What Does 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Degree Connection Means in Linkedin

What Does 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Degree Connection Means in Linkedin

What Are LinkedIn Connections?

 

LinkedIn connections are usually the people you know personally on a professional level or in real life. However, nowadays, to build networking, people also connect with contacts whom they might not know personally.

 

Users who are LinkedIn connections can view each other’s posts and activities on the platform. Further, they can message them easily. Also, most of their activities will appear on their homepage too.

 

What Does 1st, 2nd, 3rd Degree Connections Mean On LinkedIn?

 

LinkedIn connections are usually categorized into three degrees of connections: first-degree, second degree and third-degree connections.

 

In simple terms, the degree of connections indicates how close you are to LinkedIn profiles. While browsing LinkedIn or sending someone a connection request, you might encounter one of these degrees.

 

It makes it easier for LinkedIn users to send and receive connection requests.

 

Furthermore, LinkedIn uses this degree of connections to suggest to the users the contact with whom they are most likely to connect.

 

Let us now understand what the degree of connection actually means.

 

1st Degree Connection

 

1st-degree connections with whom you are directly connected. When a user accepts the connection request of another user, they create 1st-degree connections.

 

Also, connecting with first-degree connections is as simple as sending them a message that directly lands in the inbox.

 

So, the people directly connected on the LinkedIn platform are your first-degree connections.

 

2nd Degree Connection

 

These are connections that are not directly connected with you. A connection is labelled as a 2nd-degree connection if they are directly linked to your 1st-degree connections. Hence, there are mutual connections in this connection degree.

 

To bring a 2nd- degree connection to your network, you can either send them a connection request by clicking on the connect button or go to LinkedIn InMail to set up connections.

 

3rd Degree Connections

 

Following the same concept, the 3rd-degree connections are the connections that are connected to your 2nd-degree connections on LinkedIn.

 

The best way to create a first-degree connection out of a third-degree connection is to contact them through InMail with a good introduction that explains why you are sending them a connection request.

 

How To Identify The Degree Of Connections?

 

LinkedIn correctly shows its users the degree of connection besides the contact’s name when you search for a user. Depending upon the connection degree, you can choose the appropriate way to connect with them.

 

What can 1st, 2nd and 3rd Degree Connection See?

 

The degree of connection that you share with a contact can impact what you can see on their profile. 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree connections have different amounts of visibility.

 

Visibility For 1st-Degree Connections

 

If you have a 1st-degree connection with someone, you can see their entire profile, including contact details like email address and phone number if they have not hidden it.

 

Similarly, if the setting is on default on your first-degree connection, you can also go ahead and see their connections.

 

Visibility For 2nd-Degree Connections

 

Similarly, you can see the complete profile of the 2nd-degree connections too. However, in a 2nd-degree connection, the email address and phone number will not be visible.

 

Also, you can only go through their public activity and not private activity. Furthermore, you cannot directly message the 2nd-degree connections.

 

Visibility For 3rd-Degree Connections

 

Third-degree connections are very far-off connections; therefore, is limited visibility. Also, the contact details of the third-degree connections remain hidden.

 

However, if you have a premium LinkedIn account or share LinkedIn groups with your third-degree connection, you can lay your hands on a little more information, but not all.

 

LinkedIn wants to provide safety to its users; therefore, to ensure it, different levels of visibility are provided depending upon the degree of connections.

 

Does The Size Of Your LinkedIn Connection Matter?

 

Now that we understand the basic concepts related to LinkedIn, it is time to shed light on whether your LinkedIn connection’s size matters or not.

 

Even though it is a professional platform, LinkedIn is a social media platform designed to build your networking. Therefore, regarding the numbers, yes, the size of your connection on LinkedIn matters. An optimal connection size assures more opportunities.

 

What Is The Least Amount Of Connections That You Should Have On LinkedIn?

 

However, one should create a balance between the number of connections one has. A small number, less than 500 connections, indicates that you do not know how to use LinkedIn effectively. Further, it can be an indication of your low networking skills too!

 

Having Too Many Connections Isn’t Good Either

 

On the other hand, a very massive connection indicates that you connect with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Furthermore, it can put your account on the radar because it might give the appearance you are increasing the connections to use it in LinkedIn sales navigator.

 

Therefore, you should avoid sending random connections.

 

The Ideal LinkedIn Connection Size

 

Therefore, the safe size of connections on LinkedIn is obviously more than 500. That’s the lower limit for sure! However, you can decide the actual upper limit based on your requirement. Though, it shouldn’t be massive.

 

At the same time, you must remember that to use LinkedIn effectively, you must go beyond your existing network.

 

Only then can you connect with other professionals and increase your opportunity to climb up the ladder of success professionally.

 

It’s Not Always About The Size

 

Even though the size of the connection matters on LinkedIn, do not think much about the numbers. LinkedIn supports more than 830 million users. Therefore, feel free to explore new connections now and then.

 

Also, having a more significant connection is the direct path to leveraging your content on LinkedIn more efficiently. Use LinkedIn to create a healthy network of professionals.

 

However, connecting with people who mostly share the same interest as yours is crucial to gaining this efficiency.

 

LinkedIn Etiquettes

 

LinkedIn Etiquettes

 

LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform. Therefore, you cannot go and message someone, “Hi! What’s up?” especially if you don’t know that contact personally. You need to follow certain etiquette to get the best out of LinkedIn.

 

Here are a few tips on do’s and don’t’s of LinkedIn.

 

1. Personalize your connection requests

 

When you send LinkedIn requests to whom you don’t personally know, you need to send personalized connection requests to increase the chance of your invitation getting accepted.

 

This tip is also applicable if you share mutual connections too. Do not send the same message using any LinkedIn message tool to everyone.

 

Before sending out, a LinkedIn connect request, carry out a mini-research about the connection and then craft a personalized message to send them an invitation.

 

2. Do not spam your connections

 

Even though the word “spam” can have diverse meanings depending upon the context, on LinkedIn, spamming means sending messages to your connections that are not valuable to them.

 

Of course, you can send a thank you message to a connection when they accept your invitation but by no means should you keep sending them messages that add no value.

 

Users can mark your message as spam if they are highly irrelevant to them, and further, they can go ahead and remove you as connections. So, never spam your connections on LinkedIn.

 

3. Set a professional headshot as your LinkedIn profile photo

 

Just like in any situation, the first impression even matters on LinkedIn. A no-display picture on LinkedIn confuses the other members about whether your account is genuine or not.

 

Similarly, an amateur photo like a selfie or a picture with your family on your LinkedIn profile can look unprofessional to others.

 

Your LinkedIn profile account is your personal brand, and you can work on building it by setting a professional headset of you as the profile picture on LinkedIn.

 

4. Do not add your connection to your email list

 

Exporting the emails of your connections to add them to your email database is a big no-no. It is not only highly unprofessional but is also illegal in many countries. Also, irrespective of whether it is unlawful or not, it is highly unethical.

 

Connecting with someone on LinkedIn doesn’t mean they have permitted you to add them to your email list.

 

If you need to connect to someone you have found on Linkedin, use the LinkedIn message option instead of mailing them through a third-party email marketing service provider.

 

5. Don’t mark a person as “I don’t know” easily

 

LinkedIn is a platform for building a professional network. Therefore, you might often receive a connection request from someone you don’t know.

 

You can mark it as “I don’t know this person.” but before doing it, think twice. When users receive too many “I don’t know this person” labels, they risk getting altogether banned from LinkedIn.

 

You don’t want to do this to someone trying to build a professional network. Therefore, ignore the connection request if you don’t want to accept it.

 

Go for the “I don’t know this person” option only when you think the person has some ill intention or is using a LinkedIn sales navigator to spam the people.

 

How To Bypass LinkedIn Invite Limit On Sending Connection Requests?

