E-Mail Bonding Mass e-mails are quick and easy, but a personal touch can do wonders for your business.
By Julia Miller
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
E-mail should hasten rather than hinder your salesprocess," says Stephan Schiffman, sales guru and president ofDEI Management Group in New York City. "But because people arebombarded with so many messages, they also need to use e-mailjudiciously."
The more personalized your message, the better the chance itwill be both read and responded to. Schiffman suggests a monthlye-mail newsletter that keeps clients and potential clientsup-to-date on your company. For example, you can use a newsletterto announce any upcoming sales or service promotions, send outinformation on new product lines, brag about articles or booksyou've had published or speeches you've given, as well asconduct customer surveys.
"Periodic check-ins are an easy way to create a dialoguewith customers," Schiffman says. "I look at it likeI'm sending an electronic post-it. On occasion, I'll gothrough my 500 e-mail addresses, and send little 'How's itgoing?' kind of notes to those I haven't talked to in awhile. If you do this on a Sunday night for Monday morningdelivery, it usually triggers some kind of response."
Remember the following if you want your e-mail messages to beread:
1. Stick to the point. Reading and responding to e-mailis time-consuming. Don't waste your or your client's timewith long-winded messages. And don't send a newsletter that, ifprinted, would run more than two pages long.
2. What's in it for your client? Use e-mail to answerquestions, send quotes and announce sales. Leave out information onyour company's history or competitive positioning.
3. Present a next step. Getting to the next step in thesales process is your primary goal. Through your e-mails, take theinitiative and suggest the client take an action step, such asgiving you a phone call.
