Results-Driven Words (Part 9 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

THE WORDS YOU SELL

Even though the boss may not like to admit it, when people buy your products and services, they also buy you!

Prospects and customers need to feel they can “connect” with a sales rep. Not every purchase satisfies this need, but most do. You are, after all, viewed and thought of by the customer as if you (personally) ARE the business and the business reputation that you represent.

So with all that on the line, you ready yourself every day to get in the spotlight. You shower, brush your teeth, fix your hair, dress up, straighten up, and practice your smile and handshake with everyone in your path.

But what about the words you use? You use words to sell, but you also –like selling yourself—sell the words themselves! You do this by virtue of the exact words you choose to use, and the ways that you use and express them. You also do it by virtue of the words you do not use . . . er, um, uh, expletives (no matter how mild), and any words of a derogatory nature (about anything!)

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—‘tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”

—MARK TWAIN

Seems unfair. All that training and all that daily preparation, and now you have to “mind your P’s and Q’s” as well? Reality is that the true purpose of all that other preparation stuff is nothing more than to present an acceptable and legitimate looking stage for the words and accompanying facial, vocal, and body gesture expressions you use to do the job of selling.

Like picking fruit at the moment of ripeness, the specific words you choose must vary according to the circumstances you’re in and the nature of the prospect or customer you’re phoning, emailing or visiting.

Some warm-up small talk about the weather may help you get a fix on the situation when you’re walking into someone’s office, but generally has no place in an email. Avoid temperature and storm cloud chatter on the phone unless it originates with the prospect or customer, or unless you know the area you’re calling has been experiencing severe weather.

Speaking of storms, don’t be a storm trooper. Some companies you would think should know better are defeating their own efforts by sending out sales teams that make a practice of charging head down into conference rooms, delivering their spiels without looking up or asking questions, checking their watches and abruptly packing up and leaving for “our next appointment.” (HA! At that rate, their next appointment will be with a bankruptcy judge!)

Personal selling is the most exciting and challenging profession in the world. It requires great patience, instinct, knowledge, awareness, spontaneity, humility, judgment, self-esteem, self-confidence, humor, ability to think like a shrink, and an on-the-spot command of engaging and persuasive words.

Like a walking billboard, professional salespeople must be great, quick-to-the-point, storytellers. Both salespros and billboards need to be able to communicate a complete story with an attention-getting beginning, an interest-creating and desire-stimulating middle, and a call-to-action ending . . . and be persuasive.

The difference is that billboards typically have all of 7 words or less to accomplish their goal, and really can’t respond to prospects and customers, or ask essential qualifying and closing questions. In between responding and questioning, most good salespeople should be able to get their basic pitch done in 100 words or less!

What hundred words are you going to choose? Haven’t thought about it? Maybe you should. The words you use are the words you sell with, and that need to sell themselves. In case you thought one word isn’t worth a thousand pictures, take a run through the following list and notice the images they conjure up in your mind . . . then pick some fresh ones to boost your message. If the words in your basic message don’t work, not much else is likely to work.

Here’s a starter kit to get you thinking: Benefits, Hot, Free, Guaranteed, New, You, Now, Once-in-a-lifetime, Special, Extend, Save, Family, Home, Friends, Thank You, Please, Efficient, Convenient, Grateful, Educate, Green, Quality, First,  Economical, Your/Yours, Health, Fun, Opportunity, Challenge, Test, Competition . . . add your own here:

Thanks for visiting! Go for your goals! Make today a great day for someone!

Results-Driven Words (Part 8 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Sales Killers Strike Again.

_______________________________________________________

“Religion, Sex, and Politics” On Rampage

Prospects and Customers Turned Away in Droves

While you’re busy choosing the best words to use for your next prospect or customer, be careful. Sliding into controversial topic zones that detract from the guts of your sales message can be a one-way trip over the edge of the cliff!

Untold millions of sales have gone south as a result of one single, inappropriate, miscalculated, or insensitive word – something typically uttered in innocence, naiveté, ignorance or plain old-fashioned stupidity.

