12 sales-ready email templates you can send today Relationships that matter. Revenue that grows. Contents 1 Introduction 2 Using emails to increase sales productivity 3 The best time to send emails 5 A great subject line wins the deal 9 Boost your sales efforts with these 12 sales email templates 11 Follow-up email templates 13 Reaching the right contact templates 14 “I’m not interested” templates 15 Reach decision-makers through relevance 16 Conclusion 1 Introduction Introduction A well-written email is not as easy to write as it sounds. The email needs to be effective, which means it should be not only read, but also start a conversation. How do you get this done without the intended reader hitting “spam” or “delete”? This guide helps you eliminate these challenges around sending and getting your sales emails read. We will cover how to make your emails stand out from the crowd. And since we know that time is money, we help you save more time by supplying you with 12 ready-made sales email templates. You can begin using them at once for sales prospecting, reaching the right person, following up, and re-engaging a disinterested party. 2 Using emails to increase sales productivity Using emails to increase sales productivity As a sales person, you only spend 23% of your time on selling, which means you spend most of your time on things like admin tasks, meeting preparation, travel and updating contact information in CRM solution. You also spend a lot of your time on research and prospecting. How well you evaluate your potential contact defines whether or not you have a real chance to close the deal. That’s why 40% of salespeople consider prospecting the most challenging part of their jobs. Your time is valuable. When you find a new prospect, you need to make sure: 1. You reach them at the best possible time 2. They open and read your email 3. They respond to your email Once you have achieved these three things, you can then add this contact to your sales activity list. But in between finding a new prospect and hitting the “Send” button, you need to make sure that you’re contacting the prospect at the best possible time. In the next section, we will take a look at when the best time to send an email is 3 The best time to send emails The best time to send emails 1 Thursday Sales emails are essential when winning over prospective clients. Reaching out over email helps you promote your business and, hopefully, close more deals. There are many theories out there about the best time to send sales emails. We will provide you with three tips to guide your sales email schedule. 1. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to send sales emails The day of the week you choose to send a sales email is critical. There is no use in sending an email on a Friday afternoon, as business people in the office are likely gearing up for their weekend. Likewise, sending emails first thing on a Monday won’t go down well either, as people are still reeling from the weekend and planning the week ahead. However, some days are more successful than others. Multiple studies show that Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays are in fact the best days of the week to send out sales emails. 2 Tuesday 3 WEdnesday Thursday is the #1 best day to send emails. Tuesday is your second best day. Tuesday ranked first in three of the studies and second in four of the studies. Wednesday is the third best day to send emails. By this point, people have had enough time to settle into their working week and take care of pressing matters, without your email feeling like an interruption. Can you guess the worst days of the week? Of course, you can – it’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday! 4 The best time to send emails 2. Send morning emails between 8 and 10 am Sending an early morning sales email gives you a better chance of being first in with your pitch. But even still, timing is everything. Remember that prospects’ mornings are likely to be spent prioritizing for the day ahead. With this in mind, emailing at the optimum time in the morning will return better results. The top five best times to send email are 10 am, 9 am, 8 am, or 1 pm, and 3 pm. 3. Avoid lunchtime hours Sales emails that result in the least amount of contact are made during lunchtime. This means the time running up to and right after lunch is probably the worst time to be clicking the “send” button. When you think about the structure of the typical office day, you’ll realize that most managers and their bosses get in first. It’s best to leave these hours alone and focus on researching potential clients and prospective leads. Oh, and of course, eating your own lunch too! If you send your email before 9 am, you’re more likely to directly connect with a senior staff member who might be in the office early. These are the decisionmakers and the people with the power to buy. Now you know the best times to send a sales email, let’s dive right into how to get your emails opened. 5 A great subject line wins the deal A great subject line wins the deal When you spend as much time as you do prospecting, you need to make sure that your emails are read and not deleted. Reasons for opening an email 45.90% The sender name and subject line of your emails are the most important factors in getting them opened and read. Personalized subject lines increase email open rate by 22.2%! 33.90% Our own research showed that 45% of subscribers say they are likely to read your email because of who it’s from, and 33% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line. 13.10% 7.10% Sender name Subject line Offer Intro paragraph Whose name should you use to send the email? And does the subject line need to be short, or long? Should it be descriptive or vague? 