In my work consulting and copywriting Executive Access emails, letters and Inmails for B2B new business sales teams all over the world, I see one common omission made by experienced sales people and those new to new business prospecting* – that significantly reduces the effectiveness of their prospecting messages.

Namely, they fail to use the first name of the person who they are trying to contact in the subject line.

Think about this for a moment.

Why were you given a first name?

Yes, of course it’s an adorable name! Or perhaps you were named after a favourite Uncle or Aunt. And this isn’t the point…

Because, a first name is a societal construct for getting the attention of an individual.

Imagine shouting to a crowd of people “hey you!” Everyone turns round. Not helpful, useful or quick when you’re trying to get one person’s attention.

You and your prospective customers have been conditioned to respond when your name is used, so take advantage of this in your prospecting message subject line.

Use the prospects* first name in your subject line, e.g. “Matt, good morning…”

A subject line can be a simple greeting and pleasantry (another influence construct) as in the example above, or it can allude to a trigger event, e.g. “Matt, your recent speech…” “Matt, your interview in WSJ…” “Matt, your $1B growth objective…”

The new business sales people that I work with say using the first name of the person they want to connect with in their subject line has helped them dramatically improve their ability to engage executives in conversations.

“Getting the attention of an executive has always been one of the most challenging parts of business development for me. I worked with Matt to put together a very targeted and powerful email that was intended to stir the interest of my C-level prospects. Incredibly, the email has yielded a 50% response rate and in a couple of situations, I was on the phone the next day with prospects I had struggled to reach in the past! I can’t recommend Matt enough. The process that he walks you through is guaranteed to result in emails that yield results.” – Managing Partner

Sometimes it’s the little things that yield some of the greatest results.

That’s often been true in my experience. What do you think?

Executive Access – in minutes, hours or days…not weeks, months or never! mattconway.redeyedesign.ca

* Be mindful of how you think and talk about potential customers. “Prospect, suspect, target.” These words influence our energy and the way we write and talk to potential customers. If you describe them in these terms you will sabotage your results – unconsciously these terms will influence what you write/say and how you come across to your potential customer.