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90% of people are afraid to ask for things. Is that a real statistic? Nope. But I believe it to be a true statistic, if not higher than that.
We, as humans, are afraid to ask for things. We’re afraid to ask people to buy our products. We’re afraid to ask someone out on a date. We’re afraid to ask for more money at our jobs. We’re afraid to ask the tough questions in our relationships.
Rejection is this unbelievably strong thing that keeps us from getting so much in life. If you experience rejection one time, it is likely to derail you from ever asking for that thing again. Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of asking someone on a date and getting rejected. Unfortunately, that horrible empty feeling sticks with us for years to come (and for some people, the rest of their lives).
But why is rejection so strong? Why is it so hard to overcome the feeling that the tiny two-letter word “no” gives us?
100 people could tell you how freaking amazing you look today, but if one person says you look like crap, those 100 positive messages won’t matter.
On some level, we all just want to fit in. The reason we fixate on things like rejection and negativity is because they make us feel alienated from the rest of the world. Experiencing those things on any scale cuts us to our most basic human core.
Think about the last time you asked for something out of your comfort zone? Or even something in your comfort zone. You probably felt hesitation. You probably had 20 scenes play out in your mind, all disasters and worst-case scenarios. You might have even delayed your ask until you finally built up enough courage.
Over the years, I’ve had success in business for two reasons:
When people hear that I’ve made over $3,000,000, worked with over 2,000 companies, and sold products to over 15,000 customers (since 2009), I’m sure it comes off like a nice shiny success story. But what they don’t hear is that I sent more than 15,000 emails to make those all deals happen (75% of those emails were most likefollow-upsups).
Writing that many emails wasn’t easy and on many occasions, I was afraid to make “the ask.” One thing that always helped me overcome my own fear of asking was that I believed in myself and the thing I was asking for.
If you don’t believe in what you’re asking for, you’re never going to overcome your fear.
Everyone wants to make good money, but most people are afraid to put in the hard work to make it happen. There were many times when I got discouraged when people said “no” to me. There were many times when I wanted to give up and thought my ideas weren’t good when I got negative criticism. But I believed in what I was selling and wanted it more than the feeling of rejection could dissuade me.
The only caveat to simply asking for what you want is this: make sure you do it with creativity, confidence and effort.
When it comes to selling something online, your product or service most likely has competition. Someone else is already asking people to buy, so that alone should give you the validation and confidence to ask. But, you should also think about a unique or creative way you can package your ask so it stands out from the crowd.
When it comes to relationships, confidence is key. No one wants to talk to, let alone go on a date with, someone who has zero confidence. But just like asking for things, the more you work to build your confidence and the more practice you put in, the more results you’ll see. No one becomes confident overnight or just by reading a self-help book. You have to put in the work and not give up at the first sign of rejection.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens put it perfectly:
No one has ever put in an insane amount of effort for something and not gotten some value out of it.
The more you ask for things, in the right ways, the better you’ll get at it. And the better you get at asking, the amount of times you hear “yes” will increase.
You’re going to hear “no.” You’re going to have to deal with rejection. You’re going to encounter negativity. But if you truly want whatever you’re asking for, you won’t and shouldn’t give up at the first sign or thought of adversity.
Start repeating these words to yourself: You don’t get what you don’t ask for.
It’s time you mastered the art of sending follow up emails. For years I’d been doing something when sending (or responding to) sales or pitch emails that just came naturally to me. That thing was sending a follow-up email. I recently realized that over 75% of the 2,000 deals I’ve landed over the years have come from sending follow up emails.
Answer these questions honestly…
My guess is that you probably said yes to at least one of those questions. My other guess is that you probably didn’t hear back after sending whatever email you sent (and you definitely didn’t send a good follow up email).
Follow up emails are your way of showing that you’re putting in more effort than everyone else.
Don’t feel bad about sending follow up emails either, especially if you’re passionate about the thing you’re emailing someone about.
This should be a direct reply to your first email, and could read something like this:
“Hey again NAME, [Show them you aren’t a robot]
I know your inbox is probably a busy place, so I just wanted to send a quick follow up email. I’d love to chat with you about having INSERT THEIR COMPANY AND THE THING YOU WANT. My original email is copied below for quick reference.
