When your prospects find 100 new email messages waiting for them on Monday morning, if your emails give no value, your prospects will never open them. If there's nothing in the subject line or the first sentence of the message to grab their attention, your prospects will probably never even open the message. Sellers must give thought to what their first sentence is saying to uncover how their emails are performing. Preview Consider your own email inbox. You're busy. You don't have time to read every single email that arrives in your inbox. If you've got 100 new messages waiting, you're not going to read them all. You'll travel the path of least resistance by eliminating as many as possible. Email content The subject line is crucial, so your goal is to minimize it as much as possible. Get to the point quickly with as few words as possible. Make sure the first sentence of your email relates to the subject line and make sure it has nothing to do with you. Avoid statements like "I have something I want to share with you," or "My company helps clients who..." Avoid including sentences that, when you think about them, simply aren't helpful. "I hope this message finds you doing well." "I hope your quarter is going great." These are both fillers and they won't compel anyone to open the email. If you're using the same content and the same statements as other sellers, your emails give no value, and no one will open them. Truth One of the worst mistakes you can make is using a subject line that has nothing to do with the email content itself. If you bait your reader in with one idea and then switch ideas within the email, you'll probably get black-listed. At best, you'll get sent to the spam folder so you're toast forever. Do something totally different. Personalize your message and don't include a huge pitch in your first email. Think about it from your buyer's standpoint. He has countless sellers reaching out to sell him something, and many of them are sharing similar messages. What if your first sentence offered something to help him? Consider this example from Todd. He got an email from a seller who recognized that he was a CEO who had to create and give presentations. The seller provided a PowerPoint template he could use to present metrics and then another template he could use to create a sales handbook. The sender gave no information about himself or his company. The only reference was information in the signature block that Todd could access if he was interested. Value Buyers aren't stupid. If you send a helpful, beneficial email, I'll like go to your site. Even if I don't need your product right now, I'll know where to go in the future. Give something of value. Provide some education. Think of it from the buyer's standpoint. Give him something that will help him be more effective and efficient in his role. When you give value, provide something that will address a problem that your ideal customer struggles with. It doesn't even have to be something you're an expert in, and in fact, that sometimes makes it more genuine. Imagine I sell HR software to HR directors. If you send a document titled 5 Things HR Directors Should Consider When Selecting A Software, he'll smell the bias from 10 miles away. If I provide something beneficial that isn't in my wheelhouse, they'll recognize that I'm not trying to sell something. The goal is to build interaction by getting him to respond and open a dialog. Dialog If the thing you're sharing will benefit him even if he doesn't buy your product, go ahead and share that with your prospect. Just don't make it gimmicky. Give something that has value and then connect other places like on LinkedIn or over the phone. Many of us are stuck in the mindset that a single email will open the door to a deal. Focus on the content you're sharing. Focus on the type of content and how it applies to him as an individual. Then focus on how you can make his life easier. Create emails that prospects will want to open