If you’re like most executives you probably receive dozens of sales emails every week. The chances are that you don’t even open most of them, you skim those that you do open and you act on very few, if any.
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If that's the case , let me ask you a question. Do YOU send out sales emails? If so, how do they fare? What responses are you receiving and would you like to do better?
The question most sales and marketing teams ask is “what kind of results are we getting?” But there’s an even more important question. If you get a 2% response (which is pretty good for a B2B sales email campaign) what impression are you leaving with the 98% of people that don’t respond? Are you positively influencing the people who read but don’t respond - or are you putting them off? After all, if you emailed them they are a potential future customer.
If you’re like most sales and marketing people you love your product or service, you’re totally focused on the benefits and you can’t wait to share information about new features, new contracts, awards you’ve won and customer success stories.
Here’s the problem. Nobody cares.
Nobody cares because they’re all too busy focusing on their own products, services, customers, contracts, awards, employees, superiors, their wives and families and their personal issues to care about you. So how do you cut through all of that?
Here’s how. This article covers the principles of an effective B2B sales email - and there’s a real life example at the end.
Know your audience
Who are you trying to reach? Who needs what you’re selling? If you blast out an email to 50,000 people aiming to reach 5,000, that’s 45,000 people you’ve potentially annoyed.
You need to know which companies you’re trying to reach and which people in each company. Who are your target customers and which positions (CEO, CFO, CMO, CIO, etc.) are you trying to reach?
You also need to write the email in such a way that it doesn’t annoy people who aren’t in your audience, because it will inevitable reach some of them.
Know what you’re trying to achieve
This may sound obvious, but based on the garbage I get most people don’t think about it. You should have at least one specific objective. And you need to tell the reader what it is. For example, my objectives for this article are:
- To help companies that sell B2B to write more effective sales emails
- To build credibility as a sales expert by providing something of value
- To get you to call or email me if you need help to sell more, more effectively, at higher margins with less risk
Get them to open the email
If your subject line doesn’t attract them they won’t open the email. The subject line of an email is the equivalent of a headline in an advertisement or a newspaper – it generates interest and tells people what the content is about.
People use all kinds of subject lines; ones designed to generate curiosity, ones that use your first name, clever ones, cute ones – and IMHO they’re counterproductive for two reasons. One, because people are used to them and they don’t work and two, because if they feel they’ve been tricked into opening an email they will be negatively disposed towards you.
A good subject line should help the reader decide if the email is interesting and relevant to them. The best approach is also the simplest – be honest and tell people what it’s about and what you can do for them. If they are interested in the result they’ll open it. If they aren’t, they won’t.
For example the headline for this article is “How to write B2B emails that sell”. If you’ve chosen to read this far there’s a pretty good chance that you’re interested in the topic.
Make it about them
If you know your audience and you know they’ve opened the email you know at least something about them. So you can talk about them, not yourself, because that’s who they’re interested in – themselves.
They may eventually be interested in you – but only once they’ve decided that you can help them with something they care about.
Write like a human being
Technology is great. You can write a single email and, almost at the touch of a button, send it to 100,000 or more people.
But each one of those people reads it as an individual, not as a group. All written communication is read from the perspective of the reader. It’s from one person to another. So write as if you’re talking to a single individual and write in proper English, not business or corporate speak.
Use short, easy to understand words. Don’t use obscure words or unintelligible jargon. The objective isn’t to show how clever you are, it’s to sell. So speak in their language, not yours.
As short as possible, as long as necessary
I used to be a big fan of long copy advertising but in these days of 140 characters people have less and less time and short attention spans. So keep your emails as short as possible. But not too short.
My belief is that all written communications should be as short as possible, but as long as necessary to meet your objective. I still tend to err on the long side.
Get to the point
Tell them;
- What’s in it for them – describe a problem you can help them with
- Enough about yourself to build credibility, but no more
- What to do – specifically
A well structured email should describe a problem (or opportunity they have). The objective is to get them nodding, to think “yes, that’s a problem”.
Then it should state you can help them and give them a taste (but just a taste) of how. You need to develop some credibility, but keep it short, no-one likes people who boast or puff themselves up
Then tell them exactly what you want them to do.
![B2b B2b](http://s3.amazonaws.com/mailbakery/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/07142336/Freelancer-B2B-email.png)
Example - analysis
In this real life example my goals are as follows;
Audience: CEOs, CMOs, Sales Directors, Sales Managers and COOs at companies that sell B2B, primarily but not entirely based in Australia.
Objectives: Build rapport by describing a problem they face and can relate to, tell them how I can help them from their perspective. Then tell them I will be calling them to schedule a meeting. My primary objective is to generate exploratory sales meetings with high level executives who are interested in selling more..
Subject line: Designed to attract people who a) are focused on increasing sales in 2015 and b) believe the current environment is tough.
Content: The first and second paragraph describe the problem. Anyone who sells B2B should be able to relate to and hopefully agree with at least some of the issues described.
The third paragraph tells them at a very high level what I do, i.e. 'I specialise in helping companies that sell B2B to sell more with the same, or fewer, resources.'