Would love to chat,
YOUR NAME”
It’s not a hard sell, but it’s also not as simple as just saying “hey, I’m following up.” You’re showing more effort than probably 95% of the people that email that person. And I’m willing to bet that percentage is accurate based on how many people send me emails and never follow up. Ever.
If you don’t hear back after your first follow up email, or you just want to add more creativity to your follow up emails (which you should), you’ll need to invest a bit more time to grab the person’s attention.
The idea of sending follow up emails might sound daunting and hard to keep track of. Don’t worry, it’s not!
It’s time to stop making any sales process harder on yourself. It’s already difficult to muster up the courage to ask someone to buy from you, it can feel nerve-wracking to remind someone that you want them to give you their hard-earned money.
In your spreadsheet include columns for the person’s name, their company, their email address, when you sent (or received) the first email, when you sent your first follow up email, when you sent your second follow up email, etc. This document is crucial if you’re working on one big project. I created a Google Spreadsheet for my SponsorMyBook#2: Use tools like FollowUp.cc or Boomerang to remind you to send follow up emails.
I probably use FollowUp.cc 2-3 times per day. It’s a simple (free) email tool that doesn’t require any software or installation. Simply put a time you want to send a follow up in the Bcc field of your email you’re sending and the service will send you a reminder email that you need to follow up. (You can set whatever time you want, example: 2hours@followup.cc, 37days@followup.cc, etc.)
For not much money, you can hire a virtual assistant to work hourly and help keep your follow up emails organized. One great virtual assistant company I’d recommend is Don’t Panic Management. They can help you plan, strategize, and get creative with your email pitches and subsequent follow up emails.
People are busy and get loads of emails every single day. I also know that when people have reached out to me via email asking for things, I tend to wait and see if they’ll send a follow-up email. This shows me they actually care and really want whatever they emailed about.
Following up doesn’t have to be difficult and shows extra effort. Be diligent about your follow up emails and you’ll start getting responses!
I’ve pretty much exclusively made all my income via email. I’ve sold thousands of products and a large percentage have come from sending well-crafted emails. I didn’t always send effective email pitches, and I’ll share some mistakes with you as well.
I wanted to get this tip out of the way because it’s honestly crucial. Sending pitch emails is a form of doing sales. One of the first rules of selling is trying to get a warm introduction. Having some kind of “in” goes such a long way in the selling process. When you’re looking at a list of companies you want to send pitch emails to, do you know anyone who can make introductions to those companies?
One of the early mistakes I made was sending the same email to a bunch of people (cold). Those emails weren’t personalized, were strictly copied and pasted, and ended up being ineffective.
How many times have you opened an email just because of an interesting or attention-grabbing subject line? I’m willing to bet the shirt on my back that the answer is a lot. Your subject line should be something that stands out from all the other stuff that fills up people’s inboxes. The subject line should be descriptive and should NOT be misleading.
Good Subject Line: A marketing opportunity for XYZ Company (that doesn’t suck)
The example of the good subject line does a couple of things.
It tells the recipient it’s a marketing email (assuming they’re the marketing person at the company you’re contacting). It shows them you’re sending the email to their company individually. The “that doesn’t suck” part is your way to show a little personality and stand out.
Bad Subject Line: Crazy awesome email you don’t want to miss!
The example of the bad subject line is misleading and subjective.
You may think the email you are sending is awesome, but if the recipient doesn’t, you could be blacklisted by them forever. Plus, this email doesn’t describe anything, and could immediately be looked at as spam.
When I send a pitch email, especially if it is a cold pitch. I use a simple format that goes something like this:
Paragraph #1: Say hello to the person you’re sending an email to. If you can include something you’ve found about them on social media, LinkedIn, recent news, do that here. Keep your hello short and sweet.
Paragraph #2: The pitch. Use 3-4 sentences to explain what you’re looking to get from them. If it takes you more than 3-4 sentences to explain your product or service, you should work on refining it.
Paragraph #3: The value for the recipient. Use this last paragraph to explain why you think it’s a good opportunity for their company. This should be personalized for them and should be 2-3 sentences. If you want to include pricing, this would be the place to do it.
Last sentence: Thank them for their time and offer to jump on a call to further discuss this email if they’re interested.
Most cold email pitches will go unread or if they are read, un-replied. But warm email pitches have the potential to have the same result. The key to getting a response is a good follow up email that isn’t too pushy. You don’t want to follow up the day after you send the pitch email, but you also don’t want to wait a month. I like to wait a week and reply directly to the email I sent the first time with something like this:
Just following up on my email below. I’d love to get 10-15 minutes on the phone if you have time, or feel free to respond with any questions you may have.
Thanks,
Jason
I use a free tool called followup.cc for my pitch emails. It’s super easy to use. Sign up for free, then just include a followup.cc email address in the Bcc line of your email. You can set the time to something like 1week@followup.cc or 6days@followup.cc. Just include that in the Bcc line of the email, and you’ll get a follow up reminder.
Listen, it’s a pitch email. You’re sending someone an unsolicited request for something. The likelihood regardless of how awesome your product or service is, that you’ll get a “yes” is pretty slim. I don’t have a formula or industry standard percentage to follow for X amount of emails sent equals Y amount of yes’s. So be prepared to hear no, but be cordial about it and thank the person for even responding if they do say no (this can go a long way if you have a future pitch).
If you believe in the product or service you’re selling, stand by it and try to get it in front of the right people. Your industry might take to email pitches if formatted in a different way, or using different techniques. Simply keep trying new things and see what’s working well for you.
Whether it was launching IWearYourShirt, starting a non-profit, selling my last name, selling online courses, building a software application, selling my future, or various other campaigns/ideas, there’s been some semblance of a system I use that I wanted to share.
While these steps may not fit perfectly for every business, product, or idea, I think they’re a good foundation and get you a lot further than just throwing something out on the Internet and crossing your fingers and toes.
For this plan, we’re going to pretend you’re starting a beer flavored popsicle website (obviously known as BeerSicles) that’s launching in three months.
Every creative idea needs a goal. This may sound mundane and obvious, but there are a lot of people who start things without an end goal in mind. They think “Hey, I’ll launch this project and XYZ will fall in my lap or happen by chance.” Good luck with that.
Come up with your goal or goals, write them down, and keep yourself/your company accountable to them.
Okay, maybe not that last one. Goals are good – they keep you accountable!
The reason I’m putting social media as step #2 is not due to its importance, it’s actually a word of caution: Creating a Facebook Page, Twitter account, Instagram account, etc, seems like something worthwhile to do for your product launch. But guess what? The more social media channels you have, the more work you’ll create for yourself. Work that isn’t actually selling your Beersicles.
I’d recommend skipping social media altogether in the beginning – WHAT!? Yep. Skip it. Grab the handles/URLs for your product on these sites (@beersicles, et al) and just park them. Then, go to step #3 and do that first.
Related: Where social media can be valuable for your product launch is to make a list of existing pages/accounts that share products related to your niche. Beersicles could easily be featured on popular beer blogs, beer review sites, beer podcasts, etc. Reach out to these folks and see if they’re willing to share Beersicles through a giveaway or something fun that benefits them and their audience – get creative!
I always use email marketing as my first launching point.
If you don’t have an email list already, here are the next steps you should take:
Places you should share your email signup link:
When you’re sharing your email sign up link, tell people you’re only asking them to sign up for this email list to give them updates on your new awesome idea. You aren’t going to spam them, and they can expect one or two updates a week for the next three months. Setting expectations makes it easier for people to give you their email address.
You’re most likely having a website built (or building one). Put up a simple landing page that directs people to sign up for your email list and tells them when your site should be launching (general timeframe is fine). Keep this simple and don’t waste too much time on it!
A couple footnotes to this step. #1 – You might want to set Calendar reminders of when you want to send emails to your list so you stay consistent. You should also set a reminder on the day of launch that tells you to share with your email list first. #2 – LeadPages is a super simple resource for creating a landing page that captures email addresses. #3 – If you need more advanced functionality with email marketing, I use and love Drip (aff link).
Take photos of the things you’re doing and create some buzz. Maybe you picked a particularly weird beer you love? Share a photo of it. Maybe you’re trying out eco-friendly popsicle sticks? Share a photo of al the popsicle stick research you’ve done. Get my drift here?
Use content to keep people interested and engaged. Continue to share your email signup link along with your photos. Again, use existing social media accounts to share if you already have them.
NOTE: Do NOT oversell people signing up for your email list and social media accounts. Pick one of those items here and there, and often times share content without it.
Find people who write about whatever you’re doing. Since you love beer, you probably follow some people on Twitter/Instagram or read beer blogs from people who love beer as much as you do. Reach out to them and ask them if you can email them some inside info on a new cool beer idea you’re launching. When you email them, don’t pitch them, just share the idea, ask for feedback, and ask if they’re interested in trying your product before anyone else. Offer to send them some of your delicious Beersicles before anyone else.
Related articles: How To Send A Pitch Email That Actually Gets Answered and The Secret Art of the Follow-Up Email
Especially do this with people who have passionate followings. Look for bloggers who write about beer and get lots of comments on their blog or interactions on Facebook/Twitter. Has someone ever written about beer on Mashable or other tech blogs? They’d love to know that you’re using the Internet to sell an innovative/new product. The key is to continue to build relationships that can help you on launch day.
TIP: Create a Google Spreadsheet and add columns like Name, Email, Twitter, Facebook, Blog Link, Website, Did I Email Them?, Did They Respond?, Do They Want More Info?, Do They Hate Me?, Do They Love Beer?, What Kind?, Will They Help At Launch Day?, Sign Up For My Emails?, etc. This is a separate list that you should be diligent about keeping track of because these folks will be integral in sharing your idea at launch. For some ideas, you won’t have influencers, but you might still want some press from certain publications, so use the same techniques.
Speaking of press, reach out to local press outlets. Most people ignore local press because they want the big dogs like The Today Show, Good Morning America, etc. What you don’t realize is there’s an entire network behind the scenes that’s owned by a lot of the same people. Maybe you don’t know local press folks in your area, but you can watch the news and see if they’re on Twitter or visit their website and see if they have places to submit news/ideas. Local news wants to talk about cool stories in their area.
Use that to your advantage and give them some advance notice, but not too much so they forget about you. I recommend 1-2 weeks before launch trying to reach out to local media and see if they’ll do a story on you/your business (remember to pitch the local angle, even if it’s an Internet business!).
NOTE: One of my local spots from Jacksonville got shared across 54 other local news stations in the following two weeks. It gained more attention than one big network story could with way less effort on my part.
Listen, you love your Beersicles business, right? Are you excited about it? You’ve invested a ton of hours? Don’t be ashamed to promote it!
Start some serious marketing ONE week prior to launch. Give people an exact time to look forward to. I personally like 10-11am, but you can choose something that works well for you. Make sure you share that launch time with all your networks, email list(s), etc. At this time, you should have a landing page or something simple up on your website that tells people the time of launch.
Don’t forget your email list gets first dibs, so make sure they know you’re launching at 11am to the public, but they’ll know at 1030am because they’ve been loyal subscribers. People loving being the first to hear about new ideas!
Launch that sucker! Make your website live, send out your email to your list(s), contact your influencer list, Tweet it, Facebook it, Instagram it, make sure local news knows today is the day, yell out your window really loudly, et al.
Undoubtedly something will break or not work, be honest about it with your audience and update them accordingly. Be ready all day launch day to answer questions, fix orders that get placed wrong, walk someone through a simple process that a 4-year old could do, etc etc. Then, keep the ball rolling. Keep updating people, keep sharing content, keep working hard and don’t give up if you don’t make $1,000,000 in your first week.
Work towards those goals you set for yourself/your business and make new ones along the way. Hopefully this product launch process will help you with your next project or idea.
Happy Launching!
(footnote: beer flavored popsicle inspired by hyppo ice pops)
