Human beings are highly motivated by fear. It’s one of our most basic instincts. The fear of failure, rejection, missing out, change, losing control. These are all rational fears and fear definitely has its place in motivation, however, fear is NOT the best motivator in sales.

But why?

Why Fear Tactics Don't Work Well

It’s overdone. Your prospects have heard it before… again and again. The fact of the matter is that so many people are trying to play off the fears of growing companies that it’s dulled the senses.

Positivity Is Proven To Be Better

In our research, an email promoting the prospect's aspirations, wrapped in positive language and tone performed twice as well as it’s fist-shaking doomsdayer counterpart.

Why threaten your prospects and make them stress about the worst case scenario when there is an opportunity to brighten their day with a new idea that’s going to make them look like a rockstar?

A Better Approach

When writing about your product take into consideration your tone. Read your message out loud (maybe even look at yourself in the mirror). These kinds of practices will not only show you your simple grammatical mistakes. It can also show you exactly how your email is coming across to your prospect.

With many products, it’s true that you can save others from negative consequences, but that doesn’t need to be the focus of your outreach email. Make it a habit to turn every negative statement into a positive benefit before clicking send, and you will see the results in your responses.

Example Fear-Based Email:

Hi {FirstName},

As culture and technology continue to change, we’re seeing toxic workplace behavior on the rise. Are you doing everything you can to prevent them at {Company}?

Companies like {Client1}, {Client2}, and more are working with {Company} to identify and eliminate toxic employees before they damage your culture.

I know you have fires to put out, but we can help you keep many of them from starting at all. Do you have 20 minutes next week to chat about how we can help you protect your workforce?

Best,

Example Affirmative-Based Email:

{FirstName},

As a leader in HR, I thought you might appreciate a fresh approach to strengthening company culture.

We track candidates online social behavior trends and match them up with your most valued employees to identify which candidates will be your best hire of 2018.

Companies like {Client} and {Client} rely on this information to supplement their standard background-checks and consistently hire the right candidates to improve company culture.

Do you have 10 minutes to take a look?

Which one would you rather respond to?