Don’t Be Generic

So you want to be successful in sales and you’ve been told that you have to come up with creative ways to get to the decision maker.

Since you are in the website sales business, you start looking online and to be different, you make your initial contact via the contact page.

You write your email and hit the send button and wait for the doors to open and the money to start flowing.

Why would this work?

Because sales is a numbers game right?  You don’t just one email this way, you send several. Dozens, maybe hundreds every month, every week or perhaps every day.

Yet, no one responds.

This crap doesn’t work, you  say to yourself.  Your boss says you just need to do more and by more, she means send out more of the same generic emails to more and more people.

This is a lousy way to try and make a living.

Here’s an email I received via the comment section on this website of mine:

My name is Jerry and I’m a website designer.  I’m reaching out to see if you’re satisfied with your current website.  Are there any changes or improvements that you’d like to make?  We’re always looking to help quality businesses such as yourself.  I look forward to hearing back from you!

Best Regards,

Jerry Bailey
Top Spot Designs

There are so many things wrong with this.  I can tell that this is a cut and paste template that Jerry sends trying to find a fish to bite.

• Jerry provided no contact info.  My contact form asks for an email address and he registered using a Gmail account.
• There is no link to the “Top Spot Designs” company.  Sounds like a scam.
• There is a Top Spot Designs company in New York City that I found because I Googled them.  Their website is just as generic as the email.  Lot’s of fluffy geek-speak, but  nothing of substance.
• He is a website designer? If I was looking for someone to build a website for my “quality business” I would look for a team, not an individual guy working out of his mom’s basement.  I have no idea where Jerry works but the mystery is off-putting.
• I am not a “quality business”.  That is such an overused generic term that it is worthless.  If you take the time to go to my website and contact me via the contact page, take a few seconds to personalize your message based on what you discover about me or my business when you are at my website.

Jerry is either a salesperson who will struggle due to his approach, or a website designer who has no idea who to effectively find new business.

Don’t be generic and don’t be a Jerry.