19
25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? GrowthHackers https://growthhackers.com/questions/askghwhatisthebestopeninglineyouvereceivedfromacoldsalesemail/ 1/19 GrowthHackers Login Sign Up Get the best growth articles in your inbox weekly! Your email Subscribe 22 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you’ve received from a cold sales email? January 7, 2015 by Logan Stoneman in Email Marketing Tweet 52 comments Flag Question Details Log in to edit Getting started is always the hardest part, including writing a cold email to someone who doesn't know you or your product. What's the best first sentence or introduction you've seen or received from a cold sales email? Log in with Twitter or log in with email to post a comment. Sean Ellis (@sean) January 7, 2015 at 9:38 am Link “[InsertName] suggested I get in touch with you about some potential challenges you may be having with [InsertProblem]…” The important part is the reference. It’s even better if the reference makes the introduction. In my opinion everything else is spam. What’s starting to get worn out is the “Are you still the person who handles [activity]?” I get this form email almost every day. A couple years ago it may have worked,

Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

Citation preview

Page 1: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 1/19

GrowthHackers Login • Sign Up

Get the best growth articles in yourinbox weekly!

Your email

Subscribe

22Ask GH: What is the best opening lineyou’ve received from a cold sales email?January 7, 2015 by Logan Stoneman in Email Marketing

Tweet

52 comments

Flag

Question Details Log in to editGetting started is always the hardest part, including writing a cold emailto someone who doesn't know you or your product. What's the bestfirst sentence or introduction you've seen or received from a cold salesemail?

 Log in with Twitter or log in with email to post a

comment.

Sean Ellis (@sean) • January 7, 2015 at 9:38 am Link

“[InsertName] suggested I get in touch with you aboutsome potential challenges you may be having with[InsertProblem]…” The important part is the reference. It’seven better if the reference makes the introduction. In myopinion everything else is spam.

What’s starting to get worn out is the “Are you still theperson who handles [activity]?” I get this form emailalmost every day. A couple years ago it may have worked,

Page 2: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 2/19

almost every day. A couple years ago it may have worked,but by now everyone has read the same book and is usingthe same email.

10 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 7, 2015 at 9:42

am Link

Wouldn’t you consider the reference to qualify the “coldemail” as now a “warm lead/email”? If someone doesn’tknow their contact at all, yet they actually can delivervalue to the contact – how does one communicate itquickly without, as you said, become ‘spam’?

There are a ton of examples on the web, but yes, mostare already picked over and reiterated over and over.

5 Reply

Sean Ellis (@sean) • January 7, 2015 at 11:48 am Link

You’re probably right that it’s a warm lead. Maybe Iam suggesting that “cold email” is always spam.Generally I’m just not a fan of it. It’s too easy to abusesince there is no cost to it.

Warm referral leads take more work, but I think theyare much more effective. For example, my first jobout of college was cold call selling adverting inEastern Europe with no base salary. While cold callingworked, it was difficult. Eventually I discovered thatreference selling worked a lot better than cold callselling and figured out a way to do it in bulk. Here’show it worked. I primarily focused my sales efforts ontechnology companies. I found that I could invest alot of time selling a big hardware brand, and then askthem for a list of their resellers. They would give me alist of 50+ resellers. I then asked if it was OK if Icontacted them on behalf of the big brand topotentially coordinate some advertising. Next stepwas to mass fax the resellers (this was before emailwas popular) a letter in Hungarian explaining that“Big Brand” shared their name with me and thoughtit might be a good idea to coordinate some directresponse advertising for the reseller with the bigbrand’s campaign. I shared the dates, size andcontent of the big brand’s ads along with otherdetails and a process for getting started. Withinhours of sending the automated fax, I generally hadseveral orders.

Your category may be different, but I think we

Page 3: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 3/19

Your category may be different, but I think wecreativity and a bit of work you can probably figureout something better than pure cold emailing. If you

are going to cold email, invest a lot of timepersonalizing it so the person knows it’s not justspam. @morgan ‘s comment has a really goodexample of this.

