The anatomy of a great sales email and how to write your own

To increase the number of positive responses you gain from prospects, it’s crucial to send out quality sales emails.

Be direct, honest, and brief, and give a clear call to action. Personalize each email with the prospect in mind. Speak to them as an individual and address their pain points. Remember, a human will be at the other end of each sales email, and the fastest way to get your email deleted is for the recipient to see it as spam. 

Let’s look at how you can create sales emails that convert. 

Creating a foolproof sales email

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Using email templates helps save your sales team time. Instead of focusing all their time on creating individual emails from scratch, day after day, templates allow sales representatives to manage replies, personalize the subject line and opening sentence of emails, and take care of other important business.

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While email templates make cold emails vastly more effective, it's important to note that a complete lack of personalization can turn off a potential lead. If it's an email they’ve seen before, or if it looks like a generic email that was sent to 1,000 people, they may decide not to reply or even look at it.

A successful sales email needs to have the following:

• Persuasive subject line
• Personalized opening line
• Relevant content that connects with the prospect’s goal
• Clear call to action
• Simple signature

Here’s an infographic that shows the anatomy of a great sales email.

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Create a short and enticing subject line

Before you can start any kind of dialog with a lead, they first have to open your email. If your subject line sounds spammy, unspecific, or boring, they will pass it by and never open it.

We’ve all received emails with subject lines that started with “Dear Sir or Madam,” promised big bucks, offered a 100% guarantee, or deceptively began with “RE:” even though we’ve never spoken to the person. Spam filters are good at shuttling most of these to the spam folder, and the ones that get through will not be opened by the discerning recipient.

Craft the subject line for the prospect as an individual. Take into consideration their needs. Contemplate your common goals, demands, and the relationship between your company and your lead. Use your common interests to get their attention.

Starting with “Dear Sir or Madam” makes it clear that no human had any idea who would be receiving the email. Instead, mention the recipient or their company by name in the subject line.

You can find the names of your prospects, job titles, and other information during the prospecting process.

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Personalize the opening sentence

Always start an email with something related to the prospect. 

This may take a bit of research to hit on something the lead would care about. You could refer to a strong company value or mission, a recent event, award, or achievement, a mutual connection, or an article they recently shared on their blog or LinkedIn. Mention this in your opening sentence.

No matter your sales strategy, it’s important that the language of your email isn’t regarded as generic or spammy.

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Align the body of the email with the prospect’s goals

In the body of the email, quickly and clearly make a connection between your business and what it can offer the lead’s company.  Prospects don’t want to scroll over long-winded paragraphs — they need to be able to read them within a few seconds. Keeping sales emails within 50-150 words can help maximize their efficiency and allow you to get to the point quickly.

To successfully make a connection between your company and the prospect’s, pivot the pitch in a way that focuses on the prospect’s needs rather than your product. Ask questions your lead will want to answer because they’re relevant to their company or industry. For example, if you’re selling a service or software solution, consider pain points common in your prospect’s industry and ask something like “Planning to improve [pain point] in 2023?” 

Exhibit interest in their company and show confidence that they will reply.

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End with a clear call to action

Make sure to give a prospect a clear next step at the end of your email so there’s no confusion about what you would like to do next in order to help them. 

If the next step is left vague, it’s very unlikely the prospect will take action or respond. They don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about how to reply, so help them out by asking them a question they can easily answer or giving them a clear call to action to follow.

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Keep the signature simple

A showy or long signature can be distracting. It only needs to inform readers of who you are, what you do at the company, and how to contact you.

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Leverage AI to write great sales emails

Whether you’re new to writing email copy or just experiencing some writer’s block, it can be difficult to come up with creative and effective ideas time and time again. That’s when an AI writing tool can help you draft emails or organize your ideas.

As an AI language model, ChatGPT can help you generate a high-quality sales email that is tailored to your target audience. 

To prompt ChatGPT to write a sales email for you, you can provide the AI with specific details about your product or service, including its unique features and benefits. Additionally, you can specify the target audience and the tone and style of the email, allowing ChatGPT to create a personalized and persuasive message that resonates with potential customers. 

By utilizing ChatGPT's capabilities, you can save time and effort while still increasing your sales email results. This will improve ROI, open the door to new customers, and drive more business to your company.

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