11 Sales Email Templates for Better Outreach: Subject Lines, Calls to Action & Follow-up Advice for Sales Teams

11 Sales Email Templates for Better Outreach: Subject Lines, Calls to Action & Follow-up Advice for Sales Teams

Sales is many things. Hard. Obnoxious. Satisfying. Joyful. It really depends on the day, right? What you may not know is that sales email templates can be all of these things, too.

Sending your best sales pitch out into the ether and receiving nothing back is definitely hard and obnoxious. On the other hand, nothing compares with using a great sales email template and booking ten appointments in one afternoon. That’s a definite check in the satisfying and joyful columns.

Sound a little overly optimistic? It’s really not. Research shows email is still one of the strongest marketing methods.

For instance, “Email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter.”

Moreover, email is useful throughout the life of the customer and beyond. According to recent sales statistics, “64 percent of sales professionals who cross-sell say email follow-up is the most effective cross-selling strategy” and “43 percent of sales professionals say email is the most effective channel for selling.”

You need email, plain and simple. Sadly, sales reps don't see much success with sales email. Thats often due to:

  • Poorly written or optimized subject lines
  • Missing preview text
  • Body copy that misses the mark
  • A lack of testing for all of the above

The good news is, that’s where sales email templates come in. An effective sales email template can get you where you need to go, all from the comfort of your own office chair.

Even better news: We’re gonna give them to you!

Sales Email Best Practices

Before getting into the templates themselves, let’s discuss best practices and essential starting points with sales emails. There are many important factors governing how well your email does, such as the subject and opening lines, as well as general readability and engagement.

There’s also the fact that your sales email template needs to correlate with the purpose of your letter. If there’s a mismatch, then you’re less likely to reach your audience effectively.

The result? Fewer prospects. Fewer meetings. Fewer sales.

More tears. That’s best avoided, right? Right.

sales email mistakes woman looking sadly at a book

Struggling with email deliverability challenges in your sales efforts? Discover the power of a well-executed technical email setup to overcome these hurdles.

Use Effective Calls to Action (CTAs)

Even though this part comes at the end of the email, we’re going to discuss it first. The call to action (CTA) is easily the most important aspect of your email. Even if all the rest is optimized as heck, it won’t matter if customers don’t know what to do with themselves at the end of your email.

The call to action should be clear, specific and immediately actionable, and it needs to include all the tools for them to take that action. You might ask them to:

  • Call you back + offer a phone number
  • Respond to your email + tell them to click reply so they know it’s not a do-not-reply address
  • Check out a link + offer that link in underlined text of a different color
  • Take advantage of a free download + direct them to it with a clear link or a clickable image

Address this first, then move on to the rest of your optimization goals.

Use A/B Subject Line Testing To Improve Open Rates

Okay, you have a decent CTA. Now it’s time to make sure they actually open the email, and that comes down to the subject line. This is where you tell them what the email is about without being too “salesy" about it.

Your subject line can take many approaches. For instance, it can:

  • Include a benefit or offer (this is what they’ll get from reading)
  • Make a joke (something timely or goofy, like a “why did the chicken cross the road” variation)
  • Directly call them out for not taking action (like not responding to your last email)
  • Use statistical numbers to promise what they can accomplish (such as how the use of a product increases their sales)
  • Offer a discount (like a sales or referral code)
  • Address specific pain points, such as "Are you struggling to..."

Consider using the prospect’s name in your cold email subject line. This is a good way to personalize it and make them feel as though you know each other.

One warning, though. Be wary of including your company name in the subject line. Your goal is to make it about them so that they’ll click on it, and your company’s name could make them feel like it’s about you and what you want. You can mention it in the body of the email instead, either in the intro to let them know who you are or at the bottom when you sign off.

However, if you have good brand awareness and your prospects are pretty warm, go ahead and add your name! In this case, your name might be what gets them to open the email. This is a matter of trial and error, as well as gut instinct.

If you're struggling to come up with email subject line variations, try our free tool. Tell it what type of email you're writing, and our ChatGPT-powered email subject line tool will generate ten subject lines you can test.

Once you’ve got some subject line ideas, test them against one another. Send out batches of emails and see which subject line message gets you better results and conversions. Then tweak that one a little more, and test it against the previous round’s winner. Test, optimize, repeat.

