Sales messaging is the art of writing content that convinces your potential clients to buy your product or service. But in the case of sales emails, it should aim to get to know the recipient and their needs first (engage and qualify), before any offering or convincing can take place.
And while according to our estimates sales messages are responsible for around 70 percent of the overall sales success, most sales professionals tend to compose highly promotional sales emails, that miss the mark by failing to ask relevant questions or address clients’ needs.
Below, we’ve put together a few resources to outline the components of a successful sales email, with free templates. These sales templates are proven to help any sales rep write cold emails that easily qualify leads, start sales conversations, build lasting relationships and get more deals closed.
Think like your target audience
Ask relevant questions to create a relevant offer
Salespeople are notorious for writing their email templates around a pitch, praising and glorifying their product or service. But too often they fail to understand the actual needs of their clients. And one simply cannot know their client, if they don’t ask relevant questions about them!
If we analyse the most successful sales methodologies, it’s easy to notice that all are built on one but very important common element — asking questions. The consultative approach works because it makes it easy to discover client needs, while also allowing to qualify leads into prospects.
Asking questions early in your sales email conversation (instead of pitching your product or service), puts you on the right path to understand who your ideal buyer is, and where to find more of them. It leads you to find the right person and the perfect prospect company for your offer.
Understand your target customer to create a perfect buyer persona
Sales emails that are built on open-ended questions tend to return strategic information, but also often end in introductions. That’s because open questions invite people to engage and share: your prospects may still reject you — but are likely to also feel obliged not to leave you empty-handed.
By integrating a discovery element into sales email templates, you gain valuable intel on who needs what; why; when; and what would be worth opening their wallet. Gathering enough intelligence on market demand and its dynamics, allows you to easily define your perfect buyer persona.
But why is defining buyer persona important? Doing so allows you to narrow down your target audience and makes your sales messaging relevant. The more targeted your outreach, and the more relevant your message — the higher your response rates, more conversions, and more sales.
Understand the pain points of your potential customers
Once you have identified people who need what you offer, you must still understand the problems that drive them to search for a solution. However, to fully comprehend your audience’s pain points, dreams, and secret desires — you must practice seeing the world through their eyes.
To understand the perspective of your potential customer, you must learn to see the world as they see it. It’s not until you gain their perspective, that you can easily connect in mutual understanding and build genuine relationships. People want to be heard and they want to be understood.
Show understanding and empathy in your sales messaging to resonate with people’s struggles and desires. Let your sales communications remind them of internal work conversations — and your sales messaging will become more relevant and interesting for your target audience.
Know how your solution solves their problem
Found your ideal buyer and then understood their pain points and needs? Great! Now you can begin to create value. To do that, you may simply connect each problem with a specific solution that you offer. However, know that while solutions solve problems — it’s the peace of mind that sells.
Often a solution alone isn’t of enough value, because people are naturally wary of how much effort they must invest to rip any perceived benefits. Our brains continuously run risk-to-benefit ratio computing. Can you solve their problem independently while they carry on their work undisturbed?
Solutions that come with guarantees and require minimum effort on the side of the buyer, tend to bear the highest value. Hence, your sales messages should also mention the process behind your solution, and highlight how you can solve their pain — but with minimal effort on their side!
Discover your buyer’s motivation
Did you find your buyer, understand their pain, and create sales messaging with tremendous value – but sales are still not happening? Unfortunately, great value alone is often not enough. You must also understand the underlying motivation that can drive your potential buyer to take action.
When intelligence agencies want to influence a person’s decision-making, first they aim to discover and understand their subject’s motivation. Contrary to the old-school sales dogma — you can’t persuade a person to buy, if you fail to understand and side with their vision, goals and values.
This is why your initial sales outreach should aim not to sell, but to build relationships. By showing interest, and discussing goals and values, you are likely to also discover underlying motivations. It isn’t until you know what people care about before you can offer a solution to get there.
Timing matters
Sometimes you tick all of the above and people love your offer, but the sale still fails for the simple reason that companies tend to run their budgeting and purchasing decisions in cycles. So while you may have just what they need, their current budgeting cycle could have different priorities.
