Michael Haylon spoke about sales at a recent event and pointed out that the best way to get better is by deliberately practicing your skills. Let’s figure out the 7 secret sales email to expedite deals.
There is no data to support what works and what doesn’t in B2B sales emails. It’s all just a bunch of anecdotes and intuition.
This subject line would probably not work.
Analyzing data from over 500,000 emails sent by Yesware users in the first quarter of 2014, we found that email subject lines with hey had lower open and reply rates than other common keywords.
We all know bad emails cost you money, and that’s why I wanted to spend today providing data on how to use email for sales.
Here’s the data:
- We surveyed 1,000 Yesware users and their anonymous responses were used for this article.
- 9 software companies that are focused on inside sales.
- Over 500,000 secret sales emails
- Q1 2014
Need Help Automating Your Sales Prospecting Process?
LeadFuze gives you all the data you need to find ideal leads, including full contact information.
Go through a variety of filters to zero in on the leads you want to reach. This is crazy specific, but you could find all the people that match the following:
- A company in the Financial Services or Banking industry
- Who have more than 10 employees
- That spend money on Adwords
- Who use Hubspot
- Who currently have job openings for marketing help
- With the role of HR Manager
- That has only been in this role for less than 1 year
#1 Include a Variety of Recipients (But Only One in the To Line)
When I saw this, the first thing that came to mind was: Yea, no shit. If you include more people in an email you’re more likely to get a response. When sending emails we found that when you copy someone else on it both open and reply rates increased by 12%.
If you call out someone in the To line, they are more likely to reply. However, if it is just a generic message for everyone in that same line, then people will defer to each other.
#2 Length of the Subject Line Is irrelevant
Looking at data from two anonymous companies, we can see that there is no specific word count with the highest open and reply rates. It’s all over the place.
I found that in a study of open and reply rates, the shorter subject line had about a 9% higher success rate.
Yesware offers template reply reports for tracking opens, link clicks, and email effectiveness. You can test out your own subject line words to see how they impact open rates.
#3 Incorrect Keywords Cost You Meetings
The data shows that some words are more effective than others, but it also varies by open and reply rates. Here you can see how the effectiveness of certain keywords changes depending on whether they have a high or low open rate.
Emails with the word call in them work better than those containing the word calendar.
#4 You May Be Sending Emails at the Inappropriate Time
People are most likely to reply during business hours.
- The idea of checking email right when you wake up or on your commute is one of the good sales email tips.
- I usually check my email as soon as I come to work.
- After lunch, there are fewer meetings and more time to check emails.
- I use email at night and on the train, so I don’t have to go into meetings as much.
People are more likely to reply back at night than they are in the morning.
Weekdays or Weekends?
On the weekends, there are fewer secret sales emails being sent. That means your secret sales email gets noticed more than other days.
#5 If They Do Not Respond Today, They (Most Likely) Will Not Respond at All
The takeaway here is to pay attention to the rhythm of your sequence. After 1 day, it’s gone. So don’t follow up every single day (especially if you’re going too fast). 3 days or so should be enough.
#6 You Are Not Performing Enough Follow-Up
#7 Testing Templates Can Increase Response Rates by More Than 10x
Sales emails best practices:
- Find the templates that are most effective and use them for your company.
- Understand what caused them to work well.
- Share the good Hubspot cold email templates and email tips.
Bonus Secret: By Calling When Emails Are Opened, you can increase call connection rates by 34%.
Need Help Automating Your Sales Prospecting Process?
LeadFuze gives you all the data you need to find ideal leads, including full contact information.
Go through a variety of filters to zero in on the leads you want to reach. This is crazy specific, but you could find all the people that match the following:
- A company in the Financial Services or Banking industry
- Who have more than 10 employees
- That spend money on Adwords
- Who use Hubspot
- Who currently have job openings for marketing help
- With the role of HR Manager
- That has only been in this role for less than 1 year