7 Quick Tips for Your Next Sales Email

More and more, salespeople are utilizing email as a way to reach out to prospects, introduce themselves, and offer a solution to their prospects' problems. But unlike the seminars, how-to guides, and deskside scripts that have assisted cold-calling salespeople for years, the playbook for sales emails seems to be noticeably thinner. 

So in the spirit of aiding the modern salesperson, here are 7 quick tips for your next sales email:

1. Tell Them What to Do

People are much more likely to take an action – such as return your call, visit a webpage, or email you back – if you explicitly tell them to do so. Sometimes sales people are so concerned about stepping on their prospects' toes in any way that they don't make any requests at all!

So keep in mind that in order to get added to your prospects' mental "to-do-list," you have to tell them what to do!

Pro Tip: If the action you want your prospect to take is to click a link or view a page online, send your email when they're most likely to be at a computer. Our internal data has shown that open rates are virtually the same between desktop and mobile, but click rates fall dramatically when your email is being accessed on a phone or tablet. 

2. Use Their Name 

"Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." This is Principal #3 from Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," and it still holds true today.

Sure, reading your own name in an email isn't the same as hearing it in conversation, but it can still have an impact. 

Another good tip is using the words "you," and "your" in the email. Same concept, a bit less powerful, but a bit more versatile.

READ MORE: Why Email Marketing Still Works

3. Find a Mutual Connection

A great tactic for building rapport in a sales email is finding a mutual connection between yourself and the prospect. There's never been an easier time to research who your prospects know – whether it's a Facebook friend, a Twitter follower, or a LinkedIn connection.

When you tell a prospect that the two of you have a mutual connection, what you're really saying is "I'm a credible person, go ahead and ask so-and-so, they'll vouch for me."

4. Get to the Point

A few weeks back I posed a fill-in-the-blank question on my LinkedIn page. "The best sales emails are ________________," I asked. One of the responses I received was from a woman who's been a sales executive for IBM for more than a dozen years. 

Her response? "Short." 

And she has a good point. According to the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, the average professional receives 84 emails a day. So get the point, or be at risk of getting lost in the shuffle.

5. Use Contractions and Simple Words

Is there anything more annoying than making a customer service phone call and hearing a robot answer on the other end? People don't like communicating with robots. So they're less likely to communicate with you if you sound like one in your sales email.

Using contractions will make you sound human. And if you know what you're talking about, you don't have to use big words to sound smart.

Bad: "We are the leaders in our industry, and believe that our breadth of experience could be beneficial for your organization"

Good: "We've been doing this stuff for a long time and know we could provide value for your team!"

6. Talk Benefits, Not Features

It's one of the oldest rules of sales and marketing communication, but it's one worth rehashing. Don't tell your prospect what your company offers, tell them why what your company offers that will enrich or simplify their life.

Feature: "Our marketing software includes a blogging platform, a social media publishing tool, and an email marketing service.

Benefit: "Our marketing software fully integrates blogging, social media and email marketing which saves you time and streamlines your efforts"

READ MORE: Why Making Inbound Sales Should be Part of Your 2016 Strategy

7. Create Good Subject Lines

Lest we forget the importance of an interesting subject line. Here are a few tips on what to keep in mind:

• Avoid sales words like "percent off," "free," or "limited offer." Some email servers mark these as spam. 
• Use personalization tokens (first name, last name, city name or company name of the recipient) 
• Keep it short. MailChimp suggests keeping it under 50 characters
• Place important words at the beginning. About half of emails are now opened on mobile devices, which don't always show full subject lines.

The average sales email has an open rate of less than 50%. Follow these tips, though, and you'll stay well above the curve! 

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Have more tips about sales emails that we missed? Tweet us @StoryTellerMN!