What emails do you open?  The “From” field and subject line are the first draw for most people and a determinant for gaining a higher open rate.  MarketingProfs.com has an informative article that breaks down examples of awesome and awful email subject lines.  The article is a good read and worth your time.

I’ll skip to the end where the author, Josh Nason, provides a handful of tips for writing effective subject lines:

• Don’t discount the importance of the From name. Keep it your company name and not an individual’s name or drawn-out term. In addition, keep your company name out of the subject line: It’s redundant—a waste of valuable real estate.
• There is no point to using all caps in a subject line. OK? (Unless it’s “OK.”)
• Write a compelling subject line that won’t deceive people. If people aren’t opening it, that’s OK, as you’ll have many more campaigns to intrigue them. If you break the receiver’s trust early, you’ll have to work twice as hard to get it back. Never forget the Golden Rule.
• Most important, have some fun with subject lines! If you’re struggling that much with how to talk to your audience in a single-sentence format, give it to someone else to writes. Just make sure that you don’t explain the task in all caps, please.

And here are a couple of examples from the article:

From: AAA Northern New England
Subject: AAA Newsletter—February 2008

Ah, the dreaded (Company X) Newsletter with the month and date. Fun! When I opened up the newsletter, there were all kinds of great discount offers; but, instead, this subject line reads more “library” than “block party.”

From: Bob Marley
Subject: Comedian Bob Marley Returns To Boston!!

It’s a direct statement that his fans in that area would likely open. Since “Bob Marley” is already in the From line, there’s no need to repeat in the subject line. I’d try “Boston dates coming up soon!” instead. Why waste the valuable real estate?

Comments(2)

The management landscape is changing drastically as more salespeople move to remote/home offices within their territory.  Yet, many aspects of sales seems to be moving more towards relationship-based sales.  Yes, relationships have always been a key part of selling, but it seems to be the greater piece today.  Information flows freely on the Internet so the differentiation between companies is being pushed onto their salespeople.  So we have arrived at the place where relationship-driven salespeople work remotely instead of at the corporate office.

The strain of this new arrangement falls squarely on the sales manager.  The modern-days sales manager has to work with limitations that were less common just 10 years ago.  The greatest impact is in communication as seen in this Wall Street Journal article:

“It’s about relationships and understanding nuances and building trust,” he says.

Working with distant employees makes that process harder, because you can’t see the subtleties of how people react and it’s harder to create a bond with people you can’t grab a cup of coffee with.

The article then brings up a good point regarding technical aptitude for communicating remotely:

Communicate each person’s role and business objectives regularly, and establish agreed-upon ways to resolve conflicts and solve problems early on, says Mr. Eicher. Find out how technically savvy your remote employees are — and get them trained in technologies you plan to use to keep in touch, he says. Remote employees should be comfortable with voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP; video streaming; and instant messaging.

A remote salesperson without a basic understanding of these technologies will struggle…greatly.  The gist of the article states that managers still have to get out and do the face-to-face time.  This approach is especially critical for newly hired salespeople:

“Having that first face-to-face meeting of the team — building relationships, reviewing roles and performance objectives — better enables far-flung employees to work effectively,” he says. And, he adds, that first meeting can help subvert the hesitation people have connecting with and asking for things from people they don’t know very well.

That is true.  We had a customer hire a remote salesperson who they only brought in to the facility one time.  The salesperson ended up getting lost in the onramping process.  The manager was not available and their was no set structure to the communication.  In the end, the salesperson left within 90 days due mainly to a feeling of apathy from the corporate-based sales manager.

Comments(0)