A handshake from Ted.
Ted sat back in his chair, brow furrowed a little.
The 2 questions I asked made him think — in a really good way.
"What is a crucial moment in your existing sales process?"
"What do you believe is a key part of how you seal the deal in real life?"
See, we were building a new welcome sequence for Ted's business.
(He was a 15+ year business coach...an OG)
And they'd never done email marketing before, so he naturally carried a bit of skepticism.
But with these 2 questions, Ted realized what we were actually there for.
We weren't there to create 'more content' — like some silly gimmick or tactic.
We were there to build an asset — to automate (or simulate) their sales process.
Here was Ted's reply:
"Before the pandemic, we used to meet new prospects at networking events. I could look them in the eye, ask them about their business, and give them a handshake. I believe this showed them they could trust me."
Pure. Gold.
See, in 2021, things were still very far from 'normal.'
Networking events were still on pause, so Ted and his crew had a harder time meeting new folks.
The trust-building of listening, a look in the eye, and a handshake was a CRUCIAL element of how they got new clients...
And it wasn't possible IRL anymore.
So I told Ted:
"Well, I don't think we can give a real handshake over email, but we can definitely make the rest of that happen."
Here's what we did in Ted's welcome sequence:
I asked Ted to record a casual 2 minute video of himself
He shared why he started his business and an early struggle
He then asked about THEIR business
Immediately under the video (in the email), we asked the reader to share about THEIR business.
What's going well
What's a current struggle
What they're excited about
The goal?
To take what worked IRL and apply it to their automated sales process (the welcome sequence).
Was it perfect?
Nope.
But we got as close as we could to a real handshake.
We turned email into a conversation, instead of a monologue.
Because that's how Ted earned trust in real life with real people.
And that's how he wanted his marketing to feel.
TAKEAWAY
Instead of trying some crazy tactics to sell in your welcome sequence, try instead to incorporate what's working for you IRL in DMs and sales calls.
If it's working IRL, it'll probably work in your email marketing, too.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Hope this helps.
Give me a reply if you found this interesting!
Jeff
P.S.
That project with Ted was an early influence on how I built the 8-email framework inside The Creator's Welcome System.
The emails inside the system are intended to earn the trust of new prospects and pull from real life sales success.
If you'd like to automate (simulate) your sales process in 2024, I think you'll benefit greatly from using my system.
(Mike is not a copywriter, he’s a dentist. He got a $3,000 client a few days after implementing it.)
>>> Create your own email 'handshake' here <<<
