How to write a sales email: 6 sales email examples that work

You just received a fresh lead from marketing, and it’s time for you to send a compelling sales email. But how do you effectively start a conversation that will eventually result in a closed deal?

After all, the average recipient gets nearly 150 emails a day and deletesclose to half of them. If you want to make an impact, your emails need to stand out from the crowd. It’s certainly doable and worth the effort—the average return on sales emails is$38 for every dollarinvested. That’s huge revenue potential.

智慧h the right sales email examples as your inspiration, you can craft the kind of messages that capture your readers’ attention and increase your chances of making a sale.

In this guide, we will cover:

How to write a sales email that stands out

Before jumping straight into sales email examples, let’s take a look at what constitutes a well-written sales email.

The most successful sales emails are focused on the customer and their needs. That means personalizing every aspect of the message, from the subject line to the CTA. It’s also important to ensure you’re reaching out to the right prospects. Be smart about who you target and how you target them in your sales emails.

Key components of the best sales emails

1. Write engaging subject lines

   Nearly half of all email recipientsopen an email based solely on the subject line. Composesubject linesthat ask questions, present data-based insights, or speak to a pain point theprospect faces.

   “主题很重要,因为它是first thing people see when they open your email,” says Courtney Gupta, community engagement specialist and former SMB account executive at Zendesk. “Make sure your entire subject line is visible on desktop and mobile. It also helps to include the prospect’s name, a short question, or an idea about something specific to their needs.”

2. Use nongeneric opening lines

   Your email subject line may have gotten you past the front door, but now your opening line needs to encourage the recipient to keep reading.

   Try to open with personalized lines such as, “I loved your blog post…” or “I was excited to hear about your company’s product launch…” You may also be able to tailor your opening line by referencing the recipient’s new role, their competitor’s recent actions, or a mutual connection. If you can’t get too personal, citing a relevant statistic could catch their attention.

   Just be sure to skip the generic “Hi, my name is…” intro, which wastes time and isn’t customized to the reader.

   “Make the email as personalized as possible,” Gupta advises. “Research the person: Look at their LinkedIn or website and try to add personal bits of information. Or, make the email personal to their company. You can mention if they got funding or comment about an article you read about them. Prospects get so many emails every day, so you need to do something that doesn’t look like it’s an automated, general email.”

3. Tailor the body length to your audience

   An oft-citedBoomerangstudy concluded that “emails between 50 and 125 words had the best response rates at just above 50%.” However, more recent research byProspect.iofound that sales emails with roughly 300 words had much better response rates than those with fewer than 100 words.

   It largely depends on your recipient—a concise, cold email to a busy exec can be a good way to get your foot in the door. But if you’re targeting a high-ticket B2B purchase (or writing to someone who shares a common acquaintance), a longer, more detailed email can help establish a relationship.

   Regardless of who you’re targeting, be sure the body of your email is to the point and extremely digestible.

4. Avoid talking about yourself

   An email recipient wants to know what you can do for them, not how wonderful you and your company are. Look at your contact’s website and social media pages to learn everything you can about their needs and interests. That way, you can tailor your sales email accordingly.

5. Include a clear call to action and next steps

   Don’t make the reader guess what they should do next. Do you want to present a demo? Discuss your offering during a quick call? Provide direction for the prospect to keep the conversation going.

   Gupta explains, “You always want to end the email with a question or statement that’s not just a yes or no answer. Don’t ask: ‘Does this work for you?’ Try to make it an open-ended question like, ‘How do you feel about us talking on Monday?’ and include a calendar invite. Focus on a call to action that encourages the prospect to respond or do something actionable.”

6. Send the email at the right time

   Timing is everything when it comes to sales emails, according to Gupta.

   “Look for key moments like when the company gets funding, if it acquires another company, if there are leadership changes, if it launches a new product, or if the person you’re emailing gets promoted,” she says.

7. Add value with a follow-up email

   There’s a good chance you won’t get a reply at first, and that’s OK. Persistence pays off: Ambition.com was able to boost its cold email response ratefrom 1 percent to 12.6 percentby sending follow-up emails.

   Even if you do get a response, follow-ups are essential to continuing the conversation. But remember that each sales email should display the same level of personalization—nothing kills a connection faster than a one-size-fits-all message.

   Instead, try to add value with everyfollow-up emailyou send, especially if you’re trying to get someone’s attention. If a contact goes quiet, don’t pester them with “just checking in” emails. Send them something that might interest them, whether it’s a helpful article, a recent industry study, or some other resource.

   Keeping these best practices in mind, let’sanalyze some sales emailsand why they work.

6 winning examples of sales emails done right

Sales email example #1: An experiment with 1,000 cold emails reveals short subject lines win

The two subject lines they tested were “Quick Question” (51-percent open rate) and “15 Second Question for Research on Annoying Emails”(48-percent open rate). Although the open rate was nearly the same for both emails, the “Quick Question” subject line had double the response rate, accounting for 66.7 percent of all replies.

Sales email example #2: Pique a reader’s interest with an intriguing question

The sender uses the subject line “How do you pay [name of employee]?” and asks about a remote hire who’s based in a country different from the email recipient’s company. The seemingly odd question then sets up a discussion about the potential challenges associated with international workers (compliance issues, money transfers, and so on). Finally, the sender reveals that their company can provide a solution to those pain points.

Sales email example #3: A personalized intro doubles reply rate

Thanks to the newsales email template, Directive’s reply rate increased from 8 percent to 16 percent.

Sales email example #4: LeadFuze’s cold email formula grows revenue

People are busy. Many don’t have the time or the attention span to read lengthy emails that beat around the bush. If your message is too long-winded, readers may bail before they even reach your CTA.

According to LeadFuze’s founder, Justin McGill, the best sales emails employ the “QVC Formula” to keep the copy concise. Ask a question (Q), present your value proposition (V), and then include a clear call to action (C).

Take a look at one of LeadFuze’s sales email examples to see how the three-step process plays out:

Notice how the email draws the reader’s attention without drowning them in text. The entire message can be read in less than 30 seconds.

LeadFuze’s cold email approach has paid off: In just one year, the company used cold emails to increase company revenue to $30K per month.

Sales email example #5: Jake Jorgovan’s personalized sales emails generate $12K

A good rule of thumb for making any sale? It’s not about you—it’s about the customer. Creative strategist Jake Jorgovan took this lesson to heart and crafted personalized cold emails (rather than sending batches of generic emails). His approach worked, generating roughly $12K total.

The following email landed Jorgovan a$4,250 client:

Sales email example #6: Crazy Eye Marketing’s calls to action increase reply rate

And here are the final results of the campaign:

How do you know if your sales emails are working?

The most effective way to evaluate sales emails is to track them. If you use a CRM to schedule and send each sales email, you should be able to easily gauge the results. For example,Zendesk Sellhelps you monitor when and how often your emails are opened and provides insights into the success of different campaigns.

There are several metrics to keep an eye on and compare.

Write a sales email prospects will respond to

最好的销售电子邮件通常需要时间来磨练。智慧h the aforementioned sales email examples as your inspiration, you can start crafting a compelling message to that fresh lead from marketing. Then, test and refine your messages to discover what works.

If you have a CRM likeZendesk Sell, you cancreate and saveunlimited sales email templates and customize them for specific prospects with ouremail automationtools. You can also use integrations such asMailchimpto test email variations—for instance, different subject lines and CTAs—to see which ones are the most effective.

Our robust solution enables you to easily track and measure the performance of your sales emails so you can learn what makes each message more successful than the last. Sign up fora free trialto see what Zendesk Sell can do for your sales emails.