Rookie Mistakes

Every business, irrespective of its size or industry knows that prospecting for new sales is hard work. Identifying potential clients, gaining their interest in your products or services and ultimately securing a sale requires skill and experience, but in the end it still is a numbers game too.

Today, the job of prospecting has been made a lot easier if you can get people to your website. Get them there and you can give them access to information such as white papers, special offers and discount pricing simply by requesting their contact details first. Immediately they become a qualified prospect and they are already in your hands!

With such an opportunity, it is disappointing to find many companies are not taking advantage of this and it shows with the lack of attention to detail and lazy business practices.

I was recently looking at a company offering services in lead generation. I found a report that was available for download so I left my contact details on their website. They followed up a few days later with an introductory email that read exactly this;

"Hi First Name, By any chance, are you interested in solutions for getting sales appointments and leads?...."

Seriously? Hi First Name? You already have my first name and even my surname but your lazy business practices allowed a blank template to be sent out. I'm sure the same mistake went out to every other prospect on their list. Does this encourage me to respond and engage in business with that company? 

You may suggest that we go easy on them thinking that this was a one off mistake but sadly they followed it up with another automated email one week later - with exactly the same mistake!!!

On a separate occasion, I had a marketing call from an organisation where I had made a similar enquiry on their services. The initial conversation itself went very well but after the call, they sent me a follow up email and their opening line read "Dear Andrew" - getting my name (Ashley) right might have been a better way to start that relationship.

More than any time before, businesses are being handed new prospects on a plate. The lesson here is take advantage of this, tighten up your processes and eliminate rookie mistakes!