I am not a fan of pushy estate agents. But if you are in that line of business, here’s some advice: if you’re going to go to the trouble of sending letters to home owners asking if they fancy renting their flats, don’t start by saying sorry.

Here are the first couple of lines from a letter that fell through my door recently:

“I apologise for this direct approach however we have seen a great demand this past summer with prospective tenants looking for properties like yours to rent.”

Even if you can disregard the questionable punctuation, admitting that your ‘direct approach’ may be inappropriate is hardly the best way to snag a new customer.

To anyone already put off by the impersonal letter, the apology simply confirms that the estate agent knows they should know better. And why apologise to anyone who actually doesn’t mind this out-of-the-blue communication?

There are many different ways to run a successful direct mail campaign, but opening your message with an apology is not one of them. If you’re confident your message is right for the people you’re sending it to, there’s no reason to say sorry.