I strongly believe that learning how to sell has the power to change your life.

Cold emails remain the fastest, cheapest, and simplest way to generate qualified meetings, i.e. the opportunities to sell.

But, most people struggle to generate meetings (despite all the new tools and advancements in AI).

As simple as it sounds, most people just don’t focus on the fundamentals.

Not following the fundamentals will have predictable outcomes: stagnation, no leads, no results, giving up.

If this sounds familiar, and if you want to generate qualified meetings from cold prospects, this is for you:

The 5 cold email principles you must follow

Principle #1: Brevity

I can say with certainty that your emails, and also your (first) intro line, should be shorter than they currently are.

It’s counterintuitive, because this means you’ll say less things in your email.

But that’s the point. 

Remember, you’re sending unsolicited emails, your job is to convey value, relevancy and intrigue as quickly as possible.

Principle #2: Practical benefits for the recipient

This is where knowing your ideal customer comes into play.

You must use THEIR specific language to show them how:

– THEIR day-to-day job will be easier
– THEIR key responsibilities will be achieved
– THEIR success will make them seem super smart (and fast-track their promotion)

All thanks to your solution.

Skip the intro about you – nobody cares.

Focus on the benefits, not features.

Principle #3: Make it easy to say “YES!” to

Invasive questions hardly ever work.

Performing an “analysis” or “learning” about your prospects’ organization will rarely work. 

For example, if you’re targeting a small hairdresser for a marketing audit, they may take you up on it.

But if you’re contacting a CFO about a “free audit”, they will ignore/block you.

They don’t know you.

Why should they open up about all their processes, systems and numbers to a stranger?

Easy to say “yes” to questions are interest-based or allude to a meeting.

And not only that, the action/event you’re pitching should be easy and low commitment as well.

Principle #4: Problem selection matters

Before you send even one cold email, you must have an extreme clarity around the problems your audience faces.

Then, these problems need to be ranked.

The top problem will have characteristics such as:

1) Urgent (needs to be solved ASAP)

2) Painful (if I don’t do this, I am screwed)

3) Reoccurring (I deal with this ALL the time)

If you want your email to be short, you can’t focus on solving all their problems in one email.

So you must prioritize.

If you start with a weak problem, your prospects can opt-out too early in the sequence.

Principle #5: See people, not just a database

This relates to targeting.

Make sure your sales emails are aligned with the objectives of the person.

I.e. focus on seeing actual people, their problems, and their goals.

If you’re selling rebranding packages for example, should you reach out to a CEO of a 500 person company?

Most likely not, but if you do, do not sell the same way you’d sell to the CMOs.

Do not send that “perfect” sales message you’ve prepared, your audience alignment is off.

An appropriate message for the CEO would be simple request for introduction.

They don’t deal with branding, they delegate this. 

Ask them to do what they do best, delegate.

The bottom line is this: don’t force things.

Think about who is on the other end of your email, and meet them where they are.