The list describes the positive benefits that I can help them achieve - from their perspective.
The penultimate paragraph is part of the personalisation. I'd change this for each contact to reflect the research I'd actually done
The final paragraph tells them specifically what to expect - c call from me at a specific time and date. Of course, I have to follow up as promised.
The email is written in plain English and looks at everything from the perspective of the reader. It talks about them first and us second. Here it is;
Subject line: How to sell more (B2B) in the current tough environment
Hello,
If you sell B2B you’re probably doing it tough - and 2015 is likely to be even tougher, especially in the current economic environment. Confidence is down, competition is fiercer, companies are cutting back and margins are being squeezed.
Prospects are increasingly busy. It’s getting harder to make appointments and find new customers while existing customers are looking for ways to make savings. Meanwhile you’re probably being asked to sell more with fewer resources.
That's where I come in. I specialise in helping companies that sell B2B to sell more with the same, or fewer, resources.
How? Well, that depends on what your key issues are but to give you some examples, I help people to;
- Schedule more sales meetings with more executives at a higher level.
- Improve Lead to Sales close ratios
- Sell more to existing customers
- Sell on value, not price
- Shorten sales cycles
- Spend less time chasing deals that will never close
- Sell at higher margins
- Fill your sales pipeline with high quality qualified sales opportunities
I've looked at your website and annual report and I have some ideas that I think can help you significantly increase your sales - if my analysis is correct. But I'll need to talk to you to confirm (or negate) my assumptions.
I'll call you at <time> (date> to see when is a good time for us to discuss this.
Best Regards,
Steve Hall
Final round up (at least, it was until I updated it, below)
I hope you’ve found this article useful and interesting. One thing I’d like to emphasise is that the email above is 100% real. It tells you precisely who I help and how I can help them. If you fit the bill please call or email me and please also refer me to anyone you know who wants to sell more.
Update - Thursday 16th June 2016
It's over a year since I wrote this article and as always things have changed. While the key principles are the same, I've slightly reconsidered my views - in fact quite significantly. The bottom line is that the email example above is too long. I still think it's well written (I would, wouldn't I, as i wrote it) but people don't have time these days to read much. Here's how I'd shorten it.
Hello,
If you sell B2B you’re probably doing it tough - and 2016 is likely to be even tougher, especially in the current economic environment. I may be able to help you and I'd like to explore the possibility in a brief phone call.
I specialise in helping companies that sell B2B to sell more with the same, or fewer, resources and to:
- Schedule more sales meetings with more executives at a higher level.
- Improve Lead to Sales close ratios
- Sell more to existing customers
- Sell on value, not price
- Shorten sales cycles
- Spend less time chasing deals that will never close
- Sell at higher margins
- Fill your sales pipeline with high quality qualified sales opportunities
Based on what I've seen on your website and in your annual report I suspect I may be able to help you significantly increase your sales - but I'll need to talk to you to confirm (or negate) my assumptions.
I'll call you at <time> (date> to see when is a good time for us to discuss this.
If I have one fault (and I don't, I have dozens of faults) it's that I can be long winded. That above example is better - but you could cut a bit more out to make it even crisper and more to the point.
Another update - Wednesday 5th July 2016
I've had a lot of success recently with a very short email/Inmail that is designed for just one thing - getting an email. It needs to be personalised, of course.
Here is a generic 'fill in the gaps' example and then a more specific one I send out to potential clients;
Generic example
Hello <name>,
I came across your <profile/web site/company> recently and I noticed you focus on working with <type of company>.
I specialise in that area and I have a couple of ideas that might help you to <whatever you can help them to achieve>. To be honest, I don't know enough about your specific situation to be sure I can help you but it would be good to find out.
It could be a total waste of ten minutes of your time or you could find it extremely valuable. I'll call your assistant at <time/date> to set up a brief conversation to explore whether there's potential value for you.
Cheers, Steve
Specific example
Hello <Director of Sales>,
I came across your LinkedIn profile under 'people you might know' and we seem to have quite a few connections in common.
That's probably because I work with other sales directors to help them and their teams sell a lot more to senior executives. I've looked at your company web site and I have a couple of ideas that might make a big difference to your sales results.
To be honest, I don't know enough about your specific situation to be sure I can help you but you might find it useful to have an exploratory discussion and discuss my ideas.
Of course it might be a total waste of ten minutes of your time - or you might find it extremely useful. I'll call your assistant at <time/date> to set up a brief conversation so we can both find out if my ideas will work for you.
Cheers, Steve
If you enjoyed this article and found it interesting please 'like' it and share it with your LinkedIn and Twitter contacts.
Steve Hall is an executive coach and an executive sales coach. He helps his senior executive clients to be more productive, more focused and to have more time for the things that really matter.
And he helps sales executives to sell more and to build relationships at a higher level. He is a member of Sales Masterminds Australasia and is based in Sydney, Australia.
He can be contacted on Twitter at @stevehallsydney, on LinkedIn at https://au.linkedin.com/in/stevehallsydney or by phone on +61 410 481 960.