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Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

maxklein.posterous.com

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Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#11

Post by mwexler »

Wow. So, I didn't send you an email, and then you send me an email with the indicator "Re:" which traditionally (well, in the last few years of email history) means that you are responding to my email... which I didn't send.

Sorry to be a purist, but I consider that a misleading subject line, which is one of the indicators of spam.

Yes, traditionally, RE: meant "in regards to" and was a standard header on memos to denote the subject (watch Mad Men if you don't recall memos). But we all know that nowadays it is the changed subject line of an email response in a thread... which is why it gets the attention the author mentions.

Sure, we all have to do whatever we can to get noticed. But maybe I'm the only one here who thinks that there are ways to do this without "overloading" the RE. And please don't say "ah, but his is Re, while Outlook uses RE, totally different!". Because it's not.

As a test, try something other than RE: Try using "Subj:" or Oh, one more thing re: price list or any of the other countless ways one can get attention in a subject without "fooling" the user.

The mispelling, though, is not a bad touch.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#12

Post by nzmsv »

es3754 wrote: post #2

Nice email trick. I personally hate when I can't easily find pricing online though.

To me, a quote request form says the company isn't really serious about this whole Internet thing :) I associate it with a site someone put up in 1995 and hasn't touched since. Probably just me.

But, in this case this may actually be a win, since the product isn't mass market. Whoever goes through the trouble of filling out a request is likely already sold on the product, so less time spent on sales.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#13

Post by nkohari »

If someone misspelled something in an email reply, I would just assume they had a misspelling in their automated response form letter. That would make me think much less of the company. I'm glad it converted better for you, but I'm guessing that another variable changed at the same time that actually made the difference.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#14

Post by maxklein »

eru wrote: post #10
maxklein wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, roughly in the middle of both of them. I don't do the misspelling anymore, just for sake of proper grammar, but it was always the best converter with.

So you let grammar trump your profit?

The income stream from new customers in this business is not so high anymore (I think maybe $700 or a bit less a month), and I firmly believe that even though it's okay to play dirty when breaking into something new, afterwards go back and clean up your act.

I have a long list of customers now, and I don't want them rerequesting the pricelist and seeing that same mistake. It's obvious then - and when your client list is long enough it is more profitable to target old clients instead of new ones. Upgrades, customisations, etc.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#15

Post by jayliew »

This sales strategy works for higher-end (read: pricier) stuff. It will not work too well for less-pricy stuff, impulse buys, or purchases where the buyer is looking to make a quick decision.

Usually when I see a "contact us for a quote" I already know that they are trying to price their product (to me) based on how much they think they can get out of me. Meaning, if I am rich, the same product is more expensive to me than if I was a poor bloke. It's a form of market segmentation, pricing is definitely more of an art than science.

Either way, this means it's a "high-touch" purchasing decision; meaning I probably have to go and and forth with some sales guy to reach some price. If I'm not in the mood for the hassle and I'm looking for an impulse buy, I'll immediately forget this site and move on.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#16

Post by codexon »

maxklein wrote: post #9
lanstein wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same thought, 'taht' would make me _less_ likely to buy.

You sure about that? Imagine there are 6 or 7 vendors selling a component you need for your software. Most are sending you form replies. With one you are talking to a real person who emails you and answers your questions promptly, and speaks in a normal way and made a spelling mistake in his rush to email you, but otherwise spellt correctly. Would you not feel reassured that someone will fix your problems when you ha…

While your theory makes sense, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't statistically significant.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#17

Post by sjs »

maxklein wrote: post #9
lanstein wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same thought, 'taht' would make me _less_ likely to buy.

You sure about that? Imagine there are 6 or 7 vendors selling a component you need for your software. Most are sending you form replies. With one you are talking to a real person who emails you and answers your questions promptly, and speaks in a normal way and made a spelling mistake in his rush to email you, but otherwise spellt correctly. Would you not feel reassured that someone will fix your problems when you ha…

It might be to me, but I can be somewhat pedantic.

Professional correspondence should be just that: professional. It doesn't need to be rushed. Get rid of the red squiggly underlines. It's so easy to spot mistakes when typing on a computer that it seems extremely lazy not to correct them.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#18

Post by lonestar »

mwexler wrote: post #11

Wow. So, I didn't send you an email, and then you send me an email with the indicator "Re:" which traditionally (well, in the last few years of email history) means that you are responding to my email... which I didn't send. Sorry to be a purist, but I consider that a misleading subject line, which is one of the indicators of spam. Yes, traditionally, RE: meant "in regards to" and was a standard header on memos to de…

I think it's odd that you have such a problem with co-opting the use of "Re:" (even though you admit he is using it in the original sense), but you don't have an issue with him co-opting the English language by intentionally misspelling words.

Besides, when a customer requests pricing, many systems will send an e-mail to the salesperson who can hit "reply" to send an e-mail to the customer.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#19

Post by ricardo »

nzmsv wrote: post #12
es3754 wrote: post #2

Nice email trick. I personally hate when I can't easily find pricing online though.

To me, a quote request form says the company isn't really serious about this whole Internet thing :) I associate it with a site someone put up in 1995 and hasn't touched since. Probably just me. But, in this case this may actually be a win, since the product isn't mass market. Whoever goes through the trouble of filling out a request is likely already sold on the product, so less time spent on sales.

This is the typical model for enterprise software that is sold through a sales team. The price of the product is determined by how much the customer is willing to pay and can vary widely from one sale to the next. Sales made this way usually yield a higher price at the expense of speed/volume. You can only sell as fast as your sales team works.

Re: Improving sales with 3 characters and a misspelling

#20

Post by Semiapies »

mwexler wrote: post #11

Wow. So, I didn't send you an email, and then you send me an email with the indicator "Re:" which traditionally (well, in the last few years of email history) means that you are responding to my email... which I didn't send. Sorry to be a purist, but I consider that a misleading subject line, which is one of the indicators of spam. Yes, traditionally, RE: meant "in regards to" and was a standard header on memos to de…

"But we all know that nowadays it is the changed subject line of an email response in a thread... which is why it gets the attention the author mentions."

No, I think many people are aware of the broader definition. Reading this and other comments here, I was expecting this to be a spamming tactic...but the email in question is sent in response to an active request for information. "Re: Klein SDK pricelist request" is a perfectly honest and understandable subject line.

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