5 cold email templates that will generate warm

leads for your sales team!

Posted by Steli Efti on Thu, Feb 13, 2014

In our recent blog post titled "Six simple steps to getting started with cold sales emails", we
discussed the basics of cold emails and offered some simple benchmarks on what results to expect.

Many of you asked us to follow up the piece with some cold email templates. Today, we want to
share five cold email templates that will generate warm leads and get you started on the right foot!

Every company, of course, is different but the below cold email templates and best practices should
be a good starting point for most of you.

First, let's talk about the art and science of

effective cold email subject lines
When it comes to subject lines, follow these guidelines:

 Use their name in the subject line when it makes sense.

 Make the subject line as specific as possible. The more personal the subject line, the higher
the open rate.

 If you wonder if it sounds too much like a "marketing email", then it does sound too much like
a marketing email :)

 Experiment with questions in subject lines.

 Always deliver in your email what you promise in your subject line (if the disconnect is too
big, you're going to get good open rates but bad responses).

Here are 4 cold email subject lines that get open

rates of +35%
1. "[Introduction] [name]" or "[Introduction] [your name/company] <> [their name/company]"
2. "quick request"
 3. "Trying to connect"

4. "[Name of their company]"

There are 2 approaches to cold emails used

today
1. You're emailing someone high up in the organization asking for a referral down to the right
person (akaCold Calling 2.0).
2. You're emailing the decision maker, directly pitching them to sign up/call/meeting/etc.

Let's get started with three cold email templates asking for referrals within the organization.

Cold email: Referral V1

Hi [first name],

My name is [my name] and I head up business development efforts with [my company]. We recently
launched a new platform that [one sentence pitch].

I am taking an educated stab in the dark here, however based on your online profile, you appear to
be an appropriate person to connect with ... or might at least point me in the right direction.

I’d like to speak with someone from [company] who is responsible for [handling something that's
relevant to my product].

If that’s you, are you open to a fifteen minute call on _________ [time and date] to discuss ways the
[company name] platform can specifically help your business? If not you, can you please put me in
touch with the right person?

I appreciate the help!

Best,

Sig

Cold email: Referral V2

Hi [first name],
I hope I'm not bothering you. Could you please refer me to the person in charge of [something that's
relevant to my product]?

Thanks for your time,

Sig

Cold email: Referral V3

Hey [first name],

My name is [my name] and I'm with [my company name]. We work with organizations like [company
name] to [insert one sentence pitch].

[One sentence unique benefit].

Could you direct me to the right person to talk to about this at [company name] so we can explore if
this would be something valuable to incorporate into your events?

Cheers,

Sig

The next referral cold email is a template directly from the team at Predictable Revenue.

Subject: Can you point me in the right direction?

Hey [first name],

I'm sorry to trouble you. Would you be so kind as to tell me who is responsible for [insert your
biggest pain point here that resonates with your ideal customer; OR insert function like “sales” or
“recruiting”] and how I might get in touch with them?

Thank you,

Sig

Let's check out two cold emails that are using approach #2 and pitching the decision maker directly
on the value proposition and next action steps.
Cold email: Selling V1
Hey [first name],

I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because [explain how we got their contact
information and how we relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw your company online, etc.].

[Name of company] has a new platform that will help (your team at) [organization name]. [One
sentence pitch of benefits]. We do this by:

 Benefit/feature 1
 Benefit/feature 2

 Benefit/feature 3 (optional)

Let's explore how [name of your software] can specifically help your business. Are you available for a
quick call [time and date]?

Cheers,

Sig

Cold email: Selling V2

Hey [first name],

I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because [explain how we got their contact
information and how we relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw your company online, etc.].

[Name of company] has a new platform that will help (your team at) [organization name]. [One
sentence pitch of benefits].

I know that [our product] will be able to help [name of your company] [insert high level benefit here].

Are you available for a quick call [time and date]?

Cheers,

Sig
Let us know what you think, and feel free to share your most successful cold email templates in the
comments :)

It's not just about which templates you use, but about how you use
them.

These cold email hacks will help you generate more qualified leads
faster. Just enter your email address below and we'll send them
your way!

Technical Jargons: for business consultant

And then you graduate to the esoteric stuff...

There are some weird and wonderful phrases you’re bound to come across if you embark on a career in management
consulting – such as ‘low­hanging fruit’ for starters. Here are just a few them.
BLUE SKY THINKING Thinking outside of the box – coming up with unexpected ways of doing something.
BOILING THE OCEAN Doing a huge amount of work when you only need to do a tiny fraction of it.
CORE COMPETENCES Things a company is good at.
GRANULARITY Detail.
HTD Happy to Discuss – used at the end of informal memos, e­mails etc to make it clear that although the position 
you have stated may seem unreasonable, you’re not averse to discussing the point.
IMAGINEERING Turning blue sky thinking into reality – ie engineering the outputs of your imagination.
IMPLEMENTATION When consultants stay on a project and actually implement the strategies they have 
recommended.
INTERVIEW ATTIRE Suit and only suit.
LEVERAGE Use/steal – eg ‘We can leverage X’s expertise in this area’.
LOW­HANGING FRUIT Stuff that’s easy to do – eg ‘I’ve picked the low­hanging fruit – can you finish it off?’.
NICHE/BOUTIQUE CONSULTANCIES Specialised consultancies (ie focusing on particular sectors).
ON THE BENCH Not staffed on a billable project.
PLAYING CATCH­UP Joining an existing project and getting up to speed.
RE­INVENTING THE WHEEL Doing something that somebody else has already done on a previous study.
SECTORS Industry sectors (ie fixed telecoms, mobile, media, sports, regulation etc).
SINGING FROM THE SAME HYMN SHEET (MAKING SURE EVERYONE IS) Ensuring everyone is 
stating the same messages to the client or other stakeholders, or that everyone is doing something by the same 
method.
SMART CASUAL No jeans – so, trousers with shirt but no tie.
STRATEGY CONSULTING CEO­level strategic advice to clients (normally shorter projects).
STRAWMAN A first draft of an output, the main value of which is giving people ideas for what the final output 
should look like (ie it’s meant to be savagely criticised).
SWOT ANALYSIS A popular kind of competitor analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
THROW A CURVED BALL Discovering a new element to something you’re trying to do, eg run a project, which 
changes everything you have done thus far, or are currently doing – normally necessitates radical re­think of 
approach.
VISIONING WORKSHOP Establishing the client’s ‘vision’, ie where do they see their business/dept in the future,
how do they see their staff working, and what is their attitude.
TARGETjobs would like to thank Atos Consulting, PwC, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and RSe Consulting 
for their contributions to this article.