* Fear of rejection. The sheer negative force of anticipating rejection makes people turn to e-mail to generate new prospect relationships because it hurts less to not get a reply than to hear that verbal “no.”
* Getting blocked by gatekeepers and voicemail. When salespeople don’t know how to break through the barriers of gatekeepers and voicemail, they start thinking, “Forget it — it’s not worth the aggravation, and it takes too much energy. I’ll just e-mail instead.”
However, when you try to use e-mail to offer your product or service to someone who doesn’t know you, you can’t possibly establish the natural dialogue between two people that allows the trust level to reach the level necessary for a healthy, long-term relationship.
We all know how much everyone hates e-mail spam, but even so, many salespeople are still sending introductory e-mails to decisionmakers. They feel that, because they’re from a credible organization, they won’t be associated with the negative image of a spam solicitor.
However, these introductory e-mails typically contain the traditional three-part sales...