We all have protected topic “No-Fly” zones that we steer clear of and save for special occasions or special audiences (or for yelling out car windows!). If you’re not selling religion, sex and/or politics, keep away! Odds are excellent, that by entering any (even fringe) language territories that support or bridge these topics, you will be offending someone.

Now don’t go run off into neuroticsville. Just be aware that the tendency to blow a sale by sidetracking off onto some religious path, or by making some off-color, sexist, or racial remark (even one Judge Judy wouldn’t rule as derogatory), is much greater today than ever before.

Religion, sex and politics are the mainstay of Hollywood, television, and the news media. The three explosive topics constitute the lifeblood of vast tracts of land in Twitterdom and Facebook City, as well as every bar (and many parties) in every town. When others approach these topics in a sales setting, there are some words you can say . . . and not say.

Even a mixed message like, “Wow! That project turned out perfect; you did a really great job on it . . . for a woman!” even diluted and delivered with a smile and a friendly wink, can still be a colossal insult!

No matter how much you love or don’t love a political leader or platform or piece of legislation, save it for arguing with your brother-in-law. Even when you happen to know that your prospect or customer weighs in on your side of an issue, you never know who may be listening, or to whom your comments might later be relayed.

The words you choose to use need to focus on helping the prospect or customer to define and solve a problem with the benefits of using your product or service. Stay on topic. When your prospect or customer strays, lead her gently back to your deal or the image she has of her problem being solved or her need being met.

“Good Golly, Miss Molly!” works as well as “OMG!” and “I’ll be happy to discuss religious ideas with you in a social setting at some point, but I don’t think we could do justice to the subject with the time we have left… and I’m not really comfortable with that topic as part of a business discussion.”

So, don’t gallop off in a cloud of dust any time a touchy subject surfaces. You don’t want to discount or gloss over a prospect or customer’s interests. Simply have a set or two of words handy to gracefully extract yourself from a sensitive subject discussion.

It’s also a generally good practice to not give your tacit (head-nodding, for example) approval to edgy comments made or inappropriate questions raised by others. Some over-zealous types will take that as meaning you’re in the boat with them and then they’ll really unload a barrage of chatter.

It’s okay to be non-committal. It doesn’t make you a prude. It puts you on the high integrity road, and implies that you’re a thinker. It gives you a certain mystique and reduces your threat level in the other person’s mind.

The bottom line: make a list of “go to” key words you can have ready in your mental pocket that can be used to keep sales efforts on target. You need to make this list for yourself because they have to be words that you are comfortable with, but don’t wing it! Take the time and trouble to look up the meaning of each word. You might even surprise yourself. Practice what you come up with. Practice and replace those that seem inflammatory.

You ARE, after all is said and done,

the words that you use.

Make Yours count!

Results-Driven Words (Part 7 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

NEVER SAY “NEVER!”

In attempting to drive results, there is a tendency on the part of many professionals to cost themselves sales by using “all-inclusive” words.

These are the words that cast a shadow of doubt on sales rep integrity and challenge the credibility of the brand represented.

Are you using these kinds of words now?

First, to put your mind at ease, a word on why this practice is so common in selling . . . it’s because you are special! The basic sales personality is one that’s brimming over with exuberance, enthusiasm, confidence, and expressions of higher energy levels than most other types of business careers.

It’s only a natural offshoot for people evidencing these kinds of character traits that a measure of playful exaggeration will periodically rise to the surface. It’s an approach to word choices which is often employed to emphasize or accentuate a presentation point.

Playful because a professional salesperson rarely exaggerates with evil intent, or to purposely lie or mislead. Stretching descriptive words is more often a form of teasing, or a kind of good-natured humor. But that doesn’t make it okay.

It is not okay because it does not serve the sales process – particularly the closing – in a positive way. To take a giant step in the direction of eliminating this subtle invasion into sales speech patterns requires conscious attention.

