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Selling drives every great business, whether you realize it or not. Value-based selling isn’t a trick. It’s the difference between pushing a product and solving a problem for your customer. It’s the difference between a forgettable pitch and a deal your customer can’t wait to say yes to.

Not a salesperson? Think again. Every time you pitch an idea, rally a team, or land a client, you’re selling.

Yet, for many, the word “sales” still carries a bad reputation. When they hear it, most people picture pushy tactics, awkward conversations, and high-pressure pitches. We’ve all sat through a pitch so forced, so off-target, that it made us want to run. But great selling? It doesn’t even feel like selling. It feels like solving.

I wanted to know: What separates great sellers from forgettable ones? So I went straight to the source: founders and sales pros who’ve mastered the art. So, what’s their secret? What do they do to make customers lean in instead of tuning out? Keep reading to break down the real-world strategies that make value-based selling work.

Table of Contents

• What is value-based selling?
• A Value-Based Selling Framework
• Why Value-Based Selling Matters
• Best Practices for Value-Based Selling
• Value-Based Selling Methodologies
• Value-Based Selling Examples

In essence, value-based selling moves us from a mindset of “What can I sell?” to “How can I solve my client’s problem?” This shift fosters trust, deepens client relationships, and ultimately leads to sustainable business growth.

Pro tip: “The best salespeople today are those who can articulate the pain their prospects are experiencing,” says Callum Laing, founder of the Veblen Director Programme and a partner at Unity Group.

“The better you can capture their frustration, the better you can position your product as the solution. Customers want to be heard. Value-based selling means asking great questions and truly listening. If you’re not the best solution, be willing to walk away.”

A Value-Based Selling Framework

Understanding why buyers make purchasing decisions is the foundation of successful selling.

To move forward in the buying process, customers need confidence in three key areas: emotional connection, logical comparison, and trust in outcomes. These align with three core factors of the value-based selling framework: resonate, differentiate, and substantiate.

Resonate

Buyers must want and need what you’re selling, and your offering should align with their goals, challenges, and aspirations. By understanding these, you will know if your product is a good fit for them and how to pitch it so it hits homes.

Among the top six reasons prospects back out of deals, 31% of salespeople surveyed in our State of Sales report said it was because prospects weren’t convinced the offering was worth the price, and another 28% said prospects weren’t convinced it was right for them. With a value-based selling approach, salespeople could close more of these deals by focusing on the value of their offering.

Here’s how Christina Brady, CEO of Luster, explains value-based selling: “The first thing to keep in mind with value-based selling is that it’s not about what you, as the salesperson, perceive the value of your product or service to be. It’s about understanding what’s valuable in a solution for the customer and then determining if your product is a fit for their needs.”

This means asking insightful questions, actively listening, and mapping their priorities to your solution’s benefits — rather than just pitching features.

Differentiate

Your offering must stand out from other available options. Buyers evaluate differentiation by comparing features, pricing, brand perception, and overall fit for their specific needs. What makes your product or service unique? Why should they choose you over competitors?

This means first creating an offering that stands out from the competition, and then promoting and explaining what makes it unique. A thorough market research can help you understand the competitive landscape, gaps in competitors’ offerings, and market sentiment. Knowing what’s already out there will allow you to position your brand better.

In other words, to differentiate your product or service, you need to have a clearly defined unique selling proposition that your sales reps can articulate to prospects.

Substantiate

Finally, your offering must prove it will deliver on its promises. Can you provide evidence, case studies, or testimonials that back up your claims? If you can’t prove the value you offer, prospects have nothing other than your words.

With 77% of B2B customers doing their own research before speaking with sales, I think it’s more important than ever to care for the reputation of your brand. Customers — both satisfied and not — will make their opinions of and experiences with your brand known on social media, review sites, and in conversations with their friends.

While you can’t control what other people say, you can amplify the positive feedback, share the hard numbers that represent success, and provide success stories to prospects. All of these will substantiate your value claims.

I think Mike Schultz, president of RAIN Group, sums it up well. He explains that a strong value proposition should address all three areas. “When your value proposition successfully covers these three areas, you convince buyers that they need your solution, you’re the best option, and they believe you’ll achieve results,” he says.

This buyer-focused approach is the foundation of value-based selling.

Pro tip: With Sales Hub, your team can focus on the highest-value prospects — using data-driven insights to personalize outreach and maximize results.

Why Value-Based Selling Matters

In my opinion, value-based selling is the only way to sell. By putting the customer and their needs first, customers will trust you and the value your product or service offers them. Moreover, their relationship with your business won’t end after they make a purchase — they will stick around if they find value and recommend you to others.

In other words, value-based selling ensures both your customers and your company win. Check out how below.

• It builds trust with prospects. By prioritizing the customer’s needs over your sales targets, you establish yourself as a trusted advisor rather than just another salesperson. In fact, I learned that top-performing sellers are 60% more likely to excel at presenting the overall value persuasively and 63% more likely to excel at making and communicating strong ROI and financial cases for buyers.
• It leads to more informed buying decisions. When you educate your prospects about their challenges and potential solutions, they’re better equipped to make decisions that truly benefit their business.
• It creates long-term, satisfied customers. Customers who feel their needs have been understood and met are more likely to become loyal, repeat buyers and brand advocates.
• It helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace. In a world where prospects are bombarded with sales messages, I’ve found a value-based approach can set you apart from competitors who are still using aggressive, product-centric tactics.
• It aligns with modern buying behaviors. Today’s buyers are more informed and self-directed than ever. I like how value-based selling respects this by providing relevant, helpful information throughout the buying process. According to RAIN Group, buyers report that a seller’s “focus on the value they can deliver” is the #1 most influential factor in their purchase decision — with 96% finding it influential.
• It increases revenue. 90% of sales teams that use a value-based approach report year-over-year revenue growth, compared to 72% of sales teams that don’t.

Best Practices for Value-Based Selling

Most sales pitches fall flat because they focus on the product instead of the prospect. The best salespeople don’t just sell — they solve problems. To master value-based selling, I spoke with experts who’ve been in the trenches. If you want to close more deals, start with these best practices.

1. Do your homework.

Remember, the goal of value-based selling is to close the sale by prioritizing your prospect’s needs. However, you can’t prioritize your prospect’s needs if you don’t know what those needs are. Always do your homework to understand your contact — usually well before hopping on a sales call.

When researching a prospect, aim to understand their company and industry, background, and current pain points. By understanding these pieces of information, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to serve them best.

Here is some information I recommend researching when you prepare for your call.

Their Current Role and Previous Job Experience

I’ve found a simple LinkedIn search can help you learn about your prospect’s career history. Are they new to their current role? If so, they might still be ramping up and could benefit from learning from you.

Is this their first time making this type of purchasing decision, or have they been in similar roles? If they have experience in this area, they may be more interested in expediting the process so you can better serve them with efficiency.

Common Connections

If you have a common connection with a prospect, that can help you build trust with them faster. Additionally, the contact could help provide key insights into the prospect’s pain points and how you could provide value to them.

Content Shared on Social Media

If your prospect has a public X or Facebook profile, checking out what content they have recently shared or engaged with can give you an idea as to what is currently important to them.

Their Company’s Website, Press, and Social Media Pages

This will tell you whether their company has undergone any recent leadership changes, is currently releasing a new product, or has been in the news.

Their Contact Listing in Your CRM

Before hopping on the phone with your prospect, I definitely recommend checking out their profile in your CRM. This will tell you if and when any of your colleagues have engaged with them and what content from your company they have opened or engaged with.

Additionally, performing a simple Google search for their company’s competitors will give you a great deal of information about their industry landscape.

Pro tip: Remember, as Dale Shephard, founder of TrinityHawk, wisely points out, “Asking unprepared questions that you should know will not garner trust, and your prospect will close up.” The more you know going in, the more value you can provide from the very first interaction.

Need a structured approach to organize your preparation and value-based selling strategy? Our free Sales Plan Template helps you document your company positioning, target market analysis, prospecting strategy, and sales cadence. It has everything you need to align your team around delivering maximum value to customers.

2. Don’t jump into your sales pitch too early.

I know it’s tempting to launch into your carefully crafted sales pitch as soon as you get your prospect on the line. Resist this urge! Instead, give your prospect space to explain their current situation and what they’re looking for.

“The first thing you learn as a salesperson is not to data dump. If you’re going in blind and start listing everything your company does, you will exhaust the prospect’s attention span before you get to the part they care about,” says Jeff Walling, co-owner of ABM Equipment.

By listening first, you’ll gain invaluable insights that will help you tailor your approach and position your product or service as the ideal solution to their specific needs.

“Best practice is always to start by asking the client what their needs are, think about what pains you can solve, and then only talk about those. That’s why, in person-to-person sales, it can be said that all good selling is value-based selling,” Walling adds.

3. Communicate how your product provides value to the customer.

Once you understand your prospect’s needs, it’s time to articulate how your product or service provides value to them specifically. Remember, if they didn’t have a problem to solve or a need to fulfill, they wouldn’t be in the market for a new product.

I think Tim Peters, CMO at Enghouse Systems, articulates this perfectly:

“The real essence of value-based selling isn’t in telling a prospect about your value — it’s in demonstrating that you understand their specific problem better than they do. The shift that no one talks about is this: The sale isn’t about convincing the customer your solution has value; it’s about making them realize the cost of inaction is far greater than the price of your solution.”

As you look to sell, I recommend you make sure the benefits of your product are easy to understand and relevant to your prospect. For example:

• Is your product designed to reduce cycle time and improve productivity for those who use it?
• Does your company offer free training that will help customers quickly get up to speed after they have made their purchase?
• Does the purchase of your product include free automatic updates for customers to make their jobs easier?

For example, don’t just say your software improves productivity. Instead, explain how it can reduce their specific pain point of long project cycles by 30%, based on results you’ve seen with similar clients.

Whatever your unique differentiators are for your offering, make sure they are aligned with the customer’s needs, and use these points to guide your sales conversations.

Personalization should be your primary goal because “value is subjective,” Peters explained to me.

“What’s valuable to one client is irrelevant to another, and the only way to uncover what they truly care about is to stop thinking about value in generic terms. You need to become an expert at reading between the lines, uncovering hidden needs, and showing your customer the future they didn’t even know they wanted,” Peters says.

4. Focus on teaching instead of selling.

One of the most effective ways I’ve found to provide value to prospects and customers is to educate them on a topic of interest.

When you take an education-first approach, you position yourself as their go-to resource for information. And when they trust your expertise, they’re far more likely to buy from you.

Trust turns cold prospects into eager buyers because they already see you as the expert who understands their needs.

This could involve:

• Sharing industry insights by curating reports, trends, or research that affect their business.
• Offering solutions to common challenges by breaking down real-world problems and presenting step-by-step fixes.
• Providing relevant case studies or white papers by using proof points to show how others have solved similar issues.

Once trust is established and the prospect is ready to buy, your offering is far more appealing because you’ve already demonstrated value — instead of pushing the sale with no proof of value.

No matter your industry, the principle remains the same: Educating first builds trust. Let’s look at software sales as an example. Instead of running through a recycled sales pitch, you can start by asking a prospect what their top three challenges are.

Then, during your meeting, instead of talking at them with slides, walk them through real solutions in an informative, engaging way — tailored to their exact needs.

Pro tip: The best salespeople know when to stop talking. As Walling puts it, “The great paradox of sales is that those who love to talk last the longest, but shutting up is the real weapon.”

5. Guide the prospect through the buying process.

In value-based selling, think of yourself as both a consultant and a guide, helping your prospect make the most informed decision possible. This means:

• Sharing fresh ideas and strategies.
• Highlighting potential pitfalls or challenges.
• Providing real-life examples of how other customers have succeeded (or struggled) with certain approaches.

For example, if a prospect is considering a risky approach, share a real-life story of how that decision led to setbacks for another buyer. Concrete examples make your guidance more persuasive.

This approach keeps your prospect in control of their buying decision while allowing you to guide them with honesty and helpful insights.

6. Keep a personable approach.

Value-based selling is all about building relationships, which means keeping things natural and engaging. Here’s how to do that:

• Ask open-ended questions. Every question you ask should genuinely help you understand your prospect and encourage a thoughtful response. Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
• Master the art of small talk. While small talk may be the bane of every introvert’s existence, it can be a powerful tool for building trust. When in doubt, ask about their professional interests, responsibilities, or any upcoming events they’re involved in. These are great ways to start a conversation.
• Speak with warmth and confidence. Your prospect should feel like they’re engaging with a knowledgeable guide, not someone delivering a sales pitch. Use a natural, conversational tone, but stay professional and focused on their needs.

If you’re looking for helpful conversation starters, this post has even more tips and real-world examples.

7. Add value during every interaction.

I also recommend adding value each time you engage with your prospect to continue building trust and creating a long-term positive experience. You want them to feel heard and supported each time they interact with you.

This could mean leaving plenty of time to answer their questions in each meeting, not interrupting them when speaking, or even sharing helpful articles or content relevant to their business even when you aren’t actively engaged in a sales conversation. The small steps you take to make your prospect’s job easier can pay dividends in the long run.

8. Ask questions that challenge their thinking.

Most prospects have a rough idea of their problem, but they often don’t consider its full impact or what solving it could truly mean for their business.

Your job isn’t just to sell a solution. It is to help them think bigger. When they understand the full impact, they are more motivated to act, making it easier for you to guide them to a solution.

Ask thought-provoking questions that get them to see their situation in a new light:

• “If this problem persists for six more months, what’s the worst-case scenario?”
• “How does this challenge affect other departments or your long-term goals?”
• “If you solved this today, how would your team’s day-to-day work immediately change?”

When you push your prospect to consider the broader implications of their problem, you position yourself as a trusted consultant rather than just another salesperson.

Pro tip: The best sales conversations don’t just provide answers; they spark new questions. Make your questions open-ended, and resist the urge to jump in with solutions too soon.

The more space you give them to think, the more valuable the conversation becomes. If your prospect walks away thinking differently, you have already provided value.

9. Speak their language, not yours.

Jargon and industry buzzwords might sound impressive, but they don’t always resonate. Prospects care about clear solutions, not fancy terminology. The best salespeople adapt their messaging to match how their prospects talk about their business, challenges, and goals.

Pay attention to the words and phrases they use in emails, calls, and social media posts. Mirror their language in your conversations. Instead of talking about “efficiency gains” or “synergistic solutions,” focus on concrete benefits: saving time, reducing stress, and increasing revenue.

If your prospect is highly technical, get specific. If they are more high-level, keep it simple and results-focused. When your words reflect their own, they feel understood, and that is the foundation of trust.

People trust those who “get” them. The more your messaging aligns with how they naturally communicate, the easier it is to build rapport and demonstrate value.

10. Sell outcomes, not just features.

Your product might have cutting-edge features, but features don’t close deals. Outcomes do. People don’t buy tools. They buy results. They want to know how your solution makes their life easier, not just what it does.

Instead of saying: “Our software has an AI-powered automation tool.”

Try this: “Our customers cut manual data entry by 80%, freeing up hours for more strategic work.”

Instead of listing what your product does, paint a picture of the transformation it creates. Show them what life looks like after they invest.

Pro tip: Use case studies and real customer success stories to make outcomes feel tangible. Weave in success stories naturally. Drop them into conversation as proof points rather than presenting them as a pitch. A well-placed success story can be more persuasive than any feature list.

Value-Based Selling Methodologies

Now that we’ve covered the key principles, let’s look at four approaches to value-based selling that I’ve found effective in my career.

1. Qualitative Value-Focused Selling

Your value-selling framework does not have to rely on hard numbers. In many cases, it is in your best interest to focus on the more abstract, qualitative benefits your product or service can offer.

Delivering on this tactic leans heavily on your understanding of your prospect’s day-to-day pain points.

• How can you make life easier for your buyer and their employees?
• What can you do to iron out hitches, hiccups, and inefficiencies they face consistently?
• What will the benefits that come with that ironing out look like?

For example, if I were selling a project management tool, I might focus on how it reduces stress, improves team collaboration, and gives managers more visibility into their projects.

To do this effectively, I’d start by mapping out my prospect’s top frustrations. Then, I’d tie each frustration to a specific benefit my solution offers, whether it is saving time, reducing stress, or simplifying workflows. The clearer the connection, the stronger the value proposition.

2. Financial Incentive-Based Selling

This is not exactly radical or shocking to point out, but businesses generally exist to make money.

Financial success is one of the more obvious ways to gauge the value of a product or service, so pointing out how your offering can help in that realm provides a solid basis for effective value selling.

If you can give hard figures or reference points for how much revenue your prospect can expect to generate with your offering or how it can rein in operating costs, you can frame a compelling, more concrete value proposition for them.

You can achieve this by providing case studies of similar businesses you have helped in the past or citing certain processes and practices they implement that you can improve.

One way or another, show that your offering can have a direct bearing on their financial well-being.

Break down ROI projections into short-, mid-, and long-term wins. Show them how your solution creates immediate impact while setting them up for sustained financial success. The more tangible the numbers, the more persuasive your pitch.

Pro tip: Hard figures can be very persuasive, especially when selling to C-suite executives.

3. Differentiation-Focused Selling

Successful companies generally do not blend in with the pack. They are distinct from their competition in some way, shape, or form. That is why pushing a differentiation-oriented angle while value selling is one of the more effective routes you can take.

What can your offering do to enhance the most compelling, unique aspects of your prospect’s brand identity? If you can show that your product or service aligns well with who your buyer wants to be within their competitive landscape, you will set yourself up for a successful value-selling effort.

Businesses that stand out command more loyalty and pricing power, making differentiation not just a marketing play but a profitability strategy. If you can help your prospects amplify their unique edge, you are not just selling a product. You are selling a competitive advantage.

For example, if I were selling to a company that prides itself on innovation, I might focus on how my cutting-edge technology can help them stay ahead of the curve.

4. Security or Risk Aversion-Focused Selling

Anxiety is a powerful motivator, and almost every business has its fair share of risks that keep its leadership up at night. Those could be anything from direct security threats to emerging industry trends they might be struggling to keep pace with.

If you can identify any specific fears or stressful vulnerabilities your prospect is dealing with, you will build a solid foundation for effective value selling.

Business leaders generally prefer operating as smoothly and securely as possible, so if your offering can help them achieve that, do not hesitate to sell based on that. A single breach can cost millions, not just in dollars but in reputation. The fear of losing customer trust keeps executives awake at night, and that is where your solution steps in.

If you can position your product as the safeguard that helps them avoid catastrophe, you are not just selling security. You are selling peace of mind.

For example, if I were selling cybersecurity solutions, I might focus on how my product can protect against the latest threats and help the company avoid costly data breaches.

Value-Based Selling Examples

For the sake of illustration, I’ll share an example of a SaaS company that sells a construction management platform. A rep from that business is selling to a fast-growing regional fast-food chain expanding into a new metropolitan area.

Here are four key ways SaaS companies can apply value-based selling, each aligning with a different type of customer priority.

1. Qualitative Value-Based Selling

In this scenario, the rep has been working with the chain’s leadership for around a month. In one of their conversations, the CEO mentioned being frustrated with repeated miscommunications that led to delays, budget overruns, and last-minute project changes.

The rep’s platform gives executives comprehensive visibility into their construction managers’ project management.

If they wanted to sell based on qualitative value, they might highlight how owners who leverage the platform avoid costly miscommunication. By improving communication, the platform keeps projects on schedule, prevents costly overruns, and reduces leadership stress.

2. Financial Value-Based Selling

If the rep wanted to value sell based on financial incentives, they might cite case studies of similar fast-food chains that faced comparable expansion challenges and saw measurable financial improvements.

They would likely reference the hard numbers behind those improvements and demonstrate how their prospect’s business could fit a similar mold.

For instance, they could reference a case where a similar franchise cut construction costs by 15% or opened new locations 20% faster. Then, they could walk the prospect through a side-by-side comparison, showing how similar cost savings and faster openings could apply to their own expansion plans.

3. Differentiation Value-Based Selling

Here, the rep might try to value sell based on differentiation. The salesperson can speak to how competitors still relying on outdated, manual processes are facing costly delays, leaving prime locations open for faster-moving brands.

This means the prospect can gain first-mover advantage in new markets, secure prime locations ahead of competitors, and open stores faster. This allows them to start generating revenue while competitors are still stuck in permitting and planning.

4. Security Value-Based Selling

In this case, the rep would likely discuss the common risks businesses face when rapidly expanding into new territories, including unexpected construction delays, hidden costs, and legal disputes with contractors.

With real-time cost tracking, automated alerts, and built-in contract dispute resolution, the platform helps businesses proactively manage risks before they escalate into costly problems. By catching issues early, companies can prevent minor setbacks from becoming major financial burdens.

Beyond the Sale: Build Lasting Success With Value-Based Selling Principles

Value selling is an approach that anyone, not just traditional salespeople, can take when engaging with prospective customers. It’s a philosophy purely rooted in solving for the customer.

And if you want a quick takeaway, Walling offers some great parting advice: “Salespeople can forget about all these little steps and strategies and do two things: be sincere and yourself, and honestly try to help your customer.”

Master these elements, and you’ll see the results you want from your value-selling efforts. It may take time to perfect your approach, but the long-term benefits — stronger customer relationships, higher close rates, and increased customer loyalty — make it well worth the effort.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on November 12, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Sales prospecting is more than sending emails — it’s about building relationships that turn cold leads into warm opportunities. But breaking through the noise is hard. Most cold emails get ignored, and follow-ups often fall flat.

That’s why we’ve created these 30 battle-tested sales prospecting email templates designed specifically for SDRs, BDRs, and AEs. These templates help you:

• Break the ice with cold prospects.
• Re-engage unresponsive leads.
• Ask for referrals and introductions.
• Use LinkedIn and social selling to connect.

These templates are about more than open rates. They’re about starting real conversations and filling your pipeline with sales-qualified leads. Each one comes from real-world sales scenarios, with proven techniques to get replies and spark meaningful conversations.

Whether you’re sending your first cold outreach or re-engaging a lost opportunity, I guarantee these templates will help you prospect smarter and win more deals.

Table of Contents

• Sales Prospecting Tips for Modern Selling
• Sales Prospecting Email Templates
• How to Write a Sales Prospecting Email That Gets a Response

Sales Prospecting Tips for Modern Selling

1. Start social, stay natural.

LinkedIn is where business conversations belong. You’re meeting people in their natural habitat where they expect professional connections, not cold pitches.

I like to think of it like striking up a conversation at a networking event, not cornering someone in an elevator.

Plus, let’s be real: Email screams “sales pitch” before they even open it. Instead, I recommend thoughtful comments to keep you visible to your target audience.

2. Master meaningful engagement.

Stop the “Great post!” comments — they’re just noise. If you’re going to show up, add something that makes them think. Build on their point, push the conversation forward, and make them the star.

Here’s how I find it best to do: Agree briefly → Add insight → Ask a question.

For example:

Instead of “Great post!” try: “I loved your point about buyer hesitation. Have you found that early-stage case studies help address that?”

It’s about showing you care enough to engage, not just spray and pray.

3. Respect the relationship timeline.

There’s an order to this: Comments → DMs → Email. Jumping straight from “nice post” to “Can I have a call?” is creepy. Build the relationship before you switch lanes.

Here’s how I make the jump:

When I DM, I reference our public conversation:

“Hey [Name], I enjoyed our chat on your post about outbound tactics. Thought I’d connect here!”

Why take your time? Because people warm up to contributors, not pitchers. Commenting is low-pressure, with no commitment, so they get to know you without their guard up.

Let them recognize your name before you ever hit “send” on that DM.

4. Focus on quality over scale.

Forget about chasing numbers. You can’t automate authenticity — and that’s your edge. Focus on real conversations, even if it’s just a few. The right connection beats 100 cold contacts every time.

I ask myself: What do they care about? Then, I reference it directly:

“I saw your post on outbound tactics — your point on timing was spot-on. Curious how you handle follow-ups with no response?”

No templates. No fluff. Just real conversations. And here’s why it works: Genuine conversations build rapport faster — and warm leads convert more often than cold contacts.

5. Warm up cold outreach.

Here’s the play: Use social to get familiar, then carry that warmth into email. The email shouldn’t feel like an intro — it should feel like a continuation.

Here’s how I structure my outreach:

1. Reference their content.
2. Relate it to my experience.
3. Invite conversation without pitching.

Like this:

“Hey [Name], I really enjoyed your post on follow-up timing. It made me rethink my approach. Thought I’d reach out and connect directly.”

See what happened there? Just picking up the conversation where you left off.

Sales Prospecting Email Templates

Whether you’re an SDR making first contact or an AE nurturing key accounts, you’ll find battle-tested prospecting emails for every scenario, from cold outreach to re-engagement.

Cold Outreach Templates

Cold outreach isn’t about selling on the first touch. It’s about starting a conversation that earns you the right to sell later.

You’re reaching out to people who don’t know you and don’t trust you. Honestly? They probably don’t care much about you.

That’s why the best cold outreach emails don’t pitch. They spark curiosity, offer value, or find common ground. Your goal isn’t to close a deal. It’s to get a reply.

Below are cold outreach templates that help you do just that. Use them when reaching out to prospects who are cold but qualified. The people who fit your ICP but have no idea who you are (yet).

1. Congratulate them.

There’s more information available about prospects today than at any other time in the history of selling. That means there are plenty of prospect success stories out there for you to find.

Visit your prospect’s website for funding updates, search Google for company news, and view LinkedIn to learn about the prospect’s professional dossier. Then, append all this information to your contact records.

Once you’ve found the perfect opportunity to congratulate the prospect, don’t try to pitch them. Simply share a genuine compliment.

Why this email works: This approach is creative and personal. Flattery is always welcome, and it’s possible you’ll get a “Thank you, but who are you?” in response.

2. Boost their mission.

Try this approach with executive leaders. Executives and business owners are usually the creators of their vision and are most involved with communicating it. Publicity is the name of the game, especially in startups and small businesses.

Hey [Prospect],

Congratulations on your new role as VP of Marketing. Based on your LinkedIn profile, you’ve done an amazing job developing your career at [company].

If there are ways I can help you get your message out to my network of [title of people they’re trying to reach], please let me know. I’m a fan, and I want to help.

Do you have a PR or content person on your team?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: This email is genuine and applicable to just about any company.

It’s hard for the recipient of this email to turn down an opportunity for free publicity, so you’ll likely be able to get your foot in the door by offering your platform to promote their mission.

3. Provide immediate value.

Find a way to provide some value upfront, even if it’s your own expertise. Just be careful not to be critical in your first email. Starting with a compliment can soften the critique.

Hey [Prospect],

Your website’s design is absolutely brilliant. The visuals really enhance your message, and the content compels action. I’ve forwarded it to a few of my contacts who could benefit from your services.

When I looked at your site, though, I noticed a mistake in search engine optimization. It’s a relatively simple fix. Would you like me to write up the fix and share it with your web team? If this is a priority, I can also schedule a call.

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: Software companies have mastered providing immediate value for free through freemium business models, creating some of the fastest-growing businesses ever.

Free feature-limited or usage-limited software offers value before any money changes hands.

If you’re a service provider, partner with a software company that has a freemium model. For example, if you’re an accountant, partner with Expensify to introduce free expense report tools.

If you sell sales training services, recommend a product like HubSpot’s free email tracking tool. As long as you are the person introducing free value, prospects will appreciate it.

4. Offer help.

Remember, your goal in the initial email is to simply get a response. With this in mind, an immediate fix the prospect needs might not be related to the products or services your business offers.

That doesn’t mean you can’t still offer help. Here’s how to do it:

Hey [Prospect],

Welcome to town. My family and I enjoyed a nice dinner at your new Sudbury location last month. I really enjoyed the scallops and risotto. I’ll be back.

I drove by your restaurant last night fairly late and thought you were closed at first glance. I saw a few people sitting at the bar, but the light in front of the restaurant was really dim.

This isn’t my area of expertise, but I know a good sign guy. Would you like an intro?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: It’s similar to the example above, but it comes across as even more genuine.

Offering an intro does not benefit you, but the prospect benefits from a new lead that could bring them more business.

5. Compliment them.

You could give cash away to your prospects, which might get their attention. Alternatively, you can offer a free compliment.

Hey [Prospect],

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with the world.

I love your wit and humor. As I laugh out loud, I find myself nodding in agreement with your advice.

Your article the other day with the three email templates really inspired me. I forwarded it to a few of my clients. One of them has really been struggling to connect with key prospects, and we’ve implemented your advice. A prospect they’ve been trying to reach for a year now responded within an hour.

Would you like to see how my client applied your advice?

Best,

[Your name]

Why this email works: These templates offer kind words and helpful tips. People like to hear nice things about themselves, and receiving a specific solution to a problem along with flattering statements is a recipe for a response.

6. Build rapport using common interests.

Warning: Don’t be creepy. Salespeople of yesteryear could get away with walking into a buyer’s office, noticing the photo of the prospect’s grandchildren, and remarking, “You have a beautiful family.” Today, framed pictures of decades past have become digital photos on Facebook.

Salespeople should certainly incorporate Facebook into their research. But that doesn’t mean you should open with, “How was your grandkids’ soccer practice on Sunday?”

That’ll compel a prospect to issue a restraining order, not email you back. Instead, start with safe topics like common personal interests.

Hey [Prospect],

I was browsing through LinkedIn. Looks like you and I are both in [industry], and we’re both snowboarding fans. Have you ever dreamed of having an industry conference at a ski resort? I have.

Have you gotten out this year? I got out to Loon last month. The powder was amazing.

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re making a sincere connection with the prospect using information that’s typically fair game to mention — LinkedIn posts. The prospect will respect your research skills and appreciate that you were tactful in your approach.

Opening with a mutual non-work-related interest is smart for another reason: You’re giving them a break from the day-to-day and reminding them of something they love to do outside of work.

7. Congratulate the new hire.

New hires are on top of their emails more than senior employees, so you’ll have a chance at getting your email opened and read with this group. Congratulate them on joining the company, and let them know they made a great decision.

[Prospect],

Congrats on your new role with XYC Recruiting. I’ve heard amazing things about the company and trust you’ll enjoy working there.

I work with [Your company name], helping teams like yours increase employee retention by up to 35%. I’d love to talk with you about how your company could achieve the same results — and help you make a splash in your first few months.

Here’s a link to my calendar if you’d like to book some time: [Calendar link]

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: It’s natural to respond to well wishes with a simple “thank you,” but by adding more information to your email about what you do and why you’re sending them a message, they may be inclined to take you up on your offer to meet.

8. Offer motivation.

No matter what industry your prospect works in, they’re probably going through their own trials and tribulations.

A word of encouragement might be just what they need to make it through the day. Send a thoughtful message like this one to perk them up.

[Prospect],

Today might be a day when you’re wondering how you’re going to get through it all. I’m here to tell you that you’re more than capable of doing anything you put your mind to.

The rest of the day is in your control. Make the most of it.

When you need a word of encouragement, you’ve got my email.

You’ve got this,

[Your name]

Why this email works: They’ll remember how you made them feel and appreciate the sincerity you displayed. Instead of taking the opportunity to ask for a connection, a call, or a few minutes of their time, you offered them a moment to reflect on their day and make the most of it.

9. Send them a gift.

When was the last time you received a gift card to your favorite coffee shop or had lunch covered by a friend? It’s not a common occurrence, and that makes it all the more meaningful when it does happen.

Do some research to see if you can find the prospect’s favorite restaurant and purchase an e-gift card.

Depending on your sales team’s budget, this might be out of reach for every prospect, but for the ones you feel are a great fit for your product or service or someone you’ve received an introduction to, try this email template.

Remember to use an eye-catching subject line so they don’t miss the free gift inside.

Subject: Lunch is on [company name]. Here’s a $10 gift card.

Hey [Prospect],

Remember to break for lunch today. [link team and company name here] is providing you with today’s meal.

[insert e-gift card link]

Enjoy!

[Your name]

Why this email works: The tried and true reciprocity principle never steers us wrong. A good deed begets a good deed. Your prospect will want to thank you for the gift and probably commend you on the unique approach.

Referral and Networking Templates

Referral and networking templates are for reaching out through mutual connections, whether it’s a shared colleague, vendor, or fellow industry professional. Use these when you want to open a conversation with social proof and built-in trust.

The goal is to leverage existing relationships to start a conversation. This isn’t about pitching.

It’s about asking for an introduction, offering value, or exploring mutual opportunities.

Warm intros convert better than cold outreach because trust is already established. I’ve found people are more likely to reply when you come recommended by someone they know.

10. Seek referrals.

Everyone with a quota should be part of a networking group. If you sell to bigger companies, join a group (or start one) of professionals who sell to your target market. Try reaching out to other sales professionals like this.

[Referral partner],

It looks like we both sell to CIOs in the Boston area. I meet with a handful of successful salespeople every week to talk about accounts, and we help each other with introductions to prospects. During some months, my networking group books me more meetings than my SDR.

Would you be interested in meeting for coffee to talk about how we might be able to help each other?

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’ll want to diversify your sales prospecting approach. Cold calling, emailing, social media, and talking to strangers will get you far, but adding other salespeople to your network is a way to work smarter.

I think this email template is the perfect example of the benefits of expanding your sales network.

11. Talk to your prospect’s vendors.

Vendors are another resource for learning about a company. Trusted service providers are in a great position to refer you. Not only do they know how your prospect makes purchasing decisions — they can make introductions.

Hey [Prospect],

Your commercial real estate broker, [name], suggested I reach out to you. Someone in your organization told them that booking conference rooms is a real challenge. Everything is always booked — even when people aren’t in the room.

This is an easy fix if you’re interested in solving this problem once and for all. Interested?

Best,

[Your name]

Make sure you get permission to use names when referencing vendors. The last thing you want to do is get your referral partner fired.

Ask, “Would you mind if I email [Prospect] and say that you suggested we talked?” Then, you’re free to write, “[Vendor] asked me to email you to see if I could help.” Or just call and start off with “I was talking to [Vendor], and… “

Why this email works: Not only do you have a direct way to reach a prospect, you have the seal of approval from the vendor.

The prospect probably gets several sales emails per day, but you’ll stand out because of the connection you made with the vendor prior to emailing the prospect.

12. Talk to lower-level employees.

While there is a lot of information online about prospects, nothing beats intel from a trusted source. This is especially critical if you sell to finance, IT, or other back-office professionals since it’s difficult to inspect or observe how they do their jobs from an external perspective.

I find the trick to this is starting conversations with the intention of gathering intelligence.

Every company has customer-facing employees. Start with the sales team and ask them what they’re exceeding at in their roles and what they could be improving. They will probably respond in solidarity.

Then, reach out again with the results and see how your product or service can help. If there are goals the company could reach more effectively after implementing the solution you sell, the sales team might be willing to pass along your information to the right contacts.

Hey [Prospect],

Your salespeople seem to be struggling with acquiring new clients, according to an informal survey I did. Specifically, they are struggling to initiate a dialogue with prospects like they used to.

Is it a priority for you to improve their ability to put new opportunities in the funnel?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’ve already received valuable survey data that you can use for your own content and sales pitches, but you can also use that data to uncover needs within the companies you’re prospecting.

13. Reference a common connection.

Once you’ve developed trusting relationships with other professionals, ask them if it’s okay to drop their names when connecting with their contacts. You might even ask them for a list of people that they recommend you reach out to.

Hey [Prospect],

I was chatting with [connection’s name] the other day, and he mentioned that your team is preparing to launch a new product. Congratulations! I know how exciting that is.

When [connection’s company] launched [their new product/service] last year, we helped create blog posts, landing pages, and a white paper to promote it and saw a great ROI.

[Connection name] thought you might be interested in our services, too. Would you like to talk?

Best,

[Your name]

Why this email works: Name-dropping can be distasteful, but not when it’s done like this. A subtle nod to your mutual connection can make a prospecting email come across as more personable.

14. Talk to friends (and strangers).

While this is not always good advice (especially for children), talking to strangers at the right place and time can be a smart idea. Whether they’re friends or acquaintances, talking to people outside of your typical peer group can lead to great connections.

Hey [Prospect],

My friend, [name], told me that you’d be willing to meet up with me to discuss my business and see if we might work together.

I reviewed your website and am particularly interested in learning more about your [service].

Do you have time in the near future? Here’s a link to my calendar to make scheduling easier.

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: Similar to vendor emails, talking to strangers through a mutual friend can be more effective.

The relationship is built on a causal connection rather than a business one, so there’s no pressure to pitch right away.

Follow-up and Re-Engagement Templates

I like to use follow-up templates when a prospect has shown interest but gone quiet, whether they opened my email, clicked a link, or even replied once but then disappeared. Re-engagement templates are for reviving cold leads.

The goal is simple: Restart the conversation. You’re not pushing for a sale — you’re checking in, offering value, or giving them a reason to reply.

The fortune is in the follow-up. Most deals don’t happen on the first touch; they happen because you stay on their radar. A well-timed, value-driven follow-up can reignite interest without feeling pushy.

15. Respond to social media posts.

Social media is where your next prospect might already be raising their hand. Every time a prospect engages with a post — whether it’s yours or someone else’s — it’s an opportunity to start a conversation without the awkward cold pitch.

Think about it. They’re active, they’re engaged, and they’re showing you what they care about. So why let that moment slip away?

But here’s where most sellers blow it: They either spam the DMs with a pitch or stay invisible by lurking without engaging. The sweet spot? Join the conversation first, add value, and let the conversation naturally continue off-platform.

Here’s how to do it right:

1. Comment before you DM. Show up in their comments first — acknowledge their insights, share your perspective, or drop a helpful resource. You’re building familiarity without pressure.
2. Transition smoothly. If the conversation clicks, make the ask:
   “Would love to keep this conversation going — mind if I shoot you a quick DM?”
3. DM with context. When you do reach out, reference the post:
   “Loved your take on [topic] — I had a similar experience with [insight]. Curious, how do you approach [related challenge]?”

[Prospect],

I’ve really enjoyed our exchange on [topic]. I learned a lot from your insights.

The other day, I came across this study that confirms your intuitions, so I just wanted to pass it along: [link to study]. I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have.

Warmly,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re continuing the conversation from an interesting post.

This could lead to new ideas, solutions, and even a discovery call about a need the prospect has that your products and services could solve.

16. Respond to content your prospects publish.

Pay attention to what your prospects are publishing online. They are sharing massive clues about their current initiatives that provide great openings for dialogue.

Here’s an email I wrote up for an SDR from RingCentral who asked for some advice:

Hey Jeetandra,

Your CEO posted an article about expanding globally, which speaks highly of the work you’re doing. Judging from a quick LinkedIn search, I can see you’re the guy who is probably making that happen. Congrats on the success. I know it’s hard to duplicate the success of the home office.

Usually, managing directors are involved with setting budgets and are under pressure from CFOs to minimize startup cost. I’m an expert at helping companies minimize these types of expenses.

I talk to people like you all day. Would you be interested in a checklist of ways to reduce expenses?

Regards,

[Your name]

www.ringcentral.com

Global Office Consultant

Why this email works: Reading an unsolicited sales email or a piece of unsolicited advice isn’t at the top of anyone’s priority list. This approach keeps your email relevant and useful to the prospect.

17. Send your company’s content.

For every title or persona that can influence your sale, have content on hand that addresses their specific challenges.

Hey [Prospect],

Your blog article about [topic] was excellent. Your ebook on the topic was even better. The part about [section] was amazing because [reason].

But, I had to click around your website quite a bit to find the ebook. Have you ever thought about putting a call-to-action on the blog post that encourages visitors to download your whitepaper on the same subject?

Here’s an article on how and why to do this: [link]

Let me know what you think,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re working smart, not hard. Rather than creating an entirely new piece of sales material to send to this prospect, you can pass along marketing material that has already been made and is relevant to the needs of the prospect.

Take this tactic a step further and add a tracking parameter on the blog link. Even if they don’t respond to your email, you can follow up on the backend to see if they’ve clicked the link to read the article.

I think this type of email works great as an end-of-the-month sales email, which can be sent to prospects and current customers as a way to engage, re-engage, and upsell.

18. Send other people’s content.

Don’t only send your content. Prospects will be less suspicious of your intentions if you send other people’s or other companies’ content that could be helpful for their situation.

Hey [Prospect],

Congrats on closing your seed funding. That means you’re probably starting to think about how you’ll raise your A round.

Other founders report that it’s 100x easier to raise money if they’ve already figured out how to profitably acquire customers.

I’ve found that David Skok’s articles on unit economics are an amazing resource to help with that.

Here’s one: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/

Have you read them?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: The point is to show them that you care about their success and you want to help them reach it no matter what. And yes, that includes sharing other people’s content if you have to.

19. Publish original content.

For the last few years, I’ve regularly asked my young son, “How do you get better at things?” Without hesitation, he now says, “Practice.” Not every salesperson is a natural writer, but I’d highly recommend they all start practicing.

Why should salespeople write? Prospects willingly talk to critical-thinking, problem-solving, and effective salespeople if they have experience relevant to the prospect’s world.

So, write about your daily experiences helping prospects. Share your wisdom.

While publishing content to your company website is the best way to go, it’s only good for you if you’re able to track which of your prospects reads your posts.

If you don’t have marketing automation software in place that tells you when your prospects are visiting your website, publish to LinkedIn instead. As long as your 1st- and 2nd-degree network consists of prospects, there is a chance they’ll read what you post.

When they like, comment on, or share something you wrote, start a dialogue by using a variation on the template below:

[Prospect],

Yesterday, you liked my article on LinkedIn. What did you like about it?

[Your name]

Why this email works: The really great thing about content is that it keeps on talking with prospects even when you’re sleeping, exercising, or eating.

It works around the clock for you. Every other prospecting method is ephemeral (especially email). Imagine what salespeople could do if we combined the staying power of relationships with the lasting power of content.

20. Monitor who views your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn is an invaluable networking site. It’s where you share about who you are and what you do, so you want to keep an eye on who’s viewing your profile. If they’re looking at your profile, chances are they’re interested in what you have to offer. It’s a sort of soft inbound strategy.

Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with them and start a conversation.

Hey [Prospect],

I saw your recent LinkedIn post expressing your [pain point]. I just wrote a short piece on [topic of expertise] and thought you might enjoy reading it. It offers insights on [pain point] and a few strategies I’ve found helpful in addressing it.

[link to article]

I regularly post on [topic] and related topics, so feel free to give me a follow on LinkedIn if you’d like to discover more insights.

Best,

[Your name]

Why this email works: It’s short and to the point, giving the prospect a reason why they might want to accept your connection and visit your profile again in the future.

21. Put their name in lights.

If you are publishing content, ask for feedback on your drafts. You can also ask prospects for quotes to add to your article.

[Prospect],

Thanks for connecting with me on LinkedIn. From looking at your impressive career advancement from salesperson to sales director in just five years, I’m guessing you have some really valuable advice.

I read a few of your testimonials and I noticed that many of them said you put people first. Many of them said that you always drop what you’re doing to listen to the concerns and ideas of your front line salespeople.

Would you be willing to contribute to an article I’m writing on that subject?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: People like being asked for help or being asked for their opinion on a topic. This might not seem like the perfect introduction to your next big sale, but it’s a smart way to get a response.

22. Ask for advice.

Most people like to give advice. Asking for advice appeals to their ego. (See the “esteem stage” of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In the age of social media, many of us get stuck at the esteem stage on our path toward “self-actualization.”)

Psychology 101 aside, asking for advice is a hard request for most of us to resist.

[Prospect],

From your LinkedIn profile, it looks like you’ve been working in aerospace for 20 years. I’m guessing you’ve been involved in many engineering advancements in that timeframe.

I’m only two years into the aerospace industry, so I lack some of the historical context I imagine you have.

I’m working on a new product right now. If I shared some of my findings, would you be willing to give me feedback?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: It shows humility and respect for the prospect and their contributions to the industry in which you work.

23. Ask for a recommendation.

Similar to the above, asking for a recommendation shows humility and deference to someone with more expertise than you. It’s also a great way to start a conversation with a simple request that won’t take too much time for your prospect to respond to.

[Prospect],

A colleague of mine is investigating solutions for predictive lead scoring. I’ve been following you online for a bit.

As an expert at sales, I’m wondering if you have any experience with these platforms or know anyone who does.

[Your name]

Why this email works: The requests in these examples are sincere and easy to oblige. You’ll find that people are more than happy to help.

Market Research and Opinion-Seeking Templates

Use these templates when you want to engage prospects by seeking their expertise or insights. These are perfect for:

• Gathering opinions for a survey, blog post, or industry report.
• Validating market trends.
• Asking for advice or recommendations.

The goal is to start a relationship by making the prospect feel valued as an expert. Instead of pitching, you’re collaborating — which often leads to future conversations.

People love sharing their opinions — especially when they feel their expertise is recognized. Plus, asking for insights opens the door to follow-up with results or opportunities based on their feedback.

24. Talk to your prospect’s customers.

Your prospect’s customers and partners are also great sources of insights. If your prospect has a case study page, look at it, or check out reviews about it online.

Hi [Customer of prospect],

My name is [name] and I work with [company] to help clients [achieve goal].

I saw that you are working with [prospect’s company] to achieve [goal]. I’m doing some industry research on companies like [prospect’s company]. Would you be willing to contribute?

If so, I’d love to hear about your experience with [prospect’s company]. You can respond via email, or we can set up a quick phone call: [link to your calendar].

I look forward to hearing back from you!

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: More often than not, you’ll find positive information that will get the prospect talking.

But, if you hear from a disgruntled or unsuccessful customer, use that information too. You could motivate the prospect to turn those negative reviews into positive ones — hopefully using your company’s products to do it.

25. Offer an introduction.

Offering your network as a resource to others is a great way to help them out and build rapport. By serving as an introduction, you make yourself an invaluable connection.

[Prospect],

On LinkedIn, you posted a request for introductions to salespeople who successfully practice social selling.

I have a few that I could recommend. Would you like an introduction over email?

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’ll have more opportunities to get in front of the prospect with each introduction you make. And when those sales reps have calls with the prospect, they’ll mention that they both know you and sing your praises.

The prospect will become fond of you, and when you reach out again, you’ll be met with excitement rather than skepticism.

26. Run a custom analysis.

Depending on what you sell, it might be difficult for you to evaluate your prospect’s situation. But, if you can evaluate it, do so. Then, send them the results.

[Prospect],

I used some software to evaluate the search rankings of the top 50 B2B accounting firms in the Boston area. Although your firm ranks in the top 25 according to the Business Journal, your search rankings are worse than the top 40.

Would you like to view the report?

[Your name]

Why this email works: Chances are you don’t sell marketing services, but if you do, use this approach. If you don’t, try to find something you can analyze that your ideal buyer will care about.

27. Provide insights.

According to Mike Schultz, author of Insight Selling, “Educating buyers not only shares the seller’s expertise, but it also demonstrates the seller’s willingness to collaborate with the buyer.” I’ve found this is another invaluable source of rapport-building.

[Prospect],

Looks like you started a blog, but have stopped publishing. Oftentimes, companies stop prioritizing blogging when results don’t come immediately.

But did you know that companies that blog regularly generate 67% more leads than those that don’t?

