It’s important to sound confident and enthusiastic, but not needy. Use words like “please” and “thank you” sparingly. Although polite, these words suggest that the prospect is doing you a favor by reading your email, that they have the upper hand in the relationship.
Instead, you want to come across as an equal partner who is coming to them with something they need. So instead of being overly polite, be enthusiastic yet willing to walk away if they’re not ready. If the lead expires from your sales follow-up series, put them into an email nurture series such as a newsletter.
Read through your sales emails and ask which of these tones is more prevalent, and change the wording accordingly.
Not good: Hey, you’re ignoring me, I need you to pay attention to me and reply so I can get what I want: your business. I’m basically sitting around waiting for you to get back to me whenever you feel like it.
Good: I’m so excited that I have something that can help you, and I hope we can work together! But if you’re not ready to move forward, I have other prospects who are, and I’ll pay attention to them instead if I don’t hear from you. My time and attention is valuable, and you have a limited window of opportunity before I move on.
For more tips on writing strong sales emails, check out this article on writing cold emails that get responses. You can also read through some of our business email examples to see good emails in action.