How to get a prospect's email address

Not long ago, I wrote a Quick Tip about how to get a prospect's email address when all you have is their phone number. (You can read it here.) The simple answer is: Ask for it. But it takes a bit of technique.

Here's a technique that was discovered by Patrice Robertie of Acorn Advertising, one of the solopreneurs in my Bi-Weekly Marketing Plan Group (BTW, there's one space open for the next group, if you need a marketing plan. More details here.

Here's what Patrice wrote:

As you know, I'm reaching out to new prospects -- calling and then following up with an email note. Sometimes I already have the email address, but many times I don't.

I had been re-dialing and asking for the person's email. Sometimes the person who answered the phone would give it to me -- a lot of times, tho' (about 30%), they would refuse.

Since I already had the companies' web addresses and since lots of people's emails are just their first initial and last name in front of the company address, I realized I could simply ask what came before the companyname.com part in that individual's email address.

Which worked very well. 100% success!

EVEN BETTER ... today when I made my calls, I put it all together, took it one step further and said I was calling to confirm that (for example) Jane Doe's email address was jdoe@company.com.

"Just calling to confirm," I actually said. Which is nice as that was the absolute truth.

Again, 100% success ... and even easier than above.

Comments

[Colleen Wainwright]

Okay, no one's touched this yet, and lately, I seem to have a black thumb when it comes to growing blog conversation, but is this really a good idea? Maybe I'm out of the loop with the whole sales thing--I'm not exactly at the top of most people's lists to sell things to--but if I didn't give out my email addy, I sure wouldn't want or be interested in getting email from someone.

Of course, I hang my email and telephone out there for all the world to grab, so it's not hard to find me at all.

But if I wasn't like that, would I like this?

Something in me says "no"...

[Kelly Parkinson]

Colleen, good points, but I think it's helpful to differentiate between a telemarketer selling a cookie-cutter product or service, and a professional consultant who happens to believe she could help the company increase their profits.

As a former executive assistant to c-level executives, my job was to help the good people get in touch with my boss, and keep the bad people out. One very good measure of "good" and "bad," sight-unseen, was how professional they sounded, and whether they were polite or whether they were trying to sound aggressive & business-like to trick me into thinking I must connect them immediately because it was urgent.

With someone like Patrice above, I'd absolutely have no problem confirming that e-mail address. It's actually better if a potential good person sends the boss an e-mail, which s/he is free to ignore, than for that person to keep calling back, day after day, wasting my time and taking up space in the voicemail system with increasingly desperate "follow-up" and "touch-base" phone calls.

All it takes is a simple e-mail. If the boss doesn't respond and they continue to call back, I'll know that the boss just isn't interested and can deal with them.

Our policy was not to give out e-mails, but we all know that back-door way of guessing. I'd know exactly what Patrice was doing, but would play along if she was polite, professional, and smart enough to think of it. Most telemarketers and other idiots--whom you'd think, because they cold call for a living, would think of this idea--just don't think of it. They're too focused on making their way down a list.

Regarding whether people want to be contacted, it's a business e-mail address. That's what you sign on for when you become a decisionmaker. There's that difference again between a telemarketer selling a product and a professional marketing a relationship and a customized service. I would not want to get an e-mail from the local suds-r-us salesperson. But a professional marketing consultant who has identified me as someone she might legitimately be able to help? Why not? As long as she just sends me one e-mail, I am free to delete or ignore it or say "thanks, not interested." Or, if I am interested, I could respond.

Be succinct, offering a benefit, and don't send multiple e-mails. If they're interested, they'll respond.

In business, your e-mail address is never going to be totally private. So, I say e-mail away. If you're smart enough to get under the wall, then you're more likely to be smart enough to be able to help them.

[Patrice Robertie]

It's a fair question Colleen raises - one I actually asked Ilise myself. (This came up as part of an assignment in her excellent Marketing Mentor summer '07 business-builder program.)

Before I give Ilise's answer to the question about whether "unsolicited" email is spam, I will say that I have one client who won't do mailings for his business because "no one reads their mail." Since we have a great relationship, every now and again I remind him that was how he found me -- I'd sent him a letter. (And I keep urging him to give mail a try!)

Also, in making 66 cold calls for my business in the past 3ish months, I had one man who picked up the phone (as opposed to letting it go to voice mail) and then semi-hollered at me for "bothering" him.

What I've learned so far is that it's possible for some people to be bothered by a-n-y approach, and it's usually all about them. (Earlier this year, a guy I called said he'd be too embarrassed to make calls to strangers. Oh, well. Probably not the right method for him. Tho' it certainly worked for Peter Bowerman. My goal in all this was to try some new things and expand my comfort-zone. Gotta' say, I've had 1000% success in that.)

Basically, in her super-sensible way, Ilise told me that leaving someone a voice-mail and then sending them a follow-up email ... all about an honest, professional service they may need ... that there's nothing wrong with that.

I have been, of course!, ready to not mail to anyone who has requested that. So far, no one has.

My overall goal, as AWAI-er Krista Jones has written, is "to stay focused on my two main objectives -- copywriting and marketing yourself."

This seemed like a worthy experiment, and -- by the way -- so far it's yielded some promising fruit ... a few good calls and one meeting already from a prospect who I know never would have connected with me otherwise.

[Jennine Arena]

I find it helpful to become friendly with the receptionist. When I first call the main number, the first question I ask, is whom am I speaking with, then I repeat the name to the person and say, How are you? After going to the voicemail, I call back, ask the receptionist (by name) if they can verify the email address and so far, I've had 100% response.