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3 cold email templates that your sales team will love
The subject line
Your subject line is really important because it’s the first thing they see and they’ll use it to determine whether to read the body of your email.
- Keep it personal
You want to be as warm as possible and the best way to do that is by being personal, if it makes sense to use their name in the subject line. If you know they recently got a promotion use that by congratulating them. Did you get referred by someone they know and respect get that in the subject line so they don’t immediately dismiss you as spam.
- Keep it short
The old saying “I don’t want to hear your life story” exists for a reason, keep your subject line short and sharp because most people these days have short attention spans, especially when they have no reason to be invested in you.
- Be relevant
Don’t do clickbait subject lines just to get them to open your email. Once they figure out that they were duped they’re going to be annoyed which isn’t the emotional state you want to elicit and will undermine the whole point of your email. If you’re getting in touch about selling stationary don’t mislead them with something more exciting that is not relevant to the purpose of the email you’re sending.
Two rules that’ll improve your response rates
Get to the point and keep it short. I’ve mentioned it before but it’s not just subject lines it applies to the body of the email too.
Remember this is like a short introduction that will hopefully lead to something more. Don’t make it harder for them to understand what you’re about than it has to be.
The second rule is when you can research the person you’re emailing. If you’re sending an email about offering your recruitment services then find out who is in charge of that first then send it to that person.
It sounds obvious and there are a ton of tools like Linkedin than can help you do that but a ton of people make the mistake of not doing basic research so they add another step of having to send an email asking to be sent to the right person - if you can avoid that then avoid it!
Also check out the cold email cheat sheet on the common mistakes people make and a real life example of a cold email that worked on Google.
Cold email Introduction Ver. 1
Subject: Congratulations [Prospect] on [some achievement or new role]
Body:
Hi [Prospect],
Congratulations on your new role as VP Sales at [prospect’s company]. I’m sure you’re really excited to get stuck in and make the new role your own.
That’s why I’m getting in touch, my name is [Your name] and I work at [your organisation].
We help sales teams to deal with [problem(s) that are relevant to prospect] by [the benefit(s) your provide to deal with said problems]
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in would you be available for a call say Friday afternoon?
Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email]
[Your phone number]
Cold email Introduction Ver. 2
Subject: [Referrer] told me that we should speak
Body:
Hi [Prospect]
My name is [your name] and I work at [your organisation] where I am [your role].
I recently spoke with [referrer] who told me that you’ve run into issues with [the problems they face] and that I might be able to help as [the benefit of your product or service that deals with aforementioned problems].
If that sounds right would you be open to a 15 minute call on [date and time] to discuss the above in more depth, and how specifically [your organisation’s product or service] can help your business?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
[Your name]
[Your email]
[Your phone number]
Follow up email
Subject: [prospect] - would love to talk about [purpose i.e. quarterly sales]
Body:
Hi [Prospect]
I’m writing to follow up on my previous email about [your purpose].
I didn’t hear back from you and understand if you’re time constrained at the moment so am happy to fit around your schedule. If you’re interested are you free to talk later this week, say:
Monday 12th at 2pm Thursday 15th at 10am Friday 16th at 11am
Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email]
[Your phone number]