Read Time = 3 minutes
A few weeks back I was on a flight headed to a company offsite.
There was a guy sitting next to me & we got to talking. It turns out that he is the CFO of a commercial real estate company.
Always cool to meet people like this, not because of the title itself, but because I like learning how people at that level operate, what they prioritize, and their overall mindset.
As the flight took off & we were 34,000 feet in the air, he took out his laptop.
I really try to give people their privacy, never look at other people’s screens, and just overall mind my business… but, after speaking with this guy I was just naturally noticing what he was doing on his laptop.
At one point he went to his email & it then became very relatable to my every day work.
First off, it was flooded with probably thousands of emails and a guy like this in his position is easily getting hundreds of emails a day.
What really stuck out to me was that he clicked on every email, looked at it for roughly ~2 seconds, & it either got a quick response or it was deleted right away.
And I would also be willing to say that probably 98% of the emails I saw him look at were deleted.
That is when it really clicked to me. I’m emailing leadership & c-suite people every single day in my job.
That is what I’m competing against. Hundreds of emails, all competing for a few seconds of attention.
Your email has to be almost perfect that it is like you are reading the person’s mind.
How do you do that? Let’s break it down below.
First off, reps think that their buyers are carefully reading their emails like it is an English assignment.
Sorry to break to you, but you would probably be surprised how many of your emails never even get opened, let alone read.
People’s filters are up high right now. There are so many AI generated email campaigns that most decision makers probably assume that these emails are mass generated & just trying to sell something. So, the current environment for cold email is harder than ever.
It is almost like you need to read that CFOs mind. You need to make your cold outbound not feel random.
How do we do that?
I go about this two different ways:
1) I ALWAYS take the consultive approach, not the sales approach.
Sales approach:
“We are typically 35% more cost-effective than [competitor] and are able to achieve X,Y,& Z. Open to chat?”
Consultive approach:
“I understand that you are using [competitor] today. Typically we hear that as orgs scale the costs grow linearly with it. Teams then drop features and it leaves gaps in their system. Curious if you are experiencing this today?”
This does two different things. First, it sells the reply, not the meeting… so it is a much easier ask.
Secondly, you are showing that you understand their world. When X happens, it causes Y. You understand, that builds credibility, and then most importantly trust.
2) Account research, intel gathering, and going below the line.
Understand what above and below the line means in sales. Those who are above the line are your decision makers of the world, like the CFO.
Those below the line are typically your ICs. The software engineers, the financial analysts, etc.
If you are trying to break into an account that you have no prior context on I highly suggest you take a bottoms-up approach. Do all your intel gathering from the ICs and then take that information to the decision makers above the line.
What this process looks like:
-Call into the account, talk to ICs, learn what they are using, current team & org dynamics, business initiatives, pains, etc.
-You then take that information that you gathered to the decision makers
This is how you take a peek behind the company’s curtain & send that email to the CFO who is currently working on a project to cut costs around their infrastructure bill.
It is then incredibly relevant to what he is working on, you took the consultive approach so it is not a hard pitch & you understand their world.
It is now a no-brainer for that prospect to learn more.
Reminder, you aren’t just competing against other sales reps’ emails. You are competing against everything else in a prospect’s day.
Watching that CFO go through hundreds of emails in real time was one of the best outbound lessons I’ve had in a while.
It really put it into perspective & allowed me to put understand what it looks like on the other side of the screen for decision makers at companies.
Your email needs to be extremely digestible, easy to read, and highly relevant.
Because it if it isn’t, then it isn’t getting a reply.
Until next week.
– Rook ♜
ps… struggling with outbound? I can help you 1:1 here