6 A great subject line wins the deal 1 Offer value Why should they open this email? Be as clear and concise as possible about the value you offer. It’s the substance that turns prospects into customers. Remember to tell them what you are selling, who you are selling to, and what benefits your product can offer them. 2 Personalize They should know this email is specifically for them. Use your prospect’s name to grab their attention instantly. 3 Use your own name Using a specific personal name as a sender, rather than a general email address or company name, you can increase open rates by as much as 35%! It adds a personal touch and an email from a person is much more likely to be read than compared to [email protected] or “no-reply”. 4 Be concise Subject lines with 6 to 10 words deliver the highest open rate, making 8 words an ideal number for a subject line. This is especially important for mobile readers: the subject line character length is shorter. More than 85% of subject lines for mobile devices are shorter than 80-90 characters. 7 A great subject line wins the deal 5 Use clear wording Be straightforward and use keywords. This way your prospects will be able to quickly recall your email and take action. 6 Avoid clickbait and false claims Be careful with emojis, signs and exclamation marks. No more than 3 punctuation marks per subject line. Do not claim what you can’t deliver and don’t overindulge in accentuating scarcity or urgency. All this is a turnoff for modern, sales-savvy and informed customers. Using clickbait subject lines in sales emails will make you look unprofessional. 7 Write as if to a friend Simplicity, clarity and friendliness win the race every time. Always choose a calm, natural tone, and don’t SHOUT with capital letters. Example {their name}, how is your {your product type} working out? {their name}, is your {your product type} tool working for you? {their name}, quick question? {their name}, let’s connect! Is {pain-point} making you {emotion}? I can help. {their name}, you’re not alone in {issue} {their name}, here is the information you requested 8 A great subject line wins the deal The rule of 4 Us URGENT – You sho uld convince the re ader to pay attenti this case – open an on, in email and read it. UNIQUE – You sho uld sound somewh at different from o similar messages. I ther t can be your writin g style or unique be nefits. USEFUL – You shou ld offer a benefit, s olve a problem or otherwise provide value for your audi ence. ULTRA-SPECIFIC – You should get spe cific about how use content of the ema ful the il is. 9 Boost your sales efforts with these 12 sales email templates Boost your sales efforts with these 12 sales email templates OK, let’s say that you’ve got a list of email addresses of people who have requested that you contact them at one time or another. Outreach #1 Outreach #2 How do you reach out to them? In this next section, we provide you with 12 sales email templates to help you get a reply. Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, I noticed that you’re interested in {subjectmatter}. Since you work in {their company}, you must know who is who. My {your company} actually helps businesses {how you help clients}. Would you help me figure out who is in charge of {what you do} there at {their company}? Outreach email templates To begin with, we will start with cold outreach templates. These are people who do not know you, and may not have even heard of your company. These email templates are to help you get your foot in the door and open up a conversation. Rule of thumb: Talk about them, not you! Your prospects don’t want to read about you, they want to know what you can do for them. Start with their problem, pain point, issue, challenge, situation, etc. I wanted to learn how you handle {things your company handles} at {their company} and show you what we’re working on. Are you available for a brief call at {time options}? Could you point me towards the right person, please, and the best way I might get in touch with them? Thank you very much. 10 Boost your sales efforts with these 12 sales email templates Outreach #3 Outreach #4 Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, I saw your LinkedIn post on {subject matter} and thought you might be interested to connect. {Mutual contact name} told me today that you two were talking about how tough it is these days to {insert challenge}. My name is {your name} and I’m {job title} at {your company}. We help companies {explain what you do}. It’s an issue that all {their industry} companies face right now. I wanted to learn how you currently handle {things your company handles} and show you what we’re working on. Are you available for a quick call tomorrow afternoon? I’ve got some ideas you can implement fairly easily that should have a positive impact on {how to solve the challenge}. Would you like to schedule 30 minutes to talk some more about this? At this point, there will be one of three responses: No reply (requires you to follow up Wrong contact (requires you to find the right contact Not interested (requires you to keep the conversation going) We’ll show you how to handle each situation using the following templates. 