I'm curious what you think: Why do sales calls typically convert at 20%-50%... ... while sales pages typically convert at 2%-5%? If you had to put it down to just one thing?

I got a message this morning from what looked like a genuine, personal Gmail account. It said: === SUBJECT: Quick question about your Skool community... Hey - saw your email writing community and had a quick thought. Most communities I’ve looked at don’t struggle with content… They struggle with members actually following through consistently. Is that something you’ve noticed on your end? === Good! At this point, not only did I open and read the guy's message, but I was: 1. Curious where this guy is going, because it sounds like he might be in Royalty Ronin (he's not, as far as I can tell) 2. Curious if he can actually make this community better. In my heart of hearts, I started imagining some brighter and easier future than the backbreaking labor I wrestle with daily in this group What the hell? I figured it's worth a reply. And if I'm replying, I might as well be all in. So I replied: "I struggle with both" 15 minutes later, the dude wrote back: "I'm sorry to hear that! Out of curiosity, have you tried anything like structured challenges/sprints before?" Eh. I haven't replied to this, and I won't. I don't know if this dude is pitching challenges. I have tried those before, and in fact I'm doing one next week, so that's already out if he wants to sell me something. But more than that, my bubble of a brighter and shinier and easier future popped. I was brought back to the present, specifically to the prospect that this guy would want me to do something or make some kind of a decision to change my current situation. and that's something I'm leery of, at least after just one email. I'm reporting on this fascinating interaction because it's relevant to you too, and not just if you write cold outreach messages. It's relevant to you if you write emails to your list, and if you use those emails to get business of any sort. There are three lessons I would say you can draw from the guy's messages above. Two from his initial message (what to do) and one from his second message (what not to do).

Yesterday I ran a poll, asking if you want my help running a promo in April. 6 people voted. For reference, when I run a poll, I typically get ~20 respondents to vote, and sometimes 40 or more. This time 6. What happened? I don't know. but it did make me think of something very instructive that marketer Dean Jackson teaches. I need reminding of this lesson regularly. Maybe it will be useful to you too. Dean says, imagine you invite a friend over to your house. Your friend comes. He sits down on the big white sofa in your living room. You want to be a good host. So what do you do? ****** Option A ****** You tell your friend: "Hey buddy, the fridge is stocked full of food. Anything you might want. Just help yourself." ****** Option B ****** Since you know that your friend is really fond of oatmeal raisin cookies, you tell him: "Hey buddy, I know you love oatmeal raisin cookies. I have all the dough and everything. You want me to just pop into the kitchen and bake up a batch? Won't take a minute." So which one? Option A or option B? Says Dean, neither. In option A, your friend is unlikely to get up, go to the kitchen, open the fridge, rummage around, and take food as if this really were his own house. Instead, he's much more likely just to say, "I'm fine, thanks." In option B, your friend is unlikely to ask you get up, go to the kitchen, fire up the oven, and start baking the cookies for the next 45 minutes. Instead, he's much more likely just to say, "No, please don't, it's an awful lot of trouble, and I don't want to put you out." So neither Option A nor Option B. Instead, Dean suggests: ****** Option C ****** You bake the cookies in anticipation of your friends coming. And as he's settling into the big white sofa on your living room, you say, "I'll be right back." You go to the kitchen, get the platter of freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies, and bring them out to your friend. "Would you like a cookie?" you ask your friend. "They're oatmeal raisin."

Yesterday I asked which of your emails did GOOD. Not a lot of people replied. I don't know why that is. If you'd like to tell me why you didn't reply to my post yesterday, I'm all ears... Meanwhile, maybe BAD emails are a more top-of-mind issue? A "bad" email can be bad for a bunch of reasons: - No sales - No clicks - No replies - Replies that are offensive, irritating, or stupid - A bunch of unsubscribes - etc. Do you have anything like that? Comment below for... general entertainment and personal relief? I can start.

Which emails have you sent lately that actually did good? You can define "good" to mean whatever you like: - got a lot of replies - got a few high qualified hand-raisers - made an unexpected number of sales - got you some testimonials or endorsements or social proof - got you referrals or connections * etc. The reason I'm inviting you to answer this question is that I invited myself to answer it just now. The fact is, I've been writing daily emails for something like 8 years. Some emails do well. Most don't. Which ones do well? And is there any commonality? And how can I reuse them and benefit from them more generally than just that one time that I sent them out? I HAVE NO IDEA Actually, I have a bit of an idea. Because today, I created a new document titled "Emails that did well," which I plan to be updating regularly. To kickstart it with some content, I went through my last 30 days' worth of emails. I pulled out the ones that did well in some way or another. (There were 5, or 16.6%, which was actually better than I expected.) If you're curious, I can share my current list. But before I do that, I'd like to invite you to do the same. Which of your recent emails did well, and why? Take five minutes to do some research now. Share your findings below. You'll inspire others, and more importantly, you might start a new habit that can help you write emails more effectively and profitably and easily in the future.