There are a whole slew of articles and books created with the purpose of teaching you how to write the perfect email to get customers to pay attention and take action. They’ll tell you to be prompt, include a strong call to action, use catchy subject lines or include fun graphics. However, when it comes to the meat of what you should say, you have nowhere to turn.

But that’s not the case anymore. As it turns out, the words you use DO matter. In fact, dealerships who have a high email close rate communicate differently than dealerships who have a low close rate. Using sentiment analysis and a cool new field of research called Natural Language Processing, we were able to determine which words contributed to the high or low email close rates.

Those we determined to be “high closers” had an average close rate of 10.9 percent. Those with a low close rate had an average close rate of 1.6 percent.

Double-check your words

So which words matter? Words like “provide” and “phone number” indicated a high close rate while phrases like “give me a” and “to ensure that” failed to indicate a high close. Go through some of your most common emails and start replacing some of those “low closer” words with some of the “high closer” words.

While it’s great to know the specific words that you can use to build strong emails, it’s also important to understand WHY these words helped drive sales – and use those concepts to further your success.

Guide your customers

Many of the strongest words occur because they are giving the customer good information and an easy, actionable next step. They ask simple questions like “would you like to come in and test drive the Sportage?” or say they’ll “provide details about the vehicles you’re interested in.” When you leave the next step in their hands, like saying “feel free to come in when you have a chance,” you lose the urgency and will often lose the lead.

Speak their language

Low-closing words like “body style” indicate that your customers can get lost when you’re speaking dealership language instead of speaking to the customer in their language. Instead, sharing the benefits of a vehicle in a way they would understand, like offering up that the vehicle has “heated seats” or is “comfortable” helps them imagine themselves driving (and buying) that specific car.

Meet them where they’re at

Your customers emailed you, so email them back. Don’t force them to call or come into the dealership before they’re ready. “Give me a call” was the highest indicator that an email would be left in the dust. Instead, provide them information they need via email and slowly nudge them through the process. If you’re meeting them at every step, you’ll also be the one to meet them in your dealership when they’re ready to buy.

While words are important, it’s important to remember that context matters too. If you’re still curious about how to use the language of closers, check out our white paper.