The other day I received a prospecting email that looked like this (it is formatted exactly the way it was sent, however, I did change the names and deleted the signature lines):
My name is Bob Salesguy from BCI? Big Company Inc. exploring an opportunity to assist your IT Software Development and Staff Augmentation initiatives. We help companies reduce the development cycle by 40% and save up to 50% through our Innovative Project Management approach and tools?
Our three step engagement model begins with:
1. Risk and Cost Free Assessment of your requirement
2. Followed by a high-level project plan proposal
3. We together decide on Milestones and deliverables of the project; know what to expect and when with no upfront fee
How it benefits you:
- No billing until Milestone and deliverables meet your expectations
- Dedicated Project Management Office to clearly understand your business model and align the development initiatives with your Business Rules
- Always know what to expect and when through our effective communication methods and project management tools
- Software Development Infrastructure that can be easily and quickly accessed and customized as per your requirements; meaning no initial investment from your end
- On Staff Augmentation, we offer performance guarantee on all our resources. Simply means; if you are not satisfied with the performance of our resources, we will replace them at no cost to you
Can you please accommodate me on your calendar for a brief chat to discuss how our service can help you achieve cost and times savings? If you need immediate assistance, please call me directly at 732-777-0800 ext. 402.
Maybe it's just me but I have a difficult time believing that emails like this still work at creating high-value leads.
I can't picture a corporate executive reading this email and saying, "Wow! I need to call this guy right now!"
It still floors me how many companies think that this is an effective way to generate leads and new business.
I guess one of the key issues is that email is cheap and easy and at the end of the day sales reps can say, "Hey, Mr. Bossman, I contacted over 100 people today..."
Emails like this are similar to an untargeted direct mail campaign, similar to those junk mail letters we all receive. Sure, you might get a few bites but you could do much better if you invested a little bit of time making your message more relevant and compelling you could dramatically improve your results.
It is much more productive to send 25 tightly-focused emails that focus on solving a particular problem than to send an email like this one. I read that email at least 6 or 7 times and still have no idea what he's trying to sell me.
Oh, wait, I'm not his target market. Silly me!