Sales From The Street-“Cold Emails & Curiosity" | Donald C. Kelly - 2028

Less than ten percent. That's how many highly targeted emails actually get opened. In this archive episode, pulled from an old Sales From the Street segment, I'm breaking down exactly what I look for in a cold email before I'll even open it, let alone reply. If email opens are a struggle for you right now, this one still holds up.

Why Most Cold Emails Never Get Opened

People are buried in email. I was already at 67 messages by mid-morning when I recorded this, and I expected to hit 100 by the end of the day. Executives at bigger companies get even more.Less than ten percent of even a highly targeted email actually gets opened.If you want to land in that ten percent, everything starts with standing out immediately, not with writing a longer pitch.

Your Subject Line Has to Earn the Open

The subject line is the first thing anyone sees, so it has to catch attention completely on its own.A common mistake, according to MailChimp, is a subject line that doesn't actually reflect what's in the email. Whatever you promise in the subject line has to match the message inside.The subject line also needs to spark curiosity instead of pitching outright. It should raise a question in the reader's mind that makes them want to open it.

Personalize the Subject Line With Real Research

I referenced an example from Sales Hacker where a rep researched a prospect's Twitter, found out he was a Manchester United fan, and wrote the subject line, "Why a Man U fan is the best fit for sales enablement?"That kind of specific, researched detail makes a prospect stop and think the email is actually about them, not a mass blast.The goal is to find something real about the person, then build a question around it that gets them thinking before they've even opened the email.

Your Opening Line Has to Deliver on the Subject Line's Promise

Once someone opens the email because of the subject line, the first sentence has to immediately pay that off.In the Manchester United example, the email opened by comparing Manchester United fans to sales enablement leaders, tying the personal hook directly into the pitch.Whatever personal detail earned the open needs to connect naturally to the product or service being pitched, right from the start.

Write Your Email Like the Letter F

I picked this up from The Sales Development Playbook: structure the email so it looks like the letter F. A longer first line, a shorter second line, and lines that keep tapering down after that.Long emails are one of my biggest pet peeves, especially when people pitch me to be a podcast guest. I'm upfront about it: I won't read a long email, and it's likely to get deleted or ignored.Keeping an email close to the length of a text message makes it far more likely the prospect actually replies.

Keep the Call to Action Simple and Direct