Start with the following list of some of the all-inclusive type words that smack of exaggeration, or that set up what is often a one-way, no-outlet pathway for exaggerated statements, and that just plain make salespeople look bad include:

Always ~~~ Ever ~~~ All ~~~ Never ~~~ No one ~~~ Every ~~~ Everyone ~~~ Absolutely ~~~ Positively ~~~ None ~~~ No way ~~~ Impossible ~~~ Can’t ~~~ Cannot ~~~ Conclusive ~~~ Best ~~~ Worst ~~~ Greatest ~~~ Most ~~~ Fastest ~~~ Slowest ~~~ Farthest ~~~ Closest ~~~ Quickest ~~~ Biggest ~~~ Smallest ~~~ Longest ~~~ Shortest ~~~ World’s ~~~ Planet’s ~~~ Hottest ~~~ Coldest

Like many other habits and behaviors we choose, where moderation prevails, so does credibility. So consider taking a step back from using the kinds of words you might ordinarily toss off and instead inject a less inflammatory substitute to come across more unbelievably.

Try these for starters:

Maybe ~~~ Probably ~~~ Often ~~~ Generally ~~~ Usually ~~~ Typically ~~~ Frequently ~~~ Nearly ~~~ Almost ~~~ Somewhat ~~~ Probable ~~~ Estimated ~~~ Guesstimate ~~~ Occasionally ~~~ Rarely ~~~ Seldom ~~~ Periodically ~~~ Indicated ~~~ Implied ~~~ Inferred

The thinking represented here — in addition to the value in sales presentations — is almost universally indicative of approaches needed for the words used in news release content as well. Editors and writers and publishers will not accept all-inclusive language in a release because it violates the principles of needing to communicate newsworthiness.

Words like those in the orange-colored list above set off warning flares that the news release content is too salesy to pose as news. In one-on-one and group presentation selling, the warning flares that go off are in the customer’s and prospect’s heads.

They may well be thinking that exaggerated words are covering price issues and they’re getting ripped off. The more a pitch starts to sound like bragging, the more doubt that’s cast on durability issues and people can start to think about the product or service falling apart. Indirectly, there’s even a suggestion that better alternatives might be obtained from competitors!

Are YOUR words so salesy that they throw off a smokescreen which prevents you from being seen as a high-integrity resource? Are you using words that get in the way of prospects and customers, that prevents them from viewing you as someone filled with benefits and reliable information?

Are all-or-nothing words

getting in your way?

Results-Driven Words (Part 6 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

“B-b-b-bird, bird, bird,

b-bird‘s the word!”

– From 1963 hit song by The Trashmen

What’s YOUR word?

Ask people you work with. Ask your friends and family. Everyone has a pet word (or phrase) of habit that is probably not results-driven, and that may be costing you sales. I heard a salesman say “Trust me” to a prospect the other day seven times in four minutes.

Do you think he might have a problem with being honest?

Expressions like “All things being equal” and “Sorry” and “Um” and “Shoot!” and “Yikes!” can add a little color to your play-by-play presentation, but – overused – are best left for cartoon characters. Not only do they get old fast, they distract from what you have to say that’s important.

Some of these words that put a death-grip on your drive to gain results are simply a form of nervous ticks. All of us use some of them in varying degrees. The hard part of giving them the boot is figuring out which ones to kick in the first place. And taking self-inventory is not necessarily a strong suit for many.

One way I’ve found that works to identify the culprit words you’re using routinely and that you probably have little or no awareness of, is to set up a little game with friends, family and associates. One-on-one, tell each that you’re involved in a mini-training program that requires you to find out how others view you.

Explain that you will genuinely appreciate it if she/he would tell you  — honestly – what musical instrument and what kind of animal that individual most closely associates with you, and why. Write down the responses.

Do NOT refute, rebuttal, challenge or argue about any answer you get. Simply write it down. Thank the person. If something’s not clear, ask for an example. Period.

Now you have succeeded at warming the person up, and (s)he realizes you will not jump down her/his throat if something is said that that individual might normally think you would not like to hear. Congratulations!

Now, ask each of these people what word or phrase or expression they hear you use most often.

Do NOT refute, rebuttal, challenge, or argue about any response you get. Write it down. Thank them. If you need to ask for an example to clarify what you hear, ask. But guess what? Right! Do not refute, rebuttal, challenge or argue about what you hear. Write it down. Thank them.

In fact, you can be very grateful for the answers you get, because the people you have asked are taking what amounts to a personal risk to give you honest answers.

The only way to underscore the value of all this is to next, USE the information.

If you like the instrument and animal associations, and think they help you make sales, stay with them. If you don’t like what they represent, figure out how to move in some new directions to generate a more productive image.

NOW Comes The Challenge . . .

Take the words people associate with hearing regularly from you and study them. Decide if it’s really helpful to your cause as a professional salesperson to be making statements like “Honestly!” or “Y’know what I mean?” or “What it is, is…” or “Holy Moley!” or “You got that right!” or whatever your inventoried friends, family and associates tell you they hear most.

You can change what you don’t like by choosing to change it, and by choosing to make that an easy choice, and by asking someone close to you to raise a finger or pull an earlobe or scratch a nose (or whatever) every time they hear the habit. Maybe pay ‘em a nickle for each signal?

It won’t take long to get rid of “B-b-b bird, bird, bird, b-bird’s the word” and watch prospects and customers pay closer attention . . .watch your sales climb.

Results-Driven Words (Part 5 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Biznis writin’

don’t take no skill

Huh?

Y’mean ANYbody can write business stuff? No. I mean that business writing is not all about writing skill. Yes, it does obviously take some skill, but it rarely matters, for example (though it may not be a pretty picture!), whether your participles are dangling or your verbs are intransitive.

Business writing is less about grammar skills and more about writing with marketing instinct!

Because (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah!): writing for business must always and everywhere be marketing –based and marketing-triggered. Regardless of great business intentions and commitments to missions that benefit your neighborhood, society and the Earth, business is nonetheless all about making money.

Crass? No, realistic. Without profits, businesses simply cannot afford to nurture their employees or dedicate themselves to, and support worthy causes. The more money they can make, the more support they can afford.

So even in the

sneaky little places

. . . that you might not think matter (e.g., loan applications, business plan narratives, product package inserts, 5-mile run sponsorship t-shirts, email signatures), it does. Business writing needs to be vigilantly and subtly persuasive, and that requires more than a master of fine arts in creative writing or a doctorate in English.

Yeah, but technical writing doesn’t fit that need for creative flair. Not true. We’ve all seen the “Put slot A into opening B” kind of stuff, yet we seldom view the task of writing “instructions” as more than a task. Most manufacturers, in fact, simply fail to make the connection.

Even assembly directions and service agreements represent persuasion opportunities where customer relationship management can begin. It’s a hidden feeding ground for repeat sales that continually goes unnoticed by manufacturers.

So, with business writing, there’s just not a lot of room for writing that’s stodgy, pedantic, patronizing, literary, overly fluffy, or that’s filled with jargon and tech talk or long rambling descriptions. Traditional writing skill is neither the most desirable, nor the most effective ingredient.

Effective business writing

is writing that relies

on marketing instinct.

Sometimes it’s cultivated. Sometimes it comes naturally, but never does persuasive storytelling depend on mechanical or textbook writing skills . . . or, necessarily, a great sales personality!

Don’t get me wrong. I love sales personalities. And I love Strunk and White and routinely refer to their Elements of Style, along with the Associated Press Style Book, Spellchecker, my trusty Webster’s, Roget’s and my Flip Dictionary, plus of course Larousse Spanish-English and a dozen other specialty dictionaries.

But smart marketers know you can always find an editor and a proofreader, and that editor and proofreader words don’t win customers and repeat sales. They also know that salespeople are generally better at delivering words than creating them.

A marketing wordsmith who can craft persuasive magic blends of words and rhythms that communicate to your target audience at every level is a rare breed. When you can find that kind of resource, know that such services typically return the investment many times over.

Business writing runs the gamut from stodgy annual reports and formal business plans to hot-shot jingles, themes, brassy headlines, obscure classifieds, and provocative blogs.

It includes and embraces the marketing worlds of advertising, promotion, merchandising, packaging, pricing, public relations, website content, email content, one-on-one and group sales presentations, trade and professional show presentations, sales promotion and direct mail materials.

