Everyone in sales wants to be associated with big brands! Don’t we?
In the B2B business, I am very sure that CXOs receive at least 3 emails a day asking for a meeting or a call from various vendors around the world. Upon a survey with my customers, they have pointed out that they have been deleting these emails because no one takes even a minute to write a well-crafted cold email.
“What does this email have to do for me?” This question applies to a lot of things, especially cold emails, introductions or when asking someone else for something
I am with a company called coMakeIT and we specialize in building offshore software delivery centres for big technological companies or software makers around the world.
I would like to share my experience as to how I went on to win a deal with one of the largest translation and interpretation services company that I wanted to work with.
First Email:
Hi Ken,
I am Sampath.
I love the way [Company Name] does business with regards to translation & Interpreting services. I have been following your company and noticed the new initiatives you are taking for your products like translation management and interpretation management systems as you process approximately 50,000 documents a day for your customers.
As you are the CTO, I wanted to find out if you are planning on expanding your software development team and build an offshore delivery centre to build a strong technical competency?
We are a Netherlands-based company and we have helped other software makers of your size and please find our references:
http://www.comakeit.com/en/references
Let me know if we can have a chat at 3 PM UK time this Friday?
Regards,
Follow up email after 3 days:
Hi Ken,
Trust you are doing well. I wanted to check if you have had a chance to review my last email?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Ken’s Response:
Hi – I do, please send me some light, but informative info on what you can offer and the typical rates. If I’m interested in there we will arrange a call.
Regards,
Ken
Bingo! From there on there had been multiple discussions and eventually signed up a two-year deal with the brand I wanted to be associated with!
Below are a few of my guidelines:
How I found my target?
I start by making a list of companies I’m interested in. LinkedIn is the first logical place to start looking for contacts inside these companies, but I also look into other social networks.
People who are more active on Twitter and constantly blog or contribute to their community are more likely to answer cold emails and more importantly – are likely to listen to our offering.
I made sure I was not an unfamiliar person
Sure, I have never met Ken before, but I made sure I was not a stranger. I did my research and I had been reading a lot of material about their company and Ken’s background. I knew them as well as anyone can without actually meeting — and that knowledge transferred into the rest of the email.
I knew their weakness
My client is based out of Leeds, UK, and my research says finding great talent is always hard in that particular region. They are a very aggressive company and with their growth, they must have the best technology to support their offerings to their clients, and for that to happen they need the best talent pool (So the need was there).
I kept it short and gave references
The email did not exceed 120 words. Even if the email was checked on the mobile, I made sure it would be an easy read. I did not want to beat around the bush –I introduced myself, showed them what I could offer, and asked them if they were interested.
I followed up
Following up has some amazing benefits. It reassures the prospects that we are genuinely interested in working with them. In this case, I could get Ken’s attention in the 2nd follow up. In other cases, you might have to be a more persistent and follow up with your prospect for the 3rd or the 4th time or even more.
Timing is everything
Being in the right place at the right time isn’t something that you can control — sometimes it’s just luck. Honestly, I had luck in the equation, too. Sometimes when pitching others, you won’t be quite as lucky (and this has happened to me before too). So if it’s not a great time at the exact moment you email, but you have the rest of these elements down-pat, chances are the person you’re pitching will ask you to follow up with them in the future.
Conclusion
I feel “researched” cold emailing is a wonderful way to generate leads, in your email’s just focus on the following points for great responses.
- Be extremely relevant and make sure to compliment them
- Provide benefit
- Be credible with strong examples
- Provide a call to action instead of leaving the email open-ended
- In the end, just make it an easy read
I hope this post would be of help! I look forward to more suggestions and ideas.