7 Reply

yael kochman (@yaelk) • January 11, 2015 at 12:19 pm

Link

There is no cost to cold emails? What about theamount of time it takes to manually send dozensof well-thought emails, to get those emailaddresses, tweak the subject line again and again.There is a cost for everything we do. I don’t thinkcold emails don’t have a cost. I think cold emailsare not cost effective.

6 Reply

Sean Ellis (@sean) • January 11, 2015 at 2:46 pm Link

I meant the bulk cold emails that are untargetedand not customized for each recipient.

1 Reply

Daria Shualy (@daria) • January 20, 2015 at 1:23 am

Link

There’s an additional cost, and that’s brandingand positioning. When you send bulk coldemails you are risking burning leads that areannoyed with your lack of thought andoriginality, who otherwise might convert.

2 Reply

yael kochman (@yaelk) • January 20, 2015 at 1:27

am Link

Completely agree Daria. Everything has acost even if it’s not a direct spent.

2

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 7, 2015 at

10:55 pm Link

I’ve actually been doing some co-outreach (think

Page 4: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 4/19

I’ve actually been doing some co-outreach (thinkco-marketing but for direct 1:1 email outreach)

lately… super-awesome and effective.

3 Reply

Isi Ojeabulu (@isioj) • January 8, 2015 at 2:32 am Link

@lincolnmurphy could you share more on that?

2 Reply

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 8, 2015

at 12:45 pm Link

Sure @isioj … it’s a simple 10-step process:

1. Find a company you do not compete withand who’s customers fit your Ideal CustomerProfile and your customers fit their ICP. Moreon that here:https://growthhackers.com/ideal-customer-profile-framework/2 – 7. Do what it takes to become friends withpeople at that company; get them to know,like, and trust you, etc.8. Both parties identify some customers thatwould be perfect for the other company9. Someone from each company reaches outto their customers to introduce the othercompany in a way that’s all about how thatother company could help the customer(remember, WIIFT), CC’ing the other companyrep on the email, etc.10. Profit.

8 Reply

Daria Shualy (@daria) • January 20, 2015 at 1:26

am Link

We actually did that with PipeDrive, and itback-lashed, mucg to our surprise. Howeverwe followed-up by doing cross-promotionposts on our blogs with mutual specialoffers, and that has generated a long tail ofstudy signups with very high conversion topaying ever since.

2

Page 5: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 5/19

Isi Ojeabulu (@isioj) • January 9, 2015 at 8:03 am

Link

Makes total sense. I can imagine the ROI onthis is high. Thanks @lincolnmurphy

1

Dan Medcraft (@bugherddan) • January 12, 2015

at 8:45 pm Link

wows, the ROI on that method must bethrough the roof!!

1

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 20,

2015 at 8:14 am Link

I couldn’t reply directly to your comment@daria so I had to reply to mine (threadinglimit reached)… can you share what (youthink) went wrong for there to be a backlashin your co-outreach?

1

Adam Szabo (@adamszabobiz) • January 8, 2015 at 3:31

am Link

Best cold emails I have received (without a referral)are the ones that look like emails I get from myfriends. No formatting, lower case subject, shorttext starting with something like “Hey Adam”.When there’s a lot of formatting and the firstsentence is “We are a x company giving ysolutions…”, I’m not even reading further.

I think it’s also essential to do some REAL workbefore you send the email. Like when a companyselling SEO services contacted me with a short listof problems my site had. They gave me actual infoabout my site for free and offered to tell me moreif I subscribe. Sounds allright.

BTW I’m from Hungary @sean it’s nice to see one ofmy role models was working here (even remotely):)

Page 6: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 6/19

:)

3 Reply

Sean Ellis (@sean) • January 8, 2015 at 8:56 am Link

Hey @adamszabobiz I actually lived in Budapestfor seven years, so it wasn’t remote work… Areyou still in Hungary?

