How not to write a sales letter
When I am training people how to sell, the importance of effective communication comes up again and again. It helps set you apart from the masses, the ones who can’t be bothered and the ones who are just treating you like a number.
Consider this gem I received on LinkedIn:
Dear Jenet,
Hope this finds you well!!!
Just wanted to follow up & see if you have any digital marketing requirement.
We take pride in our White hat, Result oriented promotion strategies & superior customer service.
We offer anything & everything to be categorized under Digital marketing.
To name a few:
SEO
SMO
PPC
Mobile responsive /Mobile friendly website
Website Designing & Development
Mob Apps Design
Mob Apps Development
Please feel free reply with your requirement.
In case you use Skype and Google hangout please send us the chat id for better communication.
I will look forward to hear from you.
Warm Regards,
……. ……..
Sr.Online Marketing Executive
Visit us on our websitewww………org
- I’m not keen on people who can’t even be bothered to get my name right
- “Hope this finds you well!!!” – bad grammar and too many exclamation marks – I’m not your friend, so what is presumably an attempt at friendliness just seems unprofessional.
- “Just wanted to follow up…..” We’ve never met, spoken or interacted in any way before, so now I don’t trust you because I know you are lying. Oh and more bad grammar.
- “&” …. what is wrong with the word ‘and’? Is it too tiring to press three keys instead of one? Doesn’t make me feel very valued or that you expended any effort writing to me.
- “Please feel free reply with your requirement”. Honestly, if you can’t string a sentence together, what makes you think I am going to trust you with my digital marketing? Hardly the sort of impression I want to give my customers.
- The spacing is really annoying too (this might not have mattered if everything else was OK, but it’s not, so now I’m grouchy!)
- Basically, this is spam. It is lazy, poorly crafted and it’s clogging up my in box.
I removed my connection from this particular person on LinkedIn because I don’t want to receive dross like this from him. However, he has (inadvertently) given us some great advice; what not to do. So now, this is what you should do:
- Personalise properly and take the trouble to get the person’s name right
- Be professional at all times
- Create a genuine link (I met you at…./we are connected via….) and don’t make things up
- Check the grammar (use a copyrighter if you’re not confident) because even one mistake can ruin your professionalism
- Don’t ever lie
- Don’t spam
Happy letter writing!
Janet is based in Enfield, north London and trains small businesses and entrepreneurs how to sell more.
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