How 17 SDRs Booked 260 Meetings Last Month [A Cold Email Checklist]

260 meetings. 17 SDRs. In a down economy. 

Boom. 💥

But we’re not here to gloat. We’re here to help you replicate these results for yourself!

Let’s get into it.

Here's our cold email checklist for booking more sales meetings:

Keep the subject line short (1-3 words, lowercase)

Your subject line is about sparking curiosity. What can you say to get your prospects to open the email?

Here are some examples of subject lines that have worked for us: 

• - {{account_name_or_company}}'s demo form
• - More meetings for (SDR names)
• - {{company}}'s Calendly form

Add an image

Almost all of our emails include a personalized image. Here's a cold email example of how we include a screenshot of their demo request form and share personalized insights about how this form could be affecting their pipeline.

Pay attention to the first line

If you can, personalize the first line of the email because the line is visible from the preview. Try to tie this personalization together with the rest of the email. 

Here’s a cold email example of how Mia, one of our Enterprise SDRs, blew away the CMO of LastPass with their personal (and hilarious) email.

Check out the full post here

Match the right need to the right person

Make sure your email is tailored to your persona’s specific pain points. Sales leaders are different from marketing leaders are different from customer success leaders, etc. Understand how they’re different and adjust your emails accordingly.

ChatGPT is still not great at writing emails, because they don’t come off as human. But it can help with understanding your persona’s specific needs and and pain points.

Here's an example of a cold email where ChatGPT was very helpful with prospecting. 🙂

Speak their language 

Emails written in our prospects’ language have a 7x open rate compared to their English counterparts. If you’re multilingual, use that to your advantage. 

Offer “a better way”

Don’t make your prospect feel bad about what they are currently doing, but make them curious about what’s possible. Feel free to steal our pitch (see cold email example below)

“I'm sure your current process is good but I have some ideas on how to improve your inbound process and double your inbound conversion. Let me know and I'd be happy to shoot them over.”

We are only asking them to say” yes” to hearing more, but if they say yes there we have gauged some interest and can put even more effort into personalization + follow-ups for this specific lead.

This is an example of a cold email that doesn't hate on our customers — it just offers them a better way:

Don’t ask for time

Instead, try to get a reply. Offer to send ideas on where your prospect could improve.

Delete the  “I’s, we’s, and our’s”

There should always be more you’s than I’s. 

• Instead of “I was on your website and noticed” try “Your website has an awesome demo page — but here’s an idea to make it even better.” 
• Instead of “I made this video for you” try “This video is for you”
• Instead of “I’d love to connect you with an AE” try “Let’s connect you with an AE.”

KISS 😘 

Keep it simple, stupid. Delete all the words you had to Google to understand. 

Write the way you speak

Could you imagine texting your friend your pitch? If not, try again.

Don’t be boring

Tell jokes. Make funny references. Add in some gifs. Have fun with it! (But if you’re not funny, don’t try to force it. Some people just aren’t funny and that’s okay).

Use lots of short paragraphs

Don’t send a big block of text. Each paragraph should be just 1-2 sentences long.

Aim for 50-100 words (cap it at 150)

It should only take a few seconds to read your email.

Only one question per email

Make it easy for your prospect to respond. 

Go forth and book meetings

That’s all I’ve got for you! Good luck! 🧡