Once upon a time, there was a salesperson named Sarah who was struggling to get a response to her cold emails. She had tried everything she could think of, but nothing seemed to work.
One day, Sarah decided to take a different approach. She spent hours researching the specific companies and individuals she was targeting and carefully crafted a personalised email for each of them.
In her emails, Sarah made sure to clearly explain the value that her product or service could bring to the recipient. She also included specific examples of how it had helped other companies in the past, and she ended each email with a clear and specific call to action.
To her surprise, Sarah received a response from every single person she emailed. Some of them even went on to become long-term customers.
Sarah was thrilled with her success and continued to use this approach in her cold emails. Over time, she became one of the top salespeople in her company and was known for consistently generating high response rates.
Here is the email that Sarah wrote…
Just joking! There was no Sarah, no emails, and no responses — just me, face-to-face with the latest AI technology that has recently turned the world upside down.
ChatGPT-3.
Without a doubt, ChatGPT-3 did a great job writing a story for this intro, but when I asked it to write an email to a lead… Well, things took an unexpected turn.
Read on to find out what ChatGPT-3 is and see the seven allegedly perfect sales emails it generated upon my request. Rated and fixed by an actual human because — spoiler alert! — they were kinda bad.
What is ChatGPT-3?
ChatGPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is a type of computer program known as a language model.
It works by using a type of artificial intelligence called deep learning, which involves training a computer on a large dataset and allowing it to identify patterns and make predictions. When you ask ChatGPT-3 a question or give it a prompt, it will generate a response based on what it has learned from the data it was trained on. The more context provided, the more accurate the response will be.
It can be used for a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, writing creative content, and even programming. Essentially, it's a machine that can "read" and "write" like a human.
Email templates generated by ChatGPT-3
Without further ado, here are the email template ChatGPT-3 has generate upon my request...
Email #1: “Write a cold email to a sales lead”
I could’ve found a dozen reports and research papers to prove that most salespeople find cold email copywriting difficult, but… If you have any experience with cold emailing (or sales in general, for all it matters), you already know it.
There are lots of different problems associated with crafting a cold email:
- Limited knowledge of the prospect you’re reaching out to. Unless you spend hours studying their business, learning every little publicly available detail about them, there’s a chance your cold email won’t be really personalised.
- Lack of rapport with the prospect. You don’t know your prospect personally, so you don’t know what kind of communication style they’re most susceptible to.
- Fear of failure. No matter what everyone says, cold emailing remains extremely popular in 2023. So, it’s likely your prospect’s inbox will be flooded with emails from other businesses. If you want to stand out from the crowd and convert, you need to wow the prospect and keep them engaged from the subject line to the CTA.
- The blank page anxiety. With so much already on your plate and so much at stake, it can be difficult to start writing. You need a strong push to get everything going.
So, naturally, the first — ever — thing I asked ChatGPT-3 to do was to “write a cold email to a sales lead”. Here’s what I got in return…
Email subject: Introducing [Your Company]
Dear [Prospect],
I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am the [Your Title] at [Your Company].
I wanted to reach out to introduce our company and see if there might be an opportunity for us to work together. At [Your Company], we specialise in [Your Specialty] and have helped numerous clients in the [Industry Name] industry achieve [Desired Outcome].
I'm confident that we could add value to your business and would love the opportunity to discuss how we can help. Is there a good time for us to schedule a call to learn more about your needs and how we might be able to assist?
Thank you for considering my request, and I look forward to speaking with you.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Needless to say, I was in awe. And a little bit scared, too. Just… Wow?!
However, upon closer examination, I realised that despite being very impressive, the email ChatGPT-3 drafted for me was actually quite average.
Let’s go over the elements that could’ve been improved…
The subject line
It’s there, it’s pretty relevant, but… I doubt it can get the job done. Each to their own, but the chance of me opening an email with a subject line like that is close to zero.
There are two critical things to remember when you’re writing a cold email:
- The email recipient doesn’t know who you are, so unless you work for a worldwide-known brand, your company name alone won’t be enough to entice them to click on the email, let alone read it and take further action.
- You need to incentivise your prospect to open the email by making a lucrative offer. It doesn’t have to be anything tangible like a physical gift or a discount of any kind, you just need to make a promise that would intrigue the email recipient and make them want to learn more.
