And that chance is in the subject line. Consider a customer with emails in his or her inbox with the following subject lines:
- Subject Line: “Your RFQ 8854 Our Quote 11876 3,000 Machined Steel Rods $7,000 Net, Four Week Lead Time.”
Body Text: Includes the quote information from the subject line and specifies standard terms and conditions. - Subject Line: “Quote”
Body Text: The quotation details. - Subject line: “Quote”
Body Text: “Our quote is attached.”
A busy buyer with 400 unread emails might see the subject line of the first email, decide that $7,000 is a fair price, and send that vendor the order. “If I can get this order off my desk at a fair price why search the other 299 emails in my inbox to find other responses to this RFQ?”
A buyer with a little more time might dig deeper, but ignore attachments. After all, opening attachments is time consuming and some attachments carry viruses. So the third email is the most likely to go unread.
Reps who are savvy communicators keep the customer’s convenience uppermost in their minds and communicated in the way that is most likely to get the order.