When this happens, don’t be pushy but instead focus on the appropriate person with decision-making power, develop the relationship, learn about their cycle, and agree on a better time to follow up. People tend to commit better when they are involved, and the next steps are mutually agreed upon.
In sales, timing is extremely important but often overlooked. No matter what you do, don’t kill the messenger when the timing isn’t right — it’s not about your sales message! Instead, be patient, nurture relationships and leave the door open for a better time in the future (more on this later).
How to develop your sales messaging strategy
Don’t be pushy
Industry leaders specialising in sales messaging know that pitching only feeds spam filters and makes people run away. Much like “banner blindness”, decades of the “pushy bazaar salesman” technique and aggressive advertising made people much less receptive to sales pitch.
For that reason, asking your recipients for a few minutes of their time, or suggesting a quick chat or a quick call in your first message may feel too imposing. Instead, try to focus on your buyer, and ask them about the best way to talk — inviting them to be an equal partner in the conversation.
Nowadays, the most effective sales messaging doesn’t aim to persuade but instead focuses on building rapport and addressing known pain points, inviting your prospect to an open discussion. Likewise, showing emotional intelligence and empathy can result in a very effective follow-up email.
Personalise your sales message
When it comes to sales messaging and particularly sales email templates, personalisation is the difference between spam and relevant email. Are your emails about your clients, their work, and their problems — or are they just promotional pitches about you and your merchandise?
Personalisation in sales is making it about your customers, by writing sales messages that feel personal and tailored specifically for your recipient. It’s the opposite of a generic “one fits all” email template, which tends to feel rather mechanical, impersonal and often irrelevant.
Start with an inviting subject line, and personalise it with the recipient’s name. Open your email with “hi [prospect name]” and refer to the prospect’s company, mentioning the company name. Mention things that are close and dear to your client, and you may win their attention, and maybe time.
Differentiate from the crowd
In the age of short attention spans and digital desensitisation, differentiation and novelty bear tremendous value in sales messaging. We should aim to be original, sound interesting, and learn to develop a unique style that reflects our personality and becomes our unique signature.
Human brains are known to crave some degree of novelty, while at the same time expecting a healthy dose of familiarity. While novelty keeps things interesting, familiarity helps us judge adherence to standards. In psychology, the perfect ratio of old and new is said to be around 90 to 10.
Having worked with thousands of sales messages, I have seen the best results come from original and authentic communication. Simple “greetings” in place of “hi [prospect name]” may differentiate your message enough to project a different vibe, than hundreds of other emails they receive.
Use conversational tone
While sales teams around the world still rely on email communication, it is perhaps important to remember that emails, having been created as a replacement for postal letters, are a relic of the past. And in the day of instant messaging, emails are rather boring.
This is why a short and conversational tone is likely to resonate more with your prospects, and they are more likely to respond to casual requests, rather than lengthy emails demanding time investment, prolonged focus and equally lengthy response. Official letters aren’t fun to read!
Be casual and approachable in your sales messaging, while being respectful. Take advantage of the rise of “conversational selling” — a sales approach relying on chats and instant messaging. If you want to grow your response rates, aim to sound like their friend — not their lawyer!
Make it short and to the point
We live in a digital era of urgency. We search, find, click and retrieve information almost instantly, and we message using instant messaging too. Most of our digital communications happen on mobile devices, tablets, laptops and portable gadgets. Attention and time are scarce goods now.
When prospects receive a long sales email, they glance over the subject line, and may even scan the first sentence. Then click “spam” or “delete”. Long email may still attract open rates, but it will likely fail to convert due to the limited attention span, time resources, and small-screen real estate.
Moreover, email providers and their spam filters penalise lengthy emails, that are over 500 characters. Thus, when working on your sales messaging it makes sense to compose a concise email template, which can be quickly read and understood by your recipients on a mobile device.
Be helpful and be a giver
People can and will read the intent behind your message, naturally and subconsciously, through the language you use. Your potential clients are equipped with a sixth sense for detecting a needy vibe and desperation in sales emails. And once detected, they will likely run in the other direction.
Conversely, when potential clients feel understood and they sense that you message them to provide help, they are likely to respond politely. It is worth asking yourself about the intent of your messages. Are you aiming to get anything from them, or are you offering them your helping hand?
