Stock Price as a Sales Pitch? What?

I received another interesting cold email from what I'd call loosely a B2B salesperson. But in title only.

The lede was a comment about their key competitor's stock price falling 30% during the past month. Not about what the company could do for me. Not even product features.

The only response to a particular stock price is "who cares?" Unless you're my financial advisor, I have no concern about the stock price of any particular company. Stock prices go up and down, mostly out of my control and it doesn't matter whether I (and others like me) buy or don't buy a product.

Vendor stock price isn't even high on the list of things I care about as a buyer. Sure, when it's time for the final evaluation the company financials will matter. Maybe even the stock price, if there's a chance they'll have management turnover or could be acquired.

But why lead with the competitor stock price? I can't believe this email actually generates any qualified inquiries.

Another head-scratcher for my files of bad B2B emails.

So how might you write better B2B prospecting email? First, don't bother. Give me a call instead, after you've done your homework. If you're still intent on prospecting via cold email, go out and read anything by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Denny Hatch, or Drayton Bird, to name a few. They'll at least help your writing.

And test, test, test. Even the competitor stock price lede!