Not too long ago, I did a cold email campaign to promote my copywriting services.
And the block of text below was one of the replies I got from a friendly prospect.
———-
There is something deeply ironic about asking someone to leave a voicemail if they call so you know they’re not a robocaller, yet being quite happy to cold call by email in the first place!
I think your sales technique needs some considerable work. On the basis of the evidence you’ve provided so far, I would be extremely reluctant to hire you – even if I was in the market for some support in this area, which I’m not.
Please take this as a NO
———-
Ouch.
It seems like she got up on the wrong side of the bed the day I emailed her.
To give some context, at the bottom of the email, I added a P.S. that said, “By any chance, if you decide to call, please leave a voicemail so I know you’re not a robocaller. Sadly, I get so many to the point where I almost never pick up the phone unless you’re in my contacts.”
Not so unreasonable, right?
At the same time, maybe she was right about it being ironic. Maybe she said it because she thought my email was automated? Who knows.
But here’s what was ironic about the rest of her reply.
I once listened to a copywriter’s spiel and how he stopped doing copy critiques for clients. He believes that the best people to critique your marketing materials (Emails, sales letters, website, etc.) are your potential customers. Since they’re the people you’re going after in the first place, their feedback is the most valuable. They can tell you where your messaging is lacking, where their attention falls off, and all that good stuff.
So the fact that she’s not in the market for copywriting services, her feedback on my sales technique is already pretty questionable.
Plus, the fact that she (a) commented on my P.S., which leads me to believe that she read my email all the way through, and (b) engaged and spent some of her valuable time to reply to my email, it seems like the email was, to a certain extent, a success.
After all, the purpose of the cold email was to “sell” a yes or no response, which I got.
It wasn’t the response I hoped for, but I’d rather take a harsh rejection over a cold shoulder any day.
So a special shoutout to this friendly prospect. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be able to write this fun piece of content.
And if you want to learn how to write emails that your subscribers will want to read all the way through, engage with them, and even buy from, check out How to Become an Email Titan.