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11 Sales Email Templates to Connect With Your Prospects (+ Best Practices)

Writing the perfect prospecting email is the holy grail of outbound sales. Every rep dreams of an email template that works…every…time. Unfortunately, there’s no perfect email—but there are definitely templates that can increase your response rate and connect you with more buyers.

No matter what you decide to write about, good emails all follow the same structure so your outreach is direct, personalized, and focused on your prospect’s goals and pain points. The four cold email components you should always include are:

A catchy subject line

An interesting hook/opening sentence

A compelling value proposition

A clear CTA

There are infinite ways to use these components. To get you started, we’ve put together a list of eleven sales email templates that are guaranteed to increase your email response rate. Plus, some of our top cold emailing best practices.

First things, first: Six best practices for great emails

As you start creating your own custom email templates, follow these best practices to ensure your emails are short and sweet, personalized, offer a clear call to action, and more.

Switch out a hard CTA with a soft CTA:

Your buyers are busy people and receive hundreds of prospecting emails. It’s understandable if they don’t immediately see the value of jumping on a 15 minute phone call based on one email.

Asking for a less formal response means that you’re not putting pressure on them right away and these emails receive more positive replies. It also helps you avoid being marked as spam. Try asking if they’re interested in learning more, without asking for a meeting.

It’s about the prospect, not you or your company

Don’t send prospects a brochure about your business in email form. It will eventually be important for them to know who you are and what your company does, but cold emailing is about solving their problems and helping them reach their goals. Relate your value proposition to the challenges that happen in their industry. It’s not what your company does, it’s what your company does for them.

Keep it short and simple

Wait until later in the sales process to provide details about your product, features, and services. Your initial emails should be easy to scan and direct as well as enough information to pique their curiosity without paragraphs of text.

Start with quality leads

If the email addresses of your leads are inaccurate or out of date, no email will be effective. Start cleaning up your database by using LinkedIn. You can download batches of contacts into a CSV file and sync the file with your CRM to increase the effectiveness of your outbound sales process.

Follow up, repeatedly

Even if your email was interesting, your prospect might not respond right away. Reach out again over email, by replying to your original message, with another value proposition. You might need to do this ten times but following up will improve your response rate.

Personalize

Research your prospects, their roles, and their companies. The better you understand their goals and roadblocks, the more relevant you can make your content. Always address emails to their name and explain why your product is suited to their company.

Email personalization gets results. The average response rate of personalized emails is 17%, big increase from generic emails, which have a 7% response rate.

11 sales email templates that get positive responses

The social selling Play

Social selling is table stakes in 2022. Your prospect’s are giving away information about their needs and goals on social media. Acknowledge what they have to say in your prospecting emails. Start with Twitter and LinkedIn, they’re the most popular platforms for professionals.

Engage by commenting, liking and sharing your prospect’s posts – they’ll remember the people that reached out about their content.

Take things a step further with this social selling email template. By interacting across social media and email, this message will be a little warmer than a regular cold email.

Subject: I follow your tweets

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

I follow you on Twitter and always find your content to be really helpful. In fact, the blog post you shared recently on [subject] helped me [result].

My company helps customers with [value proposition]. I’d love to talk with you about how I can help [prospect’s company] improve [workflow or results].

Are you interested in having a quick chat?

Regards,

[Your name]

P.S. I love your sales memes too

The “congrats on your announcement” play

Sending an email that shows you did your research is a great way to cut through the generic spam that fills up inboxes everyday. Acknowledging big achievements, especially personal ones, sets the groundwork for further relationship building.

Use this template to congratulate your prospect on their company’s recent industry award, a new round of funding, or big announcements. Or speak directly to the prospect and celebrate their recent promotion or their new role at a new company.

Subject: Congrats on the new role!

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

Congratulations on your new role as [job title] at [their company name]! I read the announcement on [their company] website and I’m looking forward to seeing how you help your team achieve [goal that your prospect was hired for].

I work with companies in [their industry] to make this process more efficient and to see results faster. Are you free for a chat to learn more?

Regards,

[Your Name]

The referral play

Sellers benefit from connecting the dots in their network because people trust people they know. By connecting your name with someone this person knows and respects in their industry, you establish a level of social proof.

Don’t use someone’s name without their permission though, otherwise it may backfire. It’s helpful to regularly talk to your existing customers and keep your conversations fresh. Call customers regularly, offer to meet your contacts for lunch, and make sure to say hello at industry events to build good will.

Subject: [mutual connection’s name] and [prospect company]

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

I spoke with [mutual connection’s name] at our annual conference last week and she mentioned how her role as [connection’s job title] is to improve [result]. I’ll be meeting with her again soon to brainstorm.

She thought that you might want to learn more as well since you’re in a similar role. [Your company] helps businesses [value proposition] in just a few months.

Are you open for a short call later this week?

Best,

[Your name]

The interest-based CTA play

According to research by Gong, asking for a prospect’s “interest” in a cold email is a higher performing CTA than asking for a meeting. Instead of requesting some of their limited time, ask for their curiosity – which isn’t a limited resource.

Try out Gong’s interest-based CTA email template. Your goal is to sell the conversation, not the product. After your first conversation, this CTA is no longer as effective and it’s better to ask your prospect for specific things like a call, meeting, or demo.

Subject: Losing winnable deals

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

Is [pain point] stopping your team from reaching your goals?

Imagine being able to [top use case] to improve [positive outcome].

As I research [prospect’s company], I see  one big way where [prospect’s company] can

boost your team’s performance:

[workflow] so you can [benefit].

