The following email follow-up was received by an Engage client after he visited a trade-show. Names have been removed or changed to protect my butt from liable!
Dear Colleen ,
Thank you for visiting with company ABC at the XYZ conference in Boston!
I hope you’re enjoying your Virtual Crime Fighter t-shirt and congratulations to our iPod winners from AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC North America.
As you may recall, company ABC fraud prevention service helps financial services companies reduce fraud exposure around all types of online financial transactions including credit application fraud, account takeovers and more. We tie computers, smartphones and tablets together for a comprehensive view of the visitors to your site. Our global shared knowledge base contains 600 million unique devices, how those devices are related and their fraud histories — forming the most comprehensive device reputation perspective in the world.
Online businesses apply our device identification, device reputation and real-time risk service at website integration points such as account creation, login, account update and checkout. We alert you in real-time to risky transactions to help you thwart attacks. We deliver an Accept, Deny or Review response with a fraction of a second so that fraud is stopped before crimes are committed or brand damage is done.
If you would like to collaborate in the fight against fraud and abuse, I would be happy to provide a web presentation to you and your team. Please let me know what works best for you.
All the best,
Conrad
At first glance this seems like a respectable follow up email; the writer takes the recipient back to the show, reminds him of the great free gift he received, and talks about the prize give away.
But when we dig a little deeper, we discover…..
This email is a generic blast follow up with no personalization. And, it’s problematic for the vendor company in question because the email follow up is not in alignment to what REALLY happened at the trade show.
a) The email recipient is a competitor to the company that sent the email.
b) The email recipient DID NOT meet the sales rep who sent this email, DID NOT swing by their booth and now resents the suggestion that he did, and the folksy first name conversation style.
c) The email recipient DID NOT get a Virtual Crime Fighter t-shirt (let alone the opportunity to enjoy it).
d) The email recipient is NOT inclined to collaborate with them on fighting against fraud and abuse. They are after all competitors. You would think that this would be the first piece of research a marketing or inside sales pro would do before sending out follow up information. The fact that this person did not recognize the recipient as a competitor is seriously problematic.
This email is a good case study for all sales and marketing folk to keep in mind. And a lesson in what not to do in post-show follow-up by inside sales.
Dedicated to increasing your sales,
Colleen