1 Reply

Adam Szabo (@adamszabobiz) • January 8, 2015 at

10:24 am Link

Oh cool! Yes, I’m in Budapest. Are you planningvisiting Hungary again sometime?

1 Reply

Sean Ellis (@sean) • January 8, 2015 at 10:39 am

Link

Hopefully sometime. I’ll let you know.

2

Hannah Wright (@thehannahwright) • January 7, 2015 at 9:48

am Link

Yep. Those “Are you still the person who handles ___?”emails make me cringe.

3 Reply

New Svasti-Xuto (@doublenew) • January 7, 2015 at 6:44 pm Link

Not related to cold emails. But I think its worth sharing

My personal favorite is from Dean Jackson “9 WordsEmail”. It is powerful for converting previous leads thatbecame inactive somewhere along the funnel.

Its a simple but yet powerful email and goes somethinglike this:

Subject: [Name]Content: Are you still looking for [solution] ?

E.g.

Subject: LoganContent: Are you still looking for techniques to get moreemail opened?

Page 7: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 7/19

And that is the end of the email. It does not have to beexactly 9 words but the idea is that is has to be super

simple (excuse my bad example)

What you do think Logan?

6 Reply

Jeremy Jarvis (@jarv75) • January 9, 2015 at 7:00 am Link

That would get binned faster than a “thanks forfollowing” DM on twitter :)

5 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 11, 2015 at 3:32

pm Link

Although i appreciate the quick approach to any task, inmy industry [education] I can’t afford to mass email ageneric template. Each must be crafted to suit theirspecific needs and situations to even get a response.There are not enough potential clients to take a risk in‘hoping’ they will respond.

2 Reply

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 7, 2015 at 11:06

pm Link

This is such a killer framework for follow-up and/orreactivation emails.

1 Reply

Morgan Brown (@morgan) • January 7, 2015 at 9:46 am Link

This doesn’t exactly answer your question, but this postfrom @noahkagan on cold email is one of my favorites:

http://okdork.com/2013/04/18/cold_email/

5 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 11, 2015 at 3:28

pm Link

Awesome share @morgan – i’ve been using this and the@lincolnmurphy article on 7 sanity checks for any coldemail to make it as personalized as possible.

Page 8: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 8/19

email to make it as personalized as possible.

1 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 12, 2015 at

1:31 pm Link

@morgan Have you or @noahkagan ever used thishack in a cold email to generate a response back? i.e.creating an email that can easily notify you thatthey’re interested in learning more?

And would that come off as too‘automated’/nonpersonal?

http://okdork.com/2014/06/18/the-samuel-l-jackson-marketing-hack/

1 Reply

Ina Herlihy (@inacatherine) • January 12, 2015 at 1:32 pm Link

Roy Bahat has a great post on Introductions and the“forward intro email”:http://also.roybahat.com/post/92544681186/introductions-and-the-forward-intro-email

1 Reply

Stuart McKeown (@thegyppo) • January 7, 2015 at 8:39 pm Link

I used to send a lot more cold emails than I do now. Iusually had the best success pointing out how thereceipent was doing something poorly and how we couldhelp do it better (sometimes complete with a workingexample). I’d end up putting 30mins into an emailsometimes.

They work, but it’s a lot of work to do it right. Which is whyyou end up getting the types of people that use templates(like Sean references). If something smells like a template,I generally spam bin it – unless it’s super relevant.

So I try to put myself in that frame of mind, if I was gettingthis email – how would I respond.

I also highly recommend email tracking tools like YesWareto help you with experimentation!

4 Reply

JackMeredith (@jackmeredith) • January 8, 2015 at 9:02 am

Link

Page 9: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 9/19

Link

Totally agree with your 2nd sentence. I’ve found having

a visual cue helps get the point across. If I feel like itsworth the time, I’ll usually inspect elements on theirsite, add our widget, screenshot or record a gif, and addit into the email.