[Your name]

Why this email works: It provides useful information that is highly relevant to the prospect. Tailor this approach to any new venture or project your prospect has taken on. This could be the data they need to validate the effort they’re putting into it.

28. Ask them what they want to learn from peers.

Marketers use surveys to gather proprietary data. Salespeople should borrow this playbook.

Engaging prospects in the design of the survey will ensure the results are interesting for the ideal buyer profile. This is also a suitable reason to reach out, which can initiate a dialogue.

[Prospect],

You look like you have an impressive amount of experience doing [X]. I’m designing a survey and will be asking 100 people with similar experiences in [role] and [industry] about their thoughts on [topic].

If you had the opportunity to ask any question of 100 peers, what would you ask?

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re building a relationship with the prospect while generating interest in the results of the survey.

When you release it, you’ve already established a reason to reach out to them again with a stronger pitch based on the data in your report.

29. Invite them to participate in market research.

Taking the email template above a step further, you can reach out to the prospect again once you and your team create the survey. Now, you can ask the prospect and their team to take the survey.

[Prospect],

Thank you for your assistance in designing this survey. Will you take the survey now that it’s ready? It’s five questions long and should take you five minutes.

As soon as we have 100 respondents, I’ll send you the preliminary results.

[Your name]

Why this email works: The great part about surveys is that you can ask tough questions about challenges and goals. It’s hard to do that on a phone call right away.

Don’t forget to sync your survey software with your CRM and marketing automation software so you can see the responses and use them to customize your future sales and marketing touches to each contact’s context.

30. Get their opinion.

Ask your prospects about what they think about something. Just be sure you actually plan to use their opinion in some way — don’t ask an empty question.

You can let them know their response might be featured in some content that your company will publish in the future. Or you may be using their qualitative data to validate some quantitative data from a survey you did.

[Prospect],

Looks like your marketing efforts support a pretty big sales team.

At HubSpot, we recently completed a survey of B2B buyers. We asked them to give one word that best describes salespeople. The most popular answer by far was “pushy.”

Do you agree or disagree with this? Do you think your buyers think your salespeople are too pushy? Do you think this reduces the effectiveness of your marketing?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re actually challenging the salesperson stereotype by acknowledging that people often find sales reps pushy.

As a salesperson, you’re actively negating that characteristic by taking a collaborative and curious approach to the prospect.

31. Ask them if they want access to market research.

Offering access to market research is giving your prospect value without asking for anything in return. It’s a great soft opener to a conversation about how their business is performing and any pain points your product or service may be able to address.

[Prospect],

Your quarterly report shows an impressive growth rate, especially at your scale.

Fast growth companies like yours usually dedicate significant resources towards recruiting. We have some market research that shows how companies allocate resources to different parts of the recruiting process.

Would you be interested in seeing the report so you can benchmark yourself?

Regards,

[Your name]

Why this email works: If you used this company in your market research, you’re showing them the final project where their responses were featured. Moreover, you’re sharing some valuable industry insights that the prospect will likely find useful.

32. Ask if you’ve got the right person.

People have a natural tendency to want to help others. Make the most of that and send an outreach email that asks, “Could you help me get in touch with the right person?”

[Prospect],

I’m trying to reach the person who’s in charge of implementing marketing software at your company.

I’ve helped businesses like yours increase marketing-qualified leads by as much as 25%.

Could you help me get in touch with the right person?

Thanks for your time,

[Your name]

Why this email works: You’re letting the person you emailed off the hook. Because they know you’re looking to talk to someone else and just need their help to do it, they’ll be happy to send you to the right person.

How to Write a Sales Prospecting Email That Gets a Response

These templates use a relatively simple set of guidelines. As you implement the approaches shared above, I recommend using these guidelines to customize your templates. I break down my writing process into phases: pre-writing, writing, and reviewing. Each consists of multiple steps, which I have laid out below.

Pre-Writing Phase

The pre-writing phase consists of researching your prospect thoroughly. You need to know who you’re writing to before you can craft an email that will land.

In my research, I always:

• Study my prospect’s business, industry, and potential pain points.
• Identify specific ways my solution can help them.
• Find points of connection or relevant recent company news.

Writing Phase

A strong prospecting email needs to include the following components. When writing, I follow these steps.

• Craft an attention-grabbing subject line.

• Make it relevant to their business interests.
• Keep it concise and compelling.
• Avoid spam triggers and excessive punctuation.

• Write a personalized opening.

• Begin with something specific about the prospect or their company.
• Show you’ve done your homework.
• Make it clear this isn’t a mass email.

• Compose the body (3-7 sentences total).

• Focus on “you” language instead of “I” or “we.”
• Only introduce your value proposition when it naturally aligns with their needs.
• Keep the message focused and concise.
• Use an open-ended approach that invites dialogue.

• Create a simple call-to-action.

• Avoid pushing for a phone call in the initial email.
• Make the request easy to fulfill.
• Ensure it appeals to the prospect’s self-interest.
• Consider ending with a relevant question that encourages a response.

Review Phase

Finally, it’s time to polish and refine your email. First impressions count, and the prospect will judge you and decide whether to respond based on how your email reads.

I always:

• Review for grammar and spelling errors.
• Ensure the total length stays within 3-7 sentences.
• Check that the focus remains on the prospect throughout.
• Verify all personalization elements are accurate.

Remember: The goal of your first email is to start a conversation, not close a deal. Focus on making a genuine connection and showing you understand their business.

Make Your Outreach More Effective

Breaking through inbox noise isn’t just challenging — it’s getting harder every day. Most cold emails get ignored, and generic follow-ups fall flat. But there’s good news: While others spam inboxes with copy-paste pitches, you can stand out by building genuine connections.

The templates in this article are designed to help you start conversations that prospects actually want to continue, position yourself as a trusted advisor, not just another seller, fill your pipeline with qualified leads who see your value, and build a foundation for long-term business relationships.

Remember: These aren’t just templates — they’re conversation starters. Your goal isn’t just to get replies; it’s to begin meaningful dialogues that lead to lasting partnerships.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

High-performing sales professionals aren’t triggered to surrender by a sales objection. Instead, they use objections to craft personalized value propositions to differentiate their company, their offerings — and ultimately close the deal.

As a long-time sales and business development professional, I’ve always seen sales objections as guideposts along a buying process: they tell me what a prospect needs to move forward.

When overcoming objections in sales, salespeople must be curious, intuitive, and empathetic enough to ask questions that motivate prospects to disclose their objections instead of just ghosting the salesperson and leaving them wondering why.

In this article, you’ll learn proven, practical objection-handling strategies you can use in your business development tactics.

Table of Contents

• What is a sales objection?
• What is objection handling?
• Types of Sales Objections
• How to Overcome Sales Objections
• Common Sales Objections
• Handling Objections
• Objection Handling Training
• When an Objection is a Firm “No”

A typical sales objection arises when a prospect has a perceived or actual lack of specific resources. Prospects usually object to a sale when they feel they don’t have the money, interest, need, or autonomy to buy from your business.

My experiences taught me that prospects are reluctant to speak with a sales rep if they:

• Don’t have a defined mandate or the authority to engage with a salesperson’s offer.
• Don’t feel they are prepared or educated enough on a topic to have a meaningful conversation.
• Have had negative experiences with salespeople in the past, with your company, or otherwise.
• Feel overwhelmed if a seller’s pitch is full of technical jargon or industry-speak.
• Are reluctant to get into a high-pressure, prolonged sales process with an unfamiliar (or even a familiar) company or representative.
• Work in a matrixed organization with complex or rigid buying and approval processes.
• Have real or misconceived concerns about the cost, commitment, or inflexibility of your company and its solutions.
• Are skeptical your solution can deliver the value you describe in your pitch or promotional material.

While sales objections present some daunting obstacles to a sales process, overcoming objections in sales is possible with practice and proven strategies.

Handling Objections

Handling objections is an inevitable and often challenging task for sales pros. According to HubSpot data, sellers who successfully defend their product against buyers’ objections can have a close rate as high as 64%.

Underachieving sales reps respond to prospect objections by:

• Conceding defeat immediately and disengaging from the prospect.
• Arguing their case defensively without probing for the source of an objection.
• Trying to pressure the prospect into remaining engaged by sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).
• Making derogatory statements about competitors the prospect has (or is considering) a relationship with.
• Using tired transactional sales tactics like offering discounts or making false claims instead of taking a consultative sales approach.

These kinds of aggressive selling approaches aren’t effective at handling objections.

Prospects often feel these kinds of responses justify their attitude about your company, or sales people in general. Using these tactics can undermine any trust or rapport you’ve developed with a customer or prospect, and anyone they share their experiences with.

In contrast, proper handling of objections in sales demands that a salesperson:

• Demonstrates situational awareness.
• Gathers or accrues background information throughout the sales process.
• Leads with empathy.
• Asks thoughtful, open-ended questions.
• Treads carefully when the prospect isn’t correct.

Next, I’ll break these items down a little and add some context.

Have situational awareness.

There isn’t a single cure-all objection handling formula. Instead, you need to develop instincts for where you are in your sales process, the nature of the deal you’re pursuing, and your prospect’s needs and interests.

Understanding the circumstances that are shaping a prospect’s objections is central to addressing them effectively.

In my experience: I’ve learned from making situational awareness mistakes a couple of times. Once I admitted to a customer that I had been so busy pursuing other opportunities that I hadn’t checked in with them in a while. The customer responded saying their feelings were hurt that I deprioritized them. I focused more on my account farming responsibilities after that conversation.

Gather extensive background information.

This point is a natural extension of the one above. Gathering background information informs effective, actionable situational awareness. Thoroughly research your prospect’s company and, to a certain extent, the specific prospect or client.

See if you can answer the following:

• What challenges is the customer or prospect currently facing?
• What are the prospect’s near- and long-term goals?
• What issues do the prospect‘s industry peers encounter?
• What is their decision-making authority?
• What aspects of the company’s operations do they work with on a day-to-day basis?
• What obstacles and restrictions does someone in their position typically encounter?

Uncovering these background insights can put you in a better position to handle objections tactfully.

In my experience: As I described earlier, I discovered the hard way that customers need to be consistently reminded of how much you value their business through regular follow-up. Your other business activities aren’t material to their needs.

Lead with empathy.

Empathy is central to every successful sales effort. You likely didn’t get into sales purely entirely earning commission or meeting or exceeding quota. The best salespeople I worked with loved to help businesses solve problems with the products and services they helped the customer gain access to.

Always bear a client’s needs and interests in mind, and they will often respond with trust, signed contracts — and best-case — become an advocate for your business through testimonials and success stories.

Ask thoughtful, open-ended questions.

The ability to ask thoughtful, open-ended questions can underscore every other point listed here. You need to get to the root of your prospect’s pain points if you’re going to understand and effectively handle the objections they raise.

Avoid questions that only warrant “yes or no” answers — and don’t be afraid to use silence to your advantage. Also, let your buyers air their thoughts out. Feel out their concerns and put yourself in a position to overcome objections they might raise with calm confidence.

When the customer isn’t right, tread lightly.

Telling a prospect their objection isn’t justified can derail a relationship quickly. Instead, acknowledge their objection, then explain how doing business with you would actually look.

It’s also important to distinguish between sales objections and brush-offs. While objections are authentic, brush-offs are excuses. Think of an objection as, “I see the value in your product, but I’m not sure about buying it for X reason,” while a brush-off translates to, “I don’t want to talk to you.”

Unstated objections are far more serious than brush-offs. If you don’t know why a prospect doesn’t trust you or value what you have to offer, you are wasting your time and theirs.

In my experience: I once had the IT manager of a local government tell me they would never do business with my company (a large Canadian telco). When pressed, he said he felt my company was too big to offer his organization personalized service. Fortunately, I had testimonials from the prospect’s peers across the country who had similar reservations at first, but were pleasantly surprised at our ability to meet their needs. That reassured the prospect, and I landed his business.

Pro tip: Keep a list of customer success stories, testimonials, or third-party data that addresses common objections like cost, flexibility, or return on investment. Share authentic, quantifiable examples of the impact of your company’s products and services.

Objection Handling Framework

A proven and effective method for objection handling is Carew International’s LAER: The Bonding Process®. LAER involves four steps — Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, and Respond — and creates a positive, two-way transaction between the salesperson and the customer.

I’ll break down each step along with insights from sales leaders I talked to.

Step 1: Anticipate

Before you start with the LAER process, the first step is to anticipate objections by preparing for the conversation.

Laura Youngblom, president and chief revenue officer at Sell It, suggests “by consistently preparing for potential objections, you will learn more about your customers and what’s holding them back and eventually be able to predict what their objections will be.”

If you did your homework, you can address the objection factually, offer some context to allay their concerns, and enable you both to proceed with confidence.

Step 2: Listen

When confronted with an objection, the first requirement is to actively listen to it. Listening demonstrates to your customer that you are interested in their concern and care about what they have to say.

“The adage ‘people buy from those they know, like, and trust’ is still true. Buyers want (and expect) a personalized sales experience. How you present yourself and your product either builds that trust — or gives your competitors a foot in the door,” comments Mark Tanner, co-founder of Qwilr.

Step 3: Acknowledge

The next step is to acknowledge your customer’s concern. This is where you demonstrate you have been actively listening. Acknowledging and validating an objection can be as simple as a head nod or a restatement of the issue as you understand it. A sincere acknowledgment can build trust and have a calming effect. Sometimes, your customers just want to know that they are being heard.

“Not pretending you have all the answers and being genuine in communicating when you don’t know something helps build trusting and reliable relationships,” says Sami Malik, CEO of Linear Health, a founder-led sales expert.

Youngblom adds that “when you disagree, you stop the flow of communication, but when you agree, their defenses come down.”

Step 4: Explore

The third step is to explore the concerns underlying your customer’s objection. It’s imperative that you understand exactly what your customers meant by what they said.

For example, your customer may raise a price objection. Take the time to explore the customer’s objection, and you may discover they are using price as a smokescreen for fears of putting their own reputation on the line.

In my experience: I once had a customer who expressed an interest in integrating my company’s document management software (which they had deployed) and their ERP software. However, we hit a roadblock when my customer objected to our acquisition process because of RFP requirements on his end.

Fortunately, because I was able to uncover the details of the roadblock by active listening and exhibiting empathy, I was also able to come up with a solution and ultimately make the sale.

Step 5: Respond

The final step is to respond. Only once you have a complete understanding of your customer’s objection can you effectively respond with a credible:

• Counterargument of how your company can exceed their expectations and deliver measurable value.
• Product or service recommendation.
• Business proposal that specifically addresses the customer’s concerns and closes the transaction.

Objection handling doesn’t have to be a painful activity for salespeople. Instead, objections should be viewed as opportunities to help your customer and grow your relationship with them.

Why is objection handling important?

Nothing is more dangerous to a deal than letting sales objections go unaddressed until the final stages. When a prospect’s objection goes unaddressed (whether warranted or not), it grows stronger and becomes deep-rooted, making it harder to overcome it.

With this in mind, don’t avoid objections — welcome them. You can proactively find them as well by periodically asking questions like:

• “Do you have any concerns about X?”
• “Can you see your team making X part of their daily routine?”
• “Is X a strategic business goal for your company this year?”
• “Are there any obstacles that would stop you from buying X?”
• “How confident do you feel you’d see success from [product]? Why?”
• “You seem a little worried about X. What are your thoughts?”
• “What do you think will happen if X problem doesn’t get addressed over the next few months?”

As I touched on at the beginning of this article, most sales objections stem from some kind of “lack” — and they typically come from a reasonable place. Prospects who raise objections generally point to the fact that they simply can’t buy right now.

But those “lacks” are often misplaced, and if you know what you‘re doing, you can usually find ways to work around them. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common types of objections in sales.

1. Lack of Budget

“It’s too expensive.”

Objections based on price are the ones you‘ll come across most frequently. That’s because all purchases come with some level of financial risk.

As a sales rep, you’ll want to consider the positioning of your product or service and how to demonstrate that value. This turns the conversation into one about risk vs. reward.

By providing value and painting a picture of where your solution will take them, they can be convinced that the reward is enough to justify the risk.

2. Lack of Trust

“I’ve never heard of your company.”

People do business with people they like, know, and trust.

In an inbound sales conversation, the prospect will have likely interacted with your content or will already be familiar with your organization in some way. This objection could be overcome by jogging their memory, or you might consider your sales cycle and whether it’s feasible to nurture them through it.

But not all conversations are inbound conversations, and they may have genuinely never heard of you. It’s at this point that you double down on the value you provide with your elevator pitch. Be sure to emphasize the authority your organization has in the market, and share examples of the companies you’ve worked with to gain credibility.

3. Lack of Need

“I don’t see how this can help me.”

This may seem like an objection on the surface, but it’s actually an opportunity to give information to the prospect (and get information from them in return). Use open-ended and layered questions to qualify the prospect and evaluate their needs. If you find a fit, leverage it to demonstrate value.

4. Lack of Urgency

“[X problem] isn’t important for me right now.”

The goal here is to figure out if timing actually is an issue or if the prospect is brushing you off. One way to do that is by asking them to elaborate on why it’s not important or what competing priorities currently have their attention.

Listen closely to determine if their response involves concrete timing issues or vague excuses. If they’re doing backflips to justify inaction on a real pain point, you may have an opening.

When all else fails, try and schedule an appointment with them at a later date to dive deeper into the issue.

When trying to overcome sales objectives, it’s imperative you respond appropriately and avoid reacting impulsively to your prospect’s objections. Here are some helpful strategies for overcoming objections.

1. Practice active listening.

First and foremost, as your prospect is sharing their concerns with you, make sure you are using active listening skills to take in what they’re saying.

While your prospect discloses their objections, listen to understand, not respond. Avoid interrupting them while they are speaking, and give them space to voice their concerns and objections freely.

2. Repeat back what you hear.

Once your prospect has stated their objections, repeat back what you heard to make sure you are understanding correctly. Not only will this help clarify their points for you, but it will also help your prospect feel heard and valued, which is important for building trust.

3. Validate your prospect’s concerns.

After you have confirmed you understand where your prospect is coming from, continue building trust by empathizing with your prospect and validating their point of view. No, that doesn’t mean you have to talk down on your product or recommend a competitor.

For example, if you are selling automation software and your prospect is worried about their ability to implement your software into their complex system, you could say, “I understand. Implementing new software can feel like a daunting task. Thankfully, we have an incredible tech team that has experience working with similar organizations and can handle a seamless transition for you.”

With this response, you acknowledge that their concern is valid and offer a solution to mitigate their fears.

4. Ask follow-up questions.

When you hear objectives, you want to do all you can to keep the conversation going in a natural way. If you hear your prospect pulling back, asking follow-up questions can be a tactful way to keep them talking.

Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Make sure you ask open-ended questions that allow your prospect to continue expressing their thoughts on your product. The more information they give, the more you have to work with.

5. Leverage social proof.

Depending on the nature of your prospect’s concern, sharing the story of another customer who had similar reservations and went on to see success with your product can be a successful approach.

If you are in B2B sales, you can also share relevant information about your prospect’s competitors and any success they’ve seen from overcoming a similar objection.

6. Set a specific date and time to follow up.

If your prospect asks for more time to think things over, give them the time and space to weigh their options. But you don’t want to leave them hanging. Set up a specific time and date to follow up in the near future so too much time doesn’t pass, and offer to answer any questions they have in the meantime as they deliberate.

7. Anticipate sales objections.

Ultimately, the most effective strategy for handling sales objections is to predict them. When you are prepared to have objections come up, you’re far less likely to be thrown off your game.

Keeping track of the objections you receive most often is also helpful. Once you know what to expect, you can devote extra time to practicing and refining your responses.

We also recommend sales reps use role-playing to boost their objection-handling abilities. Take turns with another rep on your team posing common objections (like any on the list below), answering, and then giving each other feedback.

“No” is something salespeople hear often. In fact, 60% of customers say no four times before they say yes. Objections vary by business scale, industry, and what you’re selling. But, knowing and preparing for the most common objections can help you close more sales.

The answers below can help you respond to the objections you’re most likely to hear on your first few calls with a prospect. But, the most effective way to handle objections is to craft your own responses.

So, if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get started, check out this sales objections and answers PDF. It has useful templates to jumpstart your personalized objection responses.

Sales Objections About Price and Budget

1. “It’s too expensive.”

Price objections are the most common type of objection and are even voiced by prospects who have every intention of buying. Beware — the moment you start focusing on price as a selling point, you reduce yourself to a transactional middleman. Instead, circle back to the product’s value.

Try responding this way:

“I‘d love to unpack [product’s] features and how it can help with the issue of [prospect problem] you shared with me. I can also share a case study of how another business in your industry [realized measurable ROI]”

2. “We don’t have the funds for this.”

It could be that your prospect‘s business simply isn’t big enough or generating enough cash right now to afford a product like yours. If the prospect has a strategic long-term upside offer to keep in touch. Monitor their growth and see how you can help your prospect get to a place where your offering would fit into their business.

Your company may have alternative financing, subscription tiers, or phased implementation models that may put your products or services in reach. A small-scale purchase may not be significant this quarter, but

Try responding this way:

“I understand. Allow me to explain our other offerings that may be a better fit for your current growth levels and budget.”

3. “We don’t have any budget left this year.”

A variation of the “no money” objection, what your prospect’s telling you here is that they’re having cash flow issues. But if there’s a pressing problem, it needs to get solved eventually. Either help your prospect secure a budget from executives to buy now or arrange a follow-up call for early in their next fiscal cycle when funds are being allocated.

Try responding this way:

“Let’s schedule a follow-up call for when you expect funding to return. When do you think that may be?”

4. “We need to use that budget somewhere else.”

Prospects sometimes try to earmark resources for other uses. It’s your job to make your product/service a priority that deserves budget allocation now. Share case studies of similar companies that have saved money, increased efficiency, or had a massive ROI with you.

Try responding this way:

“We had a customer with a similar issue, but by purchasing [product], they were actually able to increase their ROI and assign some of their new revenue to other parts of the budget.”

5. “I don’t want to get locked into a long-term contract.”

A prospect with a genuine need and interest who balks at time-based contract terms is generally hesitant for cash flow reasons. In many cases, there are workarounds — find out if you can offer month-by-month or quarter-by-quarter payment instead of asking for a year or more commitment upfront.

Try responding this way:

“I understand. Let’s talk about some different contract terms and payment schedules that I can offer you. Perhaps these would be a better fit.”

Sales Objections About the Competition

6. “We’re already discussing this project with [Vendor X].”

A prospect who’s already working with a competitor can be a gift. They’ve already recognized a need and identified a solution; much of the education you’d otherwise be responsible for has already been done. You can spend your time doing the one thing you’d have to hold off on with a prospect who hasn’t recognized their pain yet — talk about your product.

Just because a prospect is working with a competitor doesn’t mean they’re happy with them. Probe into the relationship and pay special attention to complaints that could be solved with your product. Resist the urge to disparage the competitor. Instead, highlight your company’s strengths, product advantages, and service differentiators. Don’t say anything that could be damaging to your company’s reputation if it got back to the competitor. Be factual and respectful.

Try responding this way:

“Why did you choose [vendor]? What‘s working well? What’s not? Allow me to explain how [product] is different.”

7. “I’m locked into a contract with a competitor.”

This objection often seems like a deal-killer, but can be overcome if your sales leadership team is empowered to offer competitive upgrades. This objection is worded in a way that indicates your prospect’s feeling of being trapped. See if you can come up with a creative discount to offset the cost of breaking a contract early, or demonstrate ROI that will make up for the sunk cost.

Of course, your prospect could have simply chosen an overly negative turn of phrase. Ask questions about their relationship with the competitor to determine whether they’re actually happy or are itching for a vendor switch.

