We all have busy jobs and busy days.
Lots of people to talk to, fires to put out, problems to solve.
But if you are involved in sales of any kind (sales, fundraising, business development, you name it), then your must live by this rule:
I respond quickly and thoughtfully when I hear from a sales prospect.
Quickly = within 24 hours.
Thoughtfully = thoughtfully.
It doesn’t matter what else you do, who else you manage, what else is on your plate.
Sales requires attention, prioritization, and responsiveness, always.
So, when that email comes in from a prospect, replying to it is now at the top of your list.
(And a reply could be, “Thanks so much. This is really helpful. We’re on it. We will need two days to answer all these questions. I’ll send you another note then.” That counts as a quick, thoughtful response, as long as the two days really is two days, 100% of the time).
Absent this mindset, and the supporting systems to enable it, you’ll lose out on too many opportunities to be successful.
And remember it’s both mindset AND systems—not one or the other—to deliver on this consistently.
Thanks for this Sasha!
As a career salesperson of 40 years prior to my retirement in late 2015, this is a topic I’m passionate about as frankly, my generation got this one right and I’m 67 years young!
I often tell the story about an investment banker friend of mine closed a $13M deal in the late 90s over email from someone he never ended up meeting in person . . . why? Because as you said Saha, he responded quickly and responsibility.
Along with Sasha’s excellent tips, salespeople need to ALSO check their SPAM/JUNK mail as filters are not your friend. While they do a great job protecting your system from harmful malware, they also take an email from someone you’ve never communicated with before and put it in the SPAM/JUNK folder.
Bottom line, you are responsible for the contacts you put on your business card and if you don’t check email multiple times each day including SPAM/JUNK then remove your email from your business card.