How Do I Send a Successful Cold Sales Email?

What are the best practices for sending "cold" sales emails? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo of Sumo.com and Appsumo.com, on Quora:

There's a simple framework that I've found insanely effective at getting a super high response rate from my cold emails.

1. Subject line. The goal of the subject line is to get them open the email to read the first sentence. To compete with hundreds - if not thousands - of cold emails in someone’s inbox, your subject line needs to be incredibly clear and direct. The harder for them to figure out why you’re reaching out, the harder your email gets open. A good way to craft your subject line is to include the “pain” of your prospects, tell them how your product or services can solve their pain usually triggers their interests instantly.
2. Flattery. Everyone loves to feel special. If you're emailing a particular position of companies, make sure you find out their names. Avoid addressing your prospects as Sir or Madam because it sounds like a copy-and-paste template. At the same time, it puts you into their bucket of "strangers who want something from me". If you’re emailing top influencers, ask yourself, do you compliment them or stroke their ego a bit? The goal here is to make them feel special, but don’t over-do it. You don’t want to sound cheesy here as it gives people a sales-y impression.
3. Benefit. How will this benefit them (not just you)? Do you spell it out and is it a real benefit? Go figure out the exact pain point of your prospects and know that you can deliver real value to them. One common mistake many entrepreneurs make is that they talk about the features of their product. People don’t want to know the latest technology your app has, they want to know how your app can help solve their problems.
4. Credibility. The next step is to establish credibility. Ask yourself, how can you make them trust you in the email? What makes you the person they want to talk to? One good technique you can implement is to show your existing customers in similar industries. This helps to establish trust and provides proof to the benefits you just mentioned.
5. Call to action. You don’t get what you don’t ask. Make sure you have a call-to-action at the end of the email. What is the next step they have to take if they’re interested? Make this clear, and preferably make this simple (don’t ask them to invest $1,000 here). Make the call-to-action easy for them to say YES.
6. Read it out loud. Read your email out loud with a timer. If it’s a longer than a minute, cut it down. You need to gain respect from your prospects, and it starts with you respecting their time.

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