Try responding this way:

“How is your relationship with [competitor]? I can work with my manager to see if there is a way we can help ease the cost and effort involved to upgrading to our solution.”

In my experience: In software sales roles, I enjoyed positioning a migration from a competitive solution as an upgrade. Of course, it only worked if I could demonstrate how my solution was uniquely better for the prospect than their existing solution.

8. “I can get a cheaper version of your product somewhere else.”

Find out what you’re dealing with here. Are you in a competitive situation, and the prospect is playing you against a competitor to drive up discounts? Or is your prospect under the impression that a similar, cheaper product can do everything they need? I often reminded the prospect of how the old adage “You get what you pay for” is usually true.

If it’s the former, lay out your deepest discount and emphasize the features that make your product superior. Walk away if they ask you to go lower. In the second scenario, take advantage of the comparison. Play the differences up and emphasize overall worth, not cost.

Try responding this way:

“What are the points of differentiation between [product] and your other option? What gives you the most value and support?”

9. “I’m happy with [Competitor X].”

What if your prospect is happy? The same strategy still applies — find out why they believe their relationship with your competitor is beneficial, and identify vulnerabilities where you can build a business case for how your offerings can offer more value than their current provider.

Try responding this way:

“That‘s great. What components of the product or relationship are you most satisfied with? I’d love to learn more and see how we compare.”

10. “Competitor X says [false statement about your product].”

According to the creator of Your Sales MBA® Jeff Hoffman, when faced with a false statement from a competitor, salespeople should first respond with, “That’s not true,” then pause. Be prepared to explain how things really are, but don’t rush to do so. That could show weakness or uncertainty.

Hoffman says this reply will satisfy the buyer about 90% of the time, and they’ll be willing to move on. You’ll seem confident and collected, whereas your competitor will seem desperate and insecure.

If your prospect is still unsure, they’ll ask another question. At that point, you can offer more background in your rebuttal.

Try responding this way:

“We manufacture our products in Canada, not Thailand. I have a map of our factories and distribution routes if you’d like to see it.”

Sales Objections About Authority or Ability to Buy

11. “I’m not authorized to sign off on this purchase.”

No problem. Ask your prospect the name of the right person to speak to, and then redirect your call to them.

Try responding this way:

“Who is the right person to speak to regarding this purchase? Can you redirect me to them, please?”

12. “I can’t sell this internally.”

Well, your prospect might not be able to, but you can. After all, you sell your product every day. Ask your prospect what objections they anticipate, and help them prepare the business case for adopting your product.

I often wrote email and PowerPoint templates that I called “Business case in a box” that described my company’s unique sales proposition, success stories, and campaign offerings in a way that could be shared by my champion influencer. Relying on someone else to be your sales advocate in their own company is far from fool-proof, though, and I preferred to write the messaging to take the pressure off my point of contact.

Try responding this way:

“What objections do you think you’ll face? Can I help you prepare the business case for when you speak with your decision-makers? I may have some enablement materials I can share to help.”

13. “[Economic buyer] isn’t convinced.”

If you’ve already addressed objection #12 by providing internal selling advice and coaching, and your prospect can’t win over the decision maker or help you get access, it might be time to walk away. While it’s disappointing to give up on a prospect who’s on your side and just can’t convince the higher-ups, it’s also a waste of your time to keep butting heads with someone who will never see your product’s value.

Try responding this way:

“That‘s too bad. If anything changes, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d love to help you get your team onboard.”

14. “We’re being downsized/bought out.”

This happens rarely, but there’s usually nothing you can do when a company is enduring a lot of internal turmoil, as buying processes are often postponed indefinitely. Wrap the relationship professionally so that when the dust settles (or the prospect finds a new gig) they’ll be more likely to restart the conversation. Albeit possibly from a new company, mind you.

Try responding this way:

“Thank you for your time and for speaking with me regarding this product. If you‘re ever in need of [product or service], please don’t hesitate to contact me.”

15. “There’s too much going on right now.”

Ask your prospect to define their competing priorities for you. If they can’t, it’s likely a brush-off, and you should press them on precisely why they don’t want to engage with you.

If they can offer concrete answers, don‘t sweat it. Set a meeting time for a follow-up and send over helpful resources in the meantime to stay on your prospect’s radar. Or, take a bolder step if you can, and be prepared to explain why waiting for next quarter, next month, or next year might cost the customer in the long run. Can they really afford to put off addressing the business need that was the catalyst for the conversation in the first place?

Try responding this way:

“I understand. What are some of your competing priorities? I’d love to schedule a follow-up call for when your calendar clears up.”

16. “I’m part of a buying group.”

Buying groups enable independent companies to team up and make joint purchases from vendors — usually getting a far better price than they’d be able to secure on their own. (I just completed a proposal to qualify for a significant North American buying group, so I know this can be a significant obstacle.)

If your company isn‘t on a prospect’s list of approved suppliers. You may be able to win them over by matching the cost and delivery terms of the buying group contract, but that may erode your profit margins, so be sure to discuss this scenario with your management team.

Respond to this objection by delving into the details of their membership. When you’ve learned more, you can decide whether it makes economic sense for this prospect to work with you — and if there’s an opportunity to become one of their buying group’s vendors.

Try responding this way:

“Are there limits on whom you can buy from? What price are you currently receiving? What companies belong to your buying coalition?”

Sales Objections About Need and Fit

17. “I’ve never heard of your company.”

Treat this objection as a request for information. Don’t give an elevator pitch, but offer a quick summary of your value proposition.

Try responding this way:

“We‘re a company that sells ad space on behalf of publishers like yourself. I’d love to speak with you about your revenue model and see if we can help.”

18. “We’re doing great in X area.”

If you hear this objection, ask a few more clarifying questions and do a little more qualification.

Try responding this way:

“What are your goals? How much progress has been made?”

19. “Our business doesn’t experience the challenges you describe.”

This objection is often raised as a brush-off, or because prospects haven’t realized they’re experiencing a certain problem yet. Ultimately, you might discover they really don’t need your product or service, but don’t take this objection at face value.

Try responding this way:

“Interesting. Do you have any business goals or challenges that you are struggling to address that I might be able to help you with?”

20. “X problem isn’t important right now.”

Sometimes, a simple “Oh?” will be enough for your prospect to start talking. Listen closely for real reasons the need has low priority versus platitudes. Keep in mind that excuses can be a sign that your prospect understands they have a problem and is trying to rationalize their inaction. Capitalize on this and instill a sense of urgency.

Try responding this way:

“Tell me more about that. What are your current priorities?”

21. “I don’t see what your product could do for me.”

Another request for information packaged as an objection. Reconfirm the goals or challenges you’ve discussed and explain how your product can solve specific problems.

Try responding this way:

“Interesting. Can you share what specific challenges you’re facing right now? Perhaps [product] presents a solution we have yet to discuss.”

22. “I don’t understand your product.”

If your prospect literally can’t wrap their head around your product, that’s a bad sign. If your product is particularly complicated or specialized, it may be time to disqualify your prospect, lest they churn two months from now.

Don’t give up immediately, though. Ask your prospect what aspects of your product they’re unclear on, then try explaining it in a different way. Alternatively, bring in a technician or product engineer to answer questions out of your depth. Make sure you aren’t using any business jargon, acronyms, or complex wording that might make your pitch unclear to the uninitiated.

Try responding this way:

“What aspects of the product are confusing to you? I’d love to connect you to a customer success technician or product engineer to help you better understand how we can help you.”

23. “I’ve heard complaints about you from [company].”

Word-of-mouth reviews are powerful, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Rather than defending your solution, business, or brand — which will only validate the criticism — thank them for sharing the feedback with you. Then, follow up with an offer to add value.

This gives you an opportunity to establish credibility and trust with your prospect. Once you‘ve given them a positive experience, they’ll naturally form a high opinion of you.

Try responding this way:

“Thanks for sharing that feedback with me. I‘ll pass it along to [relevant department]. While we’re on the phone, would you be interested in hearing a few tips for improving your average invoicing turnaround time?”

24. “We don’t have the capacity to implement the product.”

This objection can be a deal-killing roadblock. Depending on what product you sell, it’s possible your prospect will have to add headcount or divert resources to fully take advantage of your offering, and if they truly aren’t able to, you might have to disqualify them. Do you have any services that can help them add implementation capacity and help them realize measurable results at costs they can justify without hiring additional staff?

Try responding this way:

“I hear you, and I want [product] to add value, not become a burden. What are your current day-to-day responsibilities in your job? I’d love to explain how [the product], once onboarded, can alleviate some of those problems without requiring additional staff overhead or being a resource drain.”

25. “Your product is too complicated.”

Find out if your prospect is confused about specific features or if the product is indeed over their head. If it’s the latter, you might have to disqualify that lead. But if it’s the former, remind your prospect that they’ll have help from your customer service team should they choose to buy and that you’ll be on hand to answer any implementation questions they have.

Try responding this way:

“What features are confusing to you? Our customer success team can help you tailor the user experience to the way you do business. Our support services will be available around the clock to help with implementation and beyond.”

26. “You don’t understand my challenges. I need help with Y, not X.”

It‘s crucial to make your prospect feel heard. Restate your impression of their situation, then align with your prospect’s take and move forward from there. A lot of misunderstandings and hard feelings can be resolved simply by rephrasing your prospect’s words.

Try responding this way:

“Sorry I got that wrong. Would you allow me to restate my understanding of your challenges, and correct me again if I’m still missing or misstating anything that’s important to you? I assure you that I will make it worth your time.”

27. “You don’t understand my business.”

If you sell to a specific industry, chances are you know a bit about the challenges and priorities your prospect’s business is likely faced with. Let them know that you have experience working with similar companies and have solved similar problems in the past.

If you simply made an incorrect assumption about your prospect’s company or industry, don’t be afraid to own up to it. Your prospects will appreciate your candor.

Try responding this way:

“Sorry — I assumed X was true, but it looks like that doesn’t apply to your business. Can you tell me a little more about how it works for your business?”

28. “Your product doesn’t have X feature, and we need it.”

Try suggesting a supplementary product that can be used in conjunction with yours. But if that specific need is a must-have and your product can’t solve it, your prospect might not be a good fit. Time to disqualify and move along to a better-fit opportunity.

Try responding this way:

“Have you checked out [partner or conjoining product]? It’s a good fit with ours and can be used alongside it to solve for Y.”

29. “We’re happy the way things are.”

Maybe everything really is going swimmingly. But more likely, your prospect is having some sort of challenge (after all, who isn’t?). Do some light qualification to determine if they’re facing any problems you can solve, then move forward or disqualify them based on their answers.

Try responding this way:

“That‘s great! Can you tell me how you’re currently solving for X?”

30. “I don’t see the potential for ROI.”

This is a sign that you’ll have to prepare a formal pitch for either your contact or their managers, either using internal numbers from your prospect or customer case studies. Nothing sells quite like hard numbers.

Try responding this way:

“I‘d love to show you. Can we schedule a time for me to explain our product’s potential to deliver a high ROI to you and your team?”

31. “X is just a fad.”

You might hear this objection if your product pioneers a concept that’s new to your prospect’s industry. For example, social media is now widely accepted as a necessary part of a sound business strategy, but seven years ago, many would have scoffed at it.

Now is the time to pull out any testimonials or customer case studies you have to prove the ROI of your product. If you’re pioneering a new concept or practice, you’ll have to show that it works.

Try responding this way:

“I understand why you may think that. Let‘s schedule a time for me to walk through how our product helped some other businesses like yours find success with X — and why it’s here to stay.”

32. “Your product doesn’t work with our current [tools, set-up].”

This objection can be a deal-breaker if the buyer is committed to their existing solutions. But sometimes, your product will replace these tools or make them obsolete. A workaround may be possible as well.

To find out, ask some questions.

Try responding this way:

“Which tools are you currently using? How integral are those tools to your [strategy]? What do you like and dislike about your existing platform?”

33. “Your product sounds great, but I’m too swamped right now to handle [implementation, roll-out].”

Prospects are often put off by the effort required to switch products, even if the ROI is substantial.

To empathize with them, prove that you’re trustworthy, and ensure they do have the bandwidth. Next, combat their reluctance to change by digging into the costs or pains of their current situation.

Calculate what they stand to gain — in time, efficiency, money, or all of the above.

Try responding this way:

“I understand. It typically takes our customers [X days/weeks] to get fully up and running with [product]. How many minutes a day do you spend on [task]?”

Sales Objections That Are Actually Brush-Offs

34. “*Click.*”

If your prospect hangs up on you, don’t sweat it — it happens to everyone eventually. Try reaching out to a different person at the company using a different approach.

Or you can go on the offensive. Wait a few seconds, then call back. Which approach you choose is purely dependent on how your conversation with your prospect went before the hang-up.

Try responding this way:

“Sorry, looks like we got disconnected! Do you have a few minutes?”

35. “I’m busy right now.”

Of course your prospect is busy — almost every professional is these days. Simply explain that you’re not looking for a full-blown conversation, just a quick chat about whether or not a longer discussion about your product would be a good fit at their organization.

Try responding this way:

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time. Can we have a quick chat about your challenges with X and how [product] may help?”

36. “I’m not interested.”

During a prospecting call, it’s far too early for a prospect to be able to definitively say they are or aren’t interested in your product.

Try responding this way:

I liked to respond with, “Some of our clients weren’t initially interested either, but when I showed them they could realize (X benefit), they changed their mind. Can your business afford to pass up on this opportunity without taking some time to explore the possibilities?”

37. “Just send me some information.”

This is a great opportunity to segue into some qualification questions.

Try responding this way:

“I‘d be happy to send you some materials, but I want to make sure that they’re relevant to you. What are you interested in learning about?”

38. “Call me back next quarter.”

Prospects will often say this to dissuade you from pursuing a conversation. But don‘t let them off that easily — it’s a vague brush-off uttered in the hopes you’ll fade away and disappear. Ask some questions to find out their motivations for brushing you off.

Try responding this way:

“I‘ll touch base next quarter. Before we hang up, I’d love to get a sense of how your next quarter will go. Do you feel you’ll get the go-ahead from your superiors?”

39. “How did you get my information?”

Hopefully, you‘re not pulling numbers from lists you got off the internet — because if you are, your prospects have every reason to be annoyed.

Don’t get defensive — simply remind the prospect that they filled out a form on your site, or signed up for more information at a trade show, or that you simply came across their website and wanted to connect to see if you could help.

Try responding this way:

“I came across your website in my research and believe that [product] would be a great fit for you.”

40. “I hate you.”

Generally, prospects won‘t actually come right out and say this, but if you and your prospect really just don’t get along, consider handing them off to a colleague, lest your company lose the deal for good. The upside? This objection has nothing to do with your product or its value.

Try responding this way:

“I’m sorry you feel that way. Can I introduce you to my colleague [name] to continue the conversation? She is very knowledgeable about how businesses like yours can [overcome the kinds of challenges/achieve the goals] that we discussed, and she has great relationships with executives like yourself.”

If the prospect isn’t willing to work with your colleague, their underlying objection is really not about you. Talk to your manager or colleagues about the best way forward.

41. “I’m not responsible for making these decisions.”

This common objection signals that a prospect doesn’t have (or doesn’t believe they have) the authority to discuss their company’s business challenges. Nor do they want to get involved in a sales cycle where they feel pressured to make decisions above their pay grade.

Try responding this way:

“Thanks [Name], for letting me know that you don’t have decision-making authority pertaining to purchasing decisions. Who on your team handles these types of decisions? Can you introduce me to them, or could you and I have a preliminary, no-pressure conversation? I think [solution] could help your team [achieve a defined benefit] by partnering with my company.

42. “Does your product do X, Y, and Z?”

This is one of the most common obstacles that prevent an SDR from converting the lead to an SQL. The good news is this generally means the prospect is interested. Use this opportunity to end the conversation on a good note and set up another appointment to discuss it.

Try responding this way:

“I am glad you asked that. I think it will be helpful to set up a time when we can answer this question and others with a specialist. When is a good day and time for us to talk?”

43. “Sorry, I have to cancel. I’ll get back to you with a better time.”

People don’t like to say “No” — and that includes your prospects. This manifests in ghosting, procrastination, and asking for more time.

Sales Pro Mike Rogewitz swears by Sandler’s Negative Reverse Selling strategy to overcome tricky non-objection objections like these. “You want to call out your prospect‘s lack of interest and get them to admit the answer is ’No’ without going too negative,” says Rogewitz.

Try responding this way:

“Typically, when someone cancels and says they‘ll get back to me, it means they’re just not interested in what I have to offer right now. Is it fair for me to assume that’s the case?”

44. “Hello, you‘ve reached [Prospect’s Name] … ”

Does your prospect avoid your phone calls like the plague? Do they take a while to get back to you and always need approval? Do they give vague answers when you ask about budget and priorities for the year?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you might be speaking with an individual contributor. They’re usually not as comfortable talking on the phone as managers or decision-makers, they need a lot of internal approval, and they aren’t privy to important budgetary information or company-wide priorities.

It’s important to gain the gatekeeper’s trust and learn as much as you can from them, but then you need to move on and build relationships with the people in the company who can actually choose your product or service.

Try responding this way:

• “Have you ever purchased this type of product or service before?”
• “Who will be in charge of this buying process?”
• “Who else should we bring on board for this conversation?”

Objection Handling Training

If you want to improve your team’s objection-handling skills, consider sales training programs or guides. Here are a few objection-handling training programs to give your sales team a leg up.

1. HubSpot’s Objection Handling Templates

This free guide goes over the why and how behind objection handling. Not only does it explain data-backed behaviors top sellers use to push back with buyers, but it also includes scripts for how to handle the most common sales objections, and these templates offer a goldmine of sales expertise.

2. Sell It

Founded by one of the top real estate agents in the country, Ryan Serhant, Sell It is a sales training and membership platform. You don’t need to be in real estate to benefit from the sales lessons shared on the platform. The resources are geared toward all types of business owners and entrepreneurs — anyone who sells, which applies to many professionals.

3. Challenger

Research shows that 38% of B2B purchases end up in no decision. That’s where Challenger can help. Challenger is an online sales training program that offers courses and playbooks for every step of the sales process. Sales teams can tap into the platform’s B2B expertise for objection handling training and more skills that they can apply to real-life deals.

When an Objection is a Firm “No”

Some prospects won’t give you a chance to explain the value that you can provide. They are too busy and have too little faith in the hordes of SDRs and sales reps that contact them on a daily basis. This means as a salesperson, you have to be creatively persistent. Suggest ways of continuing the dialog at a time that works

That said, at a certain point, “no” means “no.” The responses to the common objections above give you a way to pierce through the reactionary objections prospects give without thinking. If you or your sales team overcome all of a prospect’s objections and they still aren’t willing to invest their time with you, it’s sign they’re a poor fit.

Rule of thumb: If the prospect says an objection twice, it’s real. No means no.

Overcoming Objections Can Become Your Best Sales Skill

As a sales professional, you’ll hear “no” a lot more than you hear “yes” —but overcoming a no can be more fun than an easy yes. Every no is a step toward helping prospects realize opportunities they never knew existed, and solving problems with your products or services.

Objection handling helps you learn how to get to the root of your prospects’ issues. With a little assistance, you can lead with empathy and understand where most objections are coming from. If you read these interactions right, you’ll be in a good position to handle any objection that comes up.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Before you start Googling: No, AI agents aren’t secret spies fueled by mysterious government schemes. The AI agents I’m talking about actually serve an entirely different purpose. 

Despite their misleading name, AI agents were designed to assist, enhance, and optimize the operations and workflows of various businesses, especially enterprise-level ones. Although they’re a relatively new technology, AI agents are already changing how companies troubleshoot issues, simplify processes, and increase employee productivity.

In this post, I’ll talk about what AI agents are, how they serve different business needs, and (if you’re considering using them) what to expect from their capabilities. Plus, you’ll get some real, unfiltered, industry-informed advice from two very well-versed AI agent experts.

Let’s get into it.

Table of Contents:

• What are AI agents?

• Statistics You Should Know About AI Usage in Sales
• What do AI agents do?
• How To Build an AI Agent, According to Wesley Baum, Bluleadz’s AI Specialist
• AI Agents Use Cases
• AI Agents for the Win?

As I mentioned earlier, AI agents are relatively new to enterprise-level companies. However, their adoption is growing rapidly as enterprise-level businesses recognize their ability to do the things that their human reps either 1) don’t have the time to do or 2) no longer can do (not because they’re not equipped to, but because they’re focusing on more high-impact, strategic tasks and requests).

At the core of all AI agents is the capability to streamline decision-making and problem-solving efforts, making operations — no matter what department they’re happening in — easier, faster, and less time-consuming.

Thus, mostly every AI agent can:

• Analyze data
• Automate tasks
• Make intelligent decisions (based on predefined rules or machine learning models)
• Answer common queries
• Detect anomalies (like fraud or security threats)

Beyond these functions, AI agents can also learn and adapt over time. Through machine learning, they refine their responses, optimize processes, and improve efficiency based on patterns, feedback, and data. This makes them an ideal investment for businesses looking to enhance productivity, reduce manual work, and make data-informed choices faster.

There’s still much to learn about AI agents, from how they serve businesses and employees to the long-term impact of their integration across industries. But before I dive into the nitty-gritty details, I think it’s important to cover some need-to-know statistics about overall AI usage in sales.

All of this said, visit the following section to explore key insights on how AI is shaping the sales landscape.

Statistics You Should Know About AI Usage in Sales

When it comes to using AI in the enterprise biz world, salesfolks are the most keen on leveraging it to get things done.

Here’s a closer look at salespeoples’ overall sentiments around AI adoption and effectiveness, according to HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report:

• 81% of sales pros say AI tools help them in their work
• 78% of sales pros say AI tools help them be more efficient
• 66% of sales pros agree that AI tools help them provide better personalization
• 41% of sales pros use AI to recognize and respond to buyer emotions or sentiment (83% of them say it’s effective)

Additionally, HubSpot’s 2024 AI Trends for Sales Report revealed the following:

• 43% of salespeople say they’ve been using AI at work regularly (this is a 19% uptick from 2023)
• 87% of salespeople report increased usage of their CRM tools thanks to AI integrations
• 42% of salespeople say task automation tools are one of the top ways they use AI at work
• 69% of surveyed salespeople with an AI-powered CRM say that AI integrations make them more likely to use their CRM

So, what does this all mean? Well, a few things. Here’s my short n’ sweet summary:

• This data represents the dawn of a new day in how businesses do sales, customer engagement, and operational efficiency
• The impact of AI agents is no longer a “what if” scenario — they’re actively transforming how salesfolks, marketers, customer service representatives, C-suite execs, etc., work, interact with clients and personalize their strategies
• AI agents are becoming essential teammates — not replacements — that empower employees to focus on more meaningful, strategic tasks while automating the repetitive ones

With adoption rates rising and AI-driven tools proving their ROI, it’s clear that AI agents are becoming essential assets for modern enterprise businesses. But beyond just the numbers, what exactly are these AI agents doing to drive such impact? And what should enterprise-level businesses know before investing in this new tech?

I tapped Jeannie Jaworski, Senior Customer Success Manager at HubSpot, and Wesley Baum, AI Specialist at Bluleadz, for answers to your (likely) questions, comments, and concerns. Scroll through the next few sections to read what they said.

What do AI agents do?

AI agents can do many things, but their effectiveness in delivering results all depends on how they’re programmed. Still, regardless of their assigned function or industry application, AI agents, ultimately, have been designed to work collaboratively — both with each other and with employees.