Even great writers hire other writers with specific expertise to put the right spin on their drafts. If your sales materials and the words you use are lacking a proven, experienced overview, you could be the very finest stand-up sales presenter on the planet and it won’t matter.

Go for the sparkle!

If you don’t, you can bet your competitor will.

Results-Driven Words (Part 4 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Word Vigilance

is the Price of Making Sales

It is NOT true in selling that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” People buy words. Words paint pictures that conjure up images people want to believe about the products and services they purchase. Even artists know this; they use words to sell their work.

It’s the difference between giving a child an outlined or paint-by-the-numbers coloring book…or a blank pad! One stifles creative expression. The other encourages it.

Have you ever heard a song and liked it, and then saw the video on TV that didn’t match what was in your head? You perhaps imagined great mountain and seashore scenery, but instead the TV version dished out snakes, pitbulls and a burning bedroom?

You had put your creativity to work and liked what you imagined. Then along came someone else’s idea of what the same thing was about, and bang! . . . a collision that made you dislike the song, an image conflict that changed your mind.

Product demonstrations are great tools, and charts that itemize all the benefits of various services are great tools. But –in the end— what will make the difference in a sale are:

• the words that are used
• how the words are used
• and who uses the words

If you are the one using the words, and you’ve got your act buttoned up, but the words are somehow not right and/or the ways that you are using them puts the emPHAsis on the wrong SylLABle, you will not make the sale. Period.

Only you can know which words to emphasize and which parts of those words to emphasize. Because only you know whether your product or service is THE best or ONE of the best and whether it can deliver REAL peace of mind, or real PEACE of mind or real peace of MIND.

Where you shine the light

is where prospects will look.

Ever looked in the mirror after a failed sales attempt and thought to yourself that you should have your head examined? Well, hey, who am I to say? Maybe you should. But odds are that your head is fine (does it rattle?). Like trying to play poker with Uno or Monopoly cards, you may simply not be using the right decks of words.

Here’s a brain drain exercise for you: Can you write your entire sales pitch on the back of a business card? Try it! Then try using what you write with your grandmother or your closest 7 year-old, or someone next to you on the bus, train, plane, or subway (Well, okay, maybe not the subway!). Do they get it?

What do you end up with? (Yeah, a headache maybe.) No, get serious here for a minute, what you end up with is the nuts-and-bolts-bread-and-butter-meat-and-potatoes message that says who you are, what you sell, what great benefits your product or service delivers, and how easy you’re going to make it for me to be your customer.

So the secret to sales success is to just utter a dozen or two great words? Hardly. The secret to great sales success is you and the ways you choose to represent yourself and your company or profession or cause. Having a dozen or two great words to use will help you help your prospect to sell herself.

Be vigilant about having the right sets of words to build the bridge from products and services to customer benefits. Be vigilant about using that bridge and those words consistently and enthusiastically. The rest (the features and all the purchase decision support points) is fluff. Customers need it to justify decisions to friends, families, co-workers, and bosses. But the words that touch emotional motives are what sell!

What are your best words?

How, when, and where do you use them?

Don’t Be Fooled by the “Halfway Mark”

Written by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions
[Contributing Author]

People like to share ideas triggered by the holidays… start of year advice, end of year advice, summer time advice, the list goes on…  We are in the first week of July, and here come the posts about… “Halfway There,” “Halftime,” and other similar titles popping up in our email box.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of these pieces are good… they contain solid insights and techniques, but I think many miss a key point that raises questions about the relevance of their content as it applies to sales.

While the calendar shows July 1 as the start of the second half of the year, the reality is most sales people crossed the halfway mark some time ago.  The halfway point is tied directly to their sales cycle.  If a rep has a 60 day sales cycle, their halftime came in May.  If they have a 90 day cycle, they past the halfway point in April!

Let’s use the 90 cycle as the benchmark for the rest of this post…

The articles we are reading ignore the reality of timing.  If it takes an average of 90 days to close a deal, those I engage in July will likely close in October.  As we get deeper into the year, most of the prospects I engage in October and the months following won’t close until 2011.

