There are a lot of things that we put into our emails and calls that trigger them to be deleted or not responded to by the prospect. Some of the common issues are that the message is too general, there’s no real value in it for the client, they’re way too long, they’re all about us and how great we are, we fill them with features/functions, etc. One of the main issues I see and personally have been a victim of is the weak, or no real, call to action.

The biggest offender of a weak/non call to action is the phrase “let me know.” The reason this one sticks out for me is that I got caught on it a while back. I got an inbound lead where a woman called me up and was interested in my training. She was actually REALLY interested in my training and was almost over the top with her enthusiasm about working with me (which should have been a red flag to begin with). She told me she had heard about my training from someone else and they were in desperate need of prospecting training. So, I got lazy on this one across the board. I didn’t get to power, understand the details of the decision-making process or criteria and, worst of all, didn’t lock her down for a next step after she asked me to send her information. She promised me she would get back to me next week.

Surprisingly enough, she actually did call me back the following week but I missed her call, so she left me a voice mail. On the voice mail, she told me she got my info, ran it by her boss and everything looked great … but … her boss didn’t want to release budget yet so it’s wasn’t a matter of IF they were going to do the training, just WHEN. Yeah right, I’ve heard that before.

So, I got lazy again. She called me and left a voice mail, which means she likes talking. I should have called her back but instead I emailed her back. In my email, I said I got her message and understand that timing and budget is always an issue and then to end it I said “let me know” when she wanted to reconnect. You know what her response was?  “Sounds good.” And now I’m stuck in the “friend zone,” touching base and checking in all over the place and haven’t gotten a response since.

I’m not saying I would have guaranteed myself a meeting, but I at least would have given myself a chance if I had been more specific with my call to action and said something like “When are you free for a brief call to talk about timing and next steps?”

If you want something, ask for it. The more specific you are with your call to action, the better results you’re going to get. I have two main calls to action. One is “who is the best person to speak with about this?” and the other is “what’s the best way to get 15-30 minutes on your calendar?” If you get a “Let me know” from me these days, that pretty much means I don’t really care if we talk.

#MakeitHappen