Email to Re-engage Cold Prospects
If there’s one hard truth every sales rep and marketer has to deal with, it is the fact that even the most promising deals fall through. How you respond – will to a great extent – determine the outcome.
One way is to dismiss such leads as “water under the bridge” and move on to the next best lead. We don’t suggest that way. We want you to fight the fight! Think about it, after all the effort you have put into building the relationship, you shouldn’t give up. Instead of letting cold or dead prospects fizzle out, you can use email effectively to re-engage with cold prospects and hopefully get some deals won.
Why Is It Important to Re-Engage?
There are a number of convincing reasons why re-engaging is a great idea. First, re-engaging dead or cold leads is always easier than marketing to new ones. When a warm prospect suddenly turns cold that could mean a lot of things. It could be that they are dealing with more urgent matters. It could also be because a competitor has redirected their focus and now they are weighing more options.
Letting them go at this point means losing not just their business but countless opportunities to get referrals from them. You are also losing the chance to be the top brand on their minds when they will eventually be ready for a deal.
When a warm prospect suddenly turns cold that could mean a lot of things.
How to Use Email to Re-engage Prospects
1. Be Available and Helpful
2. Ensure Your Message is Relevant
In order to make your email messages relevant, you want to keep abreast of the prospect’s current situation as well as try to understand future needs. This will ensure that your messages resonate with them. A great place to start in this regard is checking the news. Find out what is happening to them or their competitors and adapt your message accordingly. If they find your content interesting and specialized to their needs, they will be less inclined to discard them.
3. Have a Case of the Mondays? Timing Matters
Time your emails appropriately to increase the likelihood that your prospects open it. Monday morning is the worst time to send an email. This is because it would have to compete with countless other unread messages from the weekend. In the same vein, it is important to send your emails at optimal intervals. Consider automating the process to make sure every message goes out exactly when it is supposed to.
Practical Examples of Re-engaging with Email
4. The Nine-Word Email
According to a report from the Harvard Business Review, curiosity is one of the strongest triggers for making a message viral. With that in mind, the nine-word email aims to pique cold prospects’ curiosity, ensuring they click on your email and get the message.
The general formula for this email goes like this:
Subject: Prospect’s first name e.g. Joyce
Body: Are you still interested in getting [insert your service or product]?
It could be tempting to add something to this shockingly brief message, but the directness and simplicity is the whole point.
5. Disarming Cold Prospects with Honesty
There is a marked difference between being desperate and showing some level of vulnerability. You might have tried different approaches to re-engage your client only to get a lukewarm response. It might be time to call in the big guns by showing your hand.
Example Email:
Hi Joyce, We have not managed to take a step forward since we sent you our proposal. It seems to me like we might have gone wrong somewhere. Could I ask for an honest assessment of what we may have missed and what we need to do to get the ball rolling?
Example Email
6. When and How to Close the Loop
When all else fails, it might actually be time to let go. But how you do this could actually open the way for future re-engagement. Letting go gives you a chance to move on from a hopeless situation. However, it could also be what your prospects need for them to take action.
In this case, you could find a creative way of requesting to put a prospect’s project on hold. They might not see this coming and that could prompt a reaction.
Important Tips to Keep in Mind When Using Email to Re-engage
7. Let Your Prospect Know Why You Thought of Them
8. Play the Role of a Consultant Rather than a Sales Person
9. Request for Referrals
10. Show that You Care
How to Get a Prospect to Respond to Your Emails
Nothing is quite as unnerving as having a formerly warm prospect ignore your emails. As you may have noticed, it takes time and effort to come up with the right things to say when re-engaging with email. But you need a response to know whether your efforts are paying off or not.
Here are some tips to get prospects to reply to emails: