This is an amazing nine-word email that revives dead leads. If you've been in business for more than 90 days, you might be sitting on what feels like an open bank account, where you could simply walk in, pick up the money, and walk straight back out again. All you have to do is press send to collect it. Here's why I say this:
A recent lead conversion study found some interesting stats about people who make contact with a company for information and what happens afterward. The study found that just over half of the people who inquire about something will buy what they inquire about within the next 18 months. The study also found that 15% of them will buy within the first 90 days, leaving 85% of the buyers in the more-than-90-day category. The problem is that most business owners don't have the patience or a system to follow up with leads that are not going to buy right now.
They often consider these leads or inquiries that don't buy immediately to be bad leads or tire kickers. Now, here's an easy, lucrative, and fun way to reconnect with all the prospects from the last 90 days or more. It's so simple, you won't believe it. We are targeting the 85% in this bottom-right quadrant because a lot of them are still active buyers, even though they haven't gone ahead yet.
Here's how it works. First, gather all the leads you've generated over the past 90 days or longer. Check all your old emails, any prospects on spreadsheets, notes about phone inquiries, website leads, and business cards you've collected. Once you've collected all these old leads, send them a quick email with something similar to these nine words: "Hi [Name], are you still considering renovating your house?"
Or, if you do office buildings, "Hi [Name], are you still considering renovating your office or building your office?" Reference whatever they inquired about in the way they inquired about it. Fight the temptation to add more to this email. Don't do it.
The mind can't resist an unsolved mystery. It's the mystery that adds the compulsion to respond to you. This is called an open loop, where you ask a question but don't finish the answer or explain why you're asking. It's like news readers who say, "After the break, we'll come back and see this and this."
You're opening a loop, and people's brains naturally want to respond to an email like this or return after the ad break to find out what the conclusion was. Keep it as simple as this: nine words, "Hi [Name], are you still considering renovating your home?"
This hasn't just worked for architects; it has absolutely worked for architects. I've had many architects come back and say they sent out the nine-word email, which is like shaking a tree to see what falls out. They got responses like, "Yeah, funny, good timing," or, "What a coincidence, we were just talking about you the other day, and we think we're ready to go now." In other industries, even outside architecture, a yacht broker sent "Are you still looking for a yacht?" and landed a hundred-million-dollar buyer. A motorcycle jeans designer sold over $9,000 in one week with a nine-word email.
Part of why this works so well is because of the open loop I talked about, but also because it seems like you're only talking to them. You're sending one email to the reader, and it feels like you've only sent it to them, and now you're waiting for a reply. Nobody wants to be rude, but they also want to know why you're asking, and they can't help but respond, especially if they are still looking to renovate a particular project.
So that's how it works. Remember these three key points:
Most people who are going to do a project won't do it quickly. It often takes time. Many people who inquired in the past and didn't proceed may still be interested.
Use just the nine words: "Are you still looking to [insert what they wanted to do]?" For example, "Hi [Name], are you still looking to renovate your house?"
You've got a right to know. If you've spent time giving them a proposal, visiting the site, or speaking to them, it's feasible to follow up. You're just saying, "I'm curious. What happened?"
That's it. That's the nine-word email. Send it out. Often, you'll get very fast responses, and you can pick up projects because it's perfect timing now, even if it wasn't six months ago.
Use this one line email to re-connect with people who contacted you but never went ahead with a project. Feel free to adapt as needed to suit your firm’s specialty and the actual inquiry (custom home, renovation, office building, tenant improvement, etc.). Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this email. That is part of the reason why it is so powerful. Many architects have picked up new projects instantly after sending this email out.
Subject: [their first name]
Body: Hi Mike – are you still considering renovating your home?
-[your name]
If you send this to 20 contacts who had previously inquired about your services, there is a good chance that a handful will reply and say “yes” and you have now reopened the conversation. It may be a better time for them to pursue this further – and you may just get a good shot to win their contract.
