3 Easy Ways to Instantly Improve Your Sales Emails

Emails, in theory, seem like they should be easy, right? You’re sitting at the comfort of your desk and can blast out hundreds of attempts without even licking a stamp.

But how many times have you sat there typing, then hit the backspace button after only a couple of words? Or how often have you received a sales email that you just wish had never been written?

It’s time you spent a bit more time devoted to ensuring your sales emails are actually serving you and your contacts and not hurting your business.

How can you instantly improve your sales emails? Here are 3 easy ways to get started:

1. Think First

When you get the name and details of a prospect from the Marketing team it can be tempting to see what templates you have in your arsenal and fire off the first one you find. It’s best to reach out as soon as possible, right? -- Wrong.

While it’s important to be timely, with outreach to a warm lead from your Inbound Marketing efforts, it’s even more important to do some research before sending any emails.

Undoubtedly, your company has personas in place and it might seem inefficient to do more research, but it’s that kind of thinking that has people automatically deleting sales emails.

You have to challenge yourself to personalize your outreach to that specific contact. It’s the only way to truly connect with your prospect.

Try this:

When doing your research ask yourself questions that will help personalize your outreach.  For example:

• What’s their background?

• How much do they probably know about my product/service?

• What might their particular pain points be?

• Are they the potential buyer or will they be the one that leads me to the decision maker?

Finding out the answers to questions like these will help create a targeted message that speaks to that particular lead. It builds a sense of trust and authenticity when you inject specificity into your emails.

2. Benefits, not Features

No one wants to open an email and find something inside that essentially reads like a press release for your company.

Sure, you’re probably great and think everyone should know, but making it all about you isn’t the way to go.

Doing this will only serve to turn your prospects off and basically ensure they never want to speak with you.

Instead of writing your email with the idea that you need to highlight the features of your product or service, try focusing on the benefits.

By pinpointing how you can help and make your prospect’s life easier, their ears will certainly perk up.

Focusing on your benefits and value, especially ones that can be quantified numerically, will help your prospect envision how buying from you would affect their bottom line.

Try this:

Instead of writing, “Our company offers an affordable CRM solution with multi-layer analysis built-in,” try something like, “Our CRM helps financial services companies like yours, manage their sales process by increasing efficiency of sales activity with simple data visualization and, on average, increasing revenue by 12%.”

This is specific, to the point, and spells out exactly how your solution could help. Remember, selling is about storytelling and appealing to the emotions of your audience in order to encourage them to take action.

3. Call-to-Action

Think about all those times you’ve been waiting on someone to either respond or finally make a decision. You don’t want to rule them out, but you’re also not sure how long to hold out hope for hearing from them.

A call-to-action helps the prospect take the next steps at the end of your email, preventing the typical waiting game from starting.

You aren’t writing simply to inform them of your existence, you’re writing because you want something from them - you want them to buy from you.

Pretending that you’re just “checking in” on someone who doesn’t even know you and kindly telling them about your company is fake and prospects can smell that from a mile away.

Being honest about your intentions and helping your prospect decide how they want to proceed is essential. Give them a way of taking an action - either to learn more about your offering or to let you know they’re not interested.

It might seem harsh and of course, you don’t want to be rejected, but wouldn’t you rather know sooner rather than later that they have no intention of buying?

Even if they do let you know that they aren’t currently interested, you can make sure you follow up with a polite email letting them know that you understand, but will still be in touch in case something changes.

Prompting some kind of action at the end of your email is the best way to engage the prospect and save you a lot of guesswork later on.

Try this:

Instead of ending your email with the usual, “I’d love to further discuss how [my company] can help you,” write something more specific like:

“If you’re interested in learning more about how [my company] can help you [increase sales], would you be available for a call either on Wednesday at 1 PM or Friday at 11 AM? However, if you’re currently not looking for [my service], please shoot me a quick reply letting me know.”

Also, be sure to add a CTA button or link to an offer for a resource on your site. Your Inbound Marketing team is coming up with great material to share with prospective clients, so be sure to use a relevant piece of content to entice the person you’re reaching out to.

Even if they don’t want to speak to you right away, your prospect will certainly appreciate this educational information and with continued nurturing on your part it can eventually move them along in the buying process.

Depending on the reply you get and the level of interest, a great way to stay in touch and top of mind with a prospective client is by sharing relevant and valuable information. This shows the prospect you are interested in their business and you want to help them.

Key Takeaway

In a world where we are in a constant battle for attention, sales emails can be tricky, but you can make them work for you with these 3 quick changes. Thinking first by doing your research, focusing on the benefits instead of the features, and creating a call to action will instantly help you improve your results.