I chatted with Jeannie Jaworski, Senior Customer Success Manager (North America) at HubSpot, to get her honest perspective on:

• How her clients have been adapting to the emergence of AI agents
• What primary concerns she’s come across with her own customers
• What she’s been recommending to ensure the businesses she serves engage both AI agents (and human ones) with balance

Check out what she had to say below:

1. AI agents are here to improve how your reps work, not replace them.

When Jeannie and I got to chit-chatting, one of the first things I probed her about was the challenges she’s seen her clients face while onboarding AI agents into their business. She told me (candidly, of course) that the thing folks worry about most is likely the same fear you’ve already seen splashed across tons of news headlines: that AI is going to replace human reps.

“I think there is still a level of concern about people wanting to make sure this doesn’t replace their job,” she told me. And although she acknowledged this widespread concern, Jeannie also made it very clear that she knows there’s a different, more empowering way to look at the rise of AI.

“I think that [AI agents] are really valuable if you can see, like, your employees are already doing things that they don’t like to do because of the repetition involved, so those are the things you can outsource to the agent. So it’s definitely not replacing an employee, it’s just allowing employees to focus on things that do require the human touch, instead of the things that can be automated.”

2. If you collect data now, your AI agents (and your human ones) will reap the rewards later.

Finally, at the tail-end of our conversation, I asked Jeannie about what advice would she give to other enterprise-level businesses considering AI agents, and what factors should they evaluate before implementation.

Her response was indicative of two things: 1) data is everything and 2) you can’t measure AI effectiveness in a vacuum, then expect a clear path to meaningful improvement.

“It’s really important for you to be collecting data, not just about the AI agents’ performance, but the human agents’ performance,” Jeannie shared. She then further explained, “A lot of these tools — like HubSpot’s Breeze AI customer agent — will have built-in analytics to tell you about the quantity of the chats, the amount they were able to resolve on their own … all of that is built in. But if you haven’t built that out for your human agents, you won’t have anything to compare [that data] to.”

Jeannie went on to emphasize how getting granular with these data assessments is crucial to identifying areas for growth, pinpointing performance gaps, and, most importantly, enhancing the overall customer experience. “It’s important to [measure] things like CSAT to understand the satisfaction that your customers have when interacting with both your human and AI agents,” she said.

“If we’re not understanding how our human agents are able to respond and how customers feel about that, we’re missing the opportunity to see the success and the impact of responsiveness that AI agents have on a business’s customer experience.”

How To Build an AI Agent, According to Wesley Baum, Bluleadz’s AI Specialist

Wesley Baum, Bluleadz’s AI Specialist, knows everything there is to know about building and deploying enterprise AI agents. Heck, it’s quite literally what he does for a living.

So when we both had a free moment to connect, I asked him everything (yes, everything) I could about:

• Building effective AI agents
• What he’s learned about CRM integration and context awareness within AI models
• What future trends to expect from the evolution of AI agents
• How enterprise businesses should handle AI technology adoption

So, if you’re looking to give AI agents a try but …

• Don’t know what it takes to build and sustain them
• Have no clue what an AI-powered customer experience will look like for your company
• Want further clarity on how to actually ensure the long-term scalability and impact of AI tech overall

Then you’re in the right place. Here’s an overview of the most valuable insights that Wesley shared with me below:

1. The hardest part about building an AI agent? Knowing what’s needed to make it thrive.

During our conversation, I asked Wesley about the key steps involved in building an AI agent and, more importantly, what challenges he’s seen typically arise for businesses as they seek to customize an AI agent for their specific needs and workflows.

He shared that there are a couple of main components when building an agent. They’re as follows:

• Picking the right model. According to Wesley, these decisions often come down to an “intelligence versus price ratio.” For example, depending on what you need your AI agent to do, you might not need to spend copious amounts of money on a high-end, more expensive model with extra reasoning capabilities right away.
• Prompting. Wesley says “prompting isn’t super important these days, but it still matters.” Prompting success primarily depends on providing context, however, the rules can change based on the model. Wesley recommends building out context through retrieval augmented generation, aka RAG.
• Providing a role/use case. As Wesley put it, “You have to give [your AI agent] as much information as you would provide to a human employee.”

Once you have all these pillars in place, Wesley says you can then start building out the AI agent of your dreams. He explained, “Once you have a model selected, you have your prompting and your roll down; you’ve identified a use case, of course, for this agent, you gave it their context using RAG systems, you actually have to build out the tools, right?”

Wesley then went on to share that this component of building an AI agent is more varied but, truthfully, not as complex.

“Really, it’s just certain APIs,” he added. Generative AI APIs are just application programming interfaces that allow developers to integrate AI models capable of creating content — such as text, images, code, or audio — into their own apps, tools, or platforms.

“Most of the agents that [businesses] are going to get value from, that enterprise solutions are going to build upon, will be through orchestrating APIs. Because it’s consistent,” he told me. “And so, those APIs are the tools in which an agent would interact with your text and the same way that you would interact with the UI.”

2. When it comes to building a proficient AI agent, it’s all about data.

When I asked Wesley about what challenges he’s seen his clients face the most when implementing an AI agent, he pointed out (similarly to Jeannie) one distinct thing: Data collection.

“The biggest issue people don’t expect is data. It’s all about data,” Wesley said. He even admitted that when he’s onboarding customers onto HubSpot’s CRM, the first thing he asks about is data architecture.

He also emphasized that he isn’t afraid to ask super specific questions, such as:

• Is your data built to handle AI initiatives?
• Do you have duplicate properties?
• Is your architecture not set up properly?
• Do you have quality issues?
• Are you integrating all of your different data sources and tech stack software that a human would use into one source of truth?

“All of this is very useful because, without proper data, ChatGPT’s not gonna change your business unless it’s built specifically for that, which is reliant upon your data quality.”

3. There will be a rising demand for customized, business-specific AI agent ecosystems.

Lastly, toward the end of our one-on-one conversation, I asked Wesley about how he anticipates AI agents evolving in the next few years and what emerging trends enterprises should pay attention to when considering AI adoption.

Not only did he keep it real with me but, furthermore, he underscored how personalization and scalability, inevitably, go hand-in-hand.

“[AI agents] have to be customized specifically to how every business does business,” he stated. “One-size-fits-all agents … they’re not going to dramatically change your business with AI. It will have an impact, but it won’t be transformative in the way that an eco-system of multi-agent systems — all working well within your tech stack, for your clients, for your products, communicating with your teams — would. All of it has to be customized.”

AI Agents Use Cases

Just like Jeannie affirmed earlier, AI agents aren’t here to take over the world, steal jobs, or make things harder for sales and customer service folks. However, they are here to simplify experiences, both for customers and employees.

Below is a list of ways AI agents are making things — whether it be your workflow or a customer’s journey — a whole lot easier, whether it be through integrating with other platforms (like your choice CRM software), accessing pre-existing knowledge bases, or diagnosing common issues.

Read through my full breakdown of what AI agents can do — along with customer-facing and employee-facing examples — below:

1. AI agents can answer knowledge queries.

No more digging through old docs or waiting on hold. With AI agents, the info is accessible whenever its needed.

Whether it’s an employee trying to understand internal policy or a customer looking for product support, AI agents can pull from vast knowledge bases to serve answers in real time.

2. AI agents can manage calendars.

AI agents can automate scheduling tasks, reducing back-and-forth coordination and streamlining time management. Honestly, it’s like having a personal assistant who actually lives in your calendar.

They check availability, avoid conflicts, and send invites before you even remember the meeting exists.

For example, a booking bot schedules consultations or demos by syncing with your team’s real-time availability. It could also automatically schedule follow-up meetings after a sales call and blocks focus time for important tasks.

3. AI agents can reset account information (like usernames or passwords).

No more “forgot password” loops of doom. AI agents can securely verify identity and walk users through simple account recovery steps — without human intervention.

For example, a self-service assistant can help users (or employees) reset login credentials quickly, even after working hours.

4. AI agents can summarize meeting conversations.

Forget scribbling notes while someone’s talking — AI agents have perfect recall.

They can analyze meeting transcripts in real time and generate concise summaries, action items, and follow-ups.

For example, an AI assistant can capture internal meeting highlights and email a follow-up summary (with assigned tasks and deadlines … how slay is that?) to all meeting attendees.

5. AI agents can identify high-quality leads.

With AI agents, sales reps can spend less time guessing and spend more start closing.

By analyzing behavioral data and engagement signals, AI agents can score and prioritize leads based on likelihood to convert.

For example, after a discovery call, an AI agent can send a neatly packaged summary to the client, including next steps and discussed solutions.

6. AI agents can track a customer’s lifecycle.

AI agents can follow a customer from their first interaction to post-purchase support, ensuring a personalized and consistent experience.They also remember the little things — like past purchases, preferences, and pain points.

For example, if an AI agent is embedded into a CRM, sales reps can get a ranked list of warm leads in the CRM, complete with insights on intent signals and recent interactions.

AI Agents for the Win?

So… are AI agents the magic wand for every enterprise problem ever? Not exactly. But are they a next-level tool that’s already reshaping how businesses operate, scale, and support both employees and customers? Yeah. 100%.

As I’ve already re-iterated, AI agents aren’t here to completely dismantle the workforce as we know it. However, they are here to:

• Take the ugh out of repetitive tasks (I’m looking at anyone and everyone who works in sales or service)
• Make workflows smarter (and way less manual)
• Give your team room to focus on the high-impact stuff

Regardless of how you like to do work, AI agents are showing up, clocking in, and doing what needs to be done. At request, of course.

So, the TL;DR on AI agents? They’re not robots coming for your cubicle. They’re just digital teammates whose sole purpose is to make the 9-to-5 feel a little less chaotic. And if you’re still wondering whether AI agents are really worth the hype — don’t worry, the best insights are yet to come.

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

If you’re reading this, I can promise you two truths: 1) you probably know how hard it is to find grants for Black women (likely because you are a Black woman seeking funding that actually supports your vision without unnecessary hoops), and 2) you’re not alone in feeling like the system wasn’t built with you in mind.

So, here’s another (undeniable) truth: Black women remain the most dynamic entrepreneurs in the nation, and studies prove it. Besides being the most educated, they own 2.7 million businesses in the U.S. and are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, according to an article by J.P. Morgan. Plus, their companies have made a mark on every industry, from beauty and fashion to tech and education.

However, despite their successes, Black women have faced many challenges as founders and CEOs, and a lack of financial support is at the top of the list. Ultimately, Black women deserve more resources to support them through their entrepreneurship journey. Read on to learn about grants that can help you take your business venture to the next level, no matter what or how big it’s gotten.

Table of Contents:

• What is a business grant?
• Statistics that Black Women Entrepreneurs Should Know About
• 16 Business Grants For Black Women
• More Resources for Black Women Entrepreneurs
• Follow Your Dreams, Black Girl

Although there are tons of grant funding opportunities available, as a Black woman, it’s hard (to say the least) to find one that’s:

• Specific to you
• Not overly competitive or saturated
• Aligned with your stage of business or unique goals

That’s why it’s so important to approach funding with both strategy and awareness. Before diving into applications or pitching your business, it helps to understand the bigger picture — where the opportunities lie, how we’re showing up and making space in the business world.

Knowing the stats can give you clarity, motivation, and even an edge when it comes to telling your story and advocating for your business. In the next section, take a look at some key statistics that every Black woman and woman of color entrepreneur should have in her back pocket.

Statistics that Black Women Entrepreneurs Should Know About

Whether you’re new and true to entrepreneurship or just getting started, it’s empowering and essential to stay updated on what the entrepreneurial landscape holds. From funding disparities to the rising number of Black women launching successful businesses, these numbers foreshadow a story — your story.

So, before diving into more resources and opportunities, take a moment to ground yourself in the facts and see just how powerful our presence in business truly is. Check out some data I pulled from GoDaddy’s 2024 U.S. Venture Forward Report:

• 13% of U.S. micro-businesses are owned by a Black entrepreneur, and of those, 73% are owned by Black women

Source

• 33% of Black business owners use generative AI for both business and personal use

  

Source

• About 3 out of 10 (31%) women with a micro-business are the breadwinners in their home

Source

• About 1 in 3 business owners currently own more than one business

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16 Business Grants For Black Women

As a fellow Black girl with big dreams, I know one of the most complex parts about funding your business is knowing where to look. Between navigating limited resources, juggling multiple responsibilities, and trying to turn your vision into reality, it can feel overwhelming even to know where to start.

But trust me, you’re not alone, and there are opportunities out there created with us in mind.

Check out the list I put together below just for you:

1. WomensNet Grants

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WomensNet gives away at least $30,000 every month and around $435,000 per year to women-owned businesses in four different grant categories:

• Monthly Amber Grant: $10,000 to one recipient
• Monthly Startup Grant: $10,000 to one recipient
• Business Category Grants: $10,000 to one recipient (monthly business categories are listed here)
• Annual Amber Grant: $25,000 to one recipient who has won one of the other monthly grants.

Oh, and want to know the best part? You only need to fill out one application to be considered for all four grants.

Deadline: The next due date is March 31, 2025, but applications are accepted throughout the year.

Eligibility: You must be a woman 18 years or older with a 50% women-owned business operating in the United States or Canada. Women who haven’t started their business (but are looking to do so) are also encouraged to apply.

2. Galaxy Grant

The Galaxy Grant, managed by the nonprofit Hidden Star, offers $2,750 to women and minority entrepreneurs who run a business or plan to start one.

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If you apply and refer a friend who wins, you each receive a $2,750 grant.

Deadline: The 2025 application deadline is March 31, 2025.

Eligibility: Women and minority founders who are new to or experienced in owning a business, as well as folks thinking about starting a business, are encouraged to apply.

3. FedEx Small Business Grant

FedEx’s Small Business Grant awards innovative small businesses the capital they need to support their businesses.

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Ten recipients are selected; one is awarded $50,000, and the remaining nine are awarded $20,000. Recipients are also eligible for various growth-supporting perks, like a $500 print credit and a $300 voucher.

The fund is open to anyone, making it great for Black women at all stages of their entrepreneurial journey. You must have had a FedEx business account open for six or more months before March 1st, 2024.

Deadline: The 2025 deadline is April 1, 2025.

Eligibility: Applicants must be 18 years of age or older, a legal resident of the United States, own a for-profit business that’s been operating for at least six months, and be current shipping customer with FedEx using a FedEx shipping account number.

4. HerRise MicroGrant

HerRise MicroGrant for small businesses offers monthly awards of $1,000 to women of color entrepreneurs.

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The financial awards are given to those with businesses that directly impact their community and struggle to secure their funding. Past recipients have used the grants to buy computers, marketing materials, equipment, and more.

Deadline: The application deadline is 11:59 PM on each last day of the month.

Eligibility: Applicants must have a business currently registered in the United States that has made less than $1 million in gross revenue and is 51% women-owned. Non-profit, franchise, direct seller, authorized seller, and independent consultant businesses are not eligible.

5. HerRise Hustlers MicroGrant

Like the HerRise MicroGrant, the HerRise Huslers MicroGrant offers entrepreneurs of color and minority small business owners a $1,000 business grant.

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Although this grant is smaller, I think it’s perfect for early-stage entrepreneurs and founders looking to finance the little things — like business licenses, website development, subscriptions, or initial inventory. This grant also requires a $15 nonrefundable fee at the time of application submission.

Deadline: The application deadline is 11:59 PM on each last day of the month.

Eligibility: Applicants must be small business owners (or aspiring ones).

6. Corporate Counsel Women of Color Grants

Corporate Counsel Women of Color awards five $2,500 grants to women entrepreneurs with legal, for-profit businesses.

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To qualify, your company has to have generated over $25,000 in revenue since Jan. 2020.

Deadline: Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis, and they apply today to be considered for the Jan. 2025 award.

Eligibility: Applicants must be 18, a woman of color, and own a for-profit business in the United States (with an EIN).

7. SheaMoisture Grants

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Shea Moisture offers grants to Black-owned businesses and founders; they are as follows:

• The Next Black Millionaires Grant/Program: This grant offers $100,000 in funding, business development services, retail distribution support, and executive coaching and mentorship. You can sign up to be on the program/grant waitlist (and get notified when applications for 2025-2026 officially launch) here.
• The Brown Girl Jane Grant: This grant offers $10,000 to $25,000 grants to Black and woman-owned beauty or wellness businesses that have been in operation for at least one year. Applications open
• The Blueprint Grant: This grant offers one-time $10,000 grants and 1:1 mentoring support to Black women (aged 18 – 35) in the United States. This grant is awarded to Black women seeking funding for a project or initiative to give back to their community.
• The SheaMoisture Community Impact Grant: This grant offers one-time $10,000 grants to Black-owned businesses (registered and based in the U.S.) that have been in operation for at least one year.

Eligibility: Each respective grant has its requirements, but ultimately, the only standing criteria for each is that applicants must be Black women.

8. NAACP Grants

The NAACP partners with organizations like Vistaprint, The Boston Celtics, and BEYGOOD to fund and support Black-owned businesses.

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It offers multiple grant opportunities, including:

• Keep It Local Business Fund: This one-time grant provides $5,000 (plus additional support opportunities) to small business owners of color.
• Certification Boost Grant: This one-time grant offers $5,000 to assist small, minority-owned businesses in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas to get critical business certifications.
• Powershift Entrepreneur Grant: This grant awards Black entrepreneurs and black-owned businesses with $25,000 grants. It selects multiple winners per year.

Deadline: Check back for 2025 application dates. All grant applications except the NAACP x Bacardi: Backing the B.A.R. Grant and the NAACP x BeyGOOD: Black Owned Small Business Impact Fund Grant are open.

Eligibility: Applicants must be a Black entrepreneur or business owner.

9. National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) Growth Grants

Since 2006, the NASE has awarded nearly $1,000,000 in small business grants.

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Recipients can receive up to $4,000 for advertising, hiring, and other business needs. To apply, you’ll submit a plan detailing your business’s purpose and operations.

Deadline: Applications are reviewed quarterly (i.e., applications received between Jan. and Mar. are reviewed in April).

Eligibility: Applicants must be a NASE member to apply.

10. The Freed Fellowship

Every month, the Freed Fellowship bestows a $500 micro-grant and two months of free mentoring in its virtual community of business owners.

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Monthly awardees also qualify for a $2,500 year-end grant.

Deadline: Applications are accepted monthly.

Eligibility: Applicants must be a micro- or small business owner. Women and other minority groups are especially encouraged to apply.

11. Comcast RISE

Comcast RISE is a grant program, sustained by the technology and entertainment company Comcast, that advances digital equity and capital for small businesses owned by underrepresented entrepreneurs who make a difference in their communities.

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Recipients receive $5,000 to invest in growth sustainability and access to digital tools. In previous years, Comcast has awarded funds to 500 recipients across five cities with a grant package that includes business consultation services, educational resources, creative production, a media schedule, and a technology makeover.

Deadline: Check back for deadlines via the Comcast RISE application page. In previous years, applications have launched in early October and have closed by mid-October. They are typically awarded in December.

Eligibility: Applicants must have a business that’s been established for 3 or more years, have one to 25 employees, and be within the following cities:

• Chicago, IL (Cook County)
• Miami, FL (Miami-Dade and Broward Counties)
• Oakland, CA (City of Oakland)
• Seattle, WA (King and Pierce Counties)
• Washington, D.C. (Wards 1–8)

12. The San Francisco Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund

San Francisco Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund (exclusive to SF businesses) offers up to $5,000 in mini-grants to women-owned small businesses to help with projects and updates that will significantly impact growth.

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The Fund was established to improve the small business environment in San Francisco and encourage collaboration between female entrepreneurs and local technical assistance providers.

Deadline: Rolling basis acceptance. Your TA provider must submit your application and supporting documents to the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA).

Eligibility: Applicants must be residents of San Francisco, proprietors of a woman-owned business operating full-time (with at least 40 percent revenue in the city), have a current lease with at least 18 months remaining, and identify as low/moderate income.

13. The David Prize Grant

The David Prize Grant is a New York resident-specific funding opportunity to support creatives who dream of starting any artistic endeavor, whether a product or a passion project. Individuals who win the David Prize Grant can be affiliated with organizations or companies, but it prioritizes folks doing extraordinary things outside of traditional pathways.

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The David Prize offers $200,000 to 5 exceptional New Yorkers. Additionally, it prides itself in supporting individuals who have yet to receive their flowers (meaning that if you’ve shown up under a ‘30 under 30’ list or have raised more than $200,000 in the past year, you’re not the ideal candidate).

Deadline: Check the David Prize website for application deadlines for this upcoming year. They typically open in the Fall.

Eligibility: Applicants must be a New York resident. According to the David Prize’s site, they must also be dedicated to getting things done, making a difference, and taking risks.

14. The Glossier for Good Grant Program

The Glossier for Good Grant Program invests in Black and underrepresented beauty founders leading beauty brands across the United States and the UK through grant funding, curated business programming, and additional resources to help them take their businesses to the next level.

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In the past, Glossier has funded over 25 Black-owned businesses in the U.S. and expanded this grant funding opportunity to Black-owned UK businesses. Presently, Glossier offers $50,000 to selected U.S. grantees and $10,000 to selected UK recipients.

Deadline: The application due date is June 1, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Eligibility: Applicants must be new founders of a beauty-specific business, provide net sales for the current year and expected net sales for the following year, and share a pitch deck with an overview of their business plans.

14. Black Women Photographers x Nikon Inc. Grants

Black Women Photographers (BWP), a global community, directory, and support hub for Black and African creatives, is partnered with Nikon Inc. to offer one $10,000 grant, five $5,000 grants, five $3,000 grants, and an additional $20,000 in Nikon mirrorless gear to Black photographers.

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Deadline: The application due date is March 28, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Eligibility: Applicants must identify as Black creatives; international applicants are also accepted. Applicants are also encouraged to apply for more than one grant but must submit separate applications for each grant. You do not have to be a BWP member to apply.

15. Grantmakers for Girls of Color’s (G4GC) Black Girl Freedom Fund Grant

Grantmakers for Girls of Color’s Black Girl Freedom Fund offers one-time $10,000 grants to Black women, girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth for projects focused on the Black female diaspora’s artistic vision, activism, and innovation.

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Deadline: Check the Black Girl Freedom Fund page for updates; G4GC is also fairly active on Instagram, so I suggest following them for timely information on application deadlines!

Eligibility: Applicants must be a Black girl, femme, and/or gender-expansive youth between the ages of 15 – 25.

15. Black Film Space x Entertainmint Short Film Grant

Black Film Space (BFS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is partnered with Entertainmint to offer a one-time $2,500 grant to Black filmmakers who want to bring their creative visions to life.

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This grant opportunity calls for Black filmmakers to submit original short films at any stage of production that requires funding to complete principal photography. Projects in production or post-production are also encouraged to be submitted.

Deadline: The application due date is January 16, 2025 (winners are announced in April 2025).

Eligibility: Applicants must be 18 years old, present a script (of 25 pages maximum) for their short film, and can reside anywhere globally but must have access to a United States bank to receive funds for the grant. The short film must also be a narrative project. The application fee for this grant is $25 but free to BFS members.

More Resources for Black Women Entrepreneurs

In addition to sharing funding-specific opportunities, I wanted to pass along the names of some other organizations and companies (who are doing pretty amazing things, might I add) that offer mentorship, networking, education, and tools specifically designed to support and uplift women entrepreneurs and people of color on their business journeys.

Take a look at my list below:

1. Start Small, Think Big Inc.

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Start Small, Think Big Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion in entrepreneurship through connecting small businesses with the resources and community support they need to thrive.

More specifically, Start Small, Think Big offers free small business workshops and events as well as expert small business services, from finance services to legal assistance.

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If you’re looking for ways to get connected with other Black and Brown small business folks or get tailored business support, I think this organization is definitely worth checking out.

2. SCORE

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SCORE is a 501(c)(3) organization and resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). SCORE provides free small business advice, events, courses, and mentorship to entrepreneurs and small business owners nationwide.