 

LinkedIn has a weekly connection request limit for its users to ensure they do not spam other users. Previously, LinkedIn allowed its users to send 700 invitations in a week. However, this number is now reduced to only 100 invitations in a week.

 

Thankfully, there are ethical ways to bypass LinkedIn invites on sending connection requests. Here are three ways to avoid LinkedIn Invite limits on sending connection requests.

 

1. Send connection request via email

 

It is possible to send connection requests to a LinkedIn member via email too. Also, the email invitations sent on LinkedIn are not considered for the weekly limit.

 

There are two ways to send email invitations to LinkedIn members on LinkedIn:

 

  • Invite all your email contacts
  • Upload lists or CSVs with emails

 

If you use the second method, you must manually tick the checkboxes to send the invites to the LinkedIn members.

 

2. Get directly connected with open profiles

 

The users who have open profiles on LinkedIn do not need any connections to be connected. Therefore, once you have identified an open profile on LinkedIn, feel free to send them a direct message. You do not need to click on the connect button to start talking to them.

 

In fact, you can send unlimited InMails to a LinkedIn member with open LinkedIn profiles.

 

One easy way of identifying an open profile is that it opens an altogether new type of chat box, and LinkedIn further clearly indicates that you can send free InMail to the user.

 

3. Use LinkedIn groups and events to build your network

 

The LinkedIn weekly limitation does not apply to the group members and the event attendees. If you are a part of the same LinkedIn group and want to connect with another group user, you can directly send a message to the connection without even being connected.

 

In short, sending messages to second and third-degree connections is possible without sending a connection request to them.

 

However, it might or might not prove beneficial because it has a drawback.

 

The messages you send to group members or event attendees land on their message request section instead of the main inbox section. Unless the user checks their message requisition section, they won’t be able to view your message.

 

The Importance Of Respecting LinkedIn Invitation Limit

 

Please note that respecting the LinkedIn invitation limit is crucial if you do not want to be blocked on the platform.

 

You Can Face Actions!

 

You can face actions if you send too many invitations in a short interval of time and if your invitations are primarily ignored or marketed as spam by the recipients. Even if your LinkedIn requests expire a lot due to non-acceptance, you will come on the radar again.

 

Whom And How Is Important

 

Therefore, stay extremely careful about whom you send the invite to and how you send it. Also, LinkedIn only allows 30,000 first-degree connections. Consequently, one should be mindful of the people they build first-degree connections on LinkedIn.

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17 Rapport Building Questions to Boost Sales (5 Ways you must Avoid)

17 Rapport Building Questions to Boost Sales (5 Ways you must Avoid)

Building a good rapport with potential customers can do wonders for heightening the chances of making a sale. However, starting a conversation with a client is not as easy as it looks.

 

Engaging with a potential customer requires you to shoot the questions in a manner that gives birth to natural conversations. Therefore, generic opening questions are a big no-no.

 

Sales reps often have a tiny window to build a genuine rapport with potential customers. Therefore, it is indispensable to use this short opportunity to best for making a sale. This is why rapport building questions are essential.

 

Before discussing what sort of rapport building questions you can ask to make a sale, let us first understand what precisely these questions are.

 

What Is a Rapport Building Question?

 

The ultimate aim of giving a prospect a call is to make sales. However, making sales is only possible when there is a meaningful conversation between the salesperson and the prospect.

 

Rapport building questions are the questions that are useful in creating a meaningful relationship with the prospect and that too in a short interval of time. It often helps the salesperson to break the ice.

 

With good rapport building questions, the salesperson can intelligently and subtly tell about the sales agenda. It is only when a salesperson builds a connection with a potential client that it becomes possible for the salesperson to sell a product or service.

 

With the right question, you can go beyond the surface level, superficial discussions and show genuine interest in helping the client. It helps in strengthening business relationships and building rapport.

 

Rapport building questions, as the name suggests, help you to build a rapport with the target audience. It keeps the conversation flowing and, in turn, creates a chance for positive outcomes for the business.

 

However, it is essential to understand that only good rapport questions are not enough; it is also equally important to come up with better follow-up questions and satisfactory answers for the clients too. Only then does the prospect feel that they are heard and understood. It

 

It will increase their confidence in you and will ensure them that they can rely on your capable hands.

 

To sum it up, rapport building questions are the questions that help the salesperson to connect with the potential client in a personal way. These questions help the salesperson initiate the sales pitch required to sell the products or services.

 

Unlike surface-level questions, these questions are engaging and lead to a discussion instead of a one-way conversation.

 

Let us now dig deeper to know the clear advantages of these questions.

 

Advantages Of Using Rapport Questions With Clients 

 

As discussed above, we already know that rapport-building questions are critical to creating a meaningful relationship with a client which can ultimately help the salesperson to make the sales. However, there are plenty of other advantages too.

 

It’s time to check how rapport questions with clients can be beneficial.

 

1. More Sales 

 

Firstly, the most important advantage of using rapport questions with clients is that it helps boost sales. A prospect will only invest in a product or service you sell when they know you are invested in the relationship.

 

Questions to build rapport improve the customer experience and guarantee a positive customer experience if done rightly. With a positive experience, the prospect has a higher chance of showing interest in the product or service that you are selling.

 

Lead acquisition becomes easier with good rapport questions, which further helps you expand your customer base. As a result, the sales productivity increases, and the business grows.

 

It helps increase the chances of conversion and often attracts more sales.

 

2. The Selling Process Gets Easier 

 

Rapport building questions are good for establishing trust between you and your client. Not only do you get to know more about the client, but even the client gets to know you better. This bond is helpful in sales which mainly relies on transactional relationships.

 

The trustworthy relationship, in turn, makes the sales process extremely easy. With perfect trust, the clients know they can rely on you to offer solutions to their problems.

 

With the bridge of trust, the selling process smoothens up.

 

3. Better Reputation 

 

A good rapport question promotes a better reputation both for you and your brand. With this reputation, it is also possible to set the desired price on the product or service you are selling, and the client will happily agree to the price because of the reputation.

 

Further, if you manage to give the client the perfect product or service after building a reputation, the customer feedback would be good too. In such a case, chances are high that they will not only leave a positive review but also recommend your product and service to others.

 

They can also trust you with the fact that you will offer them proactive customer service too. Also, it helps you to earn respect which can benefit you in the long run.

 

4. Helps You Stay Ahead In The Competition 

 

You obviously know that your company is not the only one dealing with a particular product or service. The market is filled with many other competitors who will engage in similar rapport-building efforts. It is no secret that they will even reach out to the prospect to sell your products and services.

 

However, you can stand out amongst your competitors by building rapport. If your competitors are going with generic questions and you, on the other hand, are shooting the perfectly personalised rapport question, it is pretty apparent that the bond you will build with your client will be much better.

 

Authenticity with the rapport question is the key to building that perfect relationship with the client to stay ahead in the market competition. Unique questions will make them think and you might land up with an honest answer that can be helpful.

 

5. It Helps Build Trust 

 

Building trust is essential in the sales process. Why would someone buy your product or service if they cannot trust you?

 

Therefore, building customer rapport through trust is of utmost importance. Rapport questions help you to build that trust with your client, which is essential to increase the conversion.

 

Preparing yourself with all the correct answers that can follow after the initial questions is crucial. Only when you have in-depth knowledge about the products and services you sell can you give a satisfactory answer.

 

Therefore, such questions should always be clubbed with satisfactory answers to increase the chance of lead conversion.

 

3 Best Ways To Build The Perfect Rapport In Sales 

 

A good rapport building question does much more than break the ice between the salesperson and the prospect. It helps in lead conversion, which is pretty obvious by now. However, to increase sales, it is important to ask good rapport building questions and not just any questions.

 

Even though coming up with the right rapport question might look like a herculean task, it is not. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to build customer rapport perfectly in sales.

 

Your search ends here if you are looking for ways to build the perfect customer rapport. Let’s get started with the details now.

