Does email help or hinder your sales process?

Some brokers prefer to communicate to clients by phone rather than wasting time typing out an email. Other brokers prefer email as it’s more convenient and less intrusive. But what method is the best to make the sale?

Speaking to people over the phone or in person is far more powerful than writing an email from a sales perspective. Research shows that only 7% of communication is conveyed through words. 38% is how you say it (verbal tones) and 55% is nonverbal expressions. Therefore, if you rely a lot on email to build trust and win a new client, you are missing out on 93% of your ability to persuade your prospective client and build trust. That’s working harder, not smarter!

However, you need to compliment this with your prospective clients’ preferences. Some clients’ prefer email communication so telephoning them every time you need to communicate something will only annoy them. I know that when I am dealing with someone (as the purchaser of a product or service) that I prefer email. I tell people this and when they do not listen and call me anyway, I get annoyed.

Then there are the four personality types to consider. You need to understand what personality type your prospect is and tailor your approach appropriately. Analytical and Driver’s will typically prefer email. Amiable and Expressive’s will prefer the phone.

The answer often lies in selecting the communication medium (i.e. email, phone and in-person) that best suits the following three priorities (in order of priority):

1. The stage of the sales cycle you are at (e.g. qualifying, building trust, pitching your solution, closing, etc.). E.g. you need more phone and face-to-face contact while you are building trust.
2. The preferences of the client (based on what they tell you and their personality type)
3. Your preferences (this is a distant third priority and arguably unimportant).

If you are going to use email, below are three email etiquette tips from best-selling author and presenter, Verne Harnish:

1. the “Subject:” line of emails should match the substance of the email, period!! For instance, if there is a request for an 15th April phone call, put “15th April call” in the Subject line. And if the reply email switches it to 17th April, don’t keep using the old 15th April Subject line. Take 3 seconds and change the Subject line to 17th April. As back and forth emails morph into different topics, the Subject line needs to change so it aligns with the modified or new topic. Take Subject lines seriously and communication will flow better.
2. Avoid making too many requests in one email, especially if they involve different people. I would rather receive three separate emails with one topic/request per email (with matching Subject lines!!) than one long email and a generic Subject line.
3. my third pet peeve are long emails. The above quote from Guy Kawasaki is his testimonial for Joseph McCormack’s book Brief: Make a Bigger Impact Saying Less. When we invite big names to keynote our Summits, like Ben Horowitz for the Growth Summit, we take Kawasaki’s advice and put the request both in the Subject line and as the first sentence of the email. It works rather than drone on about the details.

Email is great but make sure it’s working for you, not against you.