Great sales prospecting email templates are hard to craft. At HubSpot, we use our sales software to track which ones have the highest open and click rates. We then organize them into folders so reps can quickly access, customize and send them right from Gmail and Outlook.
We also encourage our team members to experiment with writing their own. Some of the best innovations are crafted by individuals and later rolled out to the team. This template from HubSpot business development rep Caroline Ostrander is so good, I thought I'd share it with all of you.
Hi <Prospect>,
Just left a quick message at the office for you. I chuckled a little bit when I got an automated email this morning from <former coworker name>, your predecessor, who we worked with briefly, and before him, <other former coworker name>, who we worked with as well.
First and foremost, congrats on coming into this new role! I'm sure you've got a lot going on - so this conversation might be timely or not. If you're stressed, this is my go-to :)
My role here is working with businesses (in the area) on how they can effectively and efficiently drive more traffic to their site, increase conversions, and nurture new and existing leads into customers.
How has your first month kicked off so far?
- Caroline
Why do I think this note is crafted so effectively? Here are nine things Caroline did well:
- She referenced previous her efforts trying to help the company. Further, it’s believable because she referenced his co-worker’s names.
- She referenced her efforts trying to reach him by phone, showing that she follows through effectively.
- She even suggested that it was fairly frustrating trying to help his company given the turnover. This was a smart, calculated risk. It could be offensive to the company, but since this guy was a beneficiary of the other's departures, probably not too risky.
- She leveraged a trigger event: Her prospect getting a new job.
- She related to the prospect’s emotions by suggesting that taking on a new role is stressful.
- She injected some humor into the situation by including cute baby animal pictures.
- She suggested that it might not be a good time to have this conversation. This implies she’s not overly eager to pitch or sell him something if it’s not a fit. This is a refreshing change for most prospects since many salespeople pitch and sell in their first email.
- She very lightly introduced her expertise (helping companies grow traffic, leads, and sales) and focus (local companies).
- She did NOT ask for a time on his calendar. Instead, she asked an open-ended question designed to merely elicit a response.
But don’t take my word for it. How did it go? The first time she used this email template, her prospect responded in this way:
Hi Caroline,
Great email. Love your tactics for getting a response. This is what I look at when I’m stressed.
I’ll be out of town next week, but purely because you know how to get someone’s attention, I’m willing to meet the following week. Can’t promise anything but curious about driving more website traffic.
Thanks,
<Prospect>
If you want to craft relevant and timely prospecting emails like these, here’s some further reading on trigger events.
- How To Close More Inbound Sales Deals With Timely Trigger Events
- 30 Types of Sales Trigger Events and How to Track Them
- How to Leverage Trigger Events for Faster Sales
What do you think of this template? How could it be even better? If you use it, share your successes in the comments.