Most quotas are based on a calendar year, so having a great prospect in October is great, but the revenue won’t flow until January (especially if you allow for the impact of Thanksgiving and Christmas).

Look at your calendar and your quota?  How close are you to achieving your year-end goals?  Don’t get caught up believing in halfway marks that past 3 months ago.  The good news is you still have a little time to play catch up… AND depending you on your sales cycle, you can use the end of this year to get a jump-start on 2011!

Get your copy of Tibor’s FREE eBook What’s in Your Pipeline?

Results-Driven Words (Part 3 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Lighting Up Sales Leads

With Sparklers

Results-driven words that “SPARKLE” can generate sales leads in a wide variety of ways.

Sales lead generation tools include: professional, trade, and industrial show displays; online and traditional news releases; targeted and mass email blasts; targeted telemarketing; sponsored events; social media and blog postings; radio and TV commercials; website banners; airplane banners; outdoor billboards and transit posters; yellow-page and newspaper ads, consumer/trade/professional and specialty turn-key magazines; magazine space and classified ads; premium and promotional merchandising; brochures, circulars, flyers, letters, postcards, direct mail packages; publication inserts; and a myriad of “buzz” (word-of-mouth) marketing methods.

Using any of these methods effectively means relying on SPARKLE – high-impact, high-energy words that trigger emotional buying motives and that focus on the benefits to the consumer instead of on “how great we are.”

Your SPARKLE words should always include some kind of specific, value-perceived offer . . . something your prospective sales leads (individuals or organizations) can get in return for responding to your marketing message, along with a description of what step or steps need to be taken in order to “cash in” on the offer.

You can never give a prospect

too many ways to respond.

• Marketing that includes, for example, a Tollfree phone number does better than marketing that does not.
• Marketing that provides a Tollfree number plus a BRC (Business Reply Card) outperforms those offers that include a phone number alone.
• Marketing that offers a Tollfree number plus a BRC, plus a specific click-to website address or landing page will outperform those with just one or two options.
• Marketing that also includes a coupon of some kind will do best of all.

Why? Your prospect has more ways to respond; the easier you make it for that to happen, the more you increase the likelihood that it will.

Ever wonder why magazines will have “tip-in” subscription cards bound into the stapled fold area, PLUS insert cards that fall out when you open it, PLUS perhaps a page of perforated subscription order cards, PLUS an 800 phone number AND a website URL shown . . . in EVERY ISSUE!?

And, in between issues, they’ll mail out subscription solicitation letters with BRCs and Tollfree numbers and website URLs that offer early subscription renewal discounts, premiums, and promotional merchandise.

They do indeed know what they’re doing and they have tons of subscription order research to support the “overkill” methods they use. Direct mail envelopes always seem jammed with material. They are. The rule of direct mail copy is “The more you tell, the more you sell.”

Also, when you’re using direct mail, a first class stamp covers the cost for mailing the weight equivalent of five pieces of paper. Why put just one page in the envelope when you’re paying for more? Consider adding a flyer, business cards, paperclip, coupon.

Remember when the only thing that’s overkill is the number of reply options you make available, you will never be accused of “hounding” prospects; you are simply making it extremely easy to respond.

Q. What kinds of words SPARKLE ???

A. Words that speak volumes. A. Words with an attitude.

A. Words that paint pictures.   A. Words that are upbeat.

A. Words that challenge.   A. Words that suggest opportunity.

A. Words that inform, educate, and entertain.

“Sparkle” is one. “Free” is another. “New”; “Poof!”; “Psssssst!”; “Love”; “Puppies”; “Sunshine”; “Now”; “Guaranteed”; “One-of-a-kind”; “Toddler”; “Rugged”; “Sexy”; “Patriotic”; “Easy”; and “Sizzle”; are some other examples. More great words that conjure up images will be loaded into upcoming posts in this series.

Some parting thoughts to combine with the magic words you weave:

• Repetition sells! Repetition sells! Repetition sells! Repetiti…..
• When your lead generation efforts ask questions, be sure to listen carefully to the answers.
  
• Always test whatever you write before you get to the launch pad. (More on this in upcoming series posts.)
• Avoid ANY words that need to be explained to ANY one!
• Consider all the ways others might interpret your message and don’t say anything you’ll be sorry for later, or not be able to deliver as promised.

10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss

Results-Driven Words (Part 2 of 10)

Written by Hal Alpiar
[Contributing Author]

Tip Your Email Scale

To Make a Sale Sail

Results-driven words in emails need to tip the sale scale in your favor. When you’re writing personally to a customer or prospect, keep the words short, simple, and to-the-point. Avoid flowery or wordy descriptions. Focus on benefits, not features. Use indented bullet points whenever possible (3 beats 4!).

Emphasize “You” instead of “We” and direct your message to the recipient’s needs, not how great you are. (Nobody cares!) Your message must be specific and realistic. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver!

Just because emails are shorter and quicker doesn’t excuse you from always building in pleasantries, for example. No, you don’t need to be so “Dear Mr. Deep Pockets:” formal when “Hi Deep –“ will do in most cases, but SOME salutation is usually called for and always appreciated.

No need to sign off with the formality of “Sincerely yours” or “Very truly yours” when “Kind regards” or “Best regards” or just “Regards” will suffice, but SOME sign off is always called for and usually appreciated..

A couple of major rules of thumb:

Don’t key in the recipient email addresses in the “To” and “Cc” and “Bcc” windows until you have slept on or walked away from what you’ve written, and then returned to re-read and re-consider and re-write your initial draft.

Career positions have toppled when un-edited un-thought-out emails have been accidentally or prematurely launched, or trigger-happy, over-eager fingers sent copies to inappropriate people.

When there’s time to leave your words overnight, do. When there’s not, take a walk around the block or even to the water cooler for a break in the action before inserting addresses and before clicking “Send.”

Exercise conservative thinking about spacing, type (font) treatments and special effects. This is NOT to suggest dampening of your enthusiasm, but –because they come out of the same cyberspace as annoying website flash and pop-ups—discretion in the form of quiet, factual, positive energy works best.

Minimize use of color, boldfacing, Italics, mixed fonts, font sizes, and unusual spacing. If you’re not selling circus products, don’t use “circus-style” presentations.

Be sure to close with a specific follow-up request or suggestion, a call-to-action vehicle that lets the recipient know you will be phoning back at a certain time, or that offers something of value for some action on her or his part. Include contact information in your signature block or sign-off, which is also a good place to include your company’s branding theme line.

Probably the most important and least thought-of way to approach any customer or prospect by email is to step back from it long enough to judge whether you would read it if it were addressed to you.

Would you even open it? The subject line is probably the single most important group of words you can write. It’s the “grabber.” It’s the headline that makes you want to read the ad, the title that makes you want to open the book, the set of words that triggers an emotional buying motive.

If you can legitimately use a referrer’s name in the subject line, “Doyle Slayton urged me to send this,” use it. If you need to use a reminder, “Follow-up to meeting you yesterday at Donuts4U,” use one. Keep thinking of having to rise above the spam tide.

Since ALL sales, by the way, are the result of an emotional buying motive, the subject line should probably take as long to compose as the whole rest of the email. Aim for 7 words or less. Tease. Provoke. Inform. Promise fun. Give news.

Educating while entertaining can work if you’re careful with supportive facts and avoid exaggerating. It should also go without saying, but here it is anyway: You increase your odds for success every time your ideas of entertainment land on the high moral side of the humor equation. It is NEVER okay to use off-color jokes, stories, cartoons, expressions, photos or illustrations.

Oh, and as a matter of courtesy (and added insurance to get your message opened), remember to steer clear of using an attachment unless the prospect or customer is expecting it and has agreed to it. Above all, keep the awareness on your front burner that emails (unlike shredded paper letters and memos) never go away . . .

TO TIP YOUR EMAIL SCALE

AND MAKE A SALE SAIL SAFE,

WRITE NOT JUST FOR PROSPERITY,

BE ALSO THINKING: “POSTERITY.”