Additionally, SCORE has free templates and resources available. It also offers women entrepreneur-specific resources. All of this said, I think SCORE is a valuable option to consider if you’re seeking guidance, support, and practical tools to grow or launch your business.

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3. Stan

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If you’re looking to monetize your small business through social media, Stan (also known as Stan Store) is worth looking into. Stan is an all-in-one platform that allows its users to sell digital products, courses, and manage bookings through a mobile-optimized “link in bio” design.

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Through Stan, you can experiment with different income streams like digital downloads, paid consultations, and online courses — all without needing a full website. If you’re a Black girl entrepreneur who’s just getting started, I recommend utilizing Stan’s capabilities to build your brand, test your offers, and generate early capital.

Oh, and one more thing: If you’re looking for another full-stack, easy-to-navigate platform to help you better manage your small business, I highly suggest looking into HubSpot’s Sales Hub. Not only does it have everything you (most likely) need, like email templates and tracking, it’s also fully AI-powered. It’s designed to save you time, help you grow your client base faster, and keep all your customer interactions in one place.

Follow Your Dreams, Black Girl

If no one’s told you lately, let me be the first: your ideas are valid, your ambition is powerful, and your dreams are worth pursuing — fearlessly and unapologetically. As a Black woman navigating the world of entrepreneurship, you’re not just building a business — you’re creating legacy, shifting narratives, and opening doors for the next generation.

Yes, the path can feel isolating. Yes, the resources might seem hidden or out of reach. But trust — there are tools, communities, and opportunities made for you, by people who understand the road you’re walking. And even when it feels like the world wasn’t designed with your brilliance in mind, remember: you’ve always been the blueprint.

So take up space. Seek what you need. Keep dreaming big, even when it feels too bold. Because every step you take builds something greater — not just for you, but for all of us watching and believing right alongside you.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I have always found the best approach to getting the highest email open and conversion rates — all while evading junk folders — is to write a captivating email subject line.

I know I’m not alone in that assessment. Surveys found that 64% of respondents said subject lines determine whether they open or delete an email, and 69% said subject lines determine whether or not they mark an email as spam.

Meeting your goals for open rates, click-through rates, and CTA conversions relies on the power of your sales email subject line. Sounds like a lot rides on 60 characters or less, doesn’t it?

But never fear. Once you understand what makes a great subject line, you’ll know how to craft impactful email subject lines that convert to leads, progress opportunities, and help close deals.

Table of Contents

• What makes a good email subject line?
• Catchy Email Subject Lines for Sales
• Professional Email Subject Lines
• Email Subject Lines for Reaching Out
• Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines for Sales Emails
• The Best Sales Email Subject Lines
• Cold Email Subject Lines
• Follow-Up Email Subject Lines
• Best Email Subject Lines After No Response
• Email Subject Lines for Meeting Requests
• Your Guide to Writing the Best Sales Email Subject Lines

It may surprise you to learn that the average open rate of emails across all industries is 37.27%. The way to reel in those opens? Write a creative, catchy subject line that identifies:

• Why you are emailing the prospect.
• When the reader should act on the message (usually, right now).
• The benefits the reader can expect to gain by opening the email.

I like to use the following tips to improve my sales email subject lines.

1. Keep it brief.

The ideal length of an email subject line varies between mobile, desktop, and tablet devices, so keep this in mind as you craft the perfect one-liner for your sales email.

On average, the maximum subject line is about 60 characters long before it gets cut off by the email provider. Campaign Monitor recommends a subject line of 41 characters so that each word appears on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. And Regie.ai found that subject lines with seven words have the highest open rates.

But while you’re watching your word and character counts, you also have to spark your prospect’s curiosity and make it clear why they should (nay, must!) open your message.

I like to tailor the subject line to the priorities my prospects care most about:

• Their own job security and reputation inside and outside their organization.
• Increasing revenue generation, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
• Boosting employee morale, engagement, and motivation.
• Mitigating risk, complexity, and distractions.
• Their company’s reputation, competitive positioning, and market viability.

2. Personalize it.

Personalizing the subject line to include the prospect’s name is always a smart way to go. In fact, Campaign Monitor found that 74% of marketers claim to enjoy an average 20% increase in revenue when personalizing emails. People want to hear from, talk to, and buy from other people, not from big brands and companies.

So, before emailing my prospects, I like to put myself in their shoes. Would I be compelled to read the email to solve a problem or gain an advantage? Or would it make me feel like the salesperson is taking a “spray and pray” approach, or is it tailored to me and my business niche?

Here are some more of my personalization tips:

• Make your emails feel like an invitation to a one-on-one conversation with a trustworthy advisor who understands their needs and motivations.
• Take the time to personalize the subject line with the recipient’s name and other customer-centric messaging. This goes a long way to boosting engagement.
• Don’t use generic subject lines like “Meeting Request.” Use “Quick chat to discuss employee retention,” which directly highlights the advantage for the reader.
• I suggest using an email address or an alias that includes your first name. It makes your message resonate with more humanity and helps build rapport and trust.

Pro tip: HubSpot’s Sales Hub makes personalizing subject lines easy. Set up automated personalized email sequences, templatize your most effective emails to further streamline your outreach, and more. Campaign Assistant is another great (and free!) tool that uses AI to help with your campaign creation.

3. Make it interesting.

We’ve all been taught not to judge a book by its cover, but sales email subject lines don’t count. (Apologies to Mrs. Walker, my fourth-grade teacher.)

The primary goal of your subject line is to get the prospect to click, read more, and decide if they’re interested enough to respond or take action. However, an interesting subject line means different things for different scenarios.

Here are a few ways to create subject lines that capture the attention and imagination of your audience:

• Reference a recent news story in their industry that’s relevant to problems you can help them solve.
• Include a new statistic about trends in their industry that helps support your case.
• If you know about a project on their agenda, can you help them improve their results, or help them address errors they made along the way?
• Ask for their help. Appeal to the prospect’s desire to do a good deed for the day.

The key to each of these angles is this: They’re all about the prospect. You’ll have plenty of time to pitch your product in the body of the email and on future calls.

Pro tip: I like to use A/B testing to verify whether a subject line interests my prospects. There are a lot of great A/B testing tools on the market to help you do this quickly and effectively. AI can help, too!

4. Offer value.

When writing a subject line, I make sure to describe the measurable and intangible benefits of working with me.

I had a sales coach named Marty Nuckles who said this approach works because everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM, or “What’s In It For Me.” The WIIFM sales principle focuses on the value of your offerings to the prospect, and it’s a great way to start building rapport by demonstrating empathy.

Pro tip: I like to personalize my emails by including a specific benefit for the recipient in the subject line. For instance, instead of a generic subject, I use something like “Let’s discuss how [ProspectCo] can increase deal win rates.” This directly highlights the advantage of opening the email and ideally, responding to it.

5. Create urgency.

Time sensitivity is a common filter that many of us use to prioritize our inboxes, so it’s understandable that our prospects operate their inboxes the same way. Even if your prospect isn’t particularly interested in making a purchase right now, there’s still some benefit in knowing that they could miss out on a benefit if they don’t explore the limited-time-only promotions.

I have several emails in my inbox right now with “Don’t miss this deal!” subject lines for promotional pricing. I’ve received other time-sensitive offers for SaaS trials and event registrations.

In my experience, creating urgency — where appropriate — is a tried-and-true tactic to get your emails opened and read, but don’t rely on this all the time. If prospects don’t take you seriously about empty promotional warnings, your overall credibility is compromised.

6. Avoid clickbait.

Using clickbait headlines doesn’t just cheapen your outreach messaging — they increase the likelihood your emails will be caught in spam filters.

Don’t let your email subject lines make claims that your company or its products or services can’t live up to. Falsely insinuating urgency, value, or benefits can damage your reputation as a salesperson, and may even result in your company being fined by regulators.

Pro tip: For an added layer of assurance, cross-check your subject line against our list of spam trigger words to avoid.

7. Include trending keywords.

Keywords are another way prospects filter and organize their inboxes. So, including specific keywords in your email can help yours make it into a folder the prospect will review later.

Google Trends, Search Console, or HubSpot’s Traffic Analysis tool are a few tools you can use to help you generate subject lines that align with how people are finding your company.

Pro tip: Run some A/B tests to determine what keywords result in the highest open rates compared to other versions.

The Best Sales Email Subject Lines

Email subject lines provide vital context to help you prioritize which messages to read immediately, what to file away, and what to send spinning into the digital ether. Your prospects are constantly prioritizing their email inbox, even setting up filters and rules to organize their messages in order to respond to important and urgent notes as efficiently as they can.

Below, I’ve gathered a bunch of proven sales email subject lines from highly successful salespeople and organized them into these categories:

• Cold Email Subject Lines
• Follow-Up Email Subject Lines
• Best Email Subject Lines After No Response
• Email Subject Line Examples for Meeting Requests

Cold Email Subject Lines

I know you might be thinking that your cold sales email won’t make the prospect’s priority email list, but the following cold email subject lines can stoke the fire of curiosity and get that prospect to open up your email.

1. “Quick question about [goal]”

Your question will vary widely based on your industry and the goals that drive growth within it. Ideally, the question will pique the prospect’s curiosity and they will open your email to find out what you’re curious about. Make sure the question is relevant and thought-provoking to the target recipient.

You might think (as I once did) that a prospect wouldn’t want to answer such a bold question from a stranger. Yet if a prospect is willing to respond, your icebreaker question may have hit on an issue that is top-of-mind.

Resist the urge to pounce on the reply with a sales pitch. Ease into a dialogue with some more of the questions on this list. Answers to this question are like having a fish nibble at your bait. If you try to haul the prospect into the boat immediately, you’ll probably break the line.

2. “[Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch”

Referrals are a powerful way to break into a prospect’s circle of trust. If you share an acquaintance with your prospect, be sure to put that person’s name in your email subject line. The more your prospect trusts your referrer, the more compelling your email will be.

Just make sure you actually have the mutual connection’s consent to drop their name, as it’s unlikely you can rebuild trust after a false claim at the start of a relationship.

3. “Hi [name], [question]?”

This question is similar to the first, but it adds a measure of personalization I described earlier. Questions provoke answers. Emails with question subject lines provoke opens and replies. Incorporating their name makes the email more personal, which will help it stand out in their inbox.

Asking a prospect a question can also be a psychological trigger that compels them to want to demonstrate their expertise and how they’ve contributed to their company’s success.

4. “Did you get what you were looking for?”

I find this one is good to use when following up with an inbound lead or a website visitor. They’re clearly looking for information to address a business initiative — so ask how you can be of service.

Be sure to establish standards for how soon to reach out after a prospect visits your website or interacts with gated content. Getting a call or email before you finish reading the first page of a guide or the end of a webinar seems desperate.

When I was following up on inbound leads, I would subtly introduce myself as a resource a day or two after the prospect’s information was captured, and follow up with a stronger pitch a week or so later.

5. [the e.e. cummings subject line]

Most people incorporate title case capitalization when they draft emails (although some go a little CrAzY). In contrast, an all-lowercase subject line will stand out, although you should confirm with your marketing or management team to confirm whether this style is acceptable.

Younger audiences and startups are embracing this style; however, many companies are shifting towards sentence case and only capitalizing the first word in the subject line. Additionally, conservative audiences may not appreciate the tone this style conveys.

6. “Ready to help”

The age of the hard sell and aggressive Always Be Closing mentality is dead; the best salespeople today adhere to ABH (Always Be Helping). Put this sentiment front and center — prospects will appreciate your candor as well as your willingness to be of service.

Advisory sales methodologies like SNAP Selling recommend educating, not pushing aggressively, to move a deal through the pipeline to a close.

7. “A [benefit] for [prospect’s company]”

I explored the power of business benefits earlier in this article. Here are some examples of how this subject line might look like in practice:

• A new HR strategy for Business Inc.
• A savings of $25k for ABC Corp.
• An all-time revenue record for Organization Y.

If the prospect sees the value in the benefit you describe and they let their guard down because of the personalized subject line, you have a better chance at “setting the hook” and booking a sales meeting.

Pro tip: Using the prospect name or company name is a great way to set your email apart from generic pitches. When in doubt, personalize — nobody wants to feel like just another email address on a spreadsheet.

8. “X tips/ideas for [pain point]”

People love numbered lists (hence, the rise of the listicle). Insert a number into your subject line to drive interest. Your list should be snack-sized with four or five ideas to whet the prospect’s appetite.

Keep some of your best nuggets of wisdom for your discovery call.

9. “Idea for [topic the prospect cares about]”

A free idea with no strings? The prospect will likely be willing to invest a click to see what you have up your sleeve. This subject line is a good way to extract value from your website, lead, and social sentiment analytics to determine what prospects care about instead of making assumptions.

10. “2x [prospect‘s company]’s pipeline in 10 days”

Throwing out some buzzy numbers can generate some immediate interest. Make sure your company and its products and services can live up to your claims. Customers will often remember the sting of falling for a dishonest sales pitch far longer than they remember passing on an opportunity and staying with the status quo. However, if they realize the benefits of your promotion though, they are a great testimonial candidate.

11. “I found you on LinkedIn through our mutual connection, [mutual connection’s name]”

Again, don’t underestimate the power of mentioning referrals in a subject line. Many salespeople leverage second- or third-degree connections as ways to build out their network.

If you haven’t been able to get the mutual acquaintance or friend’s permission to cite them as a referral, be honest about how you discovered them. I’ve always felt that if you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you should be upfront with them as to your motivation.

Send a LinkedIn message with this subject line, or if you can source their email address, send your introduction that way before sending the connection invite.

Nobody wants a cold connection with a sales pitch chaser two minutes later.

12. “We have [insert fact] in common…”

Spend five minutes looking through your contact’s LinkedIn or Facebook accounts. I bet you can find at least one thing you have in common — even if it’s just that you’ve both been photographed eating spaghetti.

At the same time, be careful. Don’t mention something too personal or something they clearly want to keep private, or it will come off as creepy. Pick something that the prospect made publicly known on their social profiles.

13. “So nice to meet you, [Prospect]!”

Whether they downloaded a piece of content or visited your pricing page, let your prospect know you’ve noticed their interest and are happy to finally touch base. This is a warm and friendly way to initiate first contact.

Don’t go high-pressure sales inside the email; maybe suggest another content asset that eases the prospect down the sales funnel.

14. “Feeling [insert emotion]? Let me help”

Tap into current events in your prospect’s industry. Targeting marketers during the busy weeks before Black Friday? Try “Feeling stressed? Let me help.” Then, share how your product or service can lighten their load.

15. “Hoping you can help”

People generally want to help other people. If you’re reaching out to someone for the first time, ask something like, “I’d like to learn more about your marketing conference schedule this year. Would you be able to connect me with the right person to speak with?”

If you’re looking for a referral to a decision-maker, look for a champion who can help your cause without feeling like they are being drawn into a sales cycle they have no authority over.

16. “This is a [your industry here] sales email”

You’d be surprised how far humor, honesty, and transparency will take you. By opening with the primary reason for your email, you’ll break down the wall your prospect has up when they’re being sold something.

After openly identifying the 800-pound gorilla in the room, you can use the body of your email to get your point across. If you are bold enough to use this subject line, don’t dilute your message by being generic about what you have to offer.

17. “Your yearly [X] target”

Every professional has KPIs to meet. Pair the target with the persona or prospect’s priorities, and test out what targets generate the most traction.

18. “[Situation] at [Company]”

For example, “Sales Training at Business Inc.” or “HR Services at Organization Y.” Whatever it is that you sell, connect it with the company you’re prospecting into for a subject line one-two punch.

Pro tip: Are you using an AI-powered news source (like a Breeze agent) to alert you about events that impact your prospects and accounts? You can increase the impact of this subject line by identifying the best times for you and your team to approach the accounts in your market segment.

19. “Who is in charge of X at [company]?”

Seeking an introduction to the right contact at the buyer‘s organization? There’s nothing like getting right to your point in the subject line of the message.

I recommend you do your research before sending an email like this, though, and to try and get within one or two degrees of org chart separation. Being way off the mark will just get your email swept into the delete folder.

20. “Have you tried [restaurant in prospect’s town]?”

The salesperson who suggested this said it has an insanely high open rate, and I’m not surprised.

To use this line, do a little digging to discover A) where the prospect’s company is located and B) one of the top-rated restaurants in that area.

And you don’t have to pretend you’ve gone there. Inside the email, say something like, “If I ever visit [location], should I go? Does it deserve the hype?”

With luck, you can start a rapport-building conversation, show you did your homework, and make the prospect feel like a local expert in one fell swoop. People like to buy from people they know, like, and trust. And everybody’s gotta eat!

21. “I understand you speak sign language too?”

That’s an example of a tidbit you can easily learn from someone’s bio, personal website, LinkedIn profile, or X account. Personalizing your email subject line — even if it has nothing to do with the purpose of your outreach — will earn you lots of opens.

According to Ali Powell, a former principal account executive at HubSpot, the secret to writing a phenomenal sales email subject line is to make it something about them. Mention something that couldn’t apply to anyone else. If you can draw a common thread to your own life, you’ll see better results.

22. “Let’s cut to the chase”

This subject line manages to be both intriguing and matter-of-fact at the same time. Your reader instantly thinks, “Cut to the chase about what?”

According to curiosity drive theory, people find uncertainty unsettling. Conversely, clearing up areas of uncertainty is mentally satisfying.

23. “I might be off-base here, but …”

What could it be? The prospect will have to open your email to find out.

Similar to “Let’s cut to the chase,” this subject line plays on the buyer’s curiosity. If they don’t click, they’ll never learn what you’re potentially wrong about.

Research is key here, because if you are completely off-base, you could be perceived as wasting their time.

24. “Your peers tell me they struggle with [common pain point]. Do you?”

As a salesperson, you have a bird’s eye view of your prospect’s industry. They often only know their organization’s circumstances and that of their network. That means what might feel like a unique problem to them may actually be a widespread challenge.

I often find you can harness your broader perspective in three ways:

• Grab prospects’ attention with this subject line.
• Demonstrate your credibility with testimonials or success stories.
• Reassure them you may have some answers.

Few executives like to reinvent the wheel or feel alone trying to overcome an obstacle. Thanks to the bandwagon effect, the fact that other people are sharing or have experienced something is often enough to sway opinions and drive action.

Framing this subject line with “tell me” makes you sound connected, whereas if you write “your peers say,” it sounds like you may have just read a survey.

25. “Can I make your life 20% easier?”

I think this eye-catching subject line is a great option if your solution makes your customers more efficient, accurate, or productive. Combined with a personalized email, this opener helps you immediately focus on value.

Make sure your email demonstrates that your company or your products or services can deliver on this claim with evidence or a testimonial, or your claim may come across as clickbait.

26. “[Name], I saw you’re focused on [goal]”

Pack a one-two punch with this subject line. You can get points for personalization and customer intelligence with this one. Not only has research shown that people respond positively to hearing their names, but the phenomenon of implicit egotism also holds that our name-based preferences extend to the cities we choose to live in and what occupations we pursue.

Pro tip: Locate this information by leveraging your marketing automation software, which tells you which web pages on your site they’ve visited or what content they’ve downloaded. For example, if they just read three of your company’s blog posts about accelerating their invoice to cash cycles, it’s safe to say they are improving their cash flow management, operational efficiency, and accounts receivable processes.

27. “Will I see you at [event]?”

If you know your prospect will be at the same event as you — either based on a credible attendance list or social media — I recommend this friendly question.

Even if your prospect doesn‘t respond to your email, your name and the event will be linked in their mind. That means they’re more likely to wander over to your booth and check out your demo while exploring the floor.

And if they do respond? You can schedule a conversation or demo.

28. “Can I help?”

Use this subject line to tell the buyer you’re looking to help solve problems, not just take their order for your products. Modern salespeople must differentiate themselves as problem solvers and trusted advisors — especially when selling commodity goods or services.

Plus, as soon as your prospect sees this in her inbox, they’ll wonder, “Help with what?” There’s only one way to find out…

29. “Tired of salespeople who never give up?”

The rep who passed along this subject line to me said that in the body of her email, she writes:

Yep, me too. That’s why I promise I won’t keep contacting you if you’re not interested. 🙂

Just let me know if you’re [seeing, dealing with] any of these three things, which my customers in X [industry, role] often are:

– Issue #1

– Issue #2

– Issue #3

I think this subject line works because honesty is appealing — from the outset of your relationship, you’re showing your prospect you’re a straight shooter. This approach also lets you empathize with them (let’s face it, we are all tired of overly aggressive salespeople).

30. “[Name] suggested I reach out”

Referral sales expert Bill Cates notes that salespeople who get referred to new prospects “borrow trust” from the referral source.

This means that instead of coming in cold, the relationship between the rep and the prospect automatically becomes warmer, thanks to the relationship between the referred prospect and the referral source. In my opinion, this subject line effectively uses that connection to your advantage.

Getting referred up through organization chart levels is often easier than starting at the top and getting referred down when you haven’t built a relationship at an executive level. That said, a referral from an executive can increase the likelihood of a response if the person you are referred to reports to the executive that refers you.

31. “Contacting you at [Referral]’s suggestion”

This is a slightly more formal version of other referral subject lines on this list. Use it if you’re emailing someone in a less casual industry; for example, I’d suggest this subject line for a finance professional or higher-ranking employee.

All the salespeople who recommended this subject line passed on the same warning to me — if you didn’t get a referral, don’t use this line!

32. “[Referral name]”

This is another one from Ali Powell’s arsenal. “Just put the full name of the person in the subject line and nothing else. I promise this works!” she writes. For example: “Jane Smith” or “John Doe.”

The simple “referral name” subject line draws on the power of referrals without providing details. But there’s another reason it works — in a sea of emails labeled with verbs and adjectives, a person’s name (and one the recipient knows well) stands out.

33. “[Referral name] loves us & thought you might, too”

Follow up with your happiest customers and use this subject line to set the tone for your communication. As an extra bonus, include a personalized testimony from the referrer in the email or have them introduce you via email.

A referral with no context is just a referral, but one that leads with how happy the referrer is stands out — especially if you can snag an email introduction from your referrer.

34. “Fellow [University] grad here!”

This is less of a referral and more of a referring connection. Draw upon a similar hometown, state, or alma mater for instant rapport-building.

This subject line works because people love to feel connected to one another. In my experience, calling upon a similarity with your prospect forges an instant bond and can lead to easier rapport and a few extra minutes of their attention.

Follow-Up Email Subject Lines

1. “Our next steps”

I think this is a great subject line to follow up after a first connection or to re-engage a prospect who’s gone quiet. Propose a short call to catch up on their business goals — don’t jump into sales mode before you reconnect. If the prospect has already gone quiet, being too pushy could make them continue to ignore your attempts to reconnect.

2. “X options you can get started on Y”

Sometimes a prospect needs help understanding how they can best do business with you. In the body of the email, pop in a few bullet points about how to kick off your relationship in the body text (a webinar, a phone call, an upgrade opportunity for current customers, etc.), and you’re good to go.

3. “You are not alone.”

This subject line hits home on two fronts:

• It’s intriguing.
• It’s human.

If you know the prospect is struggling with a difficult challenge, share stories of how others have overcome similar hurdles.

4. “Do you have 10 mins on [date]?”

Short, easy, and to the point.

If you can mirror this sentiment in the body of your sales emails, I guarantee the replies will be flying your way. Make it easy for the recipient to accept your offer or counter with another time that works with you both by sending a meeting scheduler link.

5. “A 3-step plan for your busy week”

You know the pain points of your ideal customer, so bullet those pain points in the email body and provide short, actionable tips on how they can overcome those challenges over the coming week.

