Sales Masterclass 7: Real-world examples of outreach messages to land your first customers
Learn from examples of outbound messaging that actually worked. Featuring Dor Vardi
Watch the Video:
Episode Highlights:
One of the best ways to establish your startup's presence in the market is through outbound sales. Sharing your story with the right audience is the shortest way to get their attention, and can be done on a shoestring budget (or with no budget at all).
After diving into the strategies behind cold outreach in our last master class, we're now bringing you practical examples to craft messages that resonate across all three outreach layers – from warm intros, to shared-interest contacts, and finally completely cold prosepcts (customers, investors, or design partners).
What you’ll learn:
Warm introductions email template
Target prospects outreach template
Cold outreach sequence template
Meet the expert:
Dor Vardi is the Founder & CEO of Samplead - A generative AI sales agent. For has sold products to 400+ companies, generating $1M+ in sales using outbound only.
Real-World Example 1: Warm Intro Request
What’s going on here:
● Zero in on your desired connection: begin your email with the specific name of the person you're seeking an introduction to. Reflect this in both the subject and opening lines of your email to immediately convey your intent.
● Value the referrer's time: start your email with your primary request. Once you've made your ask, you can then provide broader context about your product.
● Lead with a request for insight: instead of initiating a sales-oriented conversation, ask for feedback. This strategy paves the way for a more authentic and insightful dialogue.
● About us: 3-4 lines, which you should be regularly updating based on what’s happening with the company.
● Use social proof: include a compelling piece of evidence that illustrates the value of your product or service. In this scenario, highlighting that "users are seeing a 25x increase in savings" immediately showcases the impact of your offering.
● One-pager: if someone wants to take a deeper look, the one-pager will be there for them without taking too much attention from the email.
A lesson from what failed to resonate:
In a prior iteration of this email, we mentioned, “I’d be happy to share how similar companies to yours have used our product to get more leads.” This sentence led to a decrease in response rates. Reflecting on this, it seems the sales-oriented nature of the statement clashed with our stated intention of looking for feedback, which made it less effective.
Real-World Example 2: High-Relevance Prospect
We use a personalised approach for specific prospects who are too important for generic outreach, building on a shared interest that will make it much more likelier to create a connection. In these tailored emails, the primary goal is to get a response. Securing a reply sets the stage for the next step—potentially arranging a meeting. Each email is designed to progress to the next point of interaction rather than asking for the meeting immediately.
What to notice:
The hook: We’re emailing Jason, an investor and avid LinkedIn user. The perfect moment to reach out emerged when he shared a particular tweet that gave us a relevant opening. This moment served as our "hook", and shows we made the effort to understand his interests and align with his viewpoints.
The "potential" section highlights the opportunity our product addresses: over 85% of 3M SDRs in the UK missed their quotas last year—a pain point our solution can remedy.
The "blurb" succinctly describes our product in 3-4 lines, offering a snapshot of our offer.
The "teaser" then hints at our product's commercial promise, aiming to pique interest and invite further conversation. Afterwards, we reinforce our admiration for Jason, further proving our familiarity with his work and the industry. This not only validates our genuine interest but also establishes our credibility.
The communication ends with an ask: a straightforward, uncomplicated request. This "ask" is designed to be clear and easy for Jason to act upon, encouraging him to take the next step in our interaction without asking for a significant amount of time or commitment.
Real World Example 3: Effective Follow-Up Messages
Follow-up emails should be limited to 4-5 sentences in the following format:
Relate: Begin by mentioning a recent post, article, or achievement related to them. This makes them feel appreciated, shows your active interest in their work, and reinforces the personal connection.
Ask: Clearly express what you're seeking from them. Aim for a request that requires minimal time or effort to fulfil.
Execute: Make responding to your request as easy as possible. For example: suggest a specific date and time for a meeting.
LinkedIn Cold Outreach Examples
Below we show examples of completely-cold outreach via a sequence of LinkedIn messages. You could execute a similar play over email.
Step 1 – LinkedIn connection request
The most effective connection requests are based on some previous mutual engagement - you both are in the same group, speak the same language, or went to the same event. Once the request is accepted you can send them additional messages, which is what’s going to get you to a meeting (with the prospect or their network). Here are some examples:
Event
"Hey David,
I saw your profile and noticed you're really good at sales and also got a nomination for an award by AMY—congrats! I'd like to connect with you.
Thanks,
Gadi"
Specific Technology
"Hey Maxime,
I’m asking around for people who know how to use Outreach.io for sales. Your profile made me think you could help. I’d like to connect.
Cheers,
Dor"
Funding Event
"Hey Juan Pablo,
Congrats on getting funding for EIWA! We like the same things, and I want to connect with you.
Thanks,
Dor"
Webinar
"Hey Meir,
I saw you went to the Poalim Hi-tech webinar on growing a business in the USA. Looks like we both want to grow our businesses abroad. Let’s connect.
Thanks,
Dor"
Step 2 - the ask
After they accept your request, you send a short message (no more than 600 characters). This message should:
Say thanks for connecting.
Ask for their thoughts instead of a meeting to sell something.
Give a quick intro to your company.
Say clearly what you’re asking for.
Outbound marketing strategies will not yield a 100% response rate and might occasionally get you some negative feedback. This is part of life in sales, and you shouldn’t take it personally. Stay resilient and persistent, hone your offer and your approach, and you’ll eventually get the right people on the hook.