Spam, spam, spam...

So here is the deal.

a)     About 30 emails a day make it through my spam filter. I do not know how many don’t, but I suspect it is a multiplication factor of that.

b)     On any given, I may read all of them (if I have time) or none of them.

c)      The ones that tend to get my attention have one of a couple of attributes:

• I have a specific current need, as an example (not real, please don’t spam me!), I have a sudden need as a result of an audit for a log analysis program that will allow me to do ad hoc Boolean searches of log files. If your email (and I will put this in once only) makes it past the spam filter, happens to be read by me, and touches that immediate need I may respond in some way.
• It is informational only about a topic that I am interested. It is not asking for a meeting, an appointment, a response etc. Sometimes I will end up not reporting those as spam, if they have value I may subscribe, and somewhere down the line I may contact you.
• It is about an event that is of genuine interest. An exclusive retreat all expenses paid in Denver (or Tampa, or Boston, or…) is not one of those BTW. Most companies COI policies will prevent you from taking those anyway (if you are honest); it has to be focused, intelligent and hopefully local. I cannot travel to 40 events a year (and do my job).

d)     The ones that tend to not get my attention are:

• Throw something at the wall and see if it sticks.
• Put out a general industry buzzword and claim to be able to provide it as a service (population health, artificial intelligence, learning networks, the internet of things, blockchain).

e)     The ones that will get you actively blocked include (and I kid you not, I get some of these every week):

• Spelling and grammar errors
• Dubious click-bait like titles (This major medical saved millions by doing this one thing!)
• You used a generic email typed to look like it was customized but forgot to change the name to mine (Dear Vanessa/Joe/Mary/Fido)
• Cutesy nagging follow-up emails (Did you go on Safari to Africa?)
• Begging emails to just let you know one way or another (nope, don’t do that because then you have a live hit).
• People just assuming and putting a meeting on my calendar (I have scheduled a 15 minute meeting for use to talk on Friday). Even if I see it you just guaranteed I won’t be on the line.
• Survey requests promising me a $10 gift card if I give all of my organizations internal IT statistics and pain point to you to share in a survey result. Really!
• Annoying titles (“You’ll love this”, “Just one question.”)
• Please don’t assume because I met you once in a meeting in Billings, Montana for 30 minutes, that I am active lead for the company you just joined. Please don’t promise that you can get a meeting with me, and add me to your pipeline. I will gladly look at your email if it makes it way to my inbox, and I have time; that is about it.

Finally, if you did not make it through our spam filter, your fifty follow-up emails probably didn’t either. If it did and I happened to read it but did not respond, nagging or cutesy follow-up emails are not going to get me to suddenly respond the 4th, 5th or 6th time, all it will do is get you added to the spam filter.

I understand your company me be using an outdated pipeline model of sales that requires to do a certain number of cold calls each week, but honestly it generally doesn’t work. You have a far better chance of meeting with me by becoming a non-nagging resource than a short-lived nagging cold-call.