A great post back in September from Funnelholic made one point vividly clear: it is critical to resist the urge to dump all arguments for buying into an email campaign (or in a trade show booth meeting, or in a cold call) just because we have that prospects attention for once, and because we’re afraid of never getting it again.  Predictably, there is too much content, too big a message to swallow, and the prospect’s eyeballs roll back in their head and they delete the email, or leave the booth, or say “not interested” and hang up.

Marketers ALWAYS try to achieve too much with their campaigns and in most cases they are trying to sell the product when what they really need to do is sell the next step.

He goes on to make great points regarding Marketing Automation software, pre-connect scripts or emails, and opening scripts: use MA to help time the connect, then sell the connect, then with permission sell the next step.  Like any worthwhile, complicated, time-consuming endeavor, break a sale down into bite-sized pieces, and then achieve them sequentially.  Offering a glass water to a thirsty prospect will be more successful than offering a fire hose.