The Last-Ditch Move to Provoke an Email Response

If you’ve exhausted every other way of getting into a conversation with a potential customer, here’s one final technique that just might work.
Earlier this month, I explained how to write follow-up emails that you send if your intial sales emails fails to get a reply or response. In this post, I’ll explain about the “Hail Mary” email, which is your last ditch effort to get the potential customer to reply.

For those not familiar with American football, a “Hail Mary” is a long pass to the end zone in an attempt to make a touchdown at the end of the game. It’s called a “Hail Mary” because you’re supposedly praying that the pass will be caught.

A Hail Mary email is a last ditch resort, which you only send after you’ve exhausted all other methods of getting into a conversation with the prospect. The figure below shows where the Hail Mary fits into the email sales campaign:As with the follow-up emails, the Hail Mary should include a forwarded version of your initial email.
There are three general types of “Hail Mary” emails:

1. End of the Line, Bub.

In this approach, you reposition your previous emails as opportunities for the prospect and the prospect will miss out on something important by not replying.

Joe,
Despite repeated emails, I have not heard from you. While I hate to do it, I’m going to close this file. I will contact you in the future if I discover anything else that might help you reduce costs and increase sales.
Geoffrey
Use the template above when you’re 100% certain that what you’re offering is of huge value to the prospect and your initial email makes a very strong case for your offering.

2. Are you okay?

In this approach, you express (hopefully genuine) concern for the prospect and ask the prospect to set your mind at ease.

Jim,
I’ve sent you a couple of emails and you haven’t responded. That’s fine because I know how crazy things can get.
I’m starting to get worried that something awful happened to you, because you don’t seem like the kind of person who’d just leave somebody hanging.
Could respond to this email so that I know everything is OK?
Geoffrey
The template above works best with you’ve already had some kind of conversation with the prospect, perhaps a trade show.

3. The Fake Questionnaire

The fake questionnaire attempts to get a response by making the prospect smile. The advantages are 1) it shows that you’re a real person with a sense of humor, and 2) the prospect might get back to you just to thank you for the chuckle.
This template below is loosely adapted from a Hail Mary cold-calling template cold-call guru Wendy Weiss once sent me:

Dear Joe,
I have been attempting to reach you via email but with no success. Please reply to this email with the appropriate box checked:
[ ] Help! I have been abducted by aliens! Please rescue me!
[ ] I have not been abducted by aliens. I’ve just been really busy.
[ ] I wish you had been abducted by aliens so you won’t email me again.
Anxiously,
Geoffrey
Use this template when you’re sure the prospect has a sense of humor. The easiest way to find this out is check out their LinkedIn photo. If it’s something a bit silly, the above template may work. If it’s a standard business portrait photo, not so much.

As a general rule, I don’t recommend the use of Hail Mary emails until you’ve exhausted all other channels (voice mail, snail mail, social network). I’ll be writing about coordinating emails with other contact methods soon, so stay tuned.

Source: Inc.com