Quite often our objective when sending cold emails is to get our recipients on a call. A meeting helps create a more meaningful connection between ourselves and our prospects. It’s also an opportunity to dive deeper into our prospect’s pains and tailor our pitch accordingly. But asking someone who doesn’t know you or much about your solution to take time from their day to speak to you is far from trivial.
While there is no magic formula that will get your prospect to agree to a meeting, there are some best practices when doing so that will surely increase your success rate:
Let’s start with the basic structure of your email:
- Keep it short → your recipient has extremely limited time, especially for people she doesn’t know, so you have to assume she will only dedicate a few seconds to reading your message. Make it short and make it count.
- Personalize it → add a personal icebreaker at the beginning of the email to show the recipient that you know about them and reached out to them for a reason. This will help you stand out from the crowd.
- Add value → your email should be clear in how you can benefit the recipient in some way. Don’t make it about you. Show the recipient that you understand their pain/challenge and have ideas for addressing it.
Many people ask for a meeting on the first email. While it can work at times, we believe it’s best to use the first email to build trust and to demonstrate value. Rather than ending your email with a request for a meeting, end it instead by offering more value. Ask if they want you to send over X resource or Y example.
In doing so you’re more likely to get a positive response. Once the exchange commences you’ve already created a certain degree of trust. Therefore in addition to the extra value you provide in the second email, you can suggest a quick meeting.
Avoid vagueness!
It’s not as simple as asking for a meeting however. Vague requests are easy to dismiss. Be precise and make it easy for them.
When proposing a meeting make sure to do the following:
- Include the meeting length → whether it’s a 15 min discovery call or a 45 min demo, you should let them know upfront how much time you need from them.
- Specify what the meeting will cover → let them know what you plan to discuss so they can determine if it’s worth their time.
- Make it extremely easy for them to choose a time → offer them two different date options with two different time options for each date. Make it easy for them to see and choose. Alternatively you can send them a calendar link to choose a time themselves. Do not say things like “would sometime next week work for you?”. Offer concrete options and make scheduling easy or they will put it off and it won’t happen.
To recap, you get noticed through personalization, you build trust by offering value and you book the meeting by making it easy to schedule. As is often the case, simply put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. If someone were to reach out to you for a meeting, what would make you say yes?
