When I was reviewing my sales productivity over the last financial year, I realised that writing better emails was something that increased my productivity. Whilst nothing can replace human interaction, email is still plugging the gap as best as it can alongside messaging and video applications.
I’ve always thought that great emails are a way of creating a premium customer experience. It is now the bare minimum in 2021 that emails shouldn’t be long, passive aggressive or unecessary. I put together a few pointers below that I found helpful.
Craft emails with compelling subject lines
One of the core metrics for digital marketers is the open rate (how many people opened an email). The only way to entice people to open an email is to create email subjects that encourage being opened.
My go to format is:
[My Company] | [Call to Action] with [Customer Name]
or
OutSystems | Procurement Next Steps - Telstra.
It’s simple, legible and from a UX perspective, you can read that on a phone. So as an executive is taking the kids out for a walk, a quick flash of that headline and a next step allows you to progress your conversations.
Succinct emails will also reduce the number of emails you get
Sales people tend to bloat emails and, especially in the tech space, feels that more information for customers is good. However, our attention is split more than ever and we’ve got cooler things to occupy us like going to the gym times at odd hours. If you can reduce the word count and have actionable next steps, you should be able to reduce the number of emails that you send out and in turn, reduce the number of emails you get back.
Format your succinct emails
Writing succinct emails is one thing, formatting is another. I try to use arrows, numbers and appropriate spacing to make it easier to see the information and simplify the call to action/next step.
Hi John,
Thanks for your time on the phone this morning.
From our discussion, you mentioned you'd like to:
> Platform demo
> Understand our pricing
> Learn about local customers.
Let me know if there's availability next Tuesday morning.
Cheers,
Davis
If you want to find a format that works for you, try reach out to someone in your network who is an Executive or Personal Assistant and ask how they do it.
Reply Immediately
Replying as soon as you can forces you to be brief, figure out next steps and shows the other person that you’re eager to get them an outcome and that you’re working with them to make their lives easier.
Conclusion
Writing better emails is a customer centric activity. Compelling subject lines, succinct emails and simple formatting can act as an extension to your personal and company brand and signals that you’re keen to work with and through people. Don’t forget, if you can - reply immediately.
Davis