 

1. Focus On Personalization 

 

All the prospects are different; therefore, you cannot throw the same question to everyone and expect the same answers and sales. Further, if you do not personalise the rapport question, the client will quickly identify that you are simply asking a generic question.

 

The result is that the prospect will end up losing interest in you very quickly.

 

Therefore, personalise the questions instead of generic ones to build rapport to match the prospect’s interest. You must be wondering how exactly to do this personalisation.

 

Well, it’s easy. All you need to do is run a quick background check and collect the relevant information about the person and company they work for.

 

After empowering yourself with this knowledge, it will become easy to personalise the questions to drive the prospect’s interest.

 

2. Throw Unpredictable Questions 

 

Almost all the sales calls start with the same introduction and information. It is easy for a client who has heard the same thing repeatedly to lose interest in the entire process.

 

It is, therefore, crucial to come up with something unique that can take your prospect off guard. It is the best strategy to build the interest of the prospect.

 

Think about a unique statement or question and personalise it to meet the client’s requirement, and you are good to have a good conversation with the prospect. However, please note that you must surprise the prospect and now shock them while building rapport. Do not be intrusive.

 

3. Show Commitment Towards Your Clients 

 

If your prospect ever had a bad experience with any sales reps, it is natural for them to be sceptical, even for you. Therefore, it is important not only to tell but also to show your commitment to them.

 

One way of showing your commitment to the prospect is by actively listening to their problems and queries. You can only come up with the perfect solution for them by paying attention. Further, empathising with the prospect is critical too.

 

It will help you to earn their trust and, further, make the sales process more manageable. Therefore, you should frame your questions to show your commitment to them. Also, feel free to add a personal touch whenever necessary.

 

17 Effective Rapport Building Questions To Boost Your Sales 

 

If you are wondering, what are a few good questions to build customer rapport? Don’t worry. We have got it covered. You can try the following rapport questions to boost your sales with a prospect.

 

1. Is it true about what people say about your city/state?

 

Questions related to city/state can work as a charm to break the ice. It can be as simple as asking, “Is truly New York a city that never sleeps?” The magic of this question is that it is a pretty open-ended question. Therefore, there is a lot of scopes for your client to talk about their experience.

 

This question is great for establishing a personal touch with your client while building customer rapport without actually getting personal. If you think that you can build a connection with the city/state question, always go for it.

 

2. What are your top recommendations if I pass through your city/state?

 

This question is again related to city/state. A question like this suggests that the opinion of your prospect matters to you. In other words, it will make them feel valued. Further, based on their recommendation about their city/state, you will get an idea about their preferences.

 

With this information, it will be easier for you to personalise your questions in a manner that can interest the prospect. You can also develop other relevant city/state questions and personalise them to meet the client’s requirements.

 

3. Do you work from the office or remotely?

 

During the pandemic, many employees were forced to work remotely. It was a new experience for many; therefore, it is a safe question to know more about their office setup.

 

Further, it will highlight the pros and cons of their setup. If possible, pitch a solution to make things easier for them.

 

Such career-related questions can often come in handy in starting the sales pitch quickly. Also, it will provide more insight into their work setup and help you pitch your solution correctly.

 

4. I noticed previously you worked in XYZ company. How smooth was the transition?

 

In the present era, job switching is common, but still, it comes with its own set of problems. Raising open-ended questions about their current or former companies will allow the prospect to tell you about their experience. Further, you might also discover mutual connections, which again will build your credibility factor.

 

Additionally, how they elaborate the answer will help you to identify the person’s personality. This knowledge can be extremely helpful in pitching a product or service better.

 

5. I noticed you had earned X certification. How was the journey?

 

It is one of the excellent career-related questions to ask for building customer rapport on a positive note with your prospect. This question will allow the prospect to discuss their skills and achievements. In turn, it will help them feel valuable

 

You can check the LinkedIn profile of the prospect to see if they have earned any recent certification to shoot this question.

 

People love to speak about their achievements, and you can allow them to flaunt their achievements with this question.

 

6. Are you affected by the current situation?

 

Previously, the pandemic happened, and now the entire globe is facing the wrath of inflation. You can use this situation to know more about the client’s pain point. Further, you can share your experience and create a common ground between the two.

 

Most of the employees are currently in the same boat. Therefore, it is a clever question to build a quick rapport with the prospect.

 

7. What do you hope to accomplish?

 

It is another open-ended question designed to effectively understand your prospective customers’ challenges and what they plan to achieve. This reflective question can successfully open the floodgate of emotions and help you to connect with the client and create an emotional bond.

 

Even though it is a simple question, it is a personal question that effectively can build rapport with potential clients. Further, such questions make them reflect, and this, in turn, gives rise to an interesting discussion.

 

8. Where were you working before joining the current company?

 

Good rapport building questions go beyond the yes and no answers. Whenever possible, go for open-ended questions.

 

Further, the key to good rapport building questions is asking questions where the potential customers get to talk more and deliver an honest answer. This question will help you to know about their past experiences and the reason why they switched job.

 

Such career-related questions can also help you to know their roles in the company and their previous experience. It gives you more insight into them, and you can use it as a tool to create other effective rapport building questions.

 

9. I read your LinkedIn/Blog Post on ABC. What are your views on XYZ?

 

Flattery can give you plenty of opportunities, especially in the sales department. However, you do not want the flattery to sound insincere. It needs to be genuine because people usually can smell insincere flattery from miles.

 

Therefore, in the background check, put some effort into checking whether the prospect has written a blog post or not. Furthermore, you can check for recent company announcement or stuff like if they are participating in any future speaking events.

 

Such information is beneficial in building a working relationship with your prospect and shows that you are genuinely interested in them.

 

Also, giving the prospect a chance to share their views on a topic gives them the feeling that they are important to you. It is a great question to break down the communication barrier and give them a chance to discuss something they are passionate about.

 

10. What brings you here?

 

If a prospective customer calls you, it is a great question to ask them. Even though you might not be physically present together in the same space, this question creates a feeling of togetherness.

 

Also, the question indicates that you are happy to solve all their problems and questions. Additionally, it also shows that you would be happy to know about their experience. After learning the problem and its pain point, you can then work ahead to provide an effective solution to the prospect.

 

11. What can I do to make things easier for you?

 

Raising this question indicates that you are empathic toward their problem. Further, it is the perfect question to create an understanding and friendly persona.

 

It also implies that you are there to help your client achieve their goals and make them as smooth as possible.

 

12. What are the top issues you are facing right now?

 

This is a powerful question because it can help you with a positive outcome to pitch your sales directly. Also, this question will allow gaining more insight into the problems that they are facing.

 

Agree whenever required and connect with them. When listening to their answer, show empathy. Further, when they are done explaining the pain point, offer the solution in a manner that can highlight the features of your product or service that you are selling.

 

Only when they realise that your product or service can solve their most significant issues will they be more inclined to know more about it, leading to easy conversion.

 

13. How long have you been working for XYZ company?

 

Asking the potential clients how long they have been working in a particular company will give you information regarding their experience. Someone who has spent years with a company will have much more information than a newbie who joined.

 

Along with it, you can also talk about sensitive business topics if you lead the conversation in the right direction. Also, it will give the idea of whether the person with whom you are talking has the decision power for the company or not.

 

14. What is your vision for the business? 

 

This is a great question entrepreneur or someone in a company’s top position. People love to talk about their dreams and the vision of their company. You can dig this question deeper further by asking about their sales goals.

 

Once you know their business vision, you can then pitch how your product or service can be extremely helpful in helping them accomplish this goal. When a client feels that your product can really help them achieve their vision, they will be more interested in learning more about it.

 

15. You went to XYZ college. How was your experience there?

 

Choosing a college is never easy for anyone. Also, sometimes, it is hard to land in a perfect college. Therefore, asking this question is a wonderful way to help your client open up.

 

Additionally, in answering this question, they might share personal details with you, which can help build the trust factor with your prospect. Most of the time, this basic information is readily available with a quick search on LinkedIn.

