Sales Development

Your email staying Unread in someone’s inbox is the equivalent of digital purgatory. Seriously, it's worse than being ghosted by the person you've been texting for weeks. 

At least with ghosting, you can take solace in the fact that they were probably never that interested in you to begin with. 

But being completely ignored and left for dead unread? 

That's just cold.

You've put in the effort, crafted the perfect email, and hit Send only to have it disappear into the digital abyss. 

So, what gives? Is there a best time to send cold emails?

There are a few things that can contribute to your emails being left unread (forever), but one of the most common reasons is timing. 

Sending an email at the wrong time can mean the difference between getting read and getting deleted. 

There's nothing worse than putting all your time and effort into an email campaign only to have it go to waste because you hit Send at the wrong time.

So, when is the best time to send a cold email?

The answer, unfortunately, is that it depends. It depends on your industry, your recipient's location, and a whole host of other factors.

But don't worry, we've got you covered.

We did some digging and compiled a list of the best times to send cold emails for the highest open rate. 

Getting a response to sales prospecting emails was never easy, but since early 2020, the volume of emails people receive has skyrocketed.

Now, prospects are so overwhelmed that it’s impossible for them to read everything that lands in their inbox.

This means you need to change up your email outreach tactics to get a response.

Before, you could blast off a quick product summary and ask for a meeting.

Not anymore.

The mission for sales professionals (whether they choose to accept it or not) is now to connect with prospects as individuals and survive “inbox triage.”

And do it all at scale. With personalization.

With this in mind, we reached out to LinkedIn sales influencers and our own SDRs to find out what makes a great sales prospecting email, and which sales prospecting email templates get results.

Quick poll:

💀 Cold calling is deader than the Dodo.

💪 Cold calling is alive and kicking.

🧟 If cold calling is dead, I need a badge that says “Zombie Team Leader” cause my sales reps are still smiling and dialing like there’s no tomorrow.

Cold calling is, of course, far from dead, but it certainly ain’t getting any easier. Nobody likes being interrupted at the best of times, and today’s prospects are so overwhelmed that all they want is to hang up and get back to their to-do list asap. 

Ask the wrong questions and they’ll shut the conversation down faster than you can say “Can I interest you in a demo?”

Keeping them on the line long enough to share your vision of the bright future that awaits them (and, more importantly, book the next meeting) requires asking open-ended sales prospecting questions to keep the conversation going. And unless you possess the conversational skills of David Letterman, you’ll need to have a few prepared in advance.

We checked out what leading sales influencers are saying about cold calling, and the techniques they use to get prospects to open up

Over 3 billion emails were sent daily last year*. 

That’s a communication tsunami. 

If that stat leaves you feeling overwhelmed, imagine how your prospects feel, drowning in their overflowing inbox each morning as your sales email bobs about among the flotsam of their ever-growing to-do list. 

Standing out from the inbox crowd these days means ramping up your game when it comes to writing sales prospecting email subject lines.

Time was, lines like “Sales inquiry” or “Request for a meeting” might have actually landed you a meeting 😱. Now, anything too salesy will get you cast into the 7th level of inbox hell (the spam folder) faster than you can say “Got 15 minutes to talk this week?” 

At Mixmax, we have to admit to having a slight advantage: We sell to salespeople, so our prospects know where we’re coming from. But that doesn’t mean our hard-working sales reps don’t rack their brains daily to come up with engaging subject lines.  

To give them (and you) a helping hand, we reached out to sales influencers and prepared a lifesaving list of the best cold email subject lines for sales prospecting that should help boost your email open rates.

Question: Would you apply for this job?

Wanted: Highly resilient individual to perform thankless, repetitive tasks. 

Must have:

• The tenacity of a worker ant.
• The drive of a Ferrari.
• Skin of a rhinoceros.
• Overdeveloped chin (to take rejection on).
• Ability to walk through fire and emerge unscathed.

Tempted?

Us either.

Yet that’s what SDRs face daily when prospecting. It takes a special individual to tackle the many sales prospecting challenges involved in tracking down suitable prospects, performing cold outreach, and building pipeline.

And do it all at scale. With a smile on their face.

At Mixmax, we sell to salespeople, so we feel your prospecting pain. We asked our top sellers and reached out to sales influencers to get the tips, tricks, and tools they use to overcome common prospecting challenges.

Come with us if you want to become a quota-crushing productivity beast..