You obviously know how to get corporate clients for your business using emails begins with an effective opening sentence or two. But how often have you wasted the first line of your sales prospecting email with, “Hello, my name is…”? At this point, the prospect does not care who you are. They get dozens of emails just like yours every single day. Why should they keep reading? Jeff Hoffman, writing for HubSpot, offers a few methods to hook prospects into reading the rest of your sales prospecting email message using just a sentence or two.

How to Get Corporate Clients for Your Business Using Sales Prospecting Emails

“This will take three minutes”

What is the main reason prospects don’t finish prospecting emails? They’re worried about wasting too much time on a message that may not be worth it by the time they finish the whole thing. By starting off your sales prospecting email with a promise of how long the message will take to read, you are communicating a number of things. One, that you respect their limited amount of time. Two, that you have obviously taken the time to trim this message down so that only the important parts remain. And three, you are telling things to them straight. As long as your message does in fact take three minutes to complete, you have already begun laying a foundation of credibility.

“Our companies have spoken before, but I have never reached out. I am trying to decipher the notes from the previous account manager who spoke with you.”

By beginning your sales prospecting email with this, you are establishing who you are and that your company is credible enough to have gained a business interaction with the prospect before. But you are also differentiating yourself from the past experience. Obviously something did not go according to plan or this prospect would already be a client. So, you are implying you would like to figure out what misstep your predecessor took and if you can change something to establish a business partnership. Include previous credibility and the promise of something new, all in the first two sentences of your sales prospecting email. When you are wondering how to get corporate clients for your business, remember that a great tactic is to offer something new. Even if (and especially when) you work for a company that has attempted to do business with this particular prospect before.

“We haven’t met before.”

Prospecting emails are naturally friendly and showcase the knowledge you have on a company. A problem this can cause, though, is distracting the prospect from being impressed with how much information you have gathered on your own. Instead, you are having them glaze over your sales prospecting email while attempting to figure out where they would know you from. Confusion is never a good sign in sales. Especially if it leads to anger or distrust later on when they realize they don’t know you, even though you were acting like they did. Avoid this by stating your case immediately.

For more tips on writing engaging introductory emails, click here.