKA – The Culprit), apparently purchased the name of Jame Ervin (AKA – the Victim) as part of what their CEO noted was a 4,000 name blast (See Jame’s blog for the specifics).  The mission – simple – Blast out a spammy message, and see if any of the Victims respond.

Of course, when Jame received the email, she (a) knew she didn’t opt in for this correspondence and (b) replied to the email asking to be Removed from the list by placing the word “REMOVE” in the title (it likely didn’t have an unsubscribe link), and providing some frank, however earnest feedback as to why she did not currently plan on spending her marketing dollars with Sys-Con (AUTHOR’S NOTE – Jame actually did go out to the Culprit’s website and check out Sys-Con’s offering)

What happened next is hard to explain.  The company’s Founder & CEO responded with a Not-so-CEO Like tirade that was loaded with “F Bombs”.  Since this is a Family Blog, I am NOT going to quote some of the CEO’s gems, for example “Mind your own business and keep your ideas to yourself“…I’m just not going to lower myself to that level. 

Instead – I’ve included a link to Jame’s Blog  where you can read the whole, sad exchange yourself. 

So here’s the bottom line – When you hijack someone’s personal information (e.g., buying a list of “leads”) for less than honest goals (e.g., illegally opting her into a list of 4,000 other unsuspecting victims), you lose the opportunity to be touchy when one of the victims asks to be removed from the list, and provides direct reasons why she won’t do business with you.

Just Keep them Happy – The Rules to Customer Retention & Upselling

Many organizations look at a sale as a “1 shot. 1 kill” scenario, where the salesperson meets, greets, engages, builds rapport, educates, and closes the deal with YOUR customer. Then it’s off to the next deal. YOUR customer thinks the same thing my mother says frequently – “You never call. You never write. You never visit.” That type of behavior will get me written out of the will, and get you ridden out of your customer’s life. NEWS FLASH – A representative from your competitor is engaging YOUR customer, and if YOUR customer feels abandoned, or the solution hiccups one time, YOUR customer will likely become THEIR customer. IN OTHER NEWS – Customer retention costs 20% of what acquiring a new customer does, and once you have the relationship, it should be easier to up sell them (assuming your eggheads can make the solution work like you said it would and your support representatives are helpful). So what do you do to hang on to and / or upsell your customers: 1. Make No Assumptions Sure you like your customer – who wouldn’t – they just wrote you a PO, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that they like you. What do I mean? My first Sales Manager once told me “Remember – they’re your customer, not your friend.” – This is to say that the customer / sales relationship isn’t equitable – You shouldn’t expect the customer to give up a kidney to help you out, however they may reach in and tear your heart out if your solution doesn’t work as advertised. A great article on GuerillaConsulting.com said it like this – “…the [salesperson] never assumes a client is loyal. A client’s trust and loyalty can be swept away if you get too confident or let performance slip, even on one project or sale.” Don’t assume that because your customer currently chooses to do business with you that he or she will continue to do so. You’ve built the rapport, so ask with YOUR customer how things are going, before they become someone else’s customer. 2. Make it Right Once you’ve had a customer long enough, you will inevitably hit a snag, and since you would never oversell and under-deliver, it was likely – A deliverable was incorrect, late or substandard; support was lackluster; AR mis-billed the customer. Whatever the cause, snafus will happen, and when they do, it’s critical that you proactively step up, and as the customer’s advocate within your organization, find a way to make it right. If you wait for the customer to complain then you’re probably already too late. 3. Make it sticky The more entrenched your solution is, the less likely it is to be pulled for a competitor. This “stickiness” is what many leading companies utilize to (a) ensure the solution is not replaced and (b) upsell by providing additional modules or professional services. Once you are filling a large amount of a customer’s needs with quality and a proven track record, it only becomes logical that you can ask for other opportunities. Just like in point #1 – You’ve already built the rapport – so ask about additional avenues where your solution could make the customer’s life easier by dealing with only one vendor. In closing, I’ve got a great idea – Stop reading this post and go call your key customers…just to talk, but make sure that you steer the conversation toward: How is the solution working? Anything I should know about? Since all is well, let’s talk about some of your other needs. Like me with my mother, your customer will be glad to hear your voice, and less likely to write you out of their will.