A little while back I wrote an email with the subject line:<\/p>\n
\u201cWorshipping the open rate fairy and calling it science\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The email broke apart the entire \u201coOoOPeN rRrRrAAAAAtEs\u201d schtick from multiple points of view, not just from my experiences and my customers\u2019 experiences, but in the experiences of trained computer scientists and engineers, as well as Gmail\u2019s own particulars, the realities of Android phones mostly not even knowing if you opened an email, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n A big theme in the email was:<\/p>\n Focus on what you can control, not what you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n This goes 100% against virtually all sales, marketing, and copywriting dogma \u2014 with their obsession with sales quotas, freaking out over vanity metrics like open & opt-in rates, and confusing a mere result with failure.<\/p>\n Enter daily email reader Jameel Paul.<\/p>\n Jameel is a former hardcore door-to-door \u201cmake the sale to these ice cold leads who are calling the cops on you or you don\u2019t eat\u201d salesman.<\/p>\n His reply is reprinted with his permission below.<\/p>\n Hit it, Jameel:<\/p>\n elBenbo you\u2019re 100% right,<\/strong><\/p>\n focusing on what you \u201ccan control\u201d was literally beaten into me from my direct-selling days. 8 years I spent in that industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n Eight hours a day going door-to-door, or approaching people in the street cold, selling whatever service I had at the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n All on 100% commission.<\/strong><\/p>\n An in a day you\u2019d have *so many* variables:<\/strong><\/p>\n * working outside in poor weather conditions, literally hail, rain, sleet n snow, (and having to smile at customers when you have frozen feet, fingers and you\u2019re suit\u2019s drenched through)<\/strong><\/p>\n * people not answering the door to you<\/strong><\/p>\n * the police being called out to stop and question you because you look \u201csuspicious\u201d – when you\u2019re just trying to earn a living like the next man<\/strong><\/p>\n * would-be customers failing a credit check (for the few people who were interested)<\/strong><\/p>\n * or other would-be customers who were just leaving as you were approaching, or just getting home as you were leaving<\/strong><\/p>\n But we got drilled like military to \u201cfocus on 3 things\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Improve your sales Pitch<\/strong> All within our control.<\/strong><\/p>\n And the sales would take care of themselves. (With the right actions, done long enough)<\/strong><\/p>\n But after 8 years of selling like this, I left with no list and nothing to export. – That\u2019s why I like what you teach so much.<\/strong><\/p>\n Anyway, this just a long way just to say I agree wid ya, wise ol\u2019 elBenbo<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Something I want to say about this:<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if Jameel used it or not in his sales adventures, but the secret persuasion technique in the January \u201cEmail Players\u201d issue is something that works like gangbusters even on the kind of leads so skeptical of you they call the cops on you.<\/p>\n If anything, the technique thrives under such situations.<\/p>\n But tomorrow – 12\/31\/20 – is the deadline to get this issue.<\/p>\n After that, too late\u2026<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the URL for clickin\u2019 while the clickin\u2019 is still good:<\/p>\n
\n2. Increase your Pace (speak to more people)<\/strong>
\n3. Improve your Attitude<\/strong><\/p>\n