- Greeting and softener.
- Outline logic for the targeted personal email.
- Introduce yourself, your role at your company, and outline your company’s product/service in a way that clearly and directly solves a top 3 challenge for the prospect in their role at target company.
- Suggest a meet/call to outline the aspects of notable relevance.
- Close with an assumptive feeler about the best time/date to speak.
Referencing the product or service in your subject line will reduce open rates, so don’t do it.
Something more ambiguous works better in 90% of cases.
Ex. "2017 plans", "London next week", "Better organization" etc.
Write the content as if every word costs $1,000.
- Forget feature and benefit lists. Instead just outline the end result without worrying too much about the mechanics and steps involved.
- Forget everything you have read about social proof. Delete those three big-named clients: instead tell your prospect you know exactly how your service/product will make a big difference at their company.
- Drop the marketing language and jargon. Tell it in plain English using simple, uncomplicated sentences.
- Avoid obvious data insertions. Data insertions are a fantastic way to target mails – but they’re a real turn-off if they’re noticeable. Always reality check samples of your mails before hitting send.
- Save the discounts and special offers. For an engagement mail there’s no need to start desperately discounting. You need to sell your proposition not start skimming off its price.
- PDF attachments and web links are a no-no. Your marketing department is going to love you. Not only have you discarded all their carefully crafted sales copy in favour of a conversational tone but you are also going to need to refuse to attach their latest promo piece or insert a link to their latest video or landing page. The fact is, when you look at the stats attachments and web links just distract your prospects from your main aim: to get in contact to find out more.
Hello <name>,
I hope you're having a productive <day of week>.
My name is <name> and I would like to offer you <product> that solves <problem>.
Do you have 5 minutes for a phone call?
You can find out more on <link>.
Respectfully,
Hi Dave,
I read your post on cloud migration last week – really got me thinking about your approach.
Mind if I drop you a call… I have a couple of thoughts I wanted to run past you?
Do you have a few minutes on Thurs?
Cheers
February 2010. Jason Cohen had an idea for a new WordPress hosting service. He logged onto Linkedin, searched for Wordpress consultants and sent forty of them the following email:
100% agreed to talk to me on the phone. Not one asked for any money. Thirty agreed to pay $50 / mo. Before I had a company name, before I had a powerpoint, before I had a server, I already had 30 customers willing to pay. — Jason
Today, WP Engine, makes $100M / year.
Send emails on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday between 09:00 and 11:00
Emails sent between 08:00 and 11:00 represented 46% of the total, yet they accounted for 75% of all responses.
Best days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday because Monday's are super busy while on Friday's people shut off for the weekend.
https://sopro.io/best-time-to-send-prospecting-emails
https://sopro.io/six-simple-steps-to-prospecting-success
https://sopro.io/whats-sopro-email
https://sopro.io/the-golden-rules-of-email-prospecting
Most sales reps over-engineer their emails.
- Write too formal
- Overuse personalisation
- Spend a lot of time researching
- Spend a lot of time writing their emails
- Use lengthy sentences and subject lines
None of which are necessary.
- Find relevant buying triggers
- Pitch a problem the prospect is likely to have
- Interest-based call to action & create curiosity
In other words:
- Monitor the same 3 buying triggers to be instantly relevant
- Pitch a problem that is unique to your ICP (ideal customer profile)
- Ask for interest, not time.
Bonus tip: add a piece of value. The Law Of Reciprocity says you're more likely to get a response :-)
The first sentence in your email needs to tell the prospect immediately why you are reaching out to them, and why now.
You have about 3 seconds attention span to get that right. Otherwise, TLDR.
The best way to do this is to refer to a trigger from your research.
Triggers are visible events that indicate that the prospect is currently in market for what you sell, for example:
- Increased hiring or headcount growth
- Executive leadership change
- International expansion
- New product launch
- Funding event
- M&A
- The tech stack they use
Tip: always look out for the same 3 triggers. It will make your research more efficient.
Here's what your subject line and first sentence could look like:
Subject: Series B
Hi Tom,
You recently raised 2.5M Series B funding with Wingman Ventures. Congratulations!
You have their attention. Now it's all about adding immediate value.
When I say "pitch", I do not mean product features. Or ROI. Or customer references. All of these are salesy and there's no place for them in the first email.
Instead, pitch a problem that you know your prospect is likely to have in the current stage that they're in. If done right this positions you as a trusted advisor, someone who can add value to their business.
Tip: Problems/pains are persona-specific. The CSO has different pains than the CFO. Know your ICP, and know what resonates with them!
Here's what the body of your email could look like:
Series B scale ups often face challenges when it comes to scaling their go-to-market teams. They realise the tools and processes that served them well at the seed stage does not scale during that next phase.
This issue is often related to data silos and manual tasks.
Most sales reps get this wrong.
The problem with asking for time is that it's too much commitment. Even though you are relevant and the prospect might be interested, he or she is busy. You're asking too much.
Instead, ask for their interest. See if they are curious. Find out if they are open to learn more.
Tip: Use the law of reciprocity. Attach some value to your CTA. The prospect will feel more compelled to give you something in return: a response.
Here's what your CTA could look like:
With Salesforce we help Series B startups to remove growth bottlenecks and scale faster. Here's a video of what the CEO of X has to say about us: link
Tom, is this topic relevant for you at the moment?
Hi Tom,
You recently raised 2.5M Series B funding with Wingman Ventures. Congratulations!
Series B scale ups often face challenges when it comes to scaling their go-to-market teams. They realise the tools and processes that served them well at the seed stage does not scale during that next phase. This issue is often related to data silos and manual tasks.
