Proven 4-Step Cold Email Framework (Any Industry) | Selling Made Simple

Let’s face it—most cold emails suck. Cheesy openers, misleading subject lines, body copy that drawls on and on. It’s no wonder why the response rate for them is often less than 2%. But the most frustrating thing about it is cold emails don’t HAVE to suck! Because there’s a simple, 4-step structure you can follow to make any email stand out in any industry for any customer… Today we’re hitting on a subject that should be near and dear to any sales professional, cold email. We’ll be covering one of my favorite Selling Made Simple Academy processes, The Strategic Cold Email Framework. It’s made up of just 4 short steps: * Get Attention * Demonstrate the Need * Earn Their Trust * Call to Action Now, I love this framework because it’s just so versatile. You can apply it to any industry, from textiles and candy bars to professional services, luxury goods, and enterprise-level software. And like I said, it comes directly from the Selling Made Simple Academy. We won’t be able to cover it as in-depth here, of course. But it’ll be a great overview so you can at least get some actionable strategies you can start using today. And at the end, we’ll put it all together and share a template you can start using today. 1) Get Attention In the increasingly busy and crowded world of email, if you can’t stand out from the rest right off the bat, your cold email is going straight to the trash. Buyers won’t even bother opening them. So, which subject lines get opened rather than sent to junk? A. Direct Subject Lines Direct subject lines like “The world’s fastest CRM tool – 20% off today” B. News Subject Lines News subject lines like “Law [X] has moved on. Has your insurance followed?” C. How-to Subject Lines How-to subject lines like “How to reduce your advertising spend in 14 days” D. Question Subject Lines And question subject lines like “Is [X] costing you more to operate than it should?” 2) Demonstrate the Need Once you’ve got their attention, it’s time to demonstrate the need. What can you offer? And why should they devote their time to listening to you? One of the best ways to do this is by using the reality gap method. This method involves three steps. A. Current Reality Outline their current reality, typically by highlighting a problem they’re dealing with today. Next… B. Desired Future Reality Show their desired future reality once that problem is solved. And last… C. Reality Bridge Build the reality bridge by providing the steps they need to take to get them from where they are now to where they could be—i.e., use the solution YOU are offering. Here’s what that might look like in practice:   Hi [NAME],  I recently worked with [NAME], he is in the [INDUSTRY] like you.  Traditional salespeople had failed [NAME]. Here is his story – [LINK TO INSIGHT POST] He went from zero motivation, to proactively racing to get to his desk each morning to prospect.  All by implementing proven frameworks to relieve the pressure of choice from his job. Does it make sense to jump on a quick call to see if you can use these frameworks too?  Cheers, Will   3) Earn Their Trust Earning the buyer’s trust. Social proof is the name of the game here. What kinds of success stories have you had with past clients? What amazing ROI did you achieve that lines up with what you can offer this prospect? Try to include social proof directly in the body copy. For instance, when building out a reality gap, use quantitative results from people in similar companies, preferably ones the prospect will recognize. But if you really want to see your open and clickthrough rates explode, use a referral. A referral is without a doubt the most effective piece of social proo...