Do you know if your prospects are reading your cold emails all the way through, or are they bored after the first few words?

So many cold emails start out with the same lame introductions, with sales reps talking too much about themselves and their company, neglecting the prospects’ needs. Others start by asking prospects to point them to the right person without even bothering to convey their business’ value or ask about the prospect’s problem.

There are so many things wrong with this approach; the main issue is that almost everyone is using this. You don’t want to send a cold email identical to all the other junk cluttering peoples’ inboxes.

Your only goal for the introduction of your cold email is to entice your prospects and keep them reading. If your intros look and sound just like everyone else’s, then your prospects won’t read your pitch, and will never get to your call to action.

So how do you create intros that will get your emails read?

Here are 3 standout introductions to help you start better conversations with your prospects:

Email Introduction #1: Make your prospects think by asking them a question

Do you know why {!Company}’s cold emails get low open and response rates?

Most cold emails turn off prospects before they even get past the first sentence because they fail to connect on a personal level and feel like a long-winded monologue.

This introduction belongs to a cold email that received a 37% response rate. It was so successful because it used an open-ended question to highlight the target buyer’s specific pain point. The more you can remind your prospects about their problems, the more receptive and eager they will be to hear your solution.

Asking a question helps set a personal tone, unlike many standard intros, which often come across as too pushy, narcissistic and impersonal to your prospects.

Email Introduction #2: Create trust and allure by offering something of value

I’d like to share a quick idea with that has helped [clients] gamify their sales team and exceed their revenue goals

If your prospects aren’t responding to your cold emails, then your message is probably focused too heavily on your product/service’s features, and not enough on how it can benefit your prospects.

9% of recipients responded to the email above. Why? Because it’s interesting and offers to add value to the prospect’s life.

You can increase your credibility with prospects later in the email by mentioning other companies you’ve worked with as social proof, along with possible statistics around ROI.

Email Introduction #3: Evoke your prospects’ curiosity with a social engineered question

I’m conducting research on ways to improve employee loyalty and since you’re an expert on management at {!Company}, I’d love to hear your thoughts

Everyone loves to have their ego stroked, and your prospects are no exception. Flattery is a great way to put your prospects at ease and to avoid coming across as too salesy.

Social engineering may seem like an odd approach at first, but a B2B company set at least 3 appointments with this one email alone.

The point of social engineering is not to trick your prospects, but to simply get them on the phone where you can start a deeper conversation about how your business can help improve their lives. Social engineering is not black and white, and requires some creative thinking and extra work to carefully build the appropriate list (like building a list of companies hiring a specific role that are likely to need your services/product). However, when you master it correctly it has an incredible untapped potential that your competitors won’t be able to easily replicate.

Just make sure to not come off as insincere or sneaky! To avoid this, don’t overdo the flattery too much, and also be prepared to flow with this same approach if the prospect agrees to an appointment. Otherwise you will be screwed and lose all credibility!

Our next explains how to create credibility in your cold emails with case study sentences.