With Salesforce we help Series B startups to remove growth bottlenecks and scale faster. Here's a video of what the CEO of X has to say about us: link
Tom, is this topic relevant for you at the moment?
Best, Christian
The 5 most common types of emails in an outbound sequence:
- Painful Problem
- Business Impact
- Success Story
- A/B Option
- Friendly Stripline
A good cold email sequence looks like this:
- Address a painful problem the prospect might face. Ask to validate.
- Highlight the business impact to drive urgency around this topic.
- Tell a story of how you have helped similar customers.
- Give the prospect something of value with an A/B option.
- Be friendly and use humor in your breakup email. Never burn bridges.
And if you want a longer sequence, simply repeat steps 2-4 a couple times.
I treat my prospects the same way I want to be treated. Which means: I don't spam them.
I also don't send automated Outreach or Salesloft cadences. Every email I write is written manual.
My first email is never about me or my product. It's 100% about the prospect.
For this I use my TPQ framework:
- T - trigger: a visible signal that the prospect is in active buying mode or facing a business challenge I can help solve
- P - problem statement: an assumption about the business challenge related to the trigger
- Q - question: ask to validate the assumption, be curious, prompt a response & conversation
Subject: $5M Series A
Hey John,
Last week you raised a $5M series A with Sunrays. Congrats!
What we often see with other SaaS scale ups in Switzerland is that series A funding goes straight into hiring new go to market reps.
The challenge comes with onboarding them and scaling your best practice sales process across through KPI monitoring.
How are you tackling this?
Cheers,
Tempate 1: Painful Problem
Subject: ((account trigger))
Hey ((firstname)),
You recently ((trigger)). ((recognition))
What we often see with ((industry)) is that ((business impact related to trigger))
The challenge ((business challenge & root cause)).
((validating question))
Cheers / Best / Regards,
80% of pipeline is created after >10 touches. So follow ups are a must.
However, I HATE meaningless email bumps. Never send them.
"Just bumping this up your inbox" or "thoughts?" - you're dead to me.
Try to add value with every follow up. 3 ways to do so:
- Be more specific with business challenge & impact
- Insert a relevant customer success story
- Provide a resource that tells more
Use only 1 with each follow up. That's already emails #2 to #4 in your sequence.
John,
If the KPI monitoring piece is missing you won't be able to see how your reps execute the strategy in real time.
As a result you will only learn about success or failure when the monthly pipeline & revenue reports come in.
It's a hit or miss strategy that can cost crucial ARR that is needed for the next funding round.
What are your thoughts?
Tempate 2: Business Impact
Subject: ((trigger))
((firstname)),
If ((your value prop, feature)) is missing then ((technical pain)).
As a result ((qualitative business impact)).
This strategy causes ((quantitative business impact)).
((validating question))
At this point you have highlighted a painful problem your prospect might face.
You also quantified the business impact to drive urgency around this problem.
Email #3 in your sequence should educate the buyer on how you have solved this problem for others.
- Identify one very relevant customer reference similar to the prospect and
- Describe the solution short but concise
Hey John,
With Sunshine Industries we implemented real time sales KPI monitoring within 2 weeks.
After 4 weeks of adoption they saw a 15% increase in forecast accuracy, which enabled the sales leadership team to react more agile to realtime pipeline information. They've grown revenue 50% YoY since last year.
I see similarities to Sunrays. Should we discuss if we can help you, too?
Cheers
Tempate 3: Success Story
Subject: ((trigger))
Hey ((firstname)),
With ((reference customer)) we implemented ((feature, capability)) within ((implementation time)).
After ((adoption time)) they saw ((KPI improvement)), which enabled ((stakeholders)) to ((organisational improvement)). They have ((overall ROI)) since ((total time frame)).
I see similarities to ((account). Should we discuss if we can help you, too?
Cheers/Best,
Emails #1-#3 in this sequence are very effective.
They demonstrate you have done your research, understand your prospect and know what you're talking about.
Often you still don't get a response from prospects. Not because you're not relevant but because they are busy, distracted, sick etc.
That's why I like to put some interactiveness in email 4.
I give the prospect an A/B option and promise something of value.
The piece of value can be
- A personalised video message that highlights the business challenge
- A resource to a case study or other resource
- A personalised report (if applicable)
- A personalised product demo
The piece of value should be something of effort on your side.
Therefore only give it to prospects who are at least willing to smash a like button for you.
John,
If you're still with me I have a quick question:
Would you like to receive a personalised demo of what our solution could look like for you?
Simply respond "👍 " for YES
or "👎" for NO
Cheers
Tempate 4: A/B Option
Subject: ((trigger))
((firstname)),
If you're still with me I have a quick question:
Would you like to receive ((valuable resource)).
Simply respond
"👍 " for YES
or "👎" for NO
Cheers
At some point it's time to give prospects an easy way out.
Maybe they're not for you, you're not for them or the timing isn't right.
Give their inbox a break and sequence them again 3 months later.
The 🔑 here is to use a bit of humor and create some positive emotion. Give the prospect a good laugh.
It's important to end the sequence on a positive note. Never burn bridges 🔥
Hey John,
Either real time KPI monitoring is not a priority right now or you hate receiving emails from strangers.
Whichever it is, I'll give your inbox a break for some time.
If you change your mind you know where to find me!
All the best,
Tempate 5: Friendly Stripline
Subject: ((trigger))
Hey ((firstname)),
Either real time KPI monitoring is not a priority right now or you hate receiving emails from strangers.
Whichever it is, I'll give your inbox a break for some time.
If you change your mind you know where to find me!
All the best,