6. “[Prospect], I thought these articles would interest you”

Include their name in the subject line, and fill the email body with content you know they need. I think this is a great way to test disengaged or completely unresponsive prospects for signs of life. It’s not aggressive, and shows you want to educate and advise them beyond sales-related conversations.

7. “Here’s that info I promised you”

I recommend always ending your call or previous prospect communication with several next steps and follow-up topics. This gives each side direction — and also gives you a reason to follow up.

8. “I’d love your feedback on that meeting”

If you just gave a demo or led a meeting with a prospect‘s colleagues, it’s a good idea to stay top of mind and immediately ask if you can answer any questions. This also helps gauge how things went and understand what the next steps should be.

When I used this tactic, I often recorded short videos or used screenshots to address any concerns that the customer had as opposed to getting on another call.

9. “I had this idea since we last spoke”

This subject line does two things:

• Encourages them to recall your conversation.
• Sparks interest in what your idea might be.

This interest will likely motivate the recipient to open the email, and ideally, they will want to reconnect on your idea.

Sales managers, technical specialists, or even other customers can be great inspirations for these ideas.

10. “I thought about what you said”

I think this subject line functions similar to the previous one but with an added edge: They may now be curious if you’ve addressed a concern or objective, giving them more leverage. If they believe they now have an advantage, they may be more willing to hear you out.

11. “Don’t tell my boss”

Leverage a little scandal to pique their interest and make them feel that your message is a secret just for them.

12. “What would it take?”

A rhetorical question that trails off (what would it take to what, exactly?) can open a dialogue and perhaps even compel them to reply.

13. “Here’s what I’ll do”

Some people’s love language is “acts of service,” so engage the law of reciprocity by offering something in hopes of winning their favor. I find that the mystery of what you’re offering and the promise of getting something will prompt them to open the email.

14. “Talk on [day] at [1:45]?”

The person who came up with this subject line gave me a bonus tip: “Asking for an appointment on the :45 feels less demanding than one that begins on the hour or half-hour — because it suggests you‘re only going to need 15 minutes of the prospect’s time.”

15. “[Prospect], I loved your post on [website/publication name]”

Who doesn’t like compliments? Do a bit of research on your prospect. If they’ve written an article or shared an insight on LinkedIn you found interesting, let them know. I like this tactic because it gives you a good opener for contacting them and also demonstrates that you appreciate their expertise.

16. “Hi [Prospect], we met at [event]”

This prompt is great for connecting post-event. I like that it’s to the point, but most importantly, I like that it reminds the recipient who you are and why you’re contacting them.

17. “Still undecided? This might help”

Have you already reached out about your product or service and haven’t heard back yet? Use this subject line to help persuade your prospect to purchase.

Go back to the prospect’s pain points and think about how your product fixes them. Did you roll out a new feature, or are you now offering a discount for them to try? Once you have your new angle, include it in your email message to persuade them to convert.

18. “Try [product/service] for free”

Sometimes you need to gain someone’s trust before they’ll try your product. One way to do that is removing the risk of them trying your product. I’ve found that leading with a free trial offer in the subject line gives the recipient a reason to open your note because it explicitly states the benefit to them.

Best Email Subject Lines After No Response

1. “Do not open this email”

If you’ve ever spent time with a toddler, you know that telling someone not to do something tends to prompt that very behavior. This concept also works on adults. Reverse psychology for the win!

2. “Should I stay, or should I go?”

If you haven’t heard from a prospect in a while, pull out this subject line and pair it with a cleverly crafted breakup email.

3. “Know this about [topic of interest]?”

I like this subject line because offering a helpful tip or statistic about a subject the prospect is interested in establishes your credibility and gets the conversation flowing.

4. “Permission to close your file?”

This breakup email subject line puts the onus on the prospect to move forward. Whether or not they respond, you’ll know where they stand.

5. “Wishing you and your business the best”

If you’ve made multiple attempts to connect with someone and they aren’t responding, see what happens if you indicate you are prepared to move on.

This is similar to the previous question, but I’ve had better luck with this approach because the prospect may call your bluff on closing their file. I would end the body of the email saying that I didn’t want to interrupt their busy day with unwanted calls or emails, but they were welcome to contact me if they need anything.

6. “If you change your mind about partnering with [your company]”

Break up radio silence by putting the ball squarely back in a quiet prospect’s court.

7. “Am I assuming correctly?”

If a prospect just isn‘t responding to your emails, send them a quick note saying, “Usually, when I don’t hear back, it means this isn’t a priority for your company at the moment. Am I correct in assuming this?”

8. “HBO Go password?”

If a prospect simply isn’t responsive to traditional outreach, I think it’s fun to shake things up with a funny email subject line. You might just earn a second look.

9. “Be honest, are you ghosting me?”

I received this bold and hilarious subject line from a sales rep earlier this year, and it is one of my favorites. It may not work in every industry, but it certainly got my attention, made me open the email, and gave me a chuckle.

10. “Reaching out once more (LMK either way)”

This is a good option to use for your last attempt to connect with a prospect. I like this one because, while they still may decline your services, it encourages them to respond regardless.

Email Subject Lines for Meeting Requests

1. “15 minutes this week?”

We’ve all got an extra 15 minutes, right? If you’re simply trying to connect with a prospect for the first time or restart a stalled relationship, I think this low-commitment subject line can be an easy way for your prospect to re-engage.

2. “Requesting a meeting on [day]”

I suggest using this subject line when your prospect is expecting a meeting request from you. It’s best for follow-up correspondence when you’ve already worked out the details offline.

3. “Time for a quick touch base?”

This is another low-pressure way to engage new prospects or reconnect with stalled ones. You should have had some interaction with them so that your request doesn’t come completely out of left field or as if you’re trying to trick them into meeting with you.

4. “Meeting invite: [Date]”

This subject line leaves out the purpose or content of the meeting to encourage your prospect to open your email for the details. Don’t forget to include a meeting scheduler link to make your calendar transparent.

5. “[Company name] + [Company name]: [Date]”

If you are sending a formal meeting request to a prospect, use this subject line. It’s respectful, concise, and purposeful. I think it works well when setting up meetings with C-suite or enterprise clients.

I personally use my name and the prospect’s name in this scenario so it doesn’t sound like I’m proposing that I show up at their office with a busload of my colleagues. That takes more planning than an email out of the blue.

Thirsty for more? I’ve curated more email subject lines below that you can quickly read through and repurpose for your sales efforts.

Psst — looking for both marketing and sales subject lines? Download 100 more email subject lines that our team loved from both marketers and salespeople.

Your Guide to Writing the Best Sales Email Subject Lines

Even though email subject lines are short, they carry a lot of weight when it comes to the success of your sales emails. I think the best cold email subject lines that work are creative, compelling, and informative without giving too much away. A good subject line that piques interest is the difference between a prospect opening or ignoring an email.

To see the most success in your email subject line, I recommend you be flexible, always test, and get creative for the best results.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

As a sales manager, your team’s daily activities are your most powerful performance indicators. Tracking metrics like sales calls, VP-level meetings, and qualified opportunities gives you the insight needed to drive consistent results.

Effective sales activity management helps you make data-driven adjustments to your sales strategy, set clear goals for your team, and directly influence revenue and business outcomes.

In this post, I’ll go over tips for how to manage sales activity (with insight from experts) and recommend software that can help along the way.

Table of Contents

• What is sales activity management?
• Reasons to Track Sales Activity
• 3 Steps to Implementing Sales Activity Management
• Top 10 Sales Tracking Software

While your reps focus on making calls, scheduling demos, and talking to stakeholders, you’re responsible for determining which activities actually move the needle. Effective sales activity management uses key sales metrics to guide the creation of repeatable processes and clear goals that enable you to predict and improve revenue outcomes.

Nikita Sherbina, Co-Founder & CEO of AIScreen, emphasizes that it’s not just about tracking numbers: “The key to turning [sales] metrics into actionable strategies is to focus on the quality of activity, not just the quantity.”

Sherbina says that this process worked for him when he identified a rep who was putting in the work but not closing many deals. He dug into their process, found areas for improvement, and set up a coaching plan: “The shift from just tracking activity to analyzing the effectiveness of that activity made a huge difference. Since implementing this, we’ve seen a 20% increase in conversion rates across the team.”

Reasons to Track Sales Activity

1. Increased Revenue

Sales activities directly impact your bottom line (revenue). As a sales manager, identifying key daily behaviors, tracking them, and helping reps optimize their processes helps you create a framework for consistent revenue growth.

When your reps know exactly what activities drive success and how they can master them, they’ll close more deals.

Even minor, targeted adjustments based on activity can yield revenue gains: “I once worked with a team struggling to hit quotas. By analyzing their call-to-close ratio, we identified that increasing follow-ups by just 15% lead to a 20% improvement in conversions” says Brandon Leibowitz, Owner of SEO Optimizers.

2. Streamlined Processes

Sales activity management helps you eliminate wasted effort and focus your team on what works. You can pinpoint which activities consistently lead to wins, create clear and repeatable processes that scale, and streamline best practices across your team.

Harmanjit Singh, Founder and CEO of Website Design Brampton, says that looking at top performers is a great way to determine what should be part of your streamlined processes. He calls this creating success patterns: “We discovered our top closers weren‘t necessarily making more calls, but were spending more time researching prospects before reaching out, resulting in more meaningful conversations. We turned this insight into a pre-call research template that boosted our team’s conversion rates by 30%.”

Singh adds, “The key is turning [sales] metrics into stories that reveal what works, then systematizing those successful approaches.”

3. Boost Team Morale

Managing sales activity also boosts team morale and helps reps feel empowered by providing clear direction and allowing them to focus on activities they can directly control.

Joseph Passalacqua, Owner & CEO of Maid Sailors, recommends “[Breaking] large quotas into smaller daily achievements to maintain forward motion.” You empower reps by connecting their daily work to meaningful outcomes, and day-to-day morale becomes more manageable when reps know exactly what to focus on for success. Plus, they get an additional motivational boost as deals start flowing in.

Activity-based contests can even create a sense of healthy competition to energize your team while driving behaviors that lead to sales.

4. Increased Visibility and Reporting

Sales activity management magnifies visibility into overall team (and individual) performance, provides early warning signs when metrics lag, and clearly indicates where coaching is needed.

For example, if you missed a revenue target, activity management would help you identify where the issue arose and implement targeted corrections rather than just a general “we need to do better!” pep talk.

It also gives you cleaner reporting to show higher-ups precisely how your efforts translate to revenue growth.

In other words, getting the business results you want hinges on managing the activities that precede them. Now we’ll go over an easily replicable process for sales activity management.

3 Steps to Implementing Sales Activity Management

1. Determine key selling activities.

To determine your key selling activities, I recommend you:

• Lay out the structure of your sales organization. Define the sales activities that lead to won deals and note each selling role and where it fits into the sales process. For example, do your sales development reps generate leads and then distribute those leads to account executives? Or are your field sales reps handling deals from start to finish with their assigned territories?

• Define the critical activities for each role. For SDRs, you might have them focused on meetings scheduled and sales accepted opportunities. On the other hand, for a field sales rep, those activities might be opportunities discovered, VP-level conversations, face-to-face meetings, and proposals sent.
• Gather input from your team. Interview your sales managers and reps for their perspectives on key activities. You can ask top performers about their daily activities to uncover what’s helping them succeed.

Use all of the information you’ve gathered to analyze best practices, define the core sales activities that drive the most success, develop techniques and strategies for mastering them, and share that information with your team.

Ryan Moore, Founder & CEO of Pheasant Energy, emphasizes the importance of looking beyond sheer volume when determining key activities. “In the energy sector, where sales cycles are long, and deals are complex, focusing solely on activity volume like call counts is shortsighted. Instead, I’ve learned that metrics like qualified meetings, site visits, and offers made are the true leading indicators that eventually drive revenue.”

His tip applies, regardless of industry: identify the meaningful activities that genuinely move deals forward, and emphasize their importance.

2. Reverse-engineer your sales process.

“Sales activity metrics are only valuable if they translate into smarter actions. The real differentiator isn’t just tracking calls or deals closed…Sales is a numbers game, but smart sales is about playing the right numbers,” says Anupa Rongala, CEO of Invensis Technologies.

How does that translate? To me, it means using your historical sales activity data to reverse engineer your sales process and pinpoint the activities required to meet your goals.

Here’s an example of how to do this, starting with your highest-level goal: Revenue.

Let’s say your annual target is $70 million in bookings, and your average deal size is $35,000.

$70 million (revenue needed) ÷ $35,000 (average deal size) = 2,000 deals

If you have a 25% proposal-to-deal conversion rate, your salespeople will need to send out 8,000 proposals. That, in turn, requires 2,000 meetings. For those meetings to occur, your reps must have 128,000 conversations.

Now break down the activity metrics by timeframe:

• 2,000 deals ÷ year = 167 deals per month
• 8,000 proposals ÷ year = 667 proposals per month
• 32,000 meetings ÷ year = 640 meetings per week
• 64,000 calls ÷ year = 256 calls per day

Assign a corresponding number of activities to each salesperson. Let’s assume you have 100 reps on your team.

• 167 deals per month ÷ 100 reps = 2 deals per month
• 667 proposals per month ÷ 100 reps = 7 proposals per month
• 640 meetings per week ÷ 100 reps = 7 meetings per week
• 256 conversations per day ÷ 100 reps = 3 calls per day

3. Monitor metrics and course-correct performance.

Proactively manage sales activity metrics by monitoring them daily and reviewing them in one-on-ones and team meetings. I suggest using a sales activity management system (I recommend a few options later on) because it automates tracking, calculates pacing, and gives you an overview (sometimes in real-time) of sales activities and what reps are accomplishing.

You can also use the data from your activity tracking tool to find bottlenecks in your pipelines. For example, if reps send the right number of proposals but don’t win deals, you might want to host training on writing high-impact proposals.

When Shankar Subba identifies a problem area, he takes a step-by-step approach: “If discovery calls aren’t converting, I listen to recordings to spot where the pitch needs improvement. If proposals keep getting rejected, I adjust how we present value to make it clearer and more persuasive. When close rates drop, I don’t just tell my team to make more calls; I work with them to refine their approach so every conversion moves the deal forward.”

Top 10 Sales Tracking Software

I’ll get right to the point: manually tracking your team’s sales activities can be a monumental task, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Instead, use an automated tool that logs sales activities as they happen to help you track, analyze, and optimize your team’s performance.

Here are my favorite software picks for sales activity management.

1.HubSpot

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Why I like it for sales activity management: HubSpot’s Sales Tracking Software gives you complete visibility into your pipeline to help you understand performance, and custom reports make tracking rep activity straightforward.

Key Features

• Reporting dashboard gives visibility into rep activities and tasks
• Easily measure team performance against goals
• Pipeline performance reports to quickly identify bottlenecks within your cycle so you can implement further coaching

Free Trial: Free forever tools (max two users)

Price: Paid plans start at $20/mo/seat billed monthly or $15/mo/seat billed annually

2.Pipedrive

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Pipedrive’s Sales Dashboard gives you insight into rep performance, making it easy to analyze critical activities and identify wins in a no-frills pipeline management dashboard.

Key Features

• Dashboard to track team activities (calls made, emails sent, etc.) in real-time
• Customize reports to the key activity metrics that matter most for your reporting (i.e., new deals, number of activities completed)
• Measure activities against goals to quickly identify coaching opportunities

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Paid plans start at $24/mo/seat billed monthly or $14/mo/seat billed annually

3.Salesforce

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Salesforce’s robust customization options let you create a reporting and activity tracking dashboard that aligns with your team’s needs.

Key Features

• Advance customization options make tracking pipeline activities that matter most for your goals easy
• Show reps key insights deal insights to help them plan accordingly and move the process forward
• Weekly pipeline change signals help you spot risks early to provide coaching

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Plans with tracking and management capabilities start at $100/mo/user billed annually

4.Monday.com

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Monday.com’s intuitive and customizable CRM makes it easy to track sales activities to stay on top of performance; no technical expertise required to set up or maintain.

Key Features

• Activity and performance tracking dashboard updates activities and deal progress in real-time
• Visual progress indicators make it easy to spot potential issues and provide guidance to reps before deals are impacted
• Team goal monitoring can help you set healthy competition among reps

Free Trial: Free forever plan (max two seats)

Price: Paid plans starting at three seats max start at $12/mo/seat billed annually

5.Nutshell

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Nutshell comes loaded with valuable sales reporting features for intuitive activity management and no steep learning curve.

Key Features

• Built-in reports help you see how reps spend their days
• Activity outcome reports show what actions have the most impact on won leads and closed deals
• Performance trend visualizations and loss reports help you spot what works and keep reps on track

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Paid plans with activity tracking begin at $32/mo/user per billed monthly or $25/mo/user(billed monthly

6.Copper

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Copper, a CRM designed for Google Workspace users, automatically captures lead data and sales activities and synthesizes them into easily digestible dashboards for monitoring performance.

Key Features

• Real-time activity feed gives insight into what’s going on with all contacts and accounts
• Customized reporting tools allow you to build a visual of your pipeline to see how deals progress
• Sales activity-based leaderboard can help you spark healthy and motivational competition among your team

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Paid plans start at $12/mo/seat billed monthly or $9/mo/seat billed annually

7.Close

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Close automatically logs sales activities and turns them into easy-to-read reports to help you focus on encouraging behaviors that move the needle.

Key Features

• Activity overview report gives you a holistic view of team or individual rep progress
• Opportunity funnel reporting to track sales velocity and quickly identify coaching opportunities
• Sales leaderboard to inspire and motivate reps

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Paid plans start at $29/mo/seat billed monthly or $19/mo/seat billed annually

8.Ambition

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Ambition is poised towards sales management, with powerful tools for tracking, coaching, and gamifying sales activities.

Key Features

• Real-time activity and performance visibility show team progress-to-goals
• Create activity scorecards to help reps understand target metrics and link them to monthly objectives
• Leaderboards, competition, and performance recognition to gamify and inspire your team

Free Trial: Demo available

Price: Contact for pricing

9.Freshsales (by Freshworks)

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Freshsales is an easy-to-use CRM for tracking sales activity and managing contacts and deals to keep your team on track.

Key Features

• Custom reporting to track sales activities and pinpoint what brings in conversions
• Multi-channel activity tracking to monitor activities in a unified dashboard
• Platform intelligence analyzes activities, historical data, and offers recommendations to help you accelerate the sales cycle

Free Trial: Yes

Price: Paid plans start at $11/mo/user billed monthly or $9/mo/user billed annually

10.Agile CRM

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Why I like it for sales activity management: Agile CRM offers powerful reporting features to manage rep activity across channels (social media, email, etc.) and gamification options to encourage reps to reach activity-related goals.

Key Features

• Reports that give a view of pipeline health and how reps are performing against activity goals
• Pipeline management tracking to monitor stages and deal milestones to keep the sales process on track
• Gamification options for team motivation

Free Trial: Free forever plan (max ten users)

Price: Paid plans start at $14.99/mo/user billed monthly or $9.99/mo/user billed annually

Managing Sales Activities

Sales activity management can help you identify best practices and amplify what works across your team. Start by using software to keep track of crucial metrics. From there, you can turn what’s working into scalable processes.

I find economics confusing. There, I said it. On the surface, it’s easy: If companies can match supply with demand, they can generate revenue. If they understand demand drivers, they can find the right price point.

Look a little deeper, however, and things get confusing. Consider the concept of price elasticity. It’s a measure of how demand and supply react to pricing changes. It comes with a host of formulas, some negative numbers, and some absolute values.

So, to save you the headache, I’ve done a deep dive on price elasticity. In this piece, I’ll tackle the big questions, including: How do you calculate price elasticity? What are the different types, and what do they mean for your business? Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• Price Elasticity of Supply Formula
• What is price elasticity?
• How to Calculate Price Elasticity
• Price Elasticity of Demand
• Price Elasticity of Supply
• Cross Price Elasticity
• Practical Economics: The Case Understanding Price Elasticity

What is price elasticity?

Price elasticity measures how sensitive the demand and supply of your product are to changes in price. For example, the price elasticity of demand measures how many customers will continue to purchase your product or service if you increase the price.

Price elasticity can fall into one of three buckets:

• Price elastic — where price changes greatly affect the supply or demand of a product or service.
• Price inelastic — where price changes have a minimal effect on supply and demand
• Price unit elastic — where a price change is proportional to the change in supply and demand, and they move at the same rate

How to Calculate Price Elasticity

To calculate price elasticity, I divide the change in demand (or supply) for a product, service, resource, or commodity by its change in price. This figure tells me which bucket my product falls into.

• A value of one means that my product is unit elastic, and price changes reflect an equal change in supply or demand.
• A value of greater than (>) 1 means that my product is elastic, and price changes will cause a greater-than-proportional change in supply or demand.
• A value of less than (<) 1 means that your product is inelastic, and price changes will result in a smaller change in the supply or demand for your product.

Worth noting? Using this formula may produce a negative number. However, that doesn’t matter when it comes to price elasticity of supply or demand. Instead, answers are reported as their absolute value, which just means you’re removing the negative sign.

For example, let’s say I do my calculations and get a value of -1.5 for my price elasticity of demand. In typical mathematics, this number is less than one. When calculating price elasticity of supply and demand, however, we drop the negative sign and get 1.5, which means the demand for the product is elastic.

Here’s a chart that shows all three buckets:

Source

How can you apply price elasticity?

Price elasticity provides useful information on how to best price your products and services.

• If you have an elastic product:

Be cautious about raising prices since a price increase will greatly impact purchases (demand) and production (supply).

• If your offering is price inelastic:

You can adjust your prices more frequently since you know that the change will have a smaller impact on supply and demand.

Now that we’ve covered how price elasticity impacts your business, let’s break things down even further into price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply.

Price Elasticity of Demand

The formula below (also known as PED) is used to identify how a change in price affects the supply or demand of an offering or commodity. If people still buy a product, service, or resource when the price is raised, it is inelastic. A product is elastic when demand changes due to price fluctuations.

For example, research shows that rising fuel prices don’t change demand in the trucking industry — making fuel an inelastic commodity. Cable television, however, is a very elastic product. As the price of cable has increased, demand has decreased as more consumers “cut the cord.”

Substitutions like Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services have made the cable industry elastic.

Let’s say I sell 5,000 electric toothbrushes at $25 per toothbrush and then raise the price to $30 per brush and sell 4,000. This means my elasticity of demand is -1.22. This would be considered elastic because the absolute value of -1.22 is greater than 1.

Broken down even further to include the calculation of percent change, this formula looks like:

((QN – QI) / (QN + QI) / 2) / ((PN – PI) / (PN + PI) / 2)

• QN = New quantity (4,000)
• QI = Initial quantity (5,000)
• PN = New price ($30)
• PI = Initial price ($25)

Our numbers plugged into this formula would be:

(4,000 – 5,000) / (4,000 +5,000) /2) / (30 – 25) / (30 + 25) / 2)

Head spinning? Check out this free calculator.

This formula helps determine if a product or service is price-sensitive. Ideally, you want your offering to be a must-have (inelastic) that consumers consider non-negotiable during price fluctuation, not a nice-to-have (elastic).

Types of Price Elasticity of Demand

1. Perfectly Inelastic Demand

If your PED equals 0, price changes do not affect your product’s demand. Generally speaking, only essential items and services have perfectly inelastic demand. Very few — if any — products or services like that exist, making perfectly inelastic demand a mostly hypothetical concept.

For instance, if there were a life-saving drug on the market that people would pay any price to obtain, demand would remain the same no matter how much the price might rise.

Source

2. Relatively Inelastic Demand

If the percent change in demand is less than the percent change of the product’s price, the result is relatively inelastic demand. Necessary goods and services that people would be willing to pay more for have relatively elastic demand — in most cases.