Use Preview Text To Attract Clicks

Make sure to use your preview text as well. This is the text that follows the subject line in the inbox snippet. If you don’t specifically fill it out, it will just pull from your email body copy, but that’s unlikely to be as effective as a 140-character sentence that you craft yourself. Every word counts!

Track Open Rate Analytics Over Time

Now that you’ve optimized, it’s time to put metrics to work for you. Track figures like subscribers, open rates and clicks. When you do get responses and make the call, track those figures too.

If the above info made you feel like it’s completely, utterly impossible to keep it simple … well, you’re not alone. And it’s true that it might take some time to integrate all of the above steps, but that’s okay. Time is something you have, and as long as you’re moving forward, then your efforts are likely to pay for themselves.

Now that we know a bit more about how to write better emails, let’s jump into the sales email examples.

Effective Sales Email Templates That Convert

Sales professionals need a range of different email templates in order to reach the variety of potential customers they’re pursuing. Each of these, from the introduction email to the last Hail Mary missive, has different structures. However, they’re all aimed toward the same goal: getting a response.

Whether you want your recipients to email back for pricing, to learn more about your small business product suite, or simply to say “hey” (a more important step than you might think), it’s all about that response.

With each of these templates, we’ll help you take your best shot at getting one. Dig in.

1. Cold Email Outreach Sales Emails

This is the most common type of sales email. When most people think of sales emails, they're more often than not conjuring up images of cold email campaigns queuing up en masse to unsuspecting recipients that (may or may not) need their product.

Contrary to popular belief though, cold sales emails can actually be refreshingly human—and effective at opening up a line of communication. Here are two of our favorite simple cold email templates:

Hey [First name],

My name is [Your name] and I'm with [Your Company Name]. We work with organizations like [Company Name] to [insert one sentence pitch].

[One sentence unique benefit].

Do you have a few minutes available on [day of the week] to chat quickly and explore if this would be something valuable to incorporate into your events?

[Your name]

Additional example:

Subject: [Company Name] + [Your Company]

Hi, my name is Nick with [your company].

We help [specific company type] with [one-liner].

I wanted to learn how you handle [thing your company handles] at [Company Name] and show you what we're working on.

Can you jump on a quick call tomorrow afternoon?

[Your name]

The structure of this first email type is simple because you want only one thing to happen. That one thing is a quick call ASAP. Don't use the email to explain everything you do. Avoid referencing specifics. All of that information should be on your website, which they almost always check out before deciding to reply (or not).

Because getting your response rate up is the only goal of this email, your only job is to pique their interest. Then offer a phone number and watch what happens.

If you need more cold email templates like above, and specific to B2B, check out our article on 12 B2B Cold Email Templates.

2. Prospecting Sales Emails

One of our most effective cold sales emails relies on one major assumption: It assumes that you know your recipient is already a qualified prospect.

Let's start by defining what exactly a sales prospect really is. The difference between a lead and a sales prospect is that a "lead" comes first—and once that cold lead is qualified by a member of your sales team, they become a (warmer) verified sales prospect within your overall sales process.

So with that context in mind, a prospecting sales email is being delivered to a warm lead once we have a reasonable degree of certainty they'd be a good fit to become a customer of our product.

Here's our most effective prospecting sales email template:

Hey [First name],

I've been following along with all of your growth at [Company Name] these past couple years and I wanted to see if you'd be up for quickly chatting about how [Your Company] has been helping similar brands like [Company Name] to [insert one sentence pitch].

[One sentence unique benefit].

Do you have a few minutes available on [day of the week] to chat quickly and explore if this would be something valuable to incorporate into your marketing efforts?

[Your name]

The main difference with this prospecting sales email, as opposed to the more generic cold email above, is that this approach has a more personalized, direct approach that's designed to make a very confident first impression on your prospect.

Pro tip: You can use the P.S. line in your email signature to link to a relevant case study or work sample that'd get this prospect more interested in your sales email.

3. Pitch Emails

Similar to our previous email that starts the conversation on a confident note, delivering a pitch email means that you’ll be coming on very directly. You strongly believe that your product or service can help this prospect (and that they'll get a massive return on their investment), so it's your job to get them on board. Pitch them.

Here's our most effective pitching-focused sales email template:

Hey [First name],

I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because [explain how we got their contact information and how we relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw your company online, etc.].

[Your Company] has a new tool that'll help [Company Name] to more effectively [one sentence pitch of benefits].

I know that [our product] will be able to help [Company Name] [insert high-level benefit here] in less than 3 months like we've already seen with [relevant customer] and [relevant customer].

Are you available for a quick call at [time and date]?

[Your name]

4. Introduction (Referral) Sales Emails

When you're not sure who the right decision maker is at your target organization, it often pays off to skip additional layers of research and jump straight to sending a sales email to the closest fit person you can quickly track down.

That's where the introduction referral approach comes into play—because you'll be asking for an internal referral to the person who's most well-suited to field your incoming request.

Here's our most effective referral sales email template:

Hey [First name],

My name is [Your name] and I'm with [Your Company Name]. We work with organizations like [Company Name] to [insert one sentence pitch].

Could you direct me to the right person to talk to about this at [Company Name] so we can explore if this would be something valuable to your sales team?

[Your name]

That's it—short and sweet!

5. Appointment Request Sales Emails

This one is relatively straightforward. You've got a qualified prospect, now it's time to reach out and get an appointment scheduled so you can further qualify them for your product.

Here's our most effective appointment request sales email template:

Hey [First name],

I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because [explain how we got their contact information and how we relate to them: talked to a colleague, saw your company online, met at a conference, etc.].

[Your Company Name] has a new platform that will help your team at [Company Name]. [One sentence pitch of benefits]. We do this by:

  • Benefit/feature 1
  • Benefit/feature 2
  • Benefit/feature 3 (optional)

I'd love to explore how [Your Company] can specifically help your business. Are you available for a quick call around [time and date]?

[Your name]

With this approach, you have one very specific goal—to get your prospect on the phone at a specific date and time. When you make your call-to-action very clear and direct, you stand a much higher chance of getting an equally clear response, whether that's a yes or a no.

If that answer is a no, you can either attempt to schedule a better time to connect, or you can probe for other reasons your prospect is objecting to the call.

6. Follow-up Sales Emails

Here's one of our favorite follow-up email templates for once you've already made your first outreach attempt—whether a previous email, phone call, or what-have-you—and you haven't heard back yet:

Hey [First name],

I wanted to show you how [Your Company] can help you to better [the thing your product or service helps customers do]. We've helped companies like [relevant customer] and [relevant customer] to achieve great results already this year.

Do you have a few minutes for a quick call later this week?

Let me know a good time, or you can pick a spot on my calendar by clicking here.

[Your name]

Pro tip: Include your link to a calendar booking tool like SavvyCal or Pick to streamline the scheduling process for your prospects. This will help the salesperson and prospect find a mutually available time to connect and review your product.

Make it as simple as possible for the prospect to respond with what you want. This email clearly states that you want them to respond with a day and time for a call. Adding three explicit times for a call implies that you wrote this email for them specifically. It implies you looked at your calendar and sought out three openings for yourself.

Another helpful tip is to show the times in their time zone. Make it easy for them; don’t make them figure it out. That’s your job, and a good customer relationship management system (CRM) will make it much easier for you to offer this.

If they reply with a time and it’s already taken, tell them and suggest other times, or have a colleague take the call.

7. Reminder Sales Emails

Here's our most effective reminder sales email template. It’s geared toward getting your prospect to take that final action on the last outstanding task after they're already interested in buying:

Hey [First name],

Hope all is well. When we connected yesterday, you said that you'd be ready to get started with using [your product name] by the end of this week.

Here's the link to where you can create an account, input your billing information and start inviting teammates to join your organization.

We're excited to get you on board! Do you need anything else from me in order to get set up this week?

[Your name]

You can also create reminder sales emails for your eCommerce store when customers leave the cart without finishing the transaction. Here are some free abandoned cart email templates you can follow.

8. Thank You Sales Email Examples

Alright, so you've delivered your pitch and it went over well. Now, it's time to close the sale and officially get this customer on board.

Here's our most effective thank you-driven sales email template to send after you've had a solid meeting or delivered a demo:

Hey [First name],

Thanks for taking the time to connect this morning. I think you'd be a great fit for [plan type or option] and we're excited to get you on board.

Here’s what I’ll need from you in order to get started:

  • Onboarding Item 1
  • Onboarding Item 2
  • Onboarding Item 3

What day/time works best for you to set up a call and get the final details locked in? Or you can pick a spot on my calendar by clicking here.

[Your name]

9. Post-Transaction Sales Emails

Here's our most effective hand-off sales email template to help ease the transition to a success or support team member that'll be handling your (new) customer from here on out:

Hey [First name],

Thanks again for coming on board today! We're excited to have you and are really looking forward to seeing the impact we can help drive in [the area of the company your product helps].

I’ve CC’ed the head of our success team, [Their name], on this email. They’re going to be assigning you a rep from our team that'll be available to answer questions and help with troubleshooting as you get up and running over the coming days and weeks.

Also, here's the link to our product guide that's packed with tutorials, helpful screenshots, video walkthroughs, examples, templates and more.

It's been a pleasure—thanks again!

[Your name]

10. Check-in and Follow-Up Sales Emails

Got some mildly-warm prospects that asked to be kept in loose touch with you for future opportunities to work together? Here’s our most effective long-term follow-up sales email template for that:

Hey [First name],

It's been a couple of months since we last connected, and you asked me to check in at the start of the next quarter.

How are things going at [Company Name]? We recently released a new feature that [what it does] and I think it could really turn things up a notch for your marketing team.

Do you have a few minutes to chat about it this week? I'd love to give you a preview.

[Your name]

Send variations of this simple follow-up email at reasonable intervals of time, based on either when your prospect requested to receive the follow-up—or at a frequency that doesn't burn them out.

11. Getting a Response

This email is a direct reaction to when a prospect takes an action but does not respond to you. It should be a high-quality missive from sales reps to their prospects, directly addressing the fact that they have not responded. While this might feel aggressive, it’s a good way to prompt action from those who are genuinely interested. Therefore, it’s an important strategy, especially if you’re contacting them for the last time.

For instance, if a prospect has opened an email but not replied, or if they’ve viewed a landing page that was part of your email campaign but not taken action, this is an appropriate step to take. If you want, you can customize the email with information you gathered via a form, their LinkedIn profile or somewhere else (just don’t be creepy about it, obviously).

Here’s an example of how a SaaS company might do it:

Hey [First name],

I can see that you read my last email, but you didn't answer.

I understand that you are busy with [a customized detail about their work or life].

This is where [Your SaaS Company] can help you.

If you decide to try us out, you can quickly automate and customize your sales emails down to the smallest detail.

You can also track leads and prospects inside an all-in-one dashboard that takes the guesswork out of your entire process.

And these are just a few of the features that will save you time.

We offer a lot more, so click on the link to my calendar below to set up a demo with me (see, it's already super easy!).

I'll be happy to show you how to use the platform and how to close more deals by working smarter, not harder.

How does tomorrow at 11 a.m. PST suit you?

[Your name]

Crafting a compelling sales email can sometimes feel like an art form, one that requires a fine balance of creativity and strategy. For those who find this process daunting or simply wish to enhance their existing approach, resources like Close's AI Email Writer offer invaluable assistance. By leveraging such tools, sales professionals can efficiently produce personalized and optimized emails that resonate with their audience, ensuring no opportunity is missed.

Common Sales Email Template Mistakes

Okay, so you’re ready to take all those leads and turn them into sweet, sweet cash money.

There’s one problem, though. Your email templates aren’t converting, no matter how hard you try. This could be for a number of reasons, including:

  • Your copy is off and isn’t connecting with prospects
  • Your subject lines aren’t great
  • Your preview text is off, or you aren’t customizing it at all
  • You haven’t aligned your email template with your goals
  • You aren’t using email templates at all
  • You have weak or nonexistent calls to action
  • You’re slinging content without testing it

While any of these might seem like an insurmountable problem, none of them are. Let’s take a look.

Ready to Super-Charge Your Sales Emails?

Revenue from email marketing is only growing, and is predicted to grow even more in the years to come. If you’re looking to jump on the Email Template Train to Successful Sales Station, then these templates are the best way to get there.

It’s not enough to just send out those first cold emails or referrals that rely on a mutual connection. Those are great ways to get started, but you need to create excellent follow-up and stalled customer sequences too.

That’s where a great automation tool such as Close comes in. Close can help you track leads and prospects, contact them regularly without breaking a sweat and close more deals. (Seriously, it’s right there in the name.)

If you’re interested in learning more, we invite you to watch this 10-minute software demo or browse our free resources today. If you’re ready to dive in, you’re welcome to try our product free for 14 days—with absolutely no commitment.

Get ready to see greater success in your outreach, from social to email to calls and more. Give Close a try today!

(And yes … we’re working on those revenge email templates. Promise.)