Starting your sales follow-up call or email with “Sorry to bother you”, or anything remotely similar, is like killing the party even before it starts to flicker. There are several reasons why you want to avoid starting your conversations with this seemingly harmless phrase:

1. It shows a lack of confidence.
2. It gives the impression that your product or service isn’t that important for the customer to spend time on.
3. Using the word “sorry” makes you sound apologetic. You don’t want to sound apologetic when you’re on a mission to convince people of the value of your product.

Provide Valuable Information

A great alternative to the “sorry to bother you” one-liner is to provide value in the form of usable information. For instance, link to an especially useful blog post on your company’s website. Although value can be a subjective experience, your content is seen to provide value when it addresses a common challenge and offers a solution, provides better ways of doing things, or gives cost savings tips, for example. It also serves to showcase your industry expertise and product knowledge. Think about how much value you can provide to your clients in the content that you send to them.

Provide Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are a proven metric for sales conversions. When you provide glowing customer reviews that emphasize the value of your products and services, potential clients will take notice. Reviews are a powerful means to advertise your product without overtly appearing to do so. Feedback from genuinely happy customers often speaks louder than anything you or your company can pitch.

Include a Case Study

Case studies are highly effective in that they leverage your considerable expertise and present them in a form that can be very engaging to potential customers. Customers like to see how people just like them have had their problems solved or their business boosted by you, in a step-by-step fashion. It makes your business, and how you can help, much easier to understand, which in turn attracts sales.

Start off your emails by exploring mutual subjects outside of the sales dialogue such as whether your prospect attended the football match at Kings Stadium last weekend. You want to appear warm and likable, and somebody the prospect can build a long-term relationship with. Bring the subject tactfully back to your objectives when it feels right to do so.

Study Up on Email Marketing Best Practices

Make time to study up on email marketing best practices, including key topics such as how to increase email open rates and boost sales conversions. You would be surprised at how much more easily a perfectly formulated sales email can generate sales.

Sales follow-up emails can be a very effective way to generate interest and close sales. Ditch the boring one-liners and explore creative alternatives to spruce up your email marketing and generate a band of loyal customers.

A coach can help you to optimize your sales process, including your calls and emails, for best results.