2 Reply

TiffanyDasilva (@bellastone) • January 8, 2015 at 8:09 am Link

Flattery gets you everywhere. ;)Having someone who noticed something about me andhad a question about what I did, or answered a question Ihad on here or on twitter with their product has alwaysworked wonders.

3 Reply

Jason Bedunah (@jason-bedunah) • January 12, 2015 at 2:02

pm Link

Yeah, when I was a VP of Marketing that is about theonly thing that would get through to me… not theflattery part :-) but already knowing something aboutone of my posts/comments/tweets and tying it intosome initial information usually got me to click.

2 Reply

JackMeredith (@jackmeredith) • January 8, 2015 at 9:11 am Link

Agree with a lot of the comments here. Most cold emailssuck, warm referrals are great, and making it all aboutthem is key.

Scott Britton has a ton of posts on this subject: http://life-longlearner.com/?s=cold+email&submit=Search

I think an underutilized tactic is the unanswered followupemail. So many times, I’ve gotten positive responses fromthe 2nd or 3rd email. People are busy and inboxes get full.Don’t let a non-response to your initial email deter you.

3 Reply

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 10, 2015 at 9:17 am

Link

Page 10: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 10/19

Link

I just got an email with the subject: “Problem withDownloads for – “How (and When) to Hire a Great VP ofCustomer Success”.

The opening line was: “I just received an invite for yourwebinar.”

So I opened it because, well, I thought there was aproblem. And I kept reading because the opening linescontinued that narrative.

The next line was “I registered and noticed that you useGoToWebinar.”

And then I saw that it was from a competitor ofGoToWebinar trying to sell us on his solution, specificallythat GTW requires a downloads and theirs doesn’t andwe’re missing out, blah blah blah.

While I applaud the tactic of joining mailing lists andwaiting for an opportunity to strike like this, it didn’t workas expected (I assume).

It made me mad. I thought something was wrong andwanted to help, only to realize nothing was wrong. Not agood way to start a relationship.

Now you could justify the “problem with downloads” partby saying “I mean there’s a problem with downloads ingeneral, not a problem with YOUR downloads…” but thedamage – I believe – would already be done.

Maybe it works really well, I don’t know. I doubt it.Hopefully he’s testing different versions and he’ll see thatthis one doesn’t work so well. I doubt it.

As anyone who’s been around me or worked with meknows, I’m all about being provocative when necessary.But you have to be careful not to take your COLD prospect– who doesn’t already know, like, and trust you – on toowild of an emotional roller coaster.

Save that for later in the relationship.

3 Reply

Jim Gray (@grayj) • January 10, 2015 at 9:31 am Link

People really don’t like feeling tricked or cheated. It’swired into our psychology at a very primitive level. It’s aland mine that will very quickly flip people to negativesentiment, even if they might have otherwise beenreceptive.

Sometimes people like being surprised, but it’s difficult

Page 11: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 11/19

Sometimes people like being surprised, but it’s difficultto do this without making people feel tricked or

cheated, so be careful.

2 Reply

Hannah Wright (@thehannahwright) • January 7, 2015 at 9:34 am

Link

An opening line addressing a relevant problem tends tograb my attention. Something straightforward and human.

I remember at my previous startup, we were looking forinterns and someone emailed me from a job boardwebsite. Wish I still had the original email, but the openingsentence went something like this:

“Hey Hannah, I saw that you’re looking for interns — howhas the response been so far?”

They had either been scoping out other job boards or sawon social media that we were searching, but they knew wewere actively looking to solve this problem and sent a veryrelevant email. And they quickly addressed its relevance inthe first portion of the email.

In total, the email was once a few sentences and there wasa sentence + call to action, making it tough to ignore.