11 Follow-up email templates Follow-up email templates Don’t worry if you don’t receive a reply, all is not lost. In fact, this is where most salespeople give up! Studies revealed that the optimal number of follow-up emails to send is 2-3. Did you know that: 48% of sales people don’t follow up even onc 44% give up after just one follow-up cal 80% of sales require at least 5 follow-up 60% of customers reject offers four times before making a purchasing decision? Think about your last sales email: how many times did you follow up? The conversation doesn’t stop at the first attempt of your sales email. Don’t be shy to try and try again. And even if you follow up one time, there’s a 21% chance of getting a reply. On average, business people receive 121 emails per day. That’s a lot of emails! The prospects you reach out to simply won’t have time to respond to all of them. 12 Follow-up email templates Therefore, you need to follow up. These follow-up email templates will help you get the prospects attention and reignite the conversation Follow-up email #1 Follow-up email #2 Follow-up email #3 Hi {their name}, is the below of any interest to Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, I know you’re very busy. I didn’t hear back from you last week. That’s you? Let me know. Thanks. But please drop me a note if you got the email below. I’d love to talk a little bit more about {their company}, yourself, and any ways in which I can help you. A phone call or a video call would be a pleasure! not a problem. If it makes sense to talk, let me know how your calendar looks. If not, could you point me to the appropriate person? 13 Reaching the right contact templates Reaching the right contact templates Reaching the appropriate person #1 Reaching the appropriate person #2 Reaching the appropriate person #3 Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, What happens if you’re looking for the right contact but can’t seem to find it? Your comment in {community/ social media post/event} caught my eye. This is {your name} with {your company}. Having to deal with {their pain point} is no fun. {Their company}’s {your product type} looks similar to many of the businesses we work with every day. My name is {your name} and {your company} helps business people like you to {how you help}. While I’ve got your attention, we’d love if you guys gave {your company/product} us a try? I wanted to learn how you handle {things your company handles} at {their company} and show you what we can offer. If you’re like us, then you most likely run into this scenario often. However, this is a real opportunity to connect with more than one person at a company and start the conversation and find the right person. And we’ve got you covered with the following templates. So, I thought – we have a {your service/product} that we think can really help {their company}. Would you guide me to the person responsible for {relevant department, e.g. marketing, sales, customer service} and let me know how I might get in touch with them? I’m happy to schedule a call with them at any time. Our customers are using us to do things like {list of benefits your company helps clients achieve}. I’m assuming you’re the best person for this. If not, who would you recommend I speak with? Are you available for a brief call at {time options}? 14 “I’m not interested” templates “I’m not interested” templates When you spend all this time prospecting, there’s nothing more demotivating than receiving the dreaded “I’m not interested” response. And that’s it! End of conversation… But does the prospecting end there? The answer to that is a resounding NO! We’ve created two simple templates that you can copy and paste for the next time you read “not interested”. Not interested email #1 Not interested email #2 Hi {their name}, Hi {their name}, I understand and respect your position. Okay, I get it. It sounds like it’s not the best timing right now. Yet, I strongly believe that {your company} can help {their company} solve {challenge #1} by {product benefit #1} and {product benefit #2} {challenge #2} by {product benefit #1} and {product benefit #2}. Let me know if you change your mind and we can jump on a call. I promise I can quickly walk you through what we offer. However, I’m convinced that {your product} is something that is going to help your business be even more successful. That’s why I’ve included some examples (include 2-3 case studies) of how {your product} can help you {product benefit #1} and {product benefit #2}. How about I touch base with you in a month or so? 15 Reach decision-makers through relevance Reach decision-makers through relevance The “I’m not interested” emails are great because they keep the dialogue open, and it gives the prospect exactly what they want. When decision-makers were asked what they consider essential when receiving a sales email, 9 out of 10 said that emails personalized to their company’s industry (e.g., knowing their business, awareness of the changing industry needs or new technologies) is absolutely essential when salespeople reach out to them. “I am more likely to respond to sales emails when the email includes ...” 39% 30% 28% 28% 26% And when decision-makers were asked how likely they are to respond to sales emails, the study by LiveHive found that by including customer case studies these decision-makers were more likely to reply. 9% Customer case studies Industry articles White papers Company brochures Videos No content 16 Conclusion Conclusion About SuperOffice It’s important that you spend as much time on selling as you can. But when half of your time is being spent on prospecting, you need to make sure that it is time well spent and not wasted. Driven by a passion for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), SuperOffice makes award winning CRM software for sales, marketing and customer service. Use these 12 sales email templates to reach new people, follow up and handle replies from those who are no longer interested. SuperOffice has been in the CRM business for 30+ years and is still growing strong. This shows our dedication to the development of great CRM software and our commitment to our customer base. Sales is a numbers game. The more people you reach, the more people you sell to. These sales templates will help you reach more people, and by uploading them into your CRM software, you will become more productive, reach more people and eventually, close more deals As the leading European CRM provider, SuperOffice is trusted by thousands of growing companies. Learn more at superoffice.com
