Sales

Those are: opening the sale and closing it.

There’s nothing more to it. It really is that simple. And yet most people stay stuck on the closing part, while completely disregarding the opening.

There are, as with anything, many ways to open a sale, or more specifically in our case, an email. Anyone who claims there’s only one way to do something is full of shyte and undoubtedly trying to sell you something (often something subpar, if not straight trash).

But that doesn’t mean some ways aren’t better than others.

You could learn a few evergreen ways of opening an email (which I do teach in Email Valhalla) and solely rely on those. But that does keep your options limited and runs the danger of boring you out when writing emails (and if you don’t enjoy writing them, your readers won’t enjoy reading them).

So where does that leave you?

Well, in my case, there’s a simple litmus test I use every single time I write an email to determine whether an email opener is worth using.

Now, remember, I’m a simple man.

I like to do business in a simple way. I despise everything complex—complexity is often a smokescreen for incapableness—and never want anything to do with it. So beware that when I tell you my litmus test you’ll almost undoubtedly reply by saying that it’s super obvious, that everyone knows this, and that this couldn’t possibly be helpful or worth teaching people.

But to that I’ll have to ask you to remind yourself that knowing and doing are 2 very different things.

Many people will know this, yes. Almost nobody will think this is something new or revolutionary, really, it’s the most old and obvious thing there is. But then again, almost nobody actively reminds themselves of this litmus test, this simple question, when writing emails.

And it shows, because so many people fail at writing actual good, engaging, valuable emails that can sell.

Anyway.

If you’d like to learn my simple litmus test (and how to actually implement it instead of merely “knowing” it), get your hands on the 7 evergreen ways to open an email or anything else related to building an absolute beast of an email (business) empire.

Then check out Email Valhalla today: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Well, almost useless, at least.

Let me explain.

First of all, you’re not in business to get your emails opened, are you? You’re in business to make money.

So what does that tell you?

Well if you had to choose between making $100 per email while having a 50% open rate or making $1,000 per email but having an open rate of 12%, which one would you choose?

So, we’re optimizing for sales, not for opens—an important distinction to make.

“But Alex, if you increase your open rate from 12% to 50%, wouldn’t you make more money?” In theory yes, in practice no.

I first learned this from email marketer John Bejakovic, who shared his odd discovery that all his emails with the highest profits had the lowest open rates. I share this discovery.

Why does this happen? Who knows? There could be (and there are) multiple reasons.

One of the most logical explanations has to do with the subject line. If a subject line is highly specific, then fewer people will open your emails. But the people who do will be better-qualified buyers, and thus earning you more money.

On the other hand. It’s not just all about money > open rates.

Open rates themselves are flawed. Over the years many ESPs have taken different privacy actions to protect their users. This means that the methods used to track if people opened your emails aren’t working anymore.

How do you even know if people opened your email in the first place? Well, that’s done through embedded images.

Whenever I send an email, my ESP (Beehiiv) embeds a tiny image, just one single pixel. If you open the email, you’ll automatically send a request to download that image.

But here’s the thing. A lot of people have images disabled. Aka, you can’t track them. And here’s the new change. Google, outlook, and many others intercept these images and alter them before showing them to you in your inbox. Also disabling the tracker that’s embedded.

So yeah. You can’t trust email open rates. And you shouldn’t take drastic measures regarding them.

But there’s something else you can trust. Those are the fundamentals of email marketing. Learning how to write quick and easy emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading every day. No longer do you have to follow rules and metrics made up by people who know nothing about email.

Just do you, write engaging emails, and get paid.

Interested? Learn more about how to do so here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

I used to hop on many sales calls back in the day.

Back then I was still very much running a client-based business. Specifically consulting clients.

But there was one problem.

A large one holding me back from getting a vast amount of clients… or any other “success” metric, for that matter.

The problem?

I was needy.

I just needed to get those clients. I needed to close them, no matter the cost. To convince them to give me money—even though, in some cases, I just made up my offer a few hours prior to the call.

And as anybody intuitively knows… it doesn’t pay to be greedy.

You need to understand that in every interaction, whoever needs the result less has the power. They have the upper hand. They have the bargaining power. This goes for everything. From sales calls to applying for a job, going on dates, selling second-hand products, asking for a raise, buying a car, deciding where to go on holiday next year, hell even deciding where to eat.

So if you want to make the most out of every life situation, understand this:

You are the prize.

They need to pass your qualifying process. Not the other way around.

Even if you don’t feel like you’re the prize, figure out your shit and find a way to feel like the prize. No matter what process or growth you have to go through to end up feeling like it. Work on yourself. Get yourself physically, mentally, and physically right. All of these will aid in every aspect of your life. And the result will be a mindset shift that’ll serve you for decades to come.

And while this is a mindset shift you can technically make at all times.

There is a practical element you could do to make it easier for you to reach this state of feeling like the prize.

More specifically, the act of getting results.

No matter how paradoxical—or obvious—it sounds. Getting results will help you get more results. Not just because of the case studies, the referrals, the social proof, or anything else of the sort.

It’s all because you’ll trust in yourself and your ability to get results. Which means you won’t ever be needy ever again.

You know you can easily get results again, no worries.

There’s more than enough fish in the sea, that’s for sure.

This also applies to your emails.

A needy email will never sell. It’ll only hurt you.

Speaking of important email lessons. If you’d like to master the art of writing daily entertaining emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, to learn all about it.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla/

Neither do I trust people who act like they’re not selling anything.

Both cases are big red flags.

If you don’t have anything to sell then I (and many other people) will simply perceive you as not having anything worth to offer.

So why should I listen, much less trust you?

Whether that’s actually true or not doesn’t matter.

It’s the same as people who claim to be “experts” but then complain about posting content daily. If you don’t have something to say every single day—while there are other people out there who do—how do you expect people to believe your claims of being an expert?

In case people act like they’re not selling anything (but they are).

There simply has to be something wrong, bad, or shady about what they’re doing.

If you’ve got a good product. Something that can change people’s lives for the better. You’re confident in your abilities, and you know what you’re selling to people is worth every single penny.

Then why are you hiding it?

If anything, you should be shouting it off rooftops all the time. Making sure everyone knows about it and you get it into as many hands as humanly possible.

That’s the right thing to do.

So again.

I don’t trust people who have nothing to sell or act like they don’t have anything to sell—and probably neither should you.

And on that note.

Maybe you don’t actually have something to sell right now. In that case I’d highly recommend you to check out Product Creation Made Easy where I’ll show you how to ideate, create, and launch a profitable digital product in 21 days or less.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product

One of the founding fathers of modern-day marketing, and more specifically advertising, is Claude C. Hopkins who first published “Scientific Advertising” back in 1923.

It’s an amazing read which I highly suggest to everyone who even remotely comes close to advertising anything, no matter what, why, or how.

In fact, I’d argue you should read it multiple times in a row. That’s what I’m doing right now, in fact—I’m currently on my god-knows-how-many read-through and I keep learning new stuff.

You can read the entire thing in one sitting if you’d like.

And yes, I know what you’re thinking “But Alex, that book is from 1923, surely that’s outdated and there are better books for me to read right now?”.

I thought so too at first.

But boy how wrong I was.

See, advertising and marketing at their core are psychological disciplines. It’s essentially salesmanship in print as Hopkins described it in his book. And if there’s anything to know about sales & psychology, it’s that people’s psyche doesn’t change. If something used to be true back in Ancient Rome, then chances are it still holds true today.

Sure the medium changes, and maybe even certain ideas, beliefs, and cultural ideals. But the underlying principles everything is based on don’t.

Another fact to consider is that the best way to stand out is to “be different”.

So modern books, teachings, and people who want to “compete” with such old-school legends and more-than-holy scriptures on the art of advertising, by definition, have to do things differently or else they won’t even stand a chance in competing.

But what happens when people want to compete with a near-perfect book (in this case at least)?

That’s right…

You end up with something slightly worse at best and completely and utter bollocks at worst.

That’s the case for every piece of information in every market targeted to every demographic and applied to every medium there is. No exceptions.

Something to think about.

Anyway, I’m not saying I’ve got knowledge anywhere near to the level of that of Hopkins. But I always focus on only taking in the best, most-trustworthy, and effective information from the old-school myths, legends, and pioneers.

Take for example Email Valhalla, my flagship course which teaches you all about writing emails that get you sales, no matter what market you’re in or what you’re selling, and keeps readers reading day after day.

There’s nothing truly new in the course.

No shiny bells or whistles.

But it is one of the only (I only know a handful of others) courses that brings everything from the top dogs who knew what they were doing together and teaches it in a modern jacket and a teaching style that’s uniquely mine and mine alone (that means no-nonsense, no bullshit, no time-wasting, and ultimately memorable and effective).

If that tickles your fancy, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla