Ryan Dohrn says most people read sales emails on their phones first, so generic pitches get deleted instantly. Design for mobile: write subject lines and opening sentences that grab attention in a notification, not long greetings that scream sales pitch.
Friends, a lot of times the device that people are going to see our emails on first is gonna be this device, their cell phone. A lot of times what we do is we design our emails to be received by somebody that's sitting at a computer. We structure the emails around someone seeing it on their computer, and so we miss out that this device is used more for deleting emails than it's actually used for replying to emails. Let me explain. You and I as sales professionals are sitting at our computer and we're waiting for those leads to come in. We're waiting and we wanna sell. Now, if you're waiting, probably you're not following good advice. You should be getting out there and prospecting, not just waiting. But what I mean is we're kind of sitting there, we'd like to see email come in. Typically, most people, this device is gonna buzz first. And this is where you have a moment in time that email first hits somebody's computer or cell phone, you've got that moment in time where you're like, okay, do I delete this or do I save it for later to look at it in my inbox? I'm going to suggest to you that most people see it here first. So what you need to do is recraft your thought when you're sending emails around what can I do to not be deleted. As a first step, what can I do to not be deleted? This device goes bzz, bzz, bzz, bzz. Your client looks at it. They have to make a decision. Am I gonna delete it? Am I gonna read it? I'm gonna save it for later. So you've gotta be asking yourself, what is being shown as the subject line and the first line of text? So if the prospecting email you're sending out is like, hi Bob, hi Julie, I hope you're well, that is a dead giveaway that it's a sales email. And more than likely, they're going to do this: swipe and delete. So be asking yourself, what do I do to not be deleted? I believe that you need very, very accurate and inspiring, thought-provoking subject lines. Your first sentence needs to show some value or a competitive option or a competitive analysis opportunity. And then you need to be thinking about what is that going to look like on somebody's phone? Because if you're writing War and Peace or Moby Dick, they're probably not going to be reading it, friends, on their phone. Prospecting, friends, that's where it all begins.
