Email Rejections

If you are using email as a prospecting vehicle, you are probably receiving a lot of rejection emails. That’s good. Is there a response etiquette for getting rejected from a prospect via email? These rejection emails can come in the form of something very short and also more detail. Here’s some I’ve received so far this year when prospecting for training opportunities:

1. Not interested

2. Hi Josiane,  I believe we will be holding off for the moment.

We don’t have any current needs that require external suppliers for training and we work closely with IBM corporate to leverage training first for consistency and to reduce cost. I am happy to review information about your company and their services if you can direct me to your website link. If necessary, I will contact you to schedule a meeting. Thanks for contacting me and I will let Jim know that we connected via e-mail.

4. FYI, we will not be doing any sales skills or management development with outside vendors/consultants this year … budget constraints in FY’07.

5. We’ve decided to hold off until 2007 on this purchase.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s great to get these because rejections are objections disguised as questions. The minute you receive an email like this, pick up the phone. You are still fresh in their mind and it’s the perfect forum to start a dialogue. Remember, they are probably cleaning out their email inbox and just sending these out so they are usually in one place where they can be reached. Earn more time from this email and open up an opportunity for the future. Lastly, remember the people saying no are not always the ones who can say yes.