I regularly get questions about how to use email effectively in sales/telesales. Some reps say they are doing it more these days than calling.

In general, here’s how I typically answer:

I’ve heard all the excuses about prospects being hard to reach, decision makers being busy and not taking sales calls, blah, blah, blah. Upon close examination of what they are saying on their calls, however, I notice many of them don’t have value statements, or their attempts at them really suck. Bottom line, if a sales rep is spending the bulk of his/her time writing and sending introductory emails instead of calling, that is likely "call avoidance."

Here are great times TO send emails:

1. Right after a call, summarizing the details of the call, their interest, and what is to happen next.

2. Right before the next, perhaps the day before, or maybe a few hours before. Let them know you look forward to speaking with them, remind them of what they were to do, what you did, and bring something new to the table of value, perhaps some new information.

This gives you two "touches" between calls, and provides a better chance that they will do what they committed to on the previous call.

What are your thoughts, and how are you using email as part of your sales process?