For your cold email to be effective, you need to bridge the gap between you and your prospect. Depending on their buyer motive, you can do that by offering them a sense of familiarity, luring them in with a freebie, or tapping into their FOMO.
➡️ Learn more about writing subject lines that get emails opened in our article.
The intro paragraph of the email body
The commonly quoted study by Boomerang suggests that the ideal length of a cold email is between 50 and 100 words. When it comes to cold emails, brevity is key.
Not only is “I hope this email finds you well” a sales email copywriting cliche, but it also takes up too much space. If you’re not saying anything personal in the first line of your email, it’s better to say nothing at all.
The same goes for “My name is [Your Name], and I am the [Your Title] at [Your Company].” Your name is already in the “From” line; your title and the name of the company you represent are in the signature.
Get straight to the point.
The social proof
Or more like… Lack thereof. While ChatGPT-3 did suggest bringing up the fact that our company helped “numerous clients in the [Industry Name] industry achieve [Desired Outcome]”, it’s too vague.
Share real success stories of real clients — nothing speaks louder than stats.
➡️ Find out more about different types of social proof and how to generate it to strengthen your sales pitches in our articles.
The tone of the email
Although Grammarly’s tone detector labels this email copy as “informative”, I can’t help but think that this ChatGPT-3 email draft sounds uncertain. Because every time someone tells me they “know exactly what I need”, they end up not actually having a viable solution.
Booking a call is a huge commitment; your prospect isn’t likely to do it unless they’re confident you have something that is of value to them.
So, instead of ending your email with a cryptic “I'm confident that we could add value to your business and would love the opportunity to discuss how we can help”, give them a sneak peek of the solutions you can provide. Show that you understand your prospect’s pain points by matching your product’s features to their goals.
Email #2: “Write a cold email to a sales lead” v.2.0
After deconstructing the first email ChatGPT-3 wrote for me, the tool started feeling a bit less like magic. Maybe it isn’t almighty after all.
But I wasn’t going to give up. The LinkedIn crowd promised the tool would reveal the formula of a perfect cold email, and I was on a quest to get it.
So, I refreshed the page and gave it a second shot…
Subject line: Introducing [Your Company]
Hi [Prospect's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am reaching out to you on behalf of [Your Company].
I came across your company while doing some research, and I believe that our products/services could potentially benefit your business. I would love the opportunity to speak with you about how we can help you achieve your goals.
Would it be possible for us to schedule a call at your convenience to discuss this further? I would be happy to provide you with more information about our company and how we can work together.
I look forward to speaking with you.
Best,
[Your Name]
If you have already had a chance to try out ChatGPT-3, you know that it “types” its answers in real time. Typically, it takes a few seconds for the response to load, and you can watch letters appear on the screen, forming into words and sentences one by one.
This exact peculiarity sent me into a major panic episode. The “I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name]” looked eerily familiar. For a moment, I thought I was going to get the exact same result, but, fortunately, ChatGPT-3 didn’t disappoint.
Not only was this cold email copy different from the previous one, but it was also slightly better! While it did repeat the same mistakes as email #1, it also made some refinements.
Emails #3&4: “Write a creative cold email to a sales lead and the subsequent follow-up”
Writing one cold email is (relatively) easy, but people rarely ever succeed after just one. It’s all about being persistent and consistent. You need follow-ups to win deals.
In fact…
80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal.
🗣️ Brevet
I decided to see if ChatGPT-3 would be helpful for writing sequences of cold emails. So, I asked it to create a “cold email to a sales lead and the subsequent follow-up”. But this time, with a slightly more creative twist.
Here’s what I got…
Hi [Prospect's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I just came across your company, [Company Name], and I was blown away by the innovative products/services that you offer.
As a fellow [industry] professional, I know firsthand the challenges that businesses in our field face on a daily basis. That's why I was especially impressed by the creative solutions that [Company Name] provides.
I would love to connect with you and learn more about your business. I believe that together, we can explore opportunities for collaboration and growth.
Would you be available for a virtual coffee chat in the next few weeks? I would love to hear more about your journey and see how we can work together to achieve our goals.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
And the follow-up…
Hi [Prospect's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to follow up on the email I sent a few days ago about potentially connecting for a virtual coffee chat.
I'm still very interested in learning more about your business and exploring opportunities for collaboration. I believe that we can bring value to each other and achieve great things together.