2 Reply

Hannah Wright (@thehannahwright) • January 7, 2015 at 9:35

am Link

*there was a question + call to action, making it toughto ignore

1 Reply

Vladimir Mkrtumyan (@vladmkrtumyan) • January 7, 2015 at

11:52 pm Link

Hmmm, nothing memorable actually. That tells you a lotabout how hard and effective it is. Once I got a woman toreply to me by intentionally spelling her first name wrongby a letter :D but bottom line no great luck. I“growthhacked” my cousin into a meeting with an angelinvestor by contacting him through a personal blog, noemail subject line needed.

A lot of the time if I do a cold call and people say “email

Page 12: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 12/19

A lot of the time if I do a cold call and people say “emailme” I tell them the subject line and ask if they’ve received

it on the phone so I know they’ve got it, but most of thetime I know it’s them telling me to buzz (or another 4 letterword) off.

In fact if you want the exact email copy I wrote for mycousin to prompt a reply and the thinking behind it findme on twitter and I’ll send it to you or give me an emailaddress. Can you send personal messages here? I don’tthink so…

2 Reply

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 7, 2015 at 11:59 pm

Link

It’s kind of funny… We all get “cold emails” from people wedon’t know everyday.

The ones we open and reply to we don’t consider “coldemails” … they’re just emails from people. They might evenbe from people trying to sell us something, but even someof those aren’t “cold.”

It’s the sales emails or the intro/meeting request emailsfrom people we don’t know (who clearly don’t know us)that seem canned, clearly lacking research, or otherwiseseemed “cold” that we refer to as well, “cold emails.”

And of course, the horrible emails that are obviously justcanned or templates – or look more like phishing scams –with zero research, we categorize as SPAM.

But the trick/gimmick/hack that gets us to open andinteract with an email is that those emails aren’t about theperson emailing us or their product; they’re are about us.

We’re selfish. We’re curious. If you figure out the right mixto take advantage of those two things… you’re golden.

So a couple of rules (and then 7 more in the link below thislist):1. Just write an email (the one that works make into atemplate; don’t try to create a template at first)2. Make sure it’s all about WIIFT (What’s In It For Them)https://growthhackers.com/7-sanity-checks-before-sending-that-cold-email/

I’ll add that there are actually three “opening lines” in anemail and they all are super-important and they build oneach other.

Page 13: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 13/19

each other.

1. Subject (the headline)2. Pre-Header / Preview of first sentence (the sub-headline)3. Full first sentence (opening line)

I try to optimize for mobile devices – generally iPhones inmy world – so I have a short subject + high-value pre-header to get them to open.

To do that I front-load the opening sentence with thethings they need to see to pique their curiosity in thepreview window, but in a way that makes the first fullsentence actually readable once they open the email.

That said, some great ideas have already been floated andothers can be found in these GH threads:

https://growthhackers.com/how-to-write-an-email-that-will-never-be-ignored/https://growthhackers.com/5-cold-email-templates-that-will-generate-warm-leads-for-your-sales-team/https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask-gh-anyone-want-critique-my-cold-email/https://growthhackers.com/5×5-method-personalizing-relationships-at-scale/

2 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 11, 2015 at 3:41

pm Link

100% agree on the 3 first sentences. It’s hard to find theright combination for each person, especially in myindustry.Quick questions for you @lincolnmurphyToeing the line between showing why you’re valuable tothem and sounding ‘spammy’ is often the gray-est ofareas. any advice on this?

AND do you think it’s better to start lower down on thedecision tree to warm your leads/get introductions. Orpinpoint the decision maker directly with the email

1 Reply

LincolnMurphy (@lincolnmurphy) • January 13, 2015 at

10:57 pm Link

I get that you don’t want to sound spammy@loganstoneman – I don’t want you to soundspammy, either.

