In a recent eletter, Ari Galiper suggested that if you are “chasing” prospects and getting the silent treatment, you should try sending this email:
Subj: Apology…
Dear [Contact.FirstName], hope you are well.
I?m getting in touch with you not to move things forward, but simply to apologize.
I think maybe somewhere along the way, I may have dropped the ball, not made you feel completely comfortable or maybe I didn?t answer your questions the best I could have? or perhaps it was something else.
I?m just writing to you for only one reason, to ask if you?d be so kind to share some of your feedback on how I can improve and what I could have done better, in the event we have a chance to work together again in the future.
We only get better in life if others are open to sharing the truth of how we can improve ourselves.
[Contact.FirstName], I would really appreciate any feedback that you’d be open to sharing.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
On one level, I think this could be a great way to end the silent treatment . . . but there is a catch.
If you are truly writing this from the heart after sincerely trying everything you knew to connect with a real valuable proposition for a potential client, it could be a great last stand. But I think there is a good chance you’ll be following it like a script/system, and then you run into the problem with any sort of system you learn not from your heart or hard experience, but because you’ve followed some online guru’s instructions.
And in that case, I think in the majority of situations, your email will be treated for what it is — Spam (dressed up nicely, but still spam).
As an example, I continue to receive upwards of two dozen offers each week from various people/organizations to contribute content to my sites. Some of the scripted emails suggest the content providers are doing me a favor; others offer to pay for the privilege.
I know what they are up to — they are trying to get their content/hyperlinks onto my site to boost their own site, or more likely the clients who have engaged them.
Some follow the follow-up email sequence. They send three or even four scripted follow-up emails, hoping somehow to get me off the silent treatment trip. And my answer has, and always will be, to continue the radio silence. I don’t answer spam emails, no matter how nicely they are set up.
(There is some hypocrisy here in that our company’s number one salesperson follows some spammy techniques to drum up business. Most go nowhere, but indeed a few bite and take up the offer. And that is good because the sales pay the bills and we thankfully are doing things right once we have the order because our repeat volume business for a notoriously fickle industry (advertising) is really quite good.)
But I still think you should measure your approaches in following scripted systems. In my opinion, fewer broadcasts and more genuine interactions make sense. If you send me an email like the one above, I might answer — if I perceive there is a real person rather than a script machine behind the “send” button.