Would you be available for a virtual coffee chat in the next few days? If not, no problem - just let me know a convenient time for you and I'll make sure to schedule it.
I look forward to connecting with you soon.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
First off, kudos to ChatGPT-3 for the “virtual coffee chat” phrase — I’m definitely going to steal this for my business communication. But other than that, there’s not much creativity in the copy.
Besides, ChatGPT-3 decided to leave me subject line-less — ouch! If I’m asking a machine to write me a “creative cold email”, I definitely need that subject line ready to use.
Now, onto the other problems…
“I was blown away by the innovative products/services that you offer”
In our guide to getting a prospect’s attention in a cold email, we talk about the importance of personalising your cold email and building rapport with the prospect right away. Both these goals can be achieved through the strategic use of flattery.
You study your prospect, outline their strengths, and celebrate them — easy-peasy lemon squeezy.
But here’s the thing: for your flattery to work as intended, you need to be super specific about the things you like. A generic “your products are amazing” is cheesy and can actually annoy your prospect. It’s easy to spot meaningless coaxing.
“I would love to connect with you and learn more about your business”
Any other time, I’d vouch for this phrase — it’s great for showing a genuine interest in the prospect’s business and identifying the ways your product or service can help them grow.
But in this specific scenario… Something just doesn’t add up. When you compliment someone on their “revolutionary product”, their “outstanding workflows”, and “stellar service”, you imply you’re already familiar with the business and don’t need a meeting to learn more about them.
The contents of the second email
The golden rule of follow-ups is that each and every email you send should be valuable. You can’t “just bumping it up in your inbox” your way into a prospect’s heart — there’s too much competition.
Instead of restating that you’re “still very interested in learning more about [the prospect]’s business and exploring opportunities for collaboration”, show that you’ve been thinking about them all this time. Offer a specific solution, point out a feature that would be of interest to them, and provide them with a helpful resource.
Email #5: “Write a cold email to a lead whose contact information you found on LinkedIn”
My problem with the previous four emails is that they failed to identify common grounds between the salesperson and the prospect.
But I guess it was partially my fault — my prompts were quite vague, so I improved them by adding more details.
Now, we’re reaching out to a lead, whose contact information was found on LinkedIn.
Subject line: "Improve your business with our proven [Product/Service]"
Dear [Lead],
I hope this email finds you well. My name is [Your Name] and I am reaching out to you because I believe I can help your business.
I noticed on LinkedIn that you are the [Job Title] at [Company]. From what I can see, your company could benefit from our [Product/Service].
Our [Product/Service] has helped many other businesses like yours [Benefit/Use Case]. In fact, one of our satisfied customers was able to [Positive Outcome].
I would love to set up a call to discuss how our [Product/Service] can help your business and see if it is a good fit.
If you are interested, please let me know a few dates and times that work for you and I will make sure to schedule a call.
Thank you for considering my request.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
They weren’t joking when they said the more specific the prompt, the better the outcome. This cold email draft is noticeably better than the first four. Yay!
But, unfortunately, it still lacks human creativity and fails to establish a robust connection with the lead to warm them up.
The first thing you could do to fix it is to include your lead’s actual business name instead of writing out “your business” in the subject line. No matter how minor, it can attract the lead’s attention and add an extra layer of personalisation to the cold email.
Next, the use of LinkedIn. While mentioning the lead’s job title is already good, you can go further and make your email read even more personally. Analyse your prospect's LinkedIn profile to find the following information:
- The posts they like
- The posts they share
- The posts they comment on
Valerie Kakovkina
Then, you can appeal to their specific interests, mention a post they interacted with, and successfully namedrop.
But you need to remember the following… When you have a dozen prospects to outreach, it’s easy to do manually. However, the process becomes increasingly more difficult when you try to scale your cold outreach.
To stay sane, you need a tool to delegate this task to. For instance, a CRM system that integrates with LinkedIn and allows you to automate contact creation from LinkedIn profiles.
NetHunt CRM makes LinkedIn sales as straightforward as possible:
- It automatically shows which LinkedIn profiles and companies are already in your CRM, and which ones are new.
- It automatically enriches lead profiles with critical data such as profile pictures, first names, last names, companies, roles, email addresses, phone numbers, Skype IDs, Twitter handles, dates of birth, and LinkedIn URLs.
- It lets you add both single-user contacts or whole companies.
