This is a vendor email my Chief Learning Officer received last week – the company and personal names have been removed:Good Afternoon Mr. CLO,
Thank you for your voicemail. I appreciate your frank and honest feedback and look forward to a conversation regarding future sales openings with your company. I had not sent any information over via email prior because a live conversation generally allows me to best determine a potential client’s needs. Ultimately my goal is to find the most qualified candidates for your sales team. The more information I have, the more effective partner I can be in securing top sales talent.
Here are a few points about my firm that are unmatched by any agency in the area:
We have been in business for 30+ years, and we only focus on your industry, which means we have an unmatched network of sales talent in this place.
- We do not try to be all things to all people.
- We only specialize in B2B sales and sales management recruiting in our backyard. This means we have the proprietary knowledge needed to identify top talent.
- Our service is free- what will you be losing by using our service? We believe in a partnership, that is why we don’t charge up front like other forms of hiring services. (job boards, retainer firms). We think it is crucial to deliver first.
Best,
Mr. Account Rep.
Now, re-read the email above and think to yourself, “would I take a meeting from this vendor?” As you think about that question, put yourself in the CLO’s shoes:
- This email was sent at 3:30 PM EST, right as he was about to jump into his next meeting
- Our CLO gets on average 200-300 emails a day
- This vendor has sent similar emails in the past and gotten no response.
It is always interesting to receive emails like these. As a firm, one of our services is inside sales training. Part of the training addresses sending emails. Our techniques focus around several key aspects of email writing - length, content, organization, and type of contact (first contact..follow up email, etc).
Now take a look at the rewritten email below.
CLO,
I apologize for my professional persistence, but I have been unsuccessful reaching you over the phone reagrding helping you recruit sales talent, and thought email might be a better medium for you.
Per my voicemail, I write to set up 30 minutes to introduce our firm. From your website, I see you are hiring up to four new inside sales representatives in the short term. I would imagine that in the current economy with so many people looking for jobs, it might be hard to adequately screen all of the new candidates applying for jobs.
How can we be helpful? Our peers who use us to secure sales talent tell us that our servive is particularly welcome at a time like this, as it's free of charge. All we ask in return is to establish a partnership should you be happy with our services.
How does April 27th @ 10:30 AM work for you? Alternatively, I can work with your assistant to schedule with your permission. I will follow up on Wednesday morning to connect on this if I do not hear back.
Best,
Mr. Account Rep
As a time oppressed executive, which email are you more likely to respond to, and why?
Contributor: Dan Lerer
Posted by on 04/15 at 02:54 PM
As frustrating as damaging, and incorrect, comments is, the beauty from the internet is the interactive aspect of it. That means that not only can readers comment, but so can the writers on the article and those being discussed in it. Addressing those that have the wrong information is one of the arguments to provide comments on your posts. Thanks for reminding us that commenting isn’t just for the prospects of the site.
Posted by on 06/18 at 08:18 AM
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