Key Moments
How to Write Perfect Sales Emails: Cold Email Clients Tips
Key Moments
Sales emails are read in 11 secs, so avoid cliches and poor formatting; focus on the prospect's problem to improve response rates.
Key Insights
The average prospect spends only 11 seconds reading a sales email, requiring concise and impactful messaging.
Poor formatting, excessive length, and cliches like 'Hope this finds you well' are common blunders that reduce effectiveness.
Subject lines should be short and descriptive to maximize preview text visibility, aiming for at least a 50% open rate with effective copy.
Personalized outreach based on an 'observable truth' or specific challenge for the prospect significantly increases engagement.
Video messages, when used in response to a prospect's question, can be highly effective by providing visual examples and concrete explanations.
Follow-up sequences should be treated as short, focused 'sprints' within a 15-30 day window, rather than long, drawn-out marketing marathons.
The critical 11-second window for first impressions
In the realm of cold outreach, the initial impression is paramount, and emails are found to be eight times more likely to create this first interaction compared to platforms like LinkedIn, which require gatekeepers like connection requests. However, given that the average prospect spends a mere 11 seconds reading your email, every element must be optimized for immediate comprehension and impact. This brevity underscores the need for directness and relevance from the outset. The primary goal within this short timeframe is to answer the prospect's implicit question: 'What is this for me?' Therefore, all messaging must be framed around observing a challenge they might be facing and offering a potential solution, rather than simply touting your own services. Sellers often falter by muddying this focus with generic offers like 'learning more about how we help sellers 2x their positive response rate,' which is less effective than posing direct questions about their challenges. This immediate focus on the recipient's potential needs is crucial for capturing attention and driving engagement.
Avoiding common email outreach blunders
To maximize the chances of a response, a critical step is to avoid prevalent mistakes that signal a lack of effort or care. These include poorly formatted emails, text-heavy paragraphs that lack white space, and the overuse of cliches. For instance, within Gmail, more than three or four lines of text in an editor might indicate an overly dense message. Reading your email aloud can highlight awkward phrasing or unclear sentences. A 'quick scan test' is also recommended, where you read through as if you were the recipient, looking for unnecessary words, awkward comma placements, or areas where your own eyes might get stuck. If your eyes glaze over, your prospect's will too. The inclusion of a word like 'surprise' can effectively re-engage a scanning reader. Common cliches to eliminate include 'just wanted to follow up,' 'bumping this to the top,' 'do you have 20 minutes to chat,' and especially offering a calendar link too early in a cold email context, as these are often perceived as immediate red flags.
Leveraging subject lines and preview text
The subject line serves as the initial filter, determining whether an email even gets opened. Instead of generic phrases like 'Let's connect,' the subject line should be short, descriptive, and directly relevant to the content within the email. The goal is to maximize the preview text, which is the first few lines visible in the inbox before opening. By starting the email with an 'observable truth'—a specific observation about the prospect's situation—you immediately signal that the message is personalized and written specifically for them. This approach can help achieve open rates as high as 50% or more. Testing subject lines and the opening observation independently is key to optimizing performance. Once a strong subject line is established, the focus shifts to iterating and refining the descriptive text that follows within the email body.
The power of video in sales communication
When a prospect shows genuine interest by asking follow-up questions about your product, leveraging video can be an incredibly effective next step. Instead of scheduling a call, recording a short video that directly addresses their query provides a visual example and concrete explanation that written text often lacks. When recording, it's important to look into the camera to create a sense of direct eye contact with the viewer. Avoid reading from a script or looking at yourself. Crucially, this video should be accompanied by written context that explains what the video contains and why it was created. This context should circle back to the initial observation or challenge that prompted the outreach, connecting it to how the product can help them, making the video a more compelling and personalized tool.
Strategic follow-up as a 'sprint' not a 'marathon'
Many sellers treat follow-up as a lengthy marketing funnel, sending out a series of messages over an extended period. A more effective approach, especially for outreach based on a specific observation, is to conduct it as a short, focused 'sprint' within a 15-30 day window. This involves a series of pointed outreaches directly related to the initial reason for contact. After this focused period, it's important to give the prospect space. Follow-up can then resume later, either when a new, distinct reason to reach out arises or by leveraging content generated by marketing departments, such as events or webinars. For instance, reaching out two months later to mention a relevant webinar marketing put on can be an effective way to re-engage, providing a natural, non-intrusive touchpoint.
Adding value through external insights
Beyond direct product pitches, a valuable strategy is to share relevant external content that showcases your buyer's industry or market. This demonstrates helpfulness and positions you as a resource rather than just a salesperson. An example is highlighting a blog post by a competitor's executive about scaling their company, like the VP of Sales at Segment discussing their $3.2 billion acquisition for a platform like Outreach. Even if the source is a competitor, sharing such insights can be highly valuable for the prospect. If they question the source, you can explain that it's simply valuable research you're happy to share. The objective is to assist the prospect in achieving their goals, proving that you've educated yourself about their business and market, and can offer helpful information regardless of its origin.
Prioritizing the prospect's needs
Above all, the most critical principle in prospecting is to consistently make the communication about the recipient, not about yourself or your company. The more you can center your message on the prospect's specific problems, challenges, and goals, the greater your chances of success. This customer-centric approach permeates every aspect of effective sales communication, from the initial subject line and email body to follow-up strategies and content sharing. Even with the best efforts, not every email will receive a response, and that's an accepted reality. However, the only way to know if an email is good or bad, and to learn from it, is to 'hit send' and initiate the conversation.
Mentioned in This Episode
●Software & Apps
●Companies
Perfect Cold Email Checklist
Practical takeaways from this episode
Do This
Avoid This
Prospect Attention Span in Cold Emails
Data extracted from this episode
| Element | Time Spent |
|---|---|
| Average reading time for cold emails | 11 seconds |
Common Questions
Avoid poorly formatted and excessively long emails, as well as clichés like 'I hope this finds you well'. Common follow-up phrases and immediately offering a calendar link are also red flags. The key is to keep emails concise and focused on the prospect's needs, respecting their limited attention span.
Topics
Mentioned in this video
A professional networking platform mentioned as a way to connect with people, though email is presented as having fewer gatekeepers for initial contact.
Mentioned as a platform whose blog features a VP of Sales from Segment discussing scaling their company.
The VP of Sales from this company is mentioned as having written a blog post for Outreach about scaling their company to a $3.2 billion acquisition.
Found this useful? Build your knowledge library
Get AI-powered summaries of any YouTube video, podcast, or article in seconds. Save them to your personal pods and access them anytime.
Try Summify free