 

16. Imagine all your problems were taken care of. How would that make you feel? What would you do?

 

Hypothetical questions are great questions to help the prospect dream, making the discussion all the more enjoyable. Further, it allows you to know the issues that they are facing.

 

With this knowledge, you can customise your pitch to solve the prospect’s pain point. Further, it allows them to realise the issues that they are facing. Sometimes, the prospect doesn’t even realise that there is a problem.

 

Asking such questions helps the prospect to raise the issue themselves. As a result, the pain point becomes genuine, and your solutions will make more sense to them.

 

17. What are you hoping this will lead to?

 

It is a critical question to build rapport that will shed light on the prospect’s expectations. Subsequently, it shows that you are open to offering them a solution that can actually add value.

 

By asking this question, you give them hope and indicate that you are here to help.

 

You can go for any of these rapport building questions to build the rapport and break the ice. Always remember to carry warmth in your tone and nurture the conversation as much as possible. Remember, allowing the other person to talk more is the most important thing.

 

Rapport Building For Clients Who Don’t Like Questions

 

Not everyone is good at answering questions. There are both vocal and non-vocal people in the world. Rapport building questions work great for the prospect who are confident in speaking and are vocal. However, a salesperson might face a problem while building rapport with clients who don’t like questions.

 

It can create a problematic situation. However, it is not a problem that cannot be solved.

 

For the clients who do not like questions, you can begin with simple questions like how are you or how is the day going? Asking these basic questions will push them to answer and will help them open up.

 

You can then begin with your introduction and tell the prospect how you know them. This will create a sense of familiarity between the two and will help push the conversation forward.

 

Instead of asking questions, you can then go ahead with statements like, “Generally, people working in your business or your role face XYZ issues. Are you facing any of such issues?” This is a close-ended question; a yes or no will help you better understand the prospect.

 

If the answer is yes, you can go ahead and start your sales pitch. However, if the answer is no, perhaps, you should get creative to make them realise there is actually an issue that your product or service can solve.

 

Further, maintain a warm tone while talking to such a client. Instead of making the conversation look like a forced interview, creatively turn it into a friendly discussion.

 

Top Qualities Before Building Rapport Question

 

Even though the above-discussed rapport building questions are good for making a conversion, to get the real question, you need to have the following set of qualities.

 

1. Research 

 

We have already discussed how personalisation can help you in landing a conversion. However, personalising the rapport building questions is possible when you conduct thorough research.

 

It is easier to start a conversation after researching the person’s background and the company they work for. Carrying out research will help you to create an instant connection with them. You can even use something as basic as their hometown for striking up a conversation.

 

2. Go For A Personal Approach 

 

Your ultimate goal is to sell your product or service, but the thing is that you are not selling it to a robot but an actual human being. Therefore, a personal touch is essential in leading the conversation.

 

Instead of jumping from one rapport question to another, take an interest in their answers and see if the answer can lead to another question or conversation that can help you to pitch your ideas.

 

3. Quick Value Addition

 

You are calling your prospect to sell and not to gossip. Therefore, it is vital to add value to the conversation in the early stage.

 

Why would someone talk to you if they feel that you won’t be adding any value? Without the value addition in the early stage, even the perfect question will fail to bring you success.

 

Bring in their immediate notice how you can help them solve their pain points. This will also help fetch a quick yes from the prospect and can drive the conversation more productively. No more beating around the bush!

 

Bonus: Things To Avoid While Asking Rapport Questions To Your Clients

 

To ensure that the rapport building questions work for your clients, it is equally important to avoid a few things. There are do’s for building good rapport. Similarly, there is a list of don’ts too that needs to be avoided while asking rapport questions to your client.

 

Here is a list of things you should avoid while asking rapport questions to your client.

 

1. Do Not Rush Things

 

A primary objective that will run through your mind is to close the deal. However, rushing the conversation to close the deal as soon as possible is a bad idea. It is because rushing through the discussion will show that you are simply interested in selling the product or service and are not interested in genuinely helping the prospect.

 

Most of the time, rushing things will fail!

 

In fact, rushing through the conversation will make it extremely difficult for you even to start your sales pitch. Therefore, keep the conversation natural and do not think about the time duration when dealing with a potential customer.

 

2. Do Not Ask Many Close-Ended Questions 

 

Close-ended questions can put your client in a tight spot as they will have to take a clear stand, which is sometimes very difficult. Instead, try to go for open-ended questions.

 

Firstly, open-ended questions are more comfortable to answer. Secondly, it will throw more light on the views and opinions of the clients. However, remember to ask close-ended questions whenever you find it necessary.

 

3. Avoid Controversial Topics 

 

Asking about the weather is safe; however, asking about political views can be extremely risky. When you are framing the rapport building questions, avoid contentious topics.

 

Always go for safe topics to avoid an argument with the prospect. Remember, you are here to sell your product and service and not to engage in any kind of debate.

 

4. Do Not Get Too Personal. 

 

Sometimes during a background check, you might land your hands on deeply personal things about the prospect. Avoid any kind of too personal discussions. Even though you are trying to build a friendly and meaningful connection with the client, maintain a safe boundary

 

You need to ask personal questions to build a rapport; however, at the same time, you also need to ensure that you are not asking too personal questions. Respect the boundaries with the clients.

 

5. Not Paying Enough Attention 

 

Your job doesn’t end with just throwing a question at your client. You need to give your full attention to the prospect. Only when you are paying full attention will you be able to lead the conversation to your benefit.

 

Irrespective of the distractions you might face, give your prospect your full attention. If your client is even aware that you are not giving them your full attention, the deal can go out of the window.

 

Conclusion

 

The prime objective of the rapport building questions is to go beyond the generic questions to know your prospect better. Therefore, always keep a personal touch and stay open to your pitches. Further, keep personalising your pitch to meet the client’s requirements.

 

You can create meaningful and loyal relationships with your client with the right question. Instead of just scratching the surface that most salespersons do, you get to develop a deeper relationship with the prospect with the right question.

 

Rapport building questions are a great way to increase the conversion correctly, which will benefit you both the short-term and long-term.

7 Best Subject line for Reconnecting Email 2022

7 Best Subject line for Reconnecting Email 2022

If you are struggling with reconnecting email open rates, welcome to the ultimate guide on subject line for reconnecting email.

 

In any industry, it is critical to connect with people and grow your network to ensure professional success. With a strong and wide network, you can gain critical insight into insider information and internal job openings within the company. In this information age, it is more important than ever to grow your network to succeed. While you can meet people in several places, such as parties, company fundraisers or even a family get together, the most effective way to grow your networking is through the Internet and Emails.

 

There are several opportunities as well as critical challenges associated with emails. For example, if you have not formed your emails correctly, there are chances that your email might end up in the spam of your recipient’s inbox. Even if your email does not get flagged as a spam email, if your email does not contain an effective subject line, then the chances of your email getting opened reduces by a lot.

 

What is Reconnecting Email?

 

Reconnecting Email, a relatively new term, describes a great way to improve the response rate for your emails. These emails are sent to the customers who have unsubscribed or the emails sent to a contact with whom you have lost touch. It is a tricky concept to get it absolutely right the first time. While it may seem unproductive and meaningless to send emails to someone who has already unsubscribed to your mailing list, sending concise reconnecting emails ends up increasing loyalty with your customers as well as your personal network. It is indeed one tough challenge to get it exactly right but it is possible to revive your old connections with personalised and creative emails relevant to your connections.

 

Benefits of Reconnecting Email

 

In the information age, people are constantly bombarded with information constantly via TV, Social Media, Newspaper etc. with all this information floating around, it is highly probable that a customer may forget about your product if it is no longer in their sight. That is why this type of emails are important to keep your product in focus. To increase the conversion rate and to make sure your emails are always opened, email personalization is a must.

 

An email body with a personalized subject line and creative ideas is essential for a perfect web email. They also serve as follow-up emails and support marketing efforts to improve sales, ​​networking and professional connections. Reconnecting with colleagues can help you get insight into new job opportunities at any firm.

 

There are benefits of sharing your experiences to your former colleagues as well. Reconnecting with former colleagues you can share potential job opportunities which might be beneficial to them as well as your new company. It is also possible that you are working for some organization and looking for opportunities to jump ship. While you may have already decided on what company and position you want to apply for, you are more likely to get selected for an interview if you have references.

 

While approaching a connection at the company you want to see yourself working for, you can mention your interest to work and talk to the people who are already working for the company and share similar interests as yours. This can lead to gaining critical references that you can use while applying for the job.

 

In the reconnecting email, you should mention your past and present work experiences and noteworthy challenges that you’ve overcome so they can represent you accurately in a letter of recommendation. Connections are one of the most critical sources that you can use when you are planning a career switch as well.

 

If you plan to move to a new industry, new work environment, you can always reconnect and reach out to your connection to ask for professional advice. Getting professional advice can take you one step ahead while competing with other applicants. You can ask your connection about how they will handle certain situations as well as gain tips on how to be better prepared for the next challenges.

 

Things to keep in mind while writing a reconnecting email

 

By now, we know the power of networking email and how much it can increase response rate. Before going any further remember the following things to consider.

 

Direct

 

If you have a certain motive behind writing a email, your motive should be stated clearly in the email without any ambiguity. You should also make sure that all-important bits of information related to the motive can be found within the email. For example, your motive behind writing it could be to ask for a referral at your connection’s organization. If that is the case, you should always make sure your are up to date resume is attached with the email as well as your contact details are mentioned with your latest work experience in the email.

 

Concise

 

Reconnecting emails should be as concise as possible. If your email is concise, it will help your recipient get the gist of your message easily. While starting with a friendly greeting, mention your motive for sending the email and make sure to include important bits of information such as how and when you wish to ever connect in person and attach your contact information with the mail. If it has been a while since you last got in touch with your connection, it is possible that they might need a reminder about your relationship with them. Once you are reconnected with the person, you might get the opportunity to describe your current situation and get updates about their professional life.

 

How to increase open rate for the email

 

No matter how many critical connections you try to reach out to if your email is not curated properly, the chances of the recipient opening your email fall drastically. In this section, we will go over several strategies to increase the chances of your recipient opening your email and responding positively. While people do prefer to be contacted via emails instead of phone calls, it does not mean they will open each and every email they get. Which would mean a lesser chance of getting new business from your email marketing.

 

Your email open rate, means the number of recipients that actually open the received email proportional to the number of recipients you reach out. There are various tools to find out if a recipient opened your email such as Intelliverse.

 

Once you know the number of recipients that opened your email, divide the number by the total number of email accounts you sent the mail to and multiply the resulting number by 100. This open rate can be used to gain insight into how well your malling approach or marketing strategy is working. There are several factors that affect open rates. 

 

  • Relevance to your target audience

 

While sending emails, relevance plays an important role. Your connections should be classified in a number of categories and emails should be sent to someone if and only if your message is of interest to the recipient. For example, if the purpose of your email is to market a new tool that helps computer programmers build softwares more efficiently, then there is no use in sending marketing emails to people that are not programmers, such as Teachers or Human Resource Managers. To get the best result out of your marketing, those emails must be sent to only those who can benefit from your email.

 

Sending an email that has information which is not of interest to the recipient, will keep your emails unopened.

 

  • Email content

 

Another important thing to keep in mind while sending an email is the content for your email. Your content should be something that your recipient would look forward to in subsequent emails

 

Your email should have tailored content for your subscribers with useful information as well as some fun bits to entertain them

 

  • Email list quality

 

Your email list also plays an important role in increasing your open rate. Your email list should ideally be generated with users willingly opting into your email list. If users are tricked to sign up for the mailing list, then they are highly probable to ignore your emails as well as report your emails as spam, which will, in turn, reduce your open rate by a lot

 

  • Subject Lines

 

Most recipients base their decision to open email or not on just the subject line of the email. As someone who wants their sent email to be opened as often as possible, the subject line is the one shot to make the first impression. So, it is critical to craft the subject line with utmost care.

 

These subject lines should carry concise information to represent the content of the email as well as catch the attention of any reader.

 

Using Lyne.ai to increase open rates

 

If you want to get the best open rates possible for your email, you would need to do hours of research to get the critical bits of information on your subscriber. For example, let’s say you want to send mail to a customer named “Mike Smith”, then you would need to do extensive research on the background and online presence of “Mike Smith”. This would mean hours of internet searches to gather their work experience, resume, their connections, Linkedin profile, education background and also reading through it.

 

Using Lyne.ai to increase open rates

 

While it may be fruitful to do such an extensive search if you are targeting just one subscriber, but if your mailing list contains more than one subscriber, then this research becomes tedious, not to mention the hours of workforce that can be utilized in some other task.

 

So, to make this process, intelligent Artificial intelligence tools, such as Lyne.ai can be used. Lyne will do all required research for you and gather important insight from information to craft emails while ensuring the best possible open rates.

 

Lyne AI model will do in depth research to uncover prospecting data which would take typical researcher hours to find and utilize. As Lyne AI is scalable, it needs no training or management. It is like employing a robot as your employee to scale operations reliably. Lyne ensures personalized emails to make sure your emails do not end up in spam and stand out in your recipient’s inbox.

 

To take advantage of this incredible tool, you would first need to gather as much data on your subscribers as possible. This data includes their Full names, linkedin profile url, work, education, etc. Then Lyne ai works on provided data and creates personalized email content.

 

For example, if it is discovered in the research that the subscriber attended Howard for their education, Lyne will generate the following introduction, “Noticed you went to Howard – go Bisons!”. This content shows that you, the sender, care about the recipients’ alma mater, and their favourite sports team. Now this email will connect better to your subscriber. You can also use Lyne chrome extension to scrape prospects and their professional emails from the LinkedIn scraper. 

 

Lyne utilizes the online activity of your subscriber to connect better. For example, if your subscriber appeared on a show podcast it would generate email content with the following icebreaker, “Enjoyed your recent interview on the podcast, really enjoyed your thoughts on what it takes to be a highly effective leader”

 

Network Email subject lines

 

Networking is one of the most important components for having a successful career in any industry. The more you network with people, the more opportunities you will be aware of with a specific industry.

 

When reaching out to potential connections for networking, it is vital to ensure that the subject line is appealing and effective. In this section we will be going over several proven successful examples of networking email subject lines.

 

For any networking email, the subject line would be the first thing a connection sees while receiving an email. When you send an email, it goes directly to the recipient’s inbox if it is not flagged as spam. Effective and genuine subject lines play an important role to ensure your email does not get flagged by spam.

After reaching the inbox, the recipient only sees the subject line of email before opening the email. So, it is really important to ensure your subject line is informative and catchy enough for diverting readers’ attention to the email and making them open the email. With attractive subject lines, it is possible to prevent the case where the reader deletes the email without even opening the email.

 

Tips for subject line of reconnecting Email

 

While there can be a lot of ways to follow up while crafting your next email, make sure to follow the below tips to stay a step ahead.

 

  • Make it personal

 

Personalized subject line ensures that your email does not end up in a spam box and it will give assurance to the recipient that the email comes from someone they know and not some spam.

 

There are many ways you can craft the subject line. Subject line is only limited by the information you have on the recipient. You can utilize the linkedin scraper of Lyne ai to get more information for an individual. One of many ways you can write the subject line is to include the subscriber’s name. For example, “Hey Jack, reaching out regarding {motive}”

 

You can also use their job title, mutual interests, events that you both have attended in past or the topics your recipient is interested in. If applicable, you can include the event your potential connection attended or will be attending.

 

  • Catchy Subject Line

 

It is easy to ignore generic subject lines. So, instead of using generic subject lines, one should use catchy subject lines to get higher chances of the recipient opening the email. Catchy subject lines trigger the reader’s curiosity and that way you would gain the important attention of the reader. This way, you entice the reader to open the email. If you have never met the recipient or if you are reaching out to someone for the first time, catchy subject lines are most important.

 

  • Concise subject line

 

While there are several things you need to keep in mind while creating the best possible subject line, there is also a character limit on the subject line. If your subject line is too long then it will be cut off and the reader won’t be able to completely read the subject line. If the email is opened on a smartphone, then there will be even fewer characters displayed. So, make sure to review your subject lines to ensure it is under 40 characters for surety that the subject line will be read completely and properly interpreted by readers.

 

12 Example subject lines which will open that Networking Email

 

  •  your open software developer position
  • your opinion on getting into the marketing industry
  • collab?
  • enjoyed meeting you
  • it’s mike (marketing event in chicago)
  • A quick hello and congratulations on young achievers award
  • I’d love to catch up!
  • Request to chat about current market situation
  • I’d love to exchange ideas with you regarding covid 19 effects on sales
  • I want to introduce you to Mike.
  • Fellow Sales Recruiter who would love to connect with you
  • Interested in learning more about your work on sales tool

 

7 Best Linkedin Subject Lines

 

  1. your volunteering with {place_volunteered}
  2. Quick question on (topic)!
  3. Congrats on the job change
  4. Loved your post on (topic)!
  5. Jack told me to get in touch with you
  6. question re {person_skill}
  7. your experience in {field}?

 

Final Words – Is it worth sending reconnecting email?

 

In professional life, who you know is often more important than what you know. If you are good at meeting new people, connecting to them and building strong relations then you will have already gained one step ahead of someone who is not. It is also critical to understand that with time you might lose touch with your connections. Reviving those connections from time to time is as important as building new connections.  Just like personal relations, professional connections also fade away over time if not meticulously maintained.

 

Sending mail to someone you haven’t talked to in a while is a task that requires a significant amount of time and energy. It takes effort building connections in the first place. If you have made connections with someone, it makes sense to put effort into reconnecting mail as well to preserve those connections for as long as possible.

 

There are several reasons why you would send a reconnecting email. It might be just to say hello and stay up to date about their professional endeavours, or even for one of the many requests. If you have stayed in touch with someone for a period of time over several reconnecting mails, when you reach out to them with a specific request, you are more likely to get a positive response. So, it is a good general practice to keep in loose contact with your connections and it is always worth sending a reconnecting mail.

How to Personalize a Cold Email: 5-step Ice Breaker Email Framework

How to Personalize a Cold Email: 5-step Ice Breaker Email Framework

Learning how to write a personalized cold email is one of the most important skills you’ll need to learn if you want to sell online. Learning how to do so at scale without having to work another 40 hours per week, that’s a game changer.

 

In this article you’ll learn:

 

  • The 5-point framework of the perfectly personalized cold email
  • Step-by-step workflows and how-to’s for each point
  • How to use AI to automate the entire thing

Why is cold email personalization so important?

 

People receive hundreds of emails per day, and a large share of those are unsolicited emails trying to sell a service or product. 

 

People have gotten really good at sniffing out the cold emails from the “real” ones. The secret to generating leads through cold outreach is to stand out, be personalized, and to keep it simple.

 

But if you’re reading this you likely already knew that, so I won’t bore you with the usual stats or facts.

 

You’ll also know that personalizing cold emails takes time, and a lot of it. In this article I’ll show you exactly how to solve that.

 

How to personalize a cold email?

 

Let’s have a look at the 5 different ways of personalizing a single cold email:

 

Option 1 – Use a relevant & specific subject line (something that’s related to the unique contents of your email)

 

If your email talks about a case study: {{case_study_company}} case study

 

If your email is about a blog they’ve written: Your blog on SEO in 2022

 

If your email is about a podcast they’ve been on: Your talk on The CEO Show

 

You get the point — if your intro or email talks about a specific topic, make sure that your subject line leads into that. Your prospect will see the subject line + the intro and how they talk about the same thing, which is a pretty powerful thing.

 

Cold email subject line

 

Option 2 – Use a personalized intro or icebreaker to start your email, show you’ve done your research, and capture their attention

 

This is where you want to show your prospect you’ve done your research (without sounding like a stalker), but you’ll also want to make sure you’re being brief.

 

The best way to write these intros is to keep the rest of your email in mind. There needs to be a natural flow between your intro, and your email. But more on that later.

 

Personalized email icebreaker

Option 3 – Talk about things that are specific to the company or prospect you’re reaching out to. Clients they’ve worked with, articles they’ve written, etc. in the body of your email

 

“We can help you land more clients just like {{client_1}} or {{client_2}}” (you can get this from the logos and testimonials on their site

 

Writing a good sales email

 

Option 4Close your email with a highly specific CTA that would only apply to your prospect, their company, or maybe a small group of similar people. If that isn’t possible, use a soft & simple CTA

 

Best: “If you feel like harvesting a few more clients this quarter…” (sent to someone who mentions his love for farming in his bio)

 

Good: “Worth an email exchange?” (soft & simple CTA)

 

Cold email call to action example

 

Option 5Have a PS section that “wows” your prospects — remember that they’ll likely read it first since it draws the attention when opening an email (it’s science)

 

PS. Read that you went to Cornell -go Big Red! You ever eat at North Star Dining Room?​

 

So now that we’ve gone over the different ways of personalizing a cold email, let’s show you exactly how to set up every single one of those easily and at scale.

 

How to personalize the subject line for your cold emails

 

We’ve all heard that subject lines can make or break your campaigns. But hey, no pressure, right?

 

Luckily for you, if you’re personalizing your emails, coming up with unique subject lines that consistently get 85%+ open rates is easy.

 

Take the example above for instance. The cold email started with an intro about a case study for Apple this (fictitious) company published on their website. Boom – there’s your subject line: “Apple case study”.

 

Bet your prospect hasn’t seen that one before. And guess what? Neither have their spam filters.

 

Talking in your intro about something you read about your prospect or their company? Use it. 

 

Talking in your email about helping them land more clients like Apple? Subject: “more clients like Apple”.

 

Having a subject line that relates to the first sentence of your email is a superpower not enough people are using yet, so make sure you are to stand out from the rest.

 

To do this at scale you can either write a short subject line in an additional column as you’re writing your intro lines, or use Lyne.ai to automatically get subject lines based on our AI-generated intros

 

Read how Email Movers increased their cold email open rates by 200% using Lyne

 

How to write a personalized icebreaker for your cold emails

 

Personalized intros or icebreakers have been around for years, but only recently started gaining more popularity. They’re extremely effective since they capture the attention of the reader immediately and start your email off on the right foot when done right.

 

Some great sources to use for your sales research are:

 

  • LinkedIn profiles
  • Blog posts
  • Case studies
  • Articles, publications, or books written by your prospect
  • Events (webinars f.e.)
  • Recent news

 

Cold email icebreakers infographic

 

The most common way of doing this at scale is to have a spreadsheet open in one tab, while researching each prospect in a different tab. 

 

You’ll then write a custom intro for each prospect in a column of your spreadsheet, which you can then later use as a {{mergetag}} in your cold email.

 

The science of a personalized intro

 

We’ve turned cold email intros into a bit of science, then turned that into a product that produces them at scale.

 

Back when we were still writing these ourselves we’d work with a “waterfall method” that we still use in our product today. 

 

First, see if the prospect has a website with an about section – that’s where you can usually find some great info on the prospect himself.

 

Nothing there? Move to their case studies page and see what’s there. If there’s nothing to work with, move on to their LinkedIn profile.

 

As an example, let’s have a look at an about section for a marketing agency where we want to contact the founder.

 

How to research your prospects

 

As you can see there’s some great info in here to write a personalized email or intro for.

 

Here’s how I would personally approach this:

 

“Hey Landon, fellow (former) farmer here. Love seeing how you’re applying the farmer work ethic to business. I definitely believe it’s unmatched and great to see you’re succeeding because of it.”

 

To be fair, I’ve taken my own background into account here. If that’s something you’d rather not do, then you can just simply skip that first sentence.

 

If this company didn’t have an about section on their website, I’d simply move on to their blog or case study page. Nothing there? Moving to LinkedIn.

 

Despite its effectiveness, it’s a job that you’ll find yourself hating pretty quickly. Which is why hiring a robot is usually the best solution here.

 

Lyne.ai uses AI and machine learning to do this exact thing, just at a massive scale (and without complaint..). All you’ll need to do is upload a CSV with your prospecting data, which you’ll then have returned with the additional columns attached. Yay AI!

 

YouTube video

 

Upload your CSV to your favorite sales automation software and you’re good to go when it comes to sending personalized intros in your cold outreach.

 

How to write the body of a personalized cold email

 

Sales is all about relevancy. If you would write a unique email to each and every prospect, this part would be easy.

 

Just take a look at our first example. We’re able to tie the intro about a case study they published into a pitch for our product.

 

Writing a good sales email

 

If you’re okay with sending a few, extremely personalized emails per day, then this isn’t too difficult to accomplish with the right framework. Because in order to write a good cold email, you’ll need a template to work with.

 

I’m not talking about grabbing the first template you see in the Google search results. What I mean is setting up a framework that you’re using for every single cold email.

 

Here’s what ours looks like:

 

Personalized cold email framework

 

Let’s dissect the body part of our framework (2 + 3).

 

Why you’re reaching out

 

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll continue with our example from above and finish that email.

 

“Hey Landon, fellow (former) farmer here. Love seeing how you’re applying the farmer work ethic to business. I definitely believe it’s unmatched and great to see you’re succeeding because of it.

 

Reason I’m reaching out today is because from experience I know that appointment setting can be a challenge for small marketing agencies. That’s where we come in. We’ve developed an AI-based tool that helps you easily personalize your cold outreach so people love your emails more.

 

Most of our users see a 200% increase in demo booked rates in their first months.

 

If you feel like harvesting a few more clients this quarter, would you be interested in learning a bit more?

 

Thanks,

Hans

PS. How’s your Michael Scott impression?”

 

Let’s dissect that one shall we.

 

Why you’re reaching out continued

 

Move from your intro into the reason you’re reaching out. Keep it short, simple, ideally use industry language. Make sure you’re focusing on 1 main problem or pain point that you’re solving. Never more than 3 sentences. Either 2 medium length ones, or 1 medium length + 2 shorter ones to make for easy reading.

 

To be fair, this is the part where most people struggle. Not because they have such a hard time explaining why their product is awesome, but rather because they have a problem explaining it in a simple way.

 

How many cold emails haven’t we received where we had no idea what we were supposed to be buying?

 

Take Lyne as an example..

 

“Our product leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning frameworks to help professionals in revenue generating roles to increase email to demo ratios, positively influencing vital demand generation metrics across the board.”

 

Compared to this:

 

“Lyne uses AI to write icebreakers for cold email. Most of our users see a 128%+ increase in positive response rates.”

 

Turns out, writing a simple email is actually pretty darn difficult. 

 

Just make sure you’re reading your email out loud before sending it. Falling over sentences or finding yourself skipping words? Time to go back to the drawing board.

 

Proof of results

 

Think of this as a one-line case study. Show proof, ideally mention names, but definitely mention numbers. Talk about increases in percentages or “2x”, and focus on one main thing. 

 

In the example above we talk about improving warm response rates and nothing else, even though our solution also helps increase open rates and much more.

 

If you can, mention a time frame as well. For example:

 

“Just last month we helped 24 companies double their cold email open rates.”

“Just last month we helped 24 companies double their cold email open rates in under 3 weeks.”

“Most of the companies we work with see a 200% increase in warm response rates within the first month on our platform.”

 

Remember how I didn’t go for that final version in our first example? That’s because in section #2 I had two medium-length sentences instead of a mix with shorter ones.

 

Here’s how that very first email could’ve been written as well:

 

“Hi Andrew, Hans here. Really enjoyed reading your case study on last year’s SEO project your team did with Apple. Impressed you managed to land them a 300% increase in organic traffic to product pages.

 

Not to compare apples to oranges, but at Lyne we also help companies increase their campaign performance to help hit growth targets. We use AI to help you hyper-personalize cold emails faster than ever. That means more time to land clients like Apple.

 

Most of the companies we work with see a 200%+ increase in warm response rates in less than a month after using us.

 

If you’re not too busy optimizing H-tags, would you be curious to learn a bit more?

 

Best,

Hans

PS. I see that you went to USF – go Bulls! I’m curious to know how it impacted your career path.

 

So here’s what the framework looks like when written down:

 

Hi {{first_name}}, {{sender_first_name}} here. Short intro to show you’ve done your research. Max. 3 sentences, ideally 2 but you could write them a bit differently — like this.

 

Then here you mention why you’re reaching out. Mix medium-length sentences with shorter ones, to make for easy reading. Talking about two things? Talk about thing 1 & thing 2.

 

Here you show proof of results in either 1 short sentence, or a slightly longer one.

 

Then you wouldn’t want to leave your simple CTA out, would you?

 

Thanks,

{{sender_first_name}}

 

PS. Make sure to mention something light and maybe even funny right here, they might read it first.

 

Cold email template framework

 

Some other important rules to keep in mind when writing a cold email are:

 

  • Never use more than 150-175 words
  • Write simple. Imagine you’re talking to a friend
  • Switch up medium length sentences with short ones
  • Break the writing rules if you have to. Start sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’
  • Don’t use filler words (purge your emails of them before sending)
  • Try to replace ‘and’ with ‘&’ for easier reading

 

The main benefit of using a strict framework within which you’ll allow yourself for some creativity is that you’ll be able to test what works and what doesn’t. 

 

Because if you’re sending completely different emails every single time, how will you know what works?

 

By using a framework and tweaking parts of it over time (mixing up the structure, adding an additional sentence, not using an intro but moving personalization to the PS section), you can easily test and measure what works.

 

How to write relevant cold emails at scale

 

Doing this at scale is a whole new challenge however. Some small details just aren’t replicable without writing every single email manually.

 

Sales personalization at scale does mean sacrificing detail to some degree, but with the right strategy you can still write some killer cold emails.

 

It’s important you take the right approach from the start, all the way back at your targeting and segmentation long before you even write your first draft.

 

For example, say we’re targeting senior marketing professionals at software companies with 51-1000 employees. 

 

There are so many titles and other variables that come into play that it’s nearly impossible to write one email that would speak to all these different people.

 

Sales Navigator for Cold Email

 

Especially if you plan on using merge tags like {{job_title}} your emails will end up looking robotic and automated.

 

“Hey David, as a Vice President of Growth Services at Sapper Consulting, LLC do you ever…”

 

The best way to still allow yourself to write relevant emails, is to segment this way down.

 

First, the day-to-day life of marketing professionals at firms with 51-100 people will look very different than that of people with the same title at firms with 1000 workers.

 

The first group will be far more in the trenches themselves, worrying about performance of their campaigns and things like their content calendar.

 

The second group will be much more focused on making strategic decisions and reporting to the board. 

 

While that doesn’t mean that lowering their CPA by 32% isn’t something they’re not interested in, it probably wouldn’t be right to approach them the same way you would the first group.

 

Our initial search has over 20k results, which means we still have a lot of room for segmentation. Let’s dive into a few angles you could use here.

 

Segment by seniority

 

Probably the most important way of segmenting a broad group like this is by dividing on seniority & company headcount. For all of our examples below, assume we’re doing so unless stated otherwise.

 

You could make splits of more senior marketing professionals and professionals with manager positions but a bit lower on the ladder. Divide these groups up by company headcount and you have some pretty solid segments down already.

 

C-level 250+ HC

VP + Director level 250+ HC

Manager 250+ HC

C-level 51-200 HC

VP + Director level 51-200 HC

Manager 51-200 HC

 

You could then easily write & personalize emails for each segment.

 

Let’s say we’re reaching out to the VP + Director level 250+ HC segment. What we could do is for each company to grab the name of the marketing executive, or any other marketing colleague, from their LinkedIn page.

 

That would allow us to send an email that goes something like this:

 

“Hi {{first_name}}, {{sender_first_name}} here. {{intro}}.

 

Quick question – is {{colleague_name}} still the one responsible for paid social? Reason I’m asking is because your ad just popped up on my feed and…”

 

Hyper-personalization achieved. You’re now sending a cold email to a high-level marketing professional, you show you’ve done your research, and he or she will most likely forward your email to that person in question (who will never dare say no to having a call with you now), or they’ll respond themselves.

 

It’ll require a bit of extra work, but with Phantombuster something like this could be automated pretty easily.

 

Same goes for the other way around. Just write your pitch around “is {{marketing_leader_name}} breathing down your neck to hit the Q4 targets?”.

 

Next, make sure that your pitch is now aimed at the specific pain points your newly segmented persona is experiencing and you’re golden.

 

Want more good news? You now don’t even have to use the {{job_title}} merge tag. Simply go with “as a marketing lead” or “as a senior marketing executive”, or whatever applies to your segment.

 

Segment by geography + seniority + head count

 

Another personal favorite is going with the same segmentation above, but also adding a geography based filter. Next, you can then base your email on specifics of that area, or just talk about the weather.

 

Reaching out to California based prospects? Talk about how your product is “bigger news than Tesla moving their HQ from Cali to Texas”.

 

Segment by years in position

 

Some of the most successful campaigns I’ve run when still doing lead gen for clients were based around this.

 

The intro went something like this: “Having been the marketing manager at {{company_name}} for over {{years_in_position}} now, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of moments where you wanted to {{main_pain_point}}.

 

Simple but effective. With our Chrome Extension you can grab this info directly from Sales Navigator, find your prospects their email, write a personalized intro for your emails, and reach out. All in just 3 clicks.

 

Segment by school

 

This one takes a bit more work, but going after some of the bigger US schools could pay off pretty well for you.

 

Intros or entire emails written around schools, their mascots, their sports teams, or campus restaurants are a great way to break the ice.

 

Again, we automate the entire process with our no-touch Lynes.

 

How to write a good cold email CTA

 

When your prospect makes it this far, please don’t ruin it by including a Calendly link and asking them to book a demo. We’re past that.

 

Plenty of research has shown that going with a softer ask yields far better results.

 

Some examples of softer asks are:

 

“Mind if I send over a bit more info?”

“Is that something that’s currently on your radar?”

“Is that something that’s relevant right now?”

“What do you think?”

“Curious to learn more?”

“Is that something you’re interested in?”

 

And so on..

 

If you can find a way to tie the subject of your email or something personal of the prospect to your CTA, great. If not, don’t sweat it.

 

A short and to the point CTA is great and easy to set up at scale.

 

How to use the PS section for killer cold email personalization

 

This is where you can have a bit of fun, or try and build a connection with your prospect.

 

Try mentioning their educational background, a local bar, restaurant or sports team, or maybe some industry news.

 

“Saw that Tesla is moving to your area – excited yet?”

 

Keep it simple, short, and light. Chances are, your prospect will read this first because a PS section stands out.

 

If your PS section shows something personalized, the recipient will probably feel a lot better about reading the actual email, instead of a PS section that talks about your product.

 

Recap

 

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year or so, it’s that cold outreach and AI are a match made in heaven. 

 

While simple AI-powered improvements such as email confirmation or positive reply detection have already been making our lives easier for years, we’ve only started to scratch the surface of what’s possible when it comes to sales personalization.

 

YouTube video

 

Lyne is pioneering that exact space and every day we’re uncovering more exciting use cases. As we’re able to add more advanced functionality to our app, we’re also seeing the results of our users (and of our own cold email campaigns) improve drastically.

 

As with any tactic; if it’s used too much the effectiveness wears off. Which is why it’s important you keep experimenting and trying different angles & find ways to stand out.

 

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lyne.ai uses AI to generate hyper-personalized intros and more for cold outreach. 

 

We help you move beyond {{first_name}} and {{company_name}} and instead send cold emails that feel as if you’ve spent hours researching your prospects online.

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The Easiest Way to Manage Multiple Inboxes on One Domain

The Easiest Way to Manage Multiple Inboxes on One Domain

When you’re looking to scale your cold email campaigns, you’ll often find yourself adding multiple variations of the same person in your GSuite admin.

 

Managing multiple inboxes of the same person on the same domain can be a frustrating experience however. Having to login to several different Gmail inboxes, switching between tabs, and managing templates, replies, and leads across multiple accounts is just plain annoying.

 

It is however a reality plenty of sales reps & agency owners are facing daily (as were we until not too long ago..). Luckily for both of us, there’s a pretty easy solution to our problem that allows you to manage all these inboxes from your main alias.

 

It’ll make your life a lot easier because you’ll only have to stay logged in to 1 inbox, you can hook this inbox up to your CRM to never miss a lead, and there’s no need to save templates to new inboxes.

 

YouTube video

 

Getting started

 

To get started navigate to admin.google.com while logged in to the admin or main alias for the domain you’re managing.

 

Manage multiple inboxes

 

Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Default Routing and start setting up a new forwarding rule.

 

Gsuite forwarding rule settings

 

In the next step, you’ll be asked which inbox you would like to receive all the emails from.

 

Manage multiple inboxes Gsuite

 

Here, put in the email address you’d like to forward to your main inbox. In our case, we’re looking to forward any email that comes into the “hdekker@getlyne.net” inbox to “hans@getlyne.net”.

 

Scroll down to “also deliver to” and click on “add”.

 

Gsuite advanced settings

 

Here, add the main inbox for your domain and instead of “basic” select “advanced”.

 

Workplace advanced settings

 

Under “spam and delivery options” uncheck “do not deliver spam to this recipient” to avoid having to still login and manually check spam (which you’re doing..right?!). Next, click save.

 

Advanced Gsuite Settings

 

Scroll down a bit further and make sure that “perform this action on non-recognized and recognized addresses” is selected and click “save” again.

 

GSuite for cold email

 

That’s it. Next, make sure you repeat the same action for every inbox you’d like to route to your main inbox and you’re good to go. You can now manage all these inboxes without awkward Fwd: threads or having to juggle multiple tabs & logins.

 

Some side notes

 

There are two small side notes to be made here. We’ll start with the most obvious one: you’ll now reply to the prospect from a different address than what they received the email from.

 

However, nearly no one notices and those who do, they don’t care. As long as you make sure that both inboxes are set up in the exact same way, meaning they both have the exact same pictures, signature, and sender name, there won’t be any issue here.

 

Another side note to be made here is that in theory, this could potentially (slightly) impact deliverability. Your alias inboxes will now only send & receive 1 email in a thread, and will never get a real email exchange going like most real humans would.

 

While there haven’t been any real numbers yet that support this theory, it’s something to potentially keep in mind. A simple solution to this would be to work with an email warmup tool that allows you to have email threads that go beyond just one email exchange.

 

What’s next?

 

What’s next is that you can now manage multiple inboxes without the headache. One great benefit that this brought for us is that we can now use Pipedrive’s double-sync feature to manage all these inboxes from our Pipedrive dashboard.

 

This means far less data entry work and we can simply create new leads in 2 clicks as they come in.

 

I hope this made your life a little easier as well. Want to make your (cold outreach) life even easier? Check out what we do at Lyne.ai.

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