How to write emails that your prospects will actually respond to

One of the highest leverage points in your go-to-market model is your ability to connect with your prospects. Simple top of funnel math tells you that more connects —> more conversations —> more opportunities. But the way most companies go about optimizing it is totally wrong. Here’s why.

Most companies focus on increasing quantity (more accounts, more contacts, more emails, more calls), instead of increasing quality (more targeted, more thoughtful, more engaging).

Focusing on quantity inevitably leads to generic, dreary messaging which fails to engage prospects. I see this in most of the sales teams I consult with, and in 99.99% of the emails I receive as a business owner and former startup COO. Not only is it ineffective, it can actually be damaging if done for too long as you can burn through your entire addressable market.

To illustrate some of the most common results of focusing on quantity over quality, here’s a real world example. Its a prospecting email that landed in my inbox a few weeks ago and is similar of what I see in many of the startups I work with:

The core problem with this email is that it is overwhelmingly seller-centric. It’s like meeting someone for the first time and all they want to do is talk about themselves:

• “Are you looking to add IT talent? We are an innovative technology company…” — Setting aside that nothing on my LinkedIn profile suggests that I am in the IT business, this is akin starting off a conversation with “Hi, let me tell you all about me”.

• “Our highly experienced engineers represent…” — Why tell me about your product/service without any context of the problem you think I have?

• “We currently work with 200+ companies in different industries” — Why tell me how many customers you have instead of what value you are driving for them?

• “What types of skills are you looking for? Can we have a call to discuss?” — The first part of this is actually a good question to ask. But why do we need to have a call?

• “The content of this email is confidential….it is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message” — Glad to see your lawyers are doing their best to slow you down. Guess I’ll go ahead and delete it then.

Companies end up being seller-centric when they focus on quantity because they force themselves to solve for the lowest common denominator across their prospects, which is to talk about themselves.

By contrast, emails that drive the highest engagement are customer-centric. Instead of the seller talking about themselves, they do the following 3 things: