Email is still vital to a great sales and marketing strategy. It is an easy way to address audiences directly and send personalized advertisements and offers that will most likely see interaction with the prospect.

The Anatomy of a Great Sales Email

The key to a good email marketing response rate is ensuring your messages engage the prospect and pique their interest. Most importantly, you must connect your sales pitch to their goals or pain points.

But how can you do this with a cold outreach sales email? What makes a great sales email in the first place?

There are specific elements to ensure the prospect of a cold sales email reads, engages with, and triggers a conversion. These elements should be straightforward and have a clear call to action (CTA) by the end to encourage the reader to take positive action.

Let’s look at some examples, break down the anatomy of a great sales email, and explore the benefits of sales process automation in your email campaign.

Sales Email Analysis and Example

Ideas to Improve Your Close Rates

 

Hey Daniel,

Congratulations on closing your seed round! I saw the news on TechCrunch the other day. I’m happy to see things moving around for you!

Are you planning on growing your sales team at all? Seeing that outbound sales is one of your primary growth channels, I thought you might be interested in learning how we helped other startups of your size succeed in scaling this up.

Do you have 5 minutes to speak on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon this week? 

Thanks,Q
Spencer Smith

CEO

IRC Solutions

This is an excellent example of an engaging and interesting cold sales email. It has specific qualities that make it direct, clear, and focused on the prospect’s needs. Let’s look at these qualities closely.

Sales emails should be informative, concise, and straightforward. But you also need to connect with the reader if you want to improve your closing rates.

In this example, the sales rep centered their message on a specific concern that the prospect may be thinking about: increasing closing rates. They deployed this concern in multiple ways, from the beginning to the end of the email.

If you want to create emails that your prospects will open, read, and engage with, you need to do the following. 

Write a Short and Enticing Subject Line

1. Ideas to Improve Your Close Rates

The subject line must encourage your prospects to open and read the email. It should be short, intriguing, and impactful enough to spike the reader’s interest in one glance. As you can see in the sample above, the sales rep uses a simple yet intriguing subject.

Think about how you interact with your own email inbox. Your eyes likely skim through all the subject lines, and it only takes you a split second to decide what messages to open or delete outright. Your sales emails should be worth opening each time.

Consider the following approaches:

  • Cite things that matter to your prospect. Example: Ideas to boost your [something important to them] or Ideas to help you pursue [their interest]
  • Address their recent achievement or a goal they have: Question about [event/milestone/goal]
  • Connect through a mutual contact: [Mutual contact] recommended I reach out to you

When writing subject lines, it’s best to avoid spammy buzzwords that can kill any potential interest. These overused terms can make your email look too centered on sales and could prevent the reader from interacting with your brand.

Avoid the following:

  • Specials
  • Unique
  • Discount
  • Final
  • Reminder
  • Complimentary
  • Solution
  • State-of-the-art
  • Tempting

Do: Use the subject line in your email to pique the interest of your prospects.

Don’t: Use too many marketing terminologies in the subject line.

2. Personalize Your Opening Line

Hey Daniel,

Congratulations on closing your seed round! I saw the news on TechCrunch the other day. I’m happy to see things moving around for you!

Here, the sales rep immediately adds personalization by addressing the prospect by their first name. The message also focuses on the prospect’s most recent achievements and centers the conversation around them.

Do not use generic statements about your business or yourself when writing an email. Your opening should be as unique as possible and focus on your prospect.

Here are some simple ways to personalize your opening lines:

  • Send congratulations for a recent achievement or award
  • Comment about one of their recent articles
  • Mention a mutual connection or friend
  • Cite common interests, ideas, or hobbies

When using these approaches, focus on what you know about the prospect or what they would find interesting. Generic openings will not engage prospects. Immediately talking about yourself or your business proposition will not work, either.

Look at these examples:

  • “Hello Margot, I have noticed your great work with e-commerce companies.”
  • “Hi John, being the CEO of your own business means you get a lot of emails like this…”

These statements are very generic and will immediately kill your prospect’s interest. Remember that people receive dozens of outreach emails every single day. To capture your prospect’s attention, you must stand out from a huge crowd.

Do: Write your opening line based on what you know about the prospect. Focus on recent events, achievements, blog posts, comments, or milestones.

Don’t: Attempt to personalize at scale by giving generic compliments or introducing yourself.

3. Connect the Body to Your Prospect’s Goals

Are you planning on growing your sales team at all? Seeing that outbound sales is one of your primary growth channels, I thought you might be interested in learning how we helped other startups of your size succeed in scaling this up.

In this section of the email, the sales rep brings up the prospect’s possible concerns and future plans. The sales pitch is then seamlessly connected to their specific goal and clarifies how they can help the prospect get what they want.

The body of the email should clearly outline how your prospect’s business goals align with yours. An effective sales pitch focuses on what the prospect wants and how you can help them. 

Ask intelligent questions about their business to connect with them. This is a much more inviting way to engage instead of a cold pitch of your business’s products or services. Remember, it’s about them, not you.

Do: Connect the prospect’s goals with what you are offering by asking questions about their business.

Don’t: Make it about you and your business, like “Our company helps tech startups increase their closing rates by 400%.”

4. Close With a Clear Call-to-Action

Do you have 5 minutes to speak on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon this week? 

To close the email, the sales rep provides a clear schedule to connect while giving a choice. This allows the prospect to be the one to make the final decision and reach out with an answer.

A strong call-to-action (CTA) gives your prospect the next step. Here are a few closing statements to incite positive action:

  • Do you have time to schedule a meeting this week?
  • Would you like to discuss additional thoughts about the proposal?
  • Do you have ten minutes tomorrow or the following day for a quick catch-up?

Always close confidently and positively by leaving a question that gives your prospect a clear next step.  Don’t close with vague or open-ended statements that don’t compel the prospect to take action.

Do: Close your email confidently and give your prospect clear ideas about what they should do to take the next step.

Don’t: Close your email with vague statements and unclear instructions on what will happen next, like “Call me when you have the time.”

5. Use a Simple Signature

Thanks,
Spencer Smith

CEO

IRC Solutions

www.ircsolutions.com

+1 (912) 885-9898

Here, the sales rep gives their name, position, and contact details clearly, without distraction. This simple sign-off completes the pitch succinctly.

Your email signature should not distract or confuse your prospect. It should explain who you are, what you do for your company, and the contact information the prospect can use to get in touch.

Remember the following pointers when writing your email signature:

  • Keep it short and simple
  • Include an active phone number
  • Include your social media handles or professional website so your prospects can easily look you up and connect with you online
  • Avoid images and quotes

Additionally, ensure your signature aligns with your company’s image, website, social media, and overall messaging. Do not overcomplicate your signature with unnecessary frills like images or quotes, as they can look unprofessional.

Do: Keep the signature short, simple, and professional. Include only vital contact information and social media links. 

Don’t: Overcomplicate your signature with quotes and images.

Anatomy of a sales email

 

The Email Is Short, Simple, and Successful

Writing cold outreach emails that convert can be challenging. With these tips and techniques, your messages can boost your brand’s closing rates, increase the engagement between you and your prospects, and even grow your overall sales.

The most successful cold emails have the following qualities:

  • The prospect does not need to scroll down when reading the email on a mobile device
  • The prospect can read the message within eight seconds 
  • The message is around 50 to 150 words
  • The prospect can respond within five seconds due to the clarity of your CTA

Every single element of your sales email is important, especially the call-to-action at the end. Prospects will immediately respond if you give them clear options for what to do next. Vague statements will not help you close any deal or secure a meeting with the prospect.

Do: Close your email with confidence and give your prospect ideas for what they should do for the next step.

Don’t: Don’t close your email with vague statements and unclear instructions, like “Call me if you’re interested.”

Automating Sales Emails Can Save You a Lot of Time

Automating your email outreach campaign offers many benefits, such as: 

  • Increased Efficiency: Automating sales emails allows businesses to send personalized mass emails without manually sending each email. This saves time and resources, allowing your sales team to focus on more important tasks, such as building customer relationships and closing deals.
  • Consistency: By using automated email templates, you can ensure that all of the sales emails are consistent in terms of branding, messaging, and tone. This can help build trust and credibility with prospects, as they will see that your business has a professional and organized approach to sales.
  • Improved Lead Nurturing: Automated sales emails can be used to nurture leads over time by sending them relevant content and information that addresses their needs and interests. This can help keep prospects engaged and interested in your business’s products or services, increasing the chances of converting them into customers.
  • Personalization: While automated sales emails are sent at scale, you can use templates to your advantage by leaving room for simple personalized touches. Add details based on the recipient’s information, such as their name, industry, or previous interactions with the business. This can help make the recipient feel valued and understood.
  • Analytics and Optimization: Automated sales emails can be tracked and analyzed for performance, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. This data can be used to identify areas for improvement, such as subject lines, email content, and call-to-actions, and optimize future sales emails for better results.

Overall, automating sales emails can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to increase efficiency and productivity in their sales process. However, balancing automation with personalization and targeted messaging is important to maximize conversions.

Now Start a Cold Email Outreach Campaign!

Sales emails can make or break potential leads. A well-crafted sales email can capture the attention of the prospect, provide value, and encourage them to take action. However, writing individualized sales emails for every prospect can be time-consuming, which is where automation comes in.

Automating sales emails can increase efficiency and productivity in the sales process, allowing your business to reach out to more prospects in less time. Personalizing sales emails can help establish a connection with the recipient and make them more likely to engage with the message.

Now that you know the qualities of a successful cold outreach email, you can take your business to the next level. Develop your own sales email template and begin increasing your closing rates!