It's a cold world. Please be specific.

Hello WR,


I have received 27 cold emails and LI messages this week. 3 of them had a specific reason for why that person was reaching out to me. The other 24 had no specific reason they were reaching out to me and no CTA. I felt like I could have just archived the message and moved on with no consequence...but because I am a cherub, I responded (and I knew it would get me out of all automated cadences).


When writing cold outreach emails, make sure you are specific in your outreach. You're probably asking, "PBC what does 'specific' mean?" Good question, fellow savage, let me tell you.


Specific means you tell me in simple and plain language why you are reaching out to ME. Do I have a title that fits your ICP? Does my company look like one of your customers? Is there something specific that would make me want to read your email and think "wow, yes, I am that specific thing"...and bonus points if it compels me to respond to you.


So, as you reach out to your cold targets today and next week, I challenge you to be specific about why you are reaching out to that prospect and leave a compelling CTA at the end that is likely to elicit a response (e.g. open-ended question, NOT A BOOKING LINK).

👑 Sales Strategy
💌 Cold Emailing
43
funcoupons
WR Officer
12
👑
Love this. Prospecting advice from a prospect that’s actually been in sales. 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
9
☕️
Next week I'm thinking of a "I'm a RevOps Leader: AMA"

Get your punches ready for the guy that makes your life harder with more clicks than my knees on the first squat of the day.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
9
🦊
A very well written and clear instruction guide for those that may struggle with prospecting.
LordBusiness
Politicker
6
Chief Revenue Officer
Amen to this. I can't tell you how many emails are butchered in the call to action.  My go to (and has been for years is) "I appreciate your feedback in advance, and look forward to hearing from you".  I HATE with the passion of 1000 suns meeting links.  Oh, "book a meeting through your link, thanks for the extra work, I'll be happy to chat with you"  
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
5
☕️
Links are great, but it shouldn't be a hyper link of "When can we meet?". 

Half-past Septober 32nd.
DogsDreams
1
Enterprise Account Executive
I always give three options to chat over the following week.
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
5
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
The caffeine is coming through strong today. 

Good tips for message setting brethren. 
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
5
SaaS Eater
PBC with pure heaters on a Friday AM. 

Was talking to one of my reps yesterday who is struggling with driving top of the funnel. We took a look at his emails and it was rough. Doing all of the bad things you outlined there. 

His content was solid and specific but CTA sucked. We reworked the CTA into a discovery question, similar to how you outline here and WHAM he walks into 3 meetings this AM from emails he sent out EOD yesterday.
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
3
sales
always state the purpose of your reaching out. it frames the targets mind to give you an answer. easiest and most overlooked aspect in opening a prospect into a lead.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
3
☕️
Good summary.
alecabral
Arsonist
2
Director - Digital Sales Transformation
I actually hate booking links. Maybe it's the way I was trained, but isn't that the reps job, to actually book the meeting? When did it become a customer thing? 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
6
☕️
I drop a link because I know some people like them, but it's not my CTA.

The link is a PS, or maybe bolded in my signature. 
alecabral
Arsonist
1
Director - Digital Sales Transformation
I've tested different vendors with different sales teams and the amount of self bookings we had was not significant enough to pay for a calendar solution. 

Quick one for you: when using a CTA, what do you use most commonly?
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
5
☕️
It's often tailored to the prospect, but I ask a discovery style question at the end.

How are you solving for X today?

What does [Company] use for X?

It has to be specific to the messaging for sure.
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
2
Rolling 20's all day
I had one guy reach out to me on linkedin last month to "talk shop" and see if we can collab on anything. We are in the same industry and not competitors, and half my job is business development, so I accepted and set a call for the next day.
Well instead of just having a call together to discuss what we're both seeing in the industry and any ideas to work together, he straight up from the beginning of the call starts cold call pitching me and OH by the way his COO is also on the call because they want my company to whitelist or buy their product.

First of all, I'm not a director level so why are you asking me with no authority to make that decision, and WHY are you blindsiding me with a pitch.
It was clear that he must have told his COO that we were looking to buy. But I got off that call as fast as I could and left with a bad taste in my mouth. 

I 100% agree with you @poweredbycaffeine, people need to be clear with why they want to have a call together.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
6
☕️
F. That. Noise.

SO scummy.
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
2
Rolling 20's all day
Honestly I almost started laughing except I was too shocked when he mentioned his COO was on with him. 
Just another person giving sales professionals a bad rep.
barney2021
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
Great advice!
FromaBlankPerspective
Politicker
1
District Manager
JFC there is nothing I hate more than a cold email with a booking link. Laziest thing in the world and so annoyingly assumptive. 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
3
☕️
Again, you can use one, but don't let it do the work of asking for a meeting.
goose
Politicker
1
Sales Executive
Are you going to accept my generic connection request?  I've already loaded the generic pitch but my boss told me to wait until you actually accept.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
4
☕️
You called me George in the message, Goose. I am not a George.
goose
Politicker
1
Sales Executive
Sorry Jimmy.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
4
☕️
Mr. Neutron to you.
LaBarrique
Fire Starter
0
Account Executive
Great tip ! Thanks
DogsDreams
0
Enterprise Account Executive
One woman I follow on LinkedIn always says, “show me you know me”!
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