The One Sentence Sales Email: How did it do?
Recently I took a look at why I liked the idea of the one sentence sales email. There was only one thing left to do: give it a try!
The Email
Looking back, this should have been an open-ended question. Hand up on that one.
The Controls
- I took a list of 2000 contacts I had tried to reach several times in the past and gave it one last touch
- The contacts I selected were all senior level (focusing on the theory that when approaching the C suite that shorter = better)
- I conducted my outreach as close to lunch as I could, as I’ve found that’s typically when I see the best engagement rates
The Results
I received 34 responses in 2000 emails. 30 of those were unsubscribes. According to the stats, the average response rate to a sales email is 1.7%, while the industry average unsubscribe rate is 6%. This experiment bore a 1.7% response rate, with a 1.5% unsubscribe rate.
As with anything in the art of sales, results were mixed.
Some people were really cool:
While other people weren’t about it:
Conclusion
Like anything else in sales, there is no silver bullet. I’ll be sure to report back if I ever find one though!
However, response rates that were exactly the same as the industry average is a net win as it hardly takes any time to drum up. I also consider it a positive as the unsubscribe rate is only a quarter of the typical rate, showing that it doesn’t irritate people the way that long, droning sales emails do.
All in all, this made for a fun afternoon. Have any other ideas for sales/marketing experiments? Drop me a line at Mattj@explorics.com