The Sales Email Template with Nearly 100% Response Rate

by Jason -- April 18, 2013

writing-an-email

The past year I’ve been working for This Week In and LAUNCH. My job has primarily been comprised of sales and business development. It’s my first sales job and has been a huge learning experience from prospecting, to finding almost anyone’s email address, learning empathy, and most importantly, how to write a good email. While I still have a long way to go on the email front, I wanted to share my favorite email template.

This email has gotten such a high response rate that I debated just keeping it to myself. Many people have literally not responded in months to me and then they get this email and are so impressed by it that they’ve not only responded, but have complimented me on the email.

When Do I Send This Email?

The scenario I typically send this note is to someone who has “gone cold”, meaning we’ve exchanged emails in the past or have had a phone conversation and they’ve inexplicably stopped responding to me. I’ll typically send 2 to 3 emails (and sometimes up to 5) before I go with this email.

When a prospect has gone cold it’s easy to assume that they’re no longer interested, however I’ve found this is almost always not the case. Instead they’re focused on something else and are just too busy to respond.

The other reason I send this email is if a deadline is approaching. Many of the things I sell for are events, so there’s a deadline that people have to choose whether they’re in or out.

The Email

Subject: ☛ Should I stay or should I go? (I include a symbol in the subject line)

Body:

Hi FIRSTNAME,

I know you’re busy. Just give me a 1, 2, or 3 —

We’ll pass on partnering with EVENT NAME this year, thanks for the offer!
We’re interested in the Event, but it’s not a good time, reach back out to me in 1 month.
I’m interested — let’s talk!

Thanks!

Jason

=================

Some of the responses I’ve received recently:

Awesome email Jason. Unfortunately time is forcing me to choose 2.
Jason I’m interested lets talk. Call me this afternoon at 3.
You are brilliant - 2 - will know next week
So sorry for being MIA, we’ve got our biggest launch so far next week and my inbox got de-prioritized.

Simple and extremely effective.

Thoughts on the email? Have an amazingly effective email template you’d like to share? Leave a comment below!

Be awesome and help us share:

Filed under: Post-Trip | Sales

6 Responses to “The Sales Email Template with Nearly 100% Response Rate”

bcurdy, on April 21st, 2013 at 12:43 pm Said:

I’m just starting in sales in a new company, after years mostly coding and product development. It’s very challenging but I love it. I’m definitely going to use your template

Also listening to all the This Week In Sales shows, which I find really cool 3 episodes in.

Thanks for sharing!
Jason, on April 21st, 2013 at 9:01 pm Said:

Thanks for the comment Ben! You reminded me that I need to give a H/T to This Week in Sales for this template actually. Heard it originally talked about on the show!

Thanks — hope all is well dude!
Missing Links #1 | Missing Links, on April 25th, 2013 at 8:10 pm Said:

[…] The Sales Email Template with nearly 100% Response Rate […]
Kevin, on July 12th, 2013 at 3:50 pm Said:

Hi, Jason ~ Curious if you wouldn’t mind sharing the high response rate’s success %?
Jason, on July 14th, 2013 at 9:02 am Said:

Hi Kevin — Thanks for the comment! I don’t actually track the %, but I would estimate somewhere around 75%. I used to use it more selectively, but since I’ve had good success with it, I use it more often now.

Thanks!
Barbara, on January 23rd, 2014 at 6:39 am Said:

That’s an awesome email for sure and the response rate proves it! Thanks so much for sharing, we will certainly be trying it out in the future!