Needy messages tend to include plenty of “I” and “we” in them, while confident sales messaging addresses prospects with a healthy dose of “you”. Strive to be a helpful giver in your communications and you will start many conversations, build relationships, and close more opportunities.
Say goodbye but keep the door open
A good portion of prospects you will engage via sales messaging are expected to reject you due to internal reasons, such as budgeting or timing. And while most sales reps tend to abandon these conversations and move on, maintaining a flowing dialogue can bring much value later.
During my sales career, I have closed countless seemingly not-interested clients only because I enjoy checking on people to see how they are doing. To my surprise, many returned to me about the business a while later, ready to discuss a deal. A kind follow-up email + patience = success!
Every connection you make during your sales journey can pay off down the line. It’s worth building and nurturing relationships and staying attentive to client needs — because with a little patience, persistence, and emotional intelligence — they may become dear friends and customers.
What to include in your sales messages
A. Initial sales outreach messages
Initial sales messaging (most commonly in the form of cold emails), has many written and unwritten rules that must be followed. When sending unsolicited communication, you must remember that your main goal is to ask for contact permission and engage your prospect in a conversation.
- Open with a simple and friendly greetingA simple hello [prospect name] or hi [prospect name] is sufficient, but should you want to differentiate your email from a million others, you may be a little more creative. Just remember to check your greeting for known spam words — some are known to trigger spam filters.
- Briefly state the reason for contactingProvide the reason behind your message and address your willingness to help or resolve an issue – best in the form of a question. Try to avoid mentioning your reasons, and instead focus on what you think may be of interest to them.
- Mention what you can do for them, along with benefitsIn the next line elaborate briefly on why you think they should engage, and list some benefits it may bring them. You can also mention how you benefited other customers, name-drop a company in your portfolio, and why you think it’s relevant.
- (Optional) Highlight additional value in exploring the subjectIn case your solution has more unusual benefits which increase the perceived value of your offer, such as any guarantees, no commitment, and freebies — you may highlight these in a separate short sentence. Keep it short — it’s about them!
- CTA: Ask a question about the next stepsAsk a question about the best way to talk, explore a given opportunity, or whether they are interested at all. The less effort required to reply to you, the higher response rate you can expect — for this reason, questions requiring simple yes or no tend to get the most responses.
- Allow them to opt out of your communicationA legal requirement in the US and the EU, but also great for your sender reputation. Your message should include a clear unsubscribe link or a statement such as “If you’re not the right recipient, please let me know or forward this email to the right person.”
- Include email signatureLet your recipients know who you are. For best deliverability, your signature should ideally contain no images, and no links (although tempting, these are heavily penalised by spam filters). Instead, state your name, position, company name and your business address.
The subject line will make or break your email campaign
Headlines have become a crucial factor in attracting readers ever since the time of the first printed press. And sales messaging is no different: a good sales message needs an interesting and eye-catching subject line, one which will invite recipients to open and read your message.
Unfortunately, eye-catching subject lines tend to also catch the unwanted attention of spam filters. Additionally, you should beware of misleading subject lines — these don’t pay off as they are likely to make your prospects feel tricked and misled. Below are some ideas for a good subject line:
- Subject lines suggesting a business partnershipThe nature of B2B dealings isn’t essentially far from a profitable partnership, and when you mention partnership in your subject lines, decision-makers feel curious enough to at least check the content of your message to evaluate the opportunity.
- Subject lines offering your willingness to helpAsk if you can help, or state your will to help prospects and they will be likely to check what they can gain from you. Follow with an open question, asking if you can help them with an issue, and explain why you think you are the one who can resolve it.
- Subject lines which don’t reveal the full contextCompose your subject line to mention an issue or a problem you know they care about, but don’t reveal the context or the intent of your message yet. Recipients should feel intrigued enough to check the email content. Catch interest but don’t mislead!
- Short subject linesThe majority of emails contain very few words in their subject lines, but in sales messaging brief subjects are particularly useful to seed mystery, avoid spam filters, and invite recipients to open and check the full message. Also great for open rates!
Focus on pain points and benefits, not features
One of the common mistakes when writing a sales email is focusing on the key features of your solution, instead of a specific pain point. Features do not become relevant before the problems are known, and a solution has been offered. Let your potential buyers confirm their problems first.
To become relevant, sales email needs to address a particular pain point and explain the steps to get it solved. Time or money saved may be a universally desired outcome, but isn’t a feature or a solution. What prospects want to hear are the steps and processes that may get them there.
Focus on the value proposition for potential customers
Recipients who decide to open your sales email will read it with one goal only: to judge whether they need your offer. Hence the value proposition becomes the key success factor in your sales messaging, and ultimately the difference between “tell me more” and “no thank you”.
To create relevant content with strong value, focus on the desired result and highlight the likelihood of it happening. At the same time, tell them how fast they can get it and minimise the perceived effort required on their part. When we feel desire, we want it now and with minimum effort!
Support your claims with social proof
The most successful sales happen via word of mouth and referrals because buyers perceive these as less risky and solutions have already been tested in the field. People tend to research reviews and buy from high-rated providers before deciding to invest money and commit to relationships.
For this reason, mentioning one or two known clients you’ve already served can open a lot of new doors for you. A good word from a little-known client is better than no proof at all. However, try to be rather selective when name-dropping so your sales email doesn’t become all about you!
Include a clear call to action (CTA)
When you’ve executed the above points well, it’s time to define the next steps in your sales process for any interested recipients. Use an open-ended question to ask if they are interested in talking about collaboration or partnership, then ask how they would like to connect next.
Avoid saying “let’s”: don’t impose and don’t be overly suggestive regarding the action you want them to take next – people tend to run when under pressure from a stranger. Instead, provide choices, lay out all available options and let them decide the best next steps.
B. Follow-up sales messages
In the world of sales messaging, most responses happen only after a well-executed follow-up. The initial email is likely to get fewer responses because your recipients receive numerous other emails, likely vital for the business and demanding more attention than an email from a stranger.
Take no offence, but instead take advantage of the situation: while most spammers don’t waste time following up on the previous email, a good salesperson takes this opportunity to show kindness and tact. Follow up to reveal yourself as a genuine person with genuine interest.
- Space your follow-ups wiselyPeople are often overwhelmed with emails on Mondays and want to get home early on Fridays. Hence Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays give you the best chance of getting a response. And if they haven’t responded to your previous emails, assume they may be busy.It’s best to allow a few business days for the first two follow-ups. In the case they haven’t responded to these, you may check on them again in a few weeks. Follow-ups beyond this point are unlikely to work, but instead are likely to annoy and upset people.
- Justify each new messageWhen people don’t respond to your sales message, they may be busy, not convinced, or simply not interested — whatever the reason may be, every new email you send increases the chance of annoying them or sending your message straight to spam (the worst case).So when you follow up, it’s a good idea to state the reason for knocking on their door again. Research on human psychology has shown that when we justify our actions, people are much more likely to accept suggestions, regardless of the reason provided.
- Provide alternative value in connectingWhen targeting non-responders, it’s best to assume recipients have seen your email but didn’t respond to you because your value did not resonate with them. In this case, each next follow-up is an opportunity to tell them how else they can benefit from talking to you.As a last measure, you may still use this opportunity to highlight the value of talking together. Say something like: “Even if we don’t end up working together, I’d be happy to share insights and experience on [insert relevant subject] — which is likely to help you later”.
- Verify they are the right contactAnother trick to stimulate responses is to tickle egos by questioning their ability to deal with the subject. Say something like: “I believe there is value in talking about this, but I am not sure who I should be talking to. Is there another person I can discuss this with?”.Some will respond with introductions, while others will say something like “Thanks for your email. I’ve seen your previous message, but I am not interested”. Getting a response is great for your sender score and provides you with an opportunity to thank them for replying.
- Be mindful of their time and keep it shortThe most successful follow-up messages tend to be simple and short reminders. The data on sales communications consistently shows that the shorter the message, the higher the response rates. Be mindful of your recipients’ time and kindly ask if they saw your email.
- Know when to stop!Most sales reps tend to follow up on non-responders until their fingers bleed, and prospects become sick of their emails. What’s worse, emailing unresponsive recipients hurts sender reputation and email deliverability, and is likely to be reported as spam.Instead, it’s better to schedule follow-ups with recipients who replied, to occasionally check on them, track their needs, and build relationships over time. Shifting focus from unresponsive contacts opens up your capacity to better focus on promising leads too.
