5 Reasons Why Your Cold Emails Don't Get Replies
If you’re still sending emails that have opening lines that include, “Just checking in” or “Circling back!”, please stop it. Take this as a sign, they don’t work. They’re annoying and every sales person on the planet has tried them with little to no success. Here’s some other opening email lines that you should absolutely avoid if you want anyone to respond to you.
Let me be clear. I reeeeeaaallly don’t like cold emails. Or at least most of them and unfortunately, like most of the things sales people do, they do them because they were told to do them by a sales manager or VP. Or worse yet, that’s just what they think they should do and they’ve never really been taught how to do it effectively.
So, for the record, cold emails alone are not very effective, but they can be more effective if you’re mindful of a few things.
Open rates are almost useless. So what if you have a huge open rate. No one cares, or shouldn’t. If you email me, I open it and don’t do anything as a result of that email, what did you accomplish? Nada. Zip. Nothing.
Instead, look at response rates. Are they replying? Are they taking an action of some sort other than hitting delete or marking it as spam? That’s what matters.
What percentage of your emails schedule a call? What percentage reply to you? Those are what you should be focused on measuring. In order to do that well then, each of your emails should have a clear, concise, call to action (CTA) and opening line.
The bottom-line is that people might be opening your messages, but if they aren’t taking any action after reading it, then you’re failing to engage your prospects and you need to fix it.
If you want prospects to open your emails and respond or take action, stop using these tired, worn out opening lines.
The 5 WORST Opening Lines to Avoid
1. “Hi Prospect, my name is…”
Ummm, excuse me, but I’m pretty sure your recipient can read. They know who sent the message because they saw it in their inbox, next to your email’s subject line and they can see it in your email signature. Don’t waste their time.
In addition to introducing yourself, prospects don’t care who you are. I know, I know, your feelings are hurt now, aren’t they? Suck it up buttercup, who you are and your three dollar title, doesn’t matter when cold emailing, but what you can do for them does.
Do Better:
Skip the introductory opening line. No one cares, remember. Jump straight into something that’ll engage recipients, whether that’s a surprising fact, an intriguing question or a clear, concise statement of your offering’s benefits. Check out these 23 examples to get you started.
2. “I’m a sales exec for…”
Nobody likes being pitched and by introducing yourself as a sales rep, you’re making it clear that you’re about to do just that. See #1. No one really cares who you are or who you work for.
Do Better:
Why include this at all? No one is saying that you should attempt to hide the fact that you’re a sales rep, you just don’t need to lead with it. Again, they’ll see your title and company in your email signature anyway. Instead, focus on getting their attention in a genuine, clear and concise way.
3. “I know you’re really busy but…”
When I get this kind of email, I literally say aloud to myself, “then why are you bothering me?!?”
We’re all busy. Leading off an email this way just reduces the value (hopefully you have some) of what your product or service has to offer. I hate these and I’m sure you’ve gotten them too.
Your offer should be something they can’t ignore and impactful to them and their company. It should have client specific value. If it does, and your CTA is clear and concise, they should take action.
Do Better:
Respect your prospects’ time by offering something that’s clearly valuable and make the interruption worthwhile. Something like this works better:
“Hi first_name. Based on your last quarterly/annual report it looks like you’re trying to really increase/decrease _________ and achieve _______ by (this date).
I’m emailing you because we believe we can help you do that and achieve it quickly.
Which day this week can we schedule a quick call to walk you through it?”
4. “Can you do me a favor”
Asking for a favor works only if you’ve already had some previous interaction (and trust) with the prospect. By using this as your opening line in a cold email, you’re making it all about you. Instead, your opening line should be all about them and get their attention.
Do Better:
Prove your value before you ask for anything. Get rid of every “I need” or “I want” statement from your opening line in exchange for phrases that focus on benefiting your prospects.
5. “Just checking in.”
I hate this one too. And I see it all the time in the emails I get. Yes, you should be following up with cold email prospects but you can do better. Maybe they ARE ignoring you...it was a cold email, afterall. Maybe your call to action wasn’t clear, concise and short or maybe it was just bad timing when they got the first one.
If you have a compelling and clear CTA, people know how to reach you. It’s called a reply button. Worst case, they can see your contact information in your email signature, so don’t use this line as some quasi excuse to follow up.
Do Better:
Keep following up. It’s proven that you have to do it more and more these days to actually get results, but be better in how you word that opening line.
Something like this works better:
Hi first_name. Following up to see which day works better for you to talk through how we can help you ________ and ________ .
I have time this Tuesday at 2pm or Wednesday at 11am. Which is better for you?
At the end of the day, the best cold sales email opening lines are the ones that:
- Get their attention
- Are short, clear and concise
- Make prospects want to act, reply, get more info or schedule a call
Now, go sell somethin!
Freelance Social Researcher | Qualitative & Quantitative Methods | Your People Person | From Data to Impact
2 周Yes, my feelings got a little hurt but I also learnt a lot! :D ??
Founder of CalmEmail — building AI email assistants for founders | love building and teaching about AI agent based software
1 年why did i not find this earlier? thanks, Joel for sharing this!!