Hi Reader,
I hope you’re having a great day! My name is Scott Amerson, and I am VP of Sales for VanillaSoft. In this post, I would love to share with you 6 ways to write the best sales emails. Do you have a few minutes?
Let’s face it – if I sent that email to you, you would have deleted it by now, right? Such a snooze fest. This is not the beginning of a winning email. In fact, it sounds a lot like the beginning of a thousand other generic emails I’ve received. Instead of copying the same old shtick that every other salesperson uses, try these tips instead when writing a sales email.
6 Tips for Writing the Best Sales Emails
1. Cut the disingenuous niceties in the body copy
Whether we are the customer or the seller – emails that start with “I hope you’re doing well” or similar sentiments aren’t all that sincere. You probably didn’t spend time thinking, “What’s going on with John Doe today? I hope he’s really giving ‘em hell and making a difference! If not, just wait until he sees my well-wishes!” Now, I’m not saying you aren’t a nice person. In a general sense, we all likely do hope the recipients of our emails are having great days and doing well. We aren’t monsters! However, we have a job to do, and that job is the primary reason for our outreach. You know that. I know that. The prospect knows that.
2. Personalize your outreach
While people may not care how concerned you are about the type of day they are having, they do like it when you know their names and concerns. Effective sales emails include personalization.
When you write your email, consider using the prospect’s first name in the subject line. According to Campaign Monitor, personalized email subject lines have a better email open rate; they are 26% more likely to be opened than emails without subject line personalization. Reference the person’s potential pain points and how you can help. A general template email can be a great tool so that you don’t have to start from scratch. Just remember that it’s a tool — not the finished product that you share with your customer.
3. Get to the point
You cut the warm and fuzzy fluff mentioned above. Now what? Easy — get to the point.
People are drowning in email. According to the report, Email Statistics Report, 2019 – 2023, from The Radacati Group, Inc., around 293 billion emails are projected to be sent and received PER DAY in 2019. PER DAY! That number is expected to reach 347 billion by the end of 2023.
While your specific prospects didn’t get all of those billions of emails personally, you can bet they each received way too many for a single day’s thorough read. Don’t make your potential customers work hard to figure out why you emailed them.
When you send an email, write a clear and meaningful subject line. If you met at a conference, reference the conference. If the contact requested information about a product, refer to the question. Make it easy for the person to think, “Yep, this is an email I want to read.”
Once they open the email, thanks to your well-written subject line, get to the point. There is a lot of work and a ton more emails this person has to deal with today. Be concise — it will let your prospects know you respect their time.
4. Avoid sounding like the stereotypical salesperson
The stereotypical salesperson wants to immediately begin talking about himself or his company instead of the prospect. Re-read the silly example that opens this blog post — “My name is Scott Amerson, and I am VP of Sales for VanillaSoft.” Most prospects will think, “big whoop.”
Another issue is that a new or less-than-stellar salesperson may simply not understand how unimpressive her generic or unresearched statements and questions are. “Do you need widgets?” “I was reading your website . . . .” BORING and lazy.
“What’s in it for me” (WIIFM) should apply to the potential customer, not you as the salesperson. The above examples demonstrate that the sales rep only cares about WIIFM from his or her perspective.
WIIFM that your contacts will care about include:
- mentions or congratulatory notes about recent company news or events
- comments or insights related to a recent blog post or social post the prospect shared
- a mutual connection’s introduction or recommendation of your service or product to the prospect
- information on how you can help resolve a known or potential problem
- details about how you can help the person become a hero by helping the prospect solve a company problem
5. Be clear about the call to action
It’s so tempting to stuff as many options into an email as possible, isn’t it? “Suzy may not want to set up a demo, so I need to also give her a link to the video. Maybe I’ll include information about our free trial, too, as well as our latest blog post.”
Well, you certainly covered your bases with all the possibilities of what Suzy may want to read, do, or see. However, Suzy is sitting there thinking, “what is it that this joker actually wants me to do?”
Do you want Suzy to request a demo? Then that’s your call to action. Follow up later with a different option if she doesn’t respond to your offer for a demo.
6. Use a well-crafted email signature
Your email signature doesn’t need billboard-sized graphics, and you don’t need to go off the rails with your various contact options. Next of kin information is not required. Here is what you should include:
- Name
- Title
- Company
- Phone number
- Links to your most active social profiles
You may also consider adding a link to an upcoming event, offer, or recent blog post, but be judicious. Remember — you don’t want competing calls to action. If your link relates to your call to action and reinforces the action you want the person to take, include it.
What Are Your Sales Email Pet Peeves?
The six tips above are just a few areas that can help you write your best sales emails. There are other, more obvious tips — such as using spell check before sending, remembering to actually attach the document you referenced in your email. What do you find most annoying in a sales email? What makes up a perfect sales email in your opinion?
Watch Our On-Demand Webinar to Improve Your Sales Emails
Often to do things right, you need to have a very clear understanding of doing things wrong. View our on-demand webinar, Shitty Sales Emails, to ensure you and your sales team aren’t making costly mistakes with emails in your sales process.