Page 14: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 14/19

All I can say is do what works for your customer andget out of your own way. Stop looking for reasons notto do this (if you are) and just take action. You maynot like this approach, you may think it sounds“spammy” but if a reasonable person who’s not you(always good to do a sanity check with someone else)doesn’t think it sounds spammy (it shouldn’t if youwrite it as if one person is telling another personabout something that will help them… you don’t haveto channel your inner Billy Mays here) then it’s fine.

As for where to start, nothing works better than aCEO delegating to a VP. A Director or VP running it upthe flagpole to the C-suite generally only works ifthere’s already an initiative in place, and if that’s thecase you’re likely to be one of several vendors they’realready evaluating.

Barring top-down delegation, I’d focus on horizontalintroductions (both from internal AND externalpeers) if you can’t go directly to the person you’retrying to reach for whatever reason. Or, in fact, inaddition to going directly to them you might reachout to their peers.

That all said, don’t be afraid to go directly to theperson who you want to contact. You might do thingsto warm them up prior to reaching out via pre-targeting on social or IP-based retargeting, so you getyour brand to be on their mind… but if you havesomething that will help them do their job better,achieve not only the desired outcome for thecompany but for them, too… just reach out. And ifyou have a little voice inside telling you not to dothat… you may want to have a talk with that voicebecause it’s keeping you from moving forward!

2 Reply

Logan Stoneman (@loganstoneman) • January 14, 2015 at

8:47 am Link

This is awesome. Thanks @lincolnmurphy

1 Reply

instakill (@instakill) • January 8, 2015 at 2:10 am Link

Not sure about receiving, but with sending this format hasbeen doing well (context, I created

Page 15: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 15/19

been doing well (context, I createdhttp://www.mybema.com which is a free and open sourcecommunity platform and I’m reaching out to people that

may want to use it for their companies):

Hi {Person}

I found your company via {referal person, their blog post,etc} and wanted to touch base helping you get morepeople interested in {their company or product}.

{short pitch about how they are already using FAQs,testimonials, a blog and so on, and how converting thoseto an active community + knowledge base can scale upthose benefits. 1 short sentence about benefits of activecommunities}

{2 short sentences about mybema and how qualityconversations will help their retention rates and how morefresh and relevant content on their own domain helpsSEO}

{one liner about hitting me up if interested}

ThanksPawel

2 Reply

james smith (@jsmarketing) • January 8, 2015 at 2:53 am Link

Anyone who opens with something that is relevant to meworks well – I had a recruiter approach me andcommented on something I’d written which gave him amuch better chance of a courteous response thanotherwise.

There is no magic bullet.

There are a few general approaches you can take and afew ‘hacks’ from guys like Bryan Kreuzberger and AaronRoss.

Ultimately, I’d argue that if the email is short – 3/5sentences then the opening line isn’t the most important –its what you say in those 3/5 sentences.

Assuming you want to cold email, there are a few casestudies I’ve found which go through successful cold emailstrategies – with impressive response rates.

http://js-marketing.com/how-to-generate-leads-cold-email/

2 Reply

Page 16: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 16/19

2 Reply

Jeremy Jarvis (@jarv75) • January 9, 2015 at 7:03 am Link

I think James is spot on here. If you send very shortemails, then the opening line is less of an issue.

1 Reply

james smith (@jsmarketing) • January 13, 2015 at 1:34 pm Link

Results:57% open rate21% response rateEnd Outcome: 16 new customers

Using:Subject: 10 x {Company’s} traction in 10 minutes

I have an idea that i can explain in 10 minutes that can get[company] its next 100 best customers.

I recently used this to help our client {!SaaScompany/competitor} almost triple their monthly run rate.

{name} lets schedule a quick 10 minute call so I can sharethe idea for you. When works best for you?

http://salesfolk.com/cold-email-template-got-16-new-b2b-customers/

2 Reply

andrew hanelly (@hanelly) • January 9, 2015 at 9:42 am Link

Still waiting for it …

1 Reply

Dave Gerhardt (@davegerhardt) • January 12, 2015 at 1:13 pm

Link

Might be a little gimmicky, but this one works for me.

