In today’s episode of the Salesman Podcast, our host Will Barron speaks with Sujan Patel. He is the founder of Mailshake and he’s been on the show a couple of times. Today, we discuss e-mails, cold emails specifically, and how to breathe through the noise. We also touch on what’s going to happen in the future with mail, the lower rates deliverability, and how it’s become very challenging for salespeople like you to fight for your spot in your prospect’s inbox.

Inboxes: Break Through The Noise 

So why are people not opening your emails? Sujan shares that the recent shift to e-commerce of business led to more automated emails ― emails that the buyers actually want to read. Buyers automatically ignore cold emails making it harder for salespeople. Aside from this, spam filters got a whole lot stricter (damn you, Nigerian Prince!). 

So how to break through the noise of someone else’s inbox? Sujan shares add more personalization in order to add value to emails. 

“The big thing here is that I want to do things fast, right? If I’m in sales, I need to email hundreds or 1000s of people to get deals closed, right? It’s a numbers game. At the end of the day. You need to spend the least time to get your job done right.” – Sujan Patel

Importance of Personalization

Cold emails receive a bad rep because people don’t spend the time adding personalization. Sujan encourages salespeople to send out individualized emails. He discusses reader psychology, that people only read the first and second sentences of an email and skim through the content. Moreover, he gives advise on who to write personalized emails.

“Try doing categorical personalization or industry personalization, right? Think about the problem somebody faces and walk in their shoes.” – Sujan Patel

Surpassing Spam Filters

Should salespeople focus on surpassing the spam filter? Sujan begs to disagree and shares that one should focus more on getting to know the person they’re trying to reach. He urges us to look through our prospect list and evaluate how we can add personalization.  

“Do things that can warm up your email addresses, start slow and be cautious of that cadence. That’s why I say add the personalization because just because you have 5,000 people, you can email does not actually mean you can email 5,000 people and frankly doesn’t actually mean you should.” – Sujan Patel

In this episode, Sujan further explains what’s coming in the future of B2B sales cold emails and how to take advantage of the loopholes that exist right now.

Bio: 

Sujan Patel is the managing partner at Ramp Ventures which are the makers of Mailshake, VoilaNorbert.com, RIghtinbox.com, and more sales & marketing SaaS companies. He is a data-driven marketer and entrepreneur.

Resources:

* SujanPatel.com* Sujan on LinkedIn* MailShake.com