We all have one customer account that is just out of reach. You know which one I'm talking about. The Big One.

The one account that’s a career maker, and will move you into the spotlight. To land that account, you’ve called them. Emailed. LinkedIn. Networked.

But still … crickets.

If we asked why, and they answered truthfully, here's what they would say:

Anthony,

I recently got an email business proposal from two different sources. One I responded to right away, the other was yours, which I ignored.

Look, I know how frustrating it is to write to someone an email and not receive the courtesy of a reply. So should I have replied to you? Yes, sure. Am I sorry?

Not really. In fact … welcome to The Big Time where only the most concise emails and the most intriguing proposals survive. My inbox is a kill zone. (And pestering me on Twitter and Facebook because you sent an email a few minutes ago does not increase survival rates.)

Here’s the breakdown of why I never got back to you:

1. You included an attachment to the email I never wanted, needed or requested. You're sending me too much information, too fast.

2. Your emailed required a thoughtful response which would take far longer than 60 seconds to write. See, I don’t type a lot. It creates a papertrail and usually when I lose a lawsuit, it’s because of a papertrial. (I prefer to use the phone.)

3. Your email was excellent. A model of prose. Three neatly written paragraphs. The sentences were well constructed. The ideas well formed. I wish our own sales people could write as well. But this is obviously a generic sales outreach, and I have too much other stuff to work on right now then dive headfirst into your sales funnel.

4. I previously ignored one of your emails, and now I feel I have the right to ignore ALL of your emails.

5. As a final thought, here’s the other email I received the same day as yours, it is the one I did respond to.

(exactly as written):

Subject: via jeff

Message: John, by way of introduction, the guys at Smith
Company thought we should connect about our 27-series
products. If I email through a 2-page summary, can you spend
3 mins with it, give a quick yes/no. thanks, Oren

To learn more about this kind of email and which messages get through to decision makers, read my book Pitch Anything.

Oren Klaff is a #1 best-selling Author, executive training instructor, and investment partner at Intersection Capital. In 2003, he pioneered a revolutionary approach to raising capital by incorporating neuroscience into the capital markets programs, which in turn has closed more than $1 billion in transactions.  

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