Let’s talk about hooking a B2B prospect’s attention.
But first let’s ruin all TV and movies for you. With a single phrase.
“You don’t get it.”
Visual media is supposed to Show, Not Tell.
But showing takes work (and money). Telling is easy and cheap. So one character ALWAYS says “you don’t get it” — then dumps a load of exposition onto the other character.
(You’re going to see “you don’t get it” EVERYWHERE from now on. Sorry not sorry.)
It’s a cheat. We the audience are annoyed or bored now, but so what? Money and time saved.
But in sales and marketing we’re just as guilty as the screenwriters.
Our cheat in B2B is ‘your’.
Putting ‘your’ in front of something doesn’t make it personal or prospect-centric.
If I’m the prospect, ‘your’ doesn’t mean you‘re talking about me, or you care about me, or you’re approaching your offer from my POV.
It just means you didn’t think about me enough.
10 minutes pretending you’re the prospect reading your email on a phone in a semi-noisy place will be the most valuable 10 minutes of your month.
Because your competition is only using their cheat. And it’s not working for them.
Last week I showed three real-life cold emails that my amazing smart and hardworking readers forwarded to me. And I rewrote them. Because, you know, entertainment.
I wasn’t checking to see if any openings used ‘your’, but it turns out they all did.
I wasn’t trying to avoid ‘your’, but it turns out I always did.
It’s not wrong to use ‘your’, just like it’s not wrong when a character exposition-dumps.
But you’d rather watch something happen on screen, than hear an explanation about it. And your prospect would rather read about themselves as if you’re sitting next to them, than have your fake empathy.
Here are the examples from last week:
See how they change from:
Salesperson ==> Prospect
to Salesperson Prospect ==>.
You can do this.
OLD: Your knack for connecting CEOs and fostering high-level relationships is impressive! I love how you helped Salesforce grow into what it is today. The idea of account-based selling at such an elite level really resonates with me—figured I’d reach out.
NEW: “For specialists like you, showing that you’re an expert isn’t the problem — you just need to get in front of the right people. We can make that happen.”
OLD: I’d love the opportunity to discuss how our services can help your business connect with potential clients more effectively.
NEW: “I bet you can tell in 30 seconds that a prospect will never become a customer. And I bet you wish you could stop wasting time with those people. We fix that for companies around the world.”
OLD: . My name is Kate, and I am reaching out from Xbrain, an IT outstaffing provider with extensive experience supporting innovative AI startups like yours.
NEW: “Every day someone with a vision spends more time changing the world, and less time dealing with IT hassles, because they outsourced to someone who does what we do.”