Good sales email is like a perfect cup of coffee. It can never be too simple and adding just a little bit the wrong way can ruin it and adding too much just makes it overwhelming and strips it off its primary purpose and flavor.
Think of yourself as a barista for cold sales emails and know what it takes to compose a perfect cup of salespresso.
That is why we’re giving you five Dos and Don’ts that can make or break your prospecting efforts.
1. DO THINK ABOUT YOUR PROSPECT
Always keep in mind that your prospect’s needs are the most relevant to your email. Solving their problems is how you make the sale not by bragging about your achievements.
The easiest way to keep this in mind is to use more YOUs and less WEs and Is.
Write about their problem and the solution you have for it, about their goals and your way of reaching them, their practice and your idea on how to improve it. Everybody loves a problem solver.
DON’T THINK ABOUT YOURSELF
Forget about how great your product or service is (or at least don’t write about it in your cold sales emails).
Your contacts have hundreds or maybe thousands of emails saying just that and they’re sick and tired of reading it. Let the prospects discover your greatness themselves once they’ve decided to contact you and find out more.
First, you need to grab the attention of your prospects by addressing their lows instead of your highs.
When you prove your worth you’ll have clients praising your work and recommending you.
2. DO SELL THE BENEFITS
You have to be sure what the benefits of your product are and how they can be of use to your prospect.
Your history and experience don’t sell, but your know-how and quick-fix aimed at the specific client’s needs do.
Do you have a software solution that will help optimize their organization? If so, stress optimizing as something you offer and then add that it’s done by a software that you happen to make.
DON’T SELL SPECIFICATIONS
No prospect has the time to read about your service/product specifications in a cold email.
And why would they? They don’t know you, they don’t trust you and they don’t know what’s in it for them.
You will reach the specifications part later, once your contacts have shown interest. Then you can talk about how it’s easy to use, adaptable and environmentally friendly.
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3. DO BE SHORT AND CLEAR
No more than a few sentences explaining who you are, what company you represent and what is the value you can bring to them.
That’s it. And, of course, how to contact you or maybe an invite for a quick chat at the end of an email body.
Think elevator pitches and speed dates. (And the coffee we mentioned at the beginning.)
DON’T WRITE LONG EMAILS
Your prospects don’t have time for your extensive rags-to-riches storytelling – the quicker your presentation is the better.
Explaining your business in detail is unnecessary to someone who has never heard of you before and doesn’t even understand what your offer is.
4. DO BE HUMAN
Being human in an era of automated email and chatbots cannot be stressed enough. The personalized approach makes all the difference to whether you sell or not.
You and your prospect are both trying to do your jobs the best you can, you both want profit and benefits that come with successful partnerships and that’s human.
DON’T BE A SALES BOT
Sending an impersonal email template to hundreds or thousands of contacts is the easiest thing to do. Except, it pretty much includes sitting and praying for results.
By carefully handpicking your prospects you know exactly who you’re talking to and how you can help them.
You know their name, their goals, maybe a something little extra so there’s no need to hire a robot to do a human’s job.
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5. DO PROPOSE A CALL TO ACTION
By adding a CTA to an email, you’re making it easy for a prospect to get more information if they’re interested and hopefully convert.
Just remember to insert your CTA at the end of your email, and if it leads to a webpage, double check if the link leads to exactly where you intended.
DON’T MAKE MULTIPLE OFFERS AND CTAs
Focus on one offer and add one CTA at a time.
Too many suggestions will make your message unclear and can confuse and make your prospects reluctant to continue. After all, they’re only human.
Bonus Do And Don’t Tip
DO KNOW WHO YOU’RE CONTACTING
Not knowing who you’re contacting is just plain shooting in the dark – you might hit and you might miss big time.
Hire a lead generation agency that will carefully pick contacts of your potential customers based on your target audience, job description, location and business goals.
Having 10 contacts that are very likely to purchase your product or service is much better than having a hundred emails of people that just might mark you as a spam.
DON’T BUY EMAILS IN BULK
The Internet is full of people offering you hundreds and thousands of emails that should supposedly help you reach your target and sell more, but most of those emails belong to people that might not be even interested in buying what you have to offer.
What’s more, there is a greater chance of you stumbling upon a spam trap i.e. email address created specifically to catch spammers which you obviously are not.
You don’t know who those people are, what they do, what industry they work in nor what their job responsibilities are. That kind of prospecting can only make you seem untrustworthy and unprofessional.
These are pretty simple and easy to follow rules if you want to write good sales emails and practice makes perfect.
However, if you still struggle with prospecting and increasing those open, click-through and reply rates – feel free to contact us.
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