- It’s a 2-way integration, so you always have a lead’s or company’s details visible alongside their LinkedIn profile.
Give NetHunt CRM a try now — the first 14 days are on us 👀
Email #6: “Write a follow-up email to a sales lead that has ghosted you”
Getting rejected hurts, but you know what hurts even more? Getting ghosted. Even if the response is negative, it’s still better than getting no response at all.
Therefore, one of the everyday cold outreach struggles is getting the prospect to stop ignoring you. Sometimes, it takes a single follow-up, sometimes a series thereof.
Here’s ChatGPT-3’s solution…
Dear [Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I reached out to you a few weeks ago regarding [product/service] and unfortunately, I didn't hear back from you.
I understand that you may be busy or not interested in my offer at this time, and that's completely okay. However, I wanted to follow up with you and see if you have any questions or if there's anything I can do to assist you.
I'm confident that our [product/service] could bring value to your business, and I'd be more than happy to schedule a call to discuss it further. If you're not interested, no problem – I won't take up any more of your time.
Thank you for considering my offer.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
When it comes to pinging a disengaged prospect, you can experiment with different email styles. You can guilt-trip them, you can be angry at them, you can beg them, or you can act disinterested, too. It’s up to you.
So, I’m not going to say that there’s something inherently wrong with the copy ChatGPT-3 produced. However, I can point out some things I would’ve fixed before hitting the Send button on this one.
No matter how much you want “I understand that you may be busy” to work, it won’t. It’s not going to make the lead more sympathetic, it’s not going to make you more relatable. It just sounds corny and annoying.
If you really understood that the lead is busy, you would’ve sent them a tiny 20-word email. Sometimes, it’s worth dropping all the formal language for the sake of clearing up the situation.
When it comes to writing the “one last email” before you part your ways, the shorter the better. For example…
“Hey [Name],
All I’m asking for is a single-digit response to this email:
1 — Yes, I’m interested in the offer but can’t find time to discuss it in detail; ping me later.
2 — Your offer is rubbish, stop emailing me.
Best,
[Your Name]”
➡️ If you want to see more follow-up strategies, check out our collection of the 5 sales follow-up email templates you can’t help but read.
Email #7: “Write an email to ask for a reference from a current customer”
Even if you perfect cold outreach, there’s no point in it if you don’t have enough quality leads to reach out to.
According to stats…
- “84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.” (Source: Influitive)
- Referrals are 4 times more likely to make a purchase. (Source: Truelist)
- Referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value. (Source: Truelist)
- And 86% of B2B businesses with referral programs grew their revenue in the past 2 years, compared to 75% of B2B businesses without referral programs. (Source: Influitive)
If you want to keep your sales pipeline healthy, you need to learn how to ask your current customers to introduce your business to their network. That’s exactly what we asked ChatGPT-3 to do.
Dear [Customer],
We hope this email finds you well. We are reaching out to ask if you would be willing to provide a reference for our company to any new leads that you come across.
As a valued customer, your opinion carries a lot of weight and we believe that a personal recommendation from you would be extremely valuable in helping us to secure new business. If you are comfortable doing so, we would be grateful if you could speak to the quality of our products and services and the positive experience you have had as a customer.
Of course, we understand if you are unable to provide a reference at this time and we appreciate your business regardless. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Thank you in advance for considering our request.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
The only thing I can say here is…ChatGPT-3 has successfully failed the task. Everything about this email copy is embarrassingly bad — from the lack of the subject line (it seems to be an ongoing problem with this tool) to the overly complicated email body.
The beauty of dealing with brand advocates is that they already love your business and the products you offer. You already have an established relationship with them. Hence, you don’t need to waste their time and explain yourself.
A simple “Hey, could you recommend us to your friends and colleagues if you like us? We could discuss the incentive — when are you available this week?” would do.
Conclusion
ChatGPT-3 is impressive. ChatGPT-3 is helpful. ChatGPT-3 is going to change the world of sales.
But it’s not going to happen overnight — it still requires an awful lot of training and cannot replace an actual salesperson with years of experience.
Now, if you want this AI tool to produce a decent sales email copy, you need to put a lot of effort into crafting a specific draft, experimenting with different requests, and editing it afterwards.
Oh, and just a heads up: if you want ChatGPT-3 to write a subject line to go with your email copy, you need to explicitly ask it for one. Apparently, it’s not given.
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