Does it make sense to discuss [positive outcome] for your team?

Best Regards,

[Your name]

The helpful content play

Most sellers are asking for something when they email a prospect. Flip the script and offer something of value to your prospect. By linking to or attaching content that is relevant to their needs, you show them that you’re invested in helping them reach their goals.

Your company’s case studies can be helpful but industry publications are more compelling. Send them the latest Forrester or Gartner research. You can also send them a timely and related news article.

Subject: New Gartner report on [business objective]

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

While researching [prospect’s industry or role] I learned that [pain point] is a major challenge for companies like yours. Do you find that to be true?

If so, I thought this [piece of content] could be useful for you. It dives into how [industry leading companies] are able to overcome this challenge with [value proposition].

Would you be interested in talking about this article over the next week?

Kind regards,

[Your name]

The “I read your content” play

Your prospects are talking about their goals, challenges, and expertise all the time. Visit their company blog, LinkedIn page, and Twitter feed to see what they’re talking about. Even better, follow your prospect’s social media.

If they posted on LinkedIn about their strategy to improve certain elements of the sales process, like and comment on their post. Then, reference that article in your email as well as how your company can help.

Subject: Great LinkedIn article

Hey [Prospect’s first name],

I loved your article that you posted on LinkedIn about [subject]. The way you simplified such a complex process was helpful for me when I work on [subject] here at [your company name].

We just [hosted a webinar, organized a meetup, released an ebook] on how we help our customers solve [relevant challenge] you might be experiencing.

Can I set up a quick chat over coffee with you this week?

Thanks,

[Your name]

The “offering feedback” play

This email template shows your personal expertise in your subject matter. Make sure that you’re offering feedback that will be well received – in other words, don’t call their baby ugly. Your feedback should help them improve while also offering praise about what they do well.

If your company helps improve SEO, let them know how they rank compared to their competitors. If your product helps businesses personalize emails, sign up for their next webinar and review their email templates..

Check out this sales template from Autoklose:

Subject: Your website is awesome but…

Hey [Prospect’s first name],

I stumbled across [website name] the other day, and I must say that it looks really great. It’s visually appealing and full of interesting and educational content (like those case studies).

However, I only found your website by accident.

This can seriously damage the growth of your business. In other words, you need a sound search engine strategy that will put your website among the top search results and bring it closer to your prospects.

Here’s the[ link] to my calendar, let’s have a quick discussion.

Best,

[Your Name]

The value selling play

Value Selling is an entire sales methodology where sales reps take a consultative approach and provide value to the customer. This helps prospects make their decision based on the future value that your product can provide. Get straight to the point about the results of buying your product. Make sure that you’re using verifiable data to prove your point.

Here’s an value selling email template from Cirrus Insights:

Subject line: 10x [company]’s [result] in ten minutes?

Hello [Prospect’s first name],

I have an idea that I can explain in 10 minutes that can get [prospect company] it’s next [quantity of new customers, leads, revenue, etc].

I recently used this idea to help our client, [competitor], almost triple their [result].

Let’s schedule a 10 minute call so I can explain. When works best for you?

Cheers,

[Your name]

The shared interest play

This is a flexible email strategy. Shared interests could be related to your personal similarities with the prospect or how your companies are working towards similar goals. Take a look at your prospects’ social media history to see if you have a shared interest in sports, hobbies, or talk about the same business objectives.

Your companies can also have things in common. If your organization helps sales teams with real time coaching software, and your prospect’s company sells sales methodology training, you probably have things in common without being competitors.

Company similarities

Subject: We have the same goals

Hey [Prospect’s first name],

The more I read about your company, the more I see that we are both working towards [goal or result]. It looks like we both partner with some of the same companies like [list of shared customers or partners].

Some of these customers have improved [result] by 2X after working with [your company name]. I’d like to tell you more about this over a call and arrange a meeting soon.

When is a good time for you?

Best Regards,

[name]

Personal similarities (bonus email template!)

Subject: SF Giants fans

Hey [Prospect’s first name],

I follow you on Twitter and always enjoy your commentary about baseball, and especially the Giants. My family has season passes so I’m usually at every home game.

[Your company name], gives sales reps more “at bats” by improving the quality of their [process]. Would love to tell you more over a coffee.

Are you available to meet up early next week?

Hope to see you at the next game!

[Your name]

The feature and benefits play

Sometimes the simplest approach is the most effective. Include a handful of valuable product features and connect them to why they’ll benefit your prospect.

Subject: [prospect company] x [your company]

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

[Your company] helps our customers with [value proposition].

Our product’s [feature] lets you [explain value proposition] at scale. [Feature] also helps our customers save time and ensure [result] across the team.

Are you free for a call tomorrow morning so I can explain more?

Thanks,

[your name]

The “point me in the right direction” play

Asking a prospect to connect you with the person that’s in charge of an initiative at their company lets you show value to your prospect without using up their time. This strategy works well when emailing VPs or Directors at larger companies, or CEOs and founders at smaller companies.

Subject: Appropriate person for [subject]?

Hi [Prospect’s first name],

I have a service that helps companies with [value proposition] and saves them money while doing it.

Can you point me towards the right person that’s running this initiative in your [relevant department] team and let me know how best to get in touch with them?

Looking forward to hearing back.

Cheers,

[your name]

Improve your cold emails

Creating effective email templates takes some trial and error. You might need to tweak the emails above to fit your needs, but the framework will help you on your path to success.

Learn more about how to write effective subject lines, plus a freebie list of 20 subject lines, on the Wiza blog.