Their name + quick question (if you actually have a goodquestion to ask)

“Sean – quick question”

Gets opens, and if the content is right, will get a response.You obviously need to provide real value in the email ifyou are taking that approach in the subject line.

Page 17: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 17/19

you are taking that approach in the subject line.

1 Reply

Matthew Pavli (@matthewdisplaywizard-co-uk) • January 22,

2015 at 7:01 am Link

Agree! Creates a helpful and informal tone and (if it’s arelevant question) opens the dialogue nicely.

1 Reply

Jason Bedunah (@jason-bedunah) • January 12, 2015 at 1:58 pm

Link

One of my former jobs was VP of Marketing for an Incfastest growing company. The absolute volume of coldemails I got was pretty amazing.

I use cold emails to build my consulting business, too. SoI’ve been on both sides of the issue.

I’ll tell you my best opening line below but first… sincewe’re on the subject of cold emails let me say this:

The absolute most ineffective (and somewhat annoying)line in any part of the email was, “Can I have just 15minutes of your time to find out your needs and if there’sa fit with my product/service?” If I answered YES to afraction of the ones I got I’d never get any work done.

The best opening lines were ones that showed they KNEWsomething about me and had done a fair amount ofhomework. This showed me that there was a higherchance that what they wanted to discuss with me mightinterest me.

Something like this:

Hi Jason,

I saw your comment/post/tweet about xyz.

I’ve found that blah, blah… so you might consider this: linkto more information

Salesguy.

Of course, if the Salesguy is smart he knows that I’veopened it, knows whether not I clicked it, etc so hisfollowup sequence can adapt.

Jason

P.S. I have a cold email case study somewhere on this sitewhere I discuss the tools I use, etc.

Page 18: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 18/19

1 Reply

Allison Tetreault (@aktetreault) • January 30, 2015 at 1:57 pm Link

Cold sales emails should focus on the recipient, not yourproduct or solution. The best cold sales emails I’ve seenhave actually piqued my interest in a general topic ratherthan in something that a salesperson is trying to sell me.

I wrote about this here –http://www.agsalesworks.com/Blog-Sales-Prospecting-Perspectives/bid/108515/Why-This-Cold-Sales-Email-Template-Works-So-Well.

I recommend opening with news about the company (newacquisition) or even the contact (new position) you’reprospecting to show that you’ve done your research orwith content that may be of interest to them based onwhat they share on LinkedIn and Twitter. This willhopefully “warm up” that cold email.

1 Reply

Ed Burrows (@soyflacito) • February 2, 2015 at 4:43 pm Link

We have implemented the sales hackers methodology andtested really customized templates (albeit still using mergetags to insert info) which called out past projects theyworked on etc but found that the reply rates were equal towhen we simply provided their own company name in thefirst line. I think it depends on the industry and your targetaudience – our response rate on higher level marketingmanagers is much much lower than when emailing theend end users for our product.

1 Reply

Lauren Olerich (@lolerich) • February 2, 2015 at 7:23 pm Link

Would love to hear suggestions on what works best forevent based “cold” emails, specifically geo-baseddinners/happy hours and large scale industry conferences.The target audience has likely heard of your company (viaLinkedIn, word of mouth, being in the industry, etc) butinstead of taking 15 mins to discuss x, y, z, you’re askingthem to RSVP for a small best practices get-togetherand/or spend money registering for an upcomingconference.

Page 19: Ask GH_ What is the Best Opening Line You'Ve Received From a Cold Sales Email_ - GrowthHackers

25/2/2015 Ask GH: What is the best opening line you've received from a cold sales email? ­ GrowthHackers

https://growthhackers.com/questions/ask­gh­what­is­the­best­opening­line­youve­received­from­a­cold­sales­email/ 19/19

About • Blog • Twitter • Guidelines

© 2015 GrowthHackers

conference.

1 Reply