C. Introductions and referrals
In your sales journey, you will often encounter recipients that respond with names of other people, who are better suited to discuss your matter. For a knowledgeable sales team, a referral is a true gift which allows you to engage the new lead with the full blessing from your mutual connection.
When this happens, email your new lead adding the referrer’s name to the CC of your message, and mention them in the subject line. Introductions are powerful at validating you and your cause. To get more sales, you may want to ask your existing customers for introductions too.
Proven sales email templates, that generate responses and qualify leads
Below are some of the best sales email templates, that will serve as a great starting point for any sales campaign. In the past, these email examples have generated incredible response rates and filled more than one sales pipeline with quality leads, increasing overall sales numbers.
Initial sales email templates
The following are two high-converting email template examples. Feel free to modify these by adding your information and offered value in the brackets!
Sales email template 1
Subject line: Partnership enquiry
Hi [prospect name],
I wonder if I could help [company name] [insert your offer and the value you can provide].
[Say how you’ve helped similar clients in the past, state any qualifications and a known brand from your portfolio].
How can we connect to talk?
Why it works: The above email template employs the ‘helpful giver approach’. You reach out to see if you can help, not to sell anything yet. It focuses on the value you can add (remember to include a guarantee, mention it is fast and risk-free, and try to offer something for free).
It also contains a short and intriguing subject line, which along with an open-ended question at the end of the email works great to generate responses asking for more information. Mentioning a previous customer adds a layer of trust and social proof.
Sales email template 2
Subject line: I’d like to work with [company name]
Hey [prospect name],
I’m not sure if you know about [your company name] — but I researched [prospect’s company] and I see a potential for a partnership.
We [state the services you provide that you think will be of interest] for companies such as [mention a brand name from your portfolio].
How can we talk?
Why it works: This email contains a casual opening, suggesting a personal reason for outreach. The email suggests they should have heard about your company, and providing a portfolio adds social proof and further validates your assumption it may be worth discussing this opportunity.
Moving straight to the open-ended question shows confidence, and reiterates further that they should discuss this matter with you. Open-ended questions help to start a conversation, as it creates a desire to ask for more information about your services and the form of cooperation.
Follow-up email examples
The following is our highest-converting follow-up email template. While follow-up emails are expected to generate the majority of responses, this particular email has consistently provided a minimum 24% reply rate! Feel free to modify this follow-up email to your needs.
Hi [prospect name],
I think there is value in discussing the potential partnership between [your company name] and [your prospect company], but I am unsure who I should be talking to.
Who would be the right person to speak about this?
Why it works: Confident follow-up with personalisation, focused on the business objective. It gently suggests that the recipient may not be able to handle this opportunity, which tends to stimulate a high response rate. The minimal length of this follow-up email helps to avoid spam filters.
Sales introduction email templates
When your current customers recommend another client, or when a lead suggests another person within the company, use the following sales email template to ensure their reply. Don’t forget to add your referrer in the copy, so they may also help to make sure the subject won’t ignore it.
Subject line: Introduction by [referrer name]
Hi [prospect name],
I spoke with [referrer name] who told me you are the right person to [insert relevant information].
[Instert one sentence describing the value of your offerring and why they should be interested]
How we can talk about this?
I add [referrer name] in the CC.
Why it works: The subject line helps to boost open rates, as it mentions a person they are likely to know. Mentioning the value of your offering, suggests you have an ongoing conversation with the referrer, which your recipient should join as the person with authority.
Adding your referrer to the conversation makes them feel obliged to answer you, out of respect for their mutual connection. The open-ended question further invites them to engage – and in the case of no response, you may follow up with your subject or ask your referrer for a little help.
Conclusion
Converting sales messaging is an art that takes years to practice, trial and error, and perspective as each case requires a slightly different approach. But as a general rule, the more personal and relevant your email feels to a recipient, the higher the response rate and more sales.
We have been composing converting sales emails for years, helping our clients transform their outreach efforts with the right message. Feel free to contact us to see how we may help you get more clients too!