This often includes goods or resources with no close substitutes, like gasoline which is a requirement for you to drive your vehicle. Losing access to it would have massive implications on your daily life.

For the most part, people are willing to pay price increases and keep their cars fueled up. That said, however, gas isn’t as critical as a life-saving drug, so some people would be willing to make the switch to taking the bus or riding their bike (if possible). This means demand for it is relatively inelastic.

3. Unit Elastic Demand

If the change in demand for a product or service yields a proportional change in price — meaning a price raise of X% leads to an X% decrease in demand — it unit elastic demand.

This type of price elasticity of demand is purely hypothetical. There are no actual examples of unit elastic demand in practice. Demand is never completely linear. Though there is a direct relationship between price and demand, that relationship is never exactly one-to-one.

Let’s say I run a shoe company and raise prices by 10% due to increased manufacturing costs. If I’ve established a loyal customer base, there will still be consumers who prefer my shoes to the alternatives and are willing to pay an extra 10%. As a result, a 10% raise in price won’t mean exactly 10% of existing customers jump ship. The real number might be closer to 6% or 7%.

Now, imagine I abruptly raise the price by 40%. This will likely anger a larger number of customers relative to the percentage change in prices. In other words, a 40% price increase might lead to 60% customer churn.

4. Relatively Elastic Demand

If demand change is greater than the change in your product’s price, you have relatively elastic demand. Here, a relatively small price change leads to a large change in demand. Relatively elastic demand is typically associated with items that have several substitutes.

For instance, let‘s say I run an electronics company that sells 40-inch smart TVs for $250. All of my competitors sell similar products for the same price — and those competitors’ TVs have virtually indistinguishable resolutions and features from mine.

If I decide to raise my price from $250 to $275, consumers would likely be less inclined to pay an additional $25 for a product that’s so fundamentally similar to its slightly less expensive competition. This means demand for my TVs would drop significantly, making demand relatively elastic.

5. Perfectly Elastic Demand

If demand falls to zero at the slightest price increase or demand becomes great with a slight price decrease, the result is perfectly elastic demand. This type of demand demonstrates that the demand for a product is 100% directly tied to its price.

Like unit elastic demand, there are no actual examples of perfectly elastic demand in practice. Demand for a product or service is never linear enough to make any change in price prompt an absolute drop in demand.

There will always be some people who have preferences that are often unshaken by slight price changes. If the price of a bottle of Sprite increased by $1, there would still be consumers willing to pay more for it over alternatives like Sierra Mist or 7Up.

While some offerings have particularly price-sensitive customer bases, there aren’t any that consumers will completely abandon as soon as that good costs even one cent more than it did before.

Source

Price Elasticity of Supply

The price elasticity of supply (PES) measures how responsive the supply of a product or service is when there is a price change.

If supply is inelastic, it might mean a company is too short-staffed to keep up with demand, needs a longer lead time to produce more of its product, or doesn’t have the resources to expand its facilities.

If supply is elastic, a company might have a surplus of available staff to increase supply. Knowing PES allows businesses to determine whether a price change will negatively or positively affect the demand for its product or service.

If supply is inelastic, an increase in price leads to a change in supply that’s less than the increase in price, meaning the PES is less than one. If supply is elastic, the price change yields a larger increase in supply, making the PES greater than one.

Let’s use the toothbrush example above to illustrate PES. We already know that the price changed from $25 to $30, which represents an increase of 20%. If we’re given data that shows available supply dropping from the initial 5,000 to 4,500, this gives a supply decrease of 10%.

Therefore, PES = 10% / 20%, or 0.5, which means that the price elasticity of supply is inelastic.

Cross Price Elasticity

The cross-price elasticity of demand measures how responsive the demand for a product or service is when the price for another product or service changes. For example, if Hulu with Live TV raises its prices to $45 per month, will customers leave the service for YouTube TV — a similar streaming service charging only $40 per month?

As the price of Hulu Live rises, the demand for its competitor’s service rises. Within cross-price elasticity, YouTube would be considered a “substitute good.”

If, however, the cost of televisions increased and the number of customers using subscription services like Hulu or YouTube decreased because of the price increase of televisions, this would be called “complementary goods.”

Cross-price elasticity allows businesses to price their products or services competitively, plan for risks, and map their market. If your product or service has no real competitor, you don’t need to consider cross-price elasticity because there is no substitute for your offering. However, if a complementary product or service sees a market fluctuation, you might need to prepare for cross-price elasticity.

In the case of cross-price elasticity, we don’t use absolute values. If the value of cross-price elasticity is positive, it means that changes in product B’s price increase demand for product A. If the value is negative, it means that price changes decrease the demand.

The value can also be zero, which means there is no correlation between the demand for product A and the price of product B.

Consider the streaming example above. If Hulu (product B) increases its price from $40 to $45 per month, this represents a 12.5% change. If Netflix (product A) sees a 20% jump in demand, the cross-price elasticity is 1.6. This means changes in the price of Hulu cause an increased demand for Netflix.

Practical Economics: The Case Understanding Price Elasticity

I’m still not an economics expert, but after my research, I’m confident I have a solid grasp on the price elasticity of demand and supply, with a bonus thrown in for getting the hand of cross-price elasticity.

The same applies to you. There’s no need to know everything about economics — you’d have to give up running your business if that was your goal. But, it is worth knowing how to calculate price elasticity and use this data to ensure your products or services are competitively priced.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 3, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When slow business hits, that simple “How’s business?” question feels like a punch to the gut. As someone who’s navigated slow business from every angle — in content marketing, sales, and freelancing — I know that pit in your stomach all too well. The casual “Great!” response feels a bit forced, doesn’t it? Especially when you’re secretly refreshing your inbox every five minutes, hoping for new leads or client responses.

Here’s the thing: Slowdowns happen to everyone. I’ve seen it working with sales teams, watching their pipelines dry up, marketing departments struggling to generate leads, and as a freelancer dealing with quiet periods. Whether it’s seasonal changes, market shifts, or bigger economic factors, the key isn’t just surviving the slowdown — it’s using it to come back stronger.

Jehann Biggs, president of sustainable luxury brand In2Green, puts it perfectly: “Slow periods offer a natural time for introspection, allowing teams to focus on long-term growth initiatives. By approaching slowdowns as a time to optimize and innovate, businesses can use these lulls to emerge stronger.”

In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned about spotting slowdown patterns, understanding what’s really causing them, and — most importantly — how to use downtime strategically to fuel long-term growth.

Table of Contents

• What To Do When Business Is Slow
• What is slow business?
• Could a slow business ever be good?
• Symptoms of a Slow Business
• Why Is Business Slow Right Now?
• Turning Slow Periods Into Growth Opportunities

What is slow business?

A slow business period is when sales, customer inquiries, or overall business activity drop below normal levels. This can be caused by seasonal trends, economic downturns, shifts in consumer behavior, or internal inefficiencies.

While some slowdowns are expected — like retail dips after the holiday season — others may signal deeper problems. Understanding whether your slowdown is temporary or a sign of structural issues is key to making informed business decisions.

Iqbal Ahmad, founder and CEO of Britannia School of Academics, explains: “When investigating the root cause, we need to consider a range of factors — both internal and external — to truly get a holistic view of what has changed.”

Could a slow business ever be good?

In a world that glorifies rapid growth, scaling fast, and maximizing profits, the idea of intentionally slowing down can seem counterintuitive. But, not all business success is defined by speed. Some entrepreneurs are pushing back against the “hustle culture” mentality and are embracing slow business as a sustainable and intentional approach to work and life instead.

I’ve found that when business slows down, it’s easy to panic — but sometimes, those slow periods create space to step back and make more intelligent, more strategic moves. Rather than measuring success purely by revenue growth, slow business prioritizes thoughtful decision-making, work-life balance, and long-term stability over aggressive expansion. This philosophy aligns with the broader “slow living” movement, which encourages mindfulness, sustainability, and quality over speed.

Nicole Magelssen, founder and CEO of Alpine Virtual, a virtual staffing solutions company, puts it this way: “When you’re in the thick of running a business, it’s go, go, go all the time. But constant motion doesn’t always mean that you are making forward progress. A slowdown forces you to pause and actually work ON your business and not just IN your business.”

Similarly, Joy Gendusa, CEO of PostcardMania, a direct mail marketing company serving over 96,000 customers, has seen firsthand how resisting the urge to panic during a slowdown can lead to growth. “During the 2008 recession, we made the mistake of cutting back on marketing, and our revenue suffered,” she explains. “In 2020, we did the opposite — we doubled down on marketing and saw our revenue recover almost instantly.”

It’s important to note that rapid growth isn’t always sustainable. Recent data indicates that 90% of startups fail, with a significant number due to premature scaling. This statistic underscores the potential risks of prioritizing speed over stability.

I’ve also noticed that slow business isn’t the right approach for everyone, but it can be beneficial for:

• Creative entrepreneurs who want to focus on craftsmanship over mass production.
• Sustainable brands that prioritize ethical sourcing and mindful growth.
• Consultants and service providers who prefer deep, meaningful client relationships over high churn.
• Small businesses and solopreneurs looking for a balanced, intentional approach to work.

Embracing a slower approach doesn’t mean giving up on growth — it means defining success on your own terms.

Symptoms of a Slow Business

While embracing a slow business model can be a deliberate and strategic choice, not every slowdown is intentional — or beneficial. In some cases, a drop in activity signals deeper issues that need to be addressed. I’ve learned that it’s easy to brush off a slowdown as just a rough patch, but sometimes, small dips can snowball into bigger problems if you’re not paying attention.

The key is to recognize the signs early and figure out whether it’s just a temporary slump — or a red flag that something needs to change. Here are some of the biggest indicators that a slowdown might be more than just a passing phase.

Reduced Revenue

One of the first signs that something is off is a noticeable drop in revenue. While minor fluctuations are normal, a steady drop over multiple months could mean a bigger problem. Here’s what to look for:

• If revenue is down but expenses are steady (or increasing), it’s worth digging into which products or services are underperforming.
• I’ve found that looking at year-over-year trends (rather than just month-to-month) gives a better picture of whether it’s seasonal or a bigger shift.
• If your revenue is stable but profit margins are shrinking, it might not be a demand issue — it could be rising costs eating into your bottom line.

A 2023 CB Insights study found that 38% of startups fail due to running out of cash, making revenue tracking a critical early warning sign.

Reduced Profitability

Even if revenue looks fine, profitability might tell a different story. If profits are shrinking while sales stay the same, it’s time to take a closer look at expenses and margins.

Reilly James Renwick, Chief Marketing Officer at Pragmatic Mortgage Lending, a leading mortgage solutions provider, advises: “One of the first things to track is sales data over multiple seasons. Changes in lead velocity and analysis of your customer segments can reveal whether pockets of customers are becoming disengaged.”

From my experience, here’s what to watch for:

• Have you added new costs (new hires, software, operational expenses) that haven’t yet paid off?
• Are your highest-margin products or services underperforming while lower-margin ones sustain revenue?
• I’ve personally seen businesses struggle when they start discounting too much to attract customers — what seems like a quick fix can train your audience to expect lower prices, which ultimately hurts profitability.

According to Olivia Tapper, co-founder and COO of DTC SEO Agency, a specialized ecommerce growth agency, a key metric to consider is customer acquisition cost (CAC). “If your CAC is rising while revenue stays flat, your business is becoming less profitable — even if sales volume hasn’t dropped yet,” Tapper explains.

You’ll want to investigate the performance of your more profitable products against those less impactful ones. It’s possible that business is slowing for your “money makers” but staying the same or increasing for other offerings.

Dry Sales Pipeline

If revenue is down, the next step is to figure out why, and that starts with your sales pipeline. Here’s something I learned working with sales teams: A dry pipeline isn’t always about market conditions. Sometimes, it’s telling you something important about your sales process.

Start by checking your sales team’s closing rates against previous periods. Are your reps closing the same percentage of deals, just with fewer leads? Or has their success rate dropped? This distinction matters — a lot.

Andres Lares, managing partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, a global sales training and consulting firm, suggests looking deeper: “If leads are taking longer to respond or failing to convert, map out decision-maker involvement — are you still speaking to the right people?”

I’ve seen this firsthand. One sales team I worked with was struggling with conversions, but when we dug into the data, we discovered they were spending too much time nurturing cold leads instead of focusing on warm ones. Their pipeline wasn’t really dry — it was just clogged with the wrong prospects.

Before you conclude it’s a slowdown, check these pipeline health indicators:

• Are your reps maintaining the same level of prospecting activity?
• Has your lead qualification process changed?
• Are deals getting stuck at specific stages?
• Have you adjusted your definition of a qualified lead?

Reduced Website Traffic

For businesses that rely on organic traffic, search rankings, or digital ads, declining web visits can be a huge warning sign. I’ve spent years in content marketing, and I’ll tell you this: If fewer people are finding your business online, it’s worth investigating why.

Here’s the thing about website traffic: It’s not just about the numbers. A 20% drop in traffic might sound bad, but if your conversion rate is steady, maybe those missing visitors weren’t your target audience anyway. The key is understanding the story behind the stats.

Start by checking these basics:

• Use Google Analytics or other marketing analytics software to compare website traffic trends over time.
• Look at your search rankings. Have competitors outranked you?
• Check your content calendar. When was the last time you published something new?
• Review your paid campaign performance if you’re running ads.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, measuring foot traffic is trickier, especially if you don’t have previous benchmarks. But you can start tracking now to spot patterns going forward.

Pro tip: Don’t just look at overall traffic numbers. Dig into your traffic sources. I’ve seen businesses panic over a drop in social media traffic only to discover their organic search traffic was actually growing — they were just looking at the wrong metrics.

Business Trends Are Negative

Sometimes, the issue isn’t internal — it’s the market itself. Even the best businesses feel the effects when customer demand drops across their industry. But I’ve learned that not every negative trend means your business is in trouble. Here’s what to watch for:

• Industry disruption from new technologies.
• Shifts in competitor strategies or pricing.
• Declining interest in your type of offering.
• Wider economic factors affecting buying behavior.
• Changes in how customers prefer to buy.

Pro tip: Use Google Trends to spot bigger patterns in your industry. It won’t tell you everything, but it can help confirm whether you’re dealing with a broader market shift or just an internal hiccup.

Jehann Biggs of In2Green notes that external trends often drive slowdowns more than internal inefficiencies. “We track repeat customer rates, social media sentiment, and industry-wide demand signals to determine if our slow periods are seasonal or a sign of deeper market changes,” she shares.

Final Thoughts on Diagnosing a Slow Business

Yes, seeing your numbers drop is scary. But I’ve learned that although slowdowns rarely fix themselves, they’re almost always fixable if you spot them early enough.

The key is staying curious instead of panicking. Ask questions. Dig into your data. Talk to your customers. The sooner you understand what’s really causing your slowdown, the sooner you can do something about it.

Remember that sometimes what looks like a crisis is actually an opportunity to make your business stronger. In the next section, we’ll explore why some slowdowns might actually be good for your business — and how to tell the difference.

Why Is Business Slow Right Now?

Not every slowdown is a crisis. Some industries naturally experience peaks and valleys, and even the most successful businesses go through slower periods. If you’ve planned for seasonality or are using this time to improve your processes, then a temporary slowdown isn’t necessarily bad.

That said, not all slow business is harmless. A downturn can be an opportunity — or it can be a warning sign. The key is knowing why business is slow and whether you need to adjust. I’ve learned that jumping to conclusions about a slowdown can lead you down the wrong path entirely.

Kristin Marquet, founder of Marquet Media and FemFounder, puts it perfectly: “The first instinct might be to panic, but the real key is to diagnose the root cause quickly and strategically. Slow periods can happen for various reasons — external (economic downturns, seasonal shifts, industry disruptions) and internal (marketing gaps, operational inefficiencies, shifting customer needs).”

Below, I’ll break down the most common reasons businesses slow down — and how to respond.

Holidays and Seasonal Patterns

Some industries naturally ride the waves of seasonal demand. I see this every year in content marketing — B2B content engagement typically dips during the summer months and holiday seasons. It’s not a crisis; it’s a pattern you can plan for.

According to Joy Gendusa from PostcardMania, “Summer is always slow for us. We’re B2B, and I believe this is common for B2B businesses. Our summer leads dip about 15%, and we go from averaging around 3,200 leads to 2,700 in the summer.”

Jehann Biggs highlights how recognizing seasonal trends can help businesses adapt. “One of the first things I track is sales data over multiple seasons,” she explains. “If sales typically dip at the same time each year, it’s a clear indication that the slowdown is seasonal, and I can adjust my marketing strategies or inventory planning accordingly.”

Here’s how to handle seasonal patterns:

• Compare performance to the same period last year, not to peak seasons.
• Adjust sales targets and forecasts for known seasonal patterns.
• Use slower periods to prepare for upcoming busy seasons.
• Track year-over-year data to spot true seasonal trends.

Harrison Tang, CEO and co-founder of Spokeo, a people search engine, adds valuable insight: “To pinpoint the causes of slow periods, we analyze six months’ worth of data. This timeframe allows us to detect anomalies and correlations.”

Weather and External Events

Weather patterns can dramatically impact consumer behavior and business performance. I’ve seen this firsthand while working with various industries. For example:

• HVAC services see spikes during extreme temperatures.
• Roofing companies often experience increased demand after storms.
• Retail foot traffic typically drops during bad weather.
• Seasonal products (like sunscreen) show predictable demand patterns.

In January 2025, U.S. retail sales experienced a significant decline, partly attributed to extremely cold weather conditions. “The wildfires in Los Angeles, the second-largest metro area in the U.S., and severe winter weather in other parts of the country may have limited face-to-face shopping activity,” Jay Hawkins, a senior economist at PNC Financial, told Reuters.

Pro tip: Use tools like Google Trends to anticipate and prepare for seasonal fluctuations in your industry. I’ve found it especially helpful for content planning — you can see exactly when interest in certain topics starts to rise.

Economic Factors

The economy is probably the biggest factor on this list for affecting business right now. During economic downturns, consumer attitudes change. Those who lose jobs have less money to spend, and even those who retain work may change their consumer behavior as their positions seem less secure. The average buyer may make fewer luxury purchases and try to extend their dollars the best they can.

Olivia Tapper recommends watching these key metrics during economic slowdowns:

• Lifetime Value (LTV) changes.
• Average Order Value (AOV) trends.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) fluctuations.
• Conversion rate variations.
• New versus returning customer ratios.

She emphasizes, “If your LTV has decreased but AOV stays the same, it means that your customer isn’t coming back to buy more. Then ask yourself if something has changed with your offering or its delivery.”

These metrics tell a story. For example, if your CAC is rising but conversion rates stay steady, that might signal broader market competition rather than internal issues.

Consumer Trends and Market Shift

Through my work with various sales teams, I’ve watched consumer preferences shift faster than ever before. One quarter, you’re on top of the world; the next, you’re scrambling to understand why your tried-and-true approach isn’t working anymore.

An interesting example is the case of fidget spinners. Its popularity skyrocketed in late 2016, eventually accounting for 17% of online toy sales. But as competition grew and consumer interest fell, the craze quickly cooled off. While this is an extreme example, it demonstrates the boom and bust cycle of trends — and how certain industries are more vulnerable to it than others.

Here’s what to watch for:

• Generational attitude changes.
• Social media trends affecting buying habits.
• Growing environmental consciousness.
• New technology adoption patterns.
• Changes in how people prefer to shop.

Biggs notes an interesting trend, “We’ve noticed an increasing demand for sustainability-focused products even during slower retail periods. Despite fluctuations in consumer spending, eco-conscious shoppers continue to prioritize sustainable and ethically produced goods.”

Pro tip: Don’t just watch what customers are buying — pay attention to how they’re buying it. I’ve seen businesses lose ground not because their product was wrong but because they weren’t selling it where their customers wanted to buy it.

Legislative & Regulatory Changes

Sometimes, a slowdown isn’t about market conditions or customer preferences — it’s about adapting to new rules. I’ve seen this firsthand in content marketing when GDPR hit. Suddenly, everyone had to rethink their email marketing strategies.

Major regulatory changes can force you to:

• Shut down certain marketing channels.
• Change your operational model.
• Adjust how you handle customer data.
• Modify your products or services.
• Revamp your entire business approach.

Luckily, you usually get some warning with regulatory changes. The key is using that time to prepare rather than hoping the changes won’t affect you.

Market Disruption and Competition

One thing I’ve learned is that disruption doesn’t always announce itself with fanfare. Sometimes, it creeps in quietly until one day, you realize the game has completely changed.

Andrey Meshcheryakov from Recombinators, a strategy consulting firm, suggests watching for these disruptive trends:

• New competitors entering your space.
• Technology innovations changing industry standards.
• Shifting customer expectations.
• Changes in service delivery models.
• Emerging alternative solutions.

Think about what Uber did to the taxi industry, or how streaming services transformed entertainment. The businesses that survived weren’t necessarily the biggest or strongest — they were the ones that saw the changes coming and adapted.

Early Warning Signs

Whatever may be the cause of your business slowdown, it’s important to keep your eyes open for early warning signs to catch things before it’s too late. When you notice these warning signs, you can then determine the cause of the slowdown and if you need to be concerned — and possibly make adjustments.

According to Gerti Mema, marketing manager at Equipment Finance Canada, businesses should watch for these red flags:

• Inconsistent conversion rates across sales stages.
• Longer deal closure times.
• Declining response rates.
• Reduced inquiry volumes.
• Changes in customer objection patterns.

I’ve found that the businesses that best weather slowdowns are those that recognize these patterns early and respond strategically rather than reactively. Think of these warning signs like check engine lights — they’re telling you to investigate before you have a bigger problem on your hands.

From my experience working with various sales teams, the trick isn’t just spotting these signs. It’s knowing which ones matter most for your business. A drop in website traffic might be devastating for an ecommerce site but barely register for a B2B service provider with a stable client base.

In the next section, I’ll explore specific strategies for managing slow periods effectively — because spotting the problem is only half the battle. The real win comes from knowing exactly what to do about it.

I’ve learned through years of working with businesses that slow periods, while challenging, can be powerful opportunities for growth. Remember what feels like a crisis today might actually be your chance to build a stronger foundation for tomorrow.

Instead of panicking when business slows down, I recommend using this time strategically. Here are proven ways to strengthen your business during slower periods.

1. Analyze your CRM.

During slow business periods, it’s the perfect time to optimize your CRM and fine-tune your sales process. I’ve spent years working with sales teams, and I’ll tell you this: Your CRM data tells stories — if you know how to listen.

For example, your sales reps can dive deep into their contact details:

• Are company sizes and locations properly recorded?
• Do you know which industries your clients are in?
• Are you tracking the right metrics for your business?

As a sales manager, you can use data in your CRM to see how your team is performing. How long is the typical sales cycle for your reps? How often do they close-win deals versus close-lose?

To help you monitor your team’s performance, you can create a dashboard and keep track of metrics, including:

• Sales Activity Metrics
• Pipeline Sales Metrics
• Lead Generation Sales Metrics
• Sales Outreach Metrics
• Primary Conversion Sales Metrics
• Channel Sales Metrics
• Sales Productivity Metrics
• Rep Hiring and Onboarding Metrics
• Sales Process, Tool, and Training Adoption Metrics

These analytics will enable you to make decisions for your team. You can use CRMs like HubSpot’s Sales Hub to create reports and dashboards for your team’s performance.

2. Align your marketing and sales.

Here’s something that still surprises me: Only 30% of sales professionals believe their sales and marketing teams are closely aligned. I’ve seen this disconnect firsthand — marketing generates leads that sales can’t use, or sales develops messaging that doesn’t match marketing campaigns.

This misalignment can have big consequences, like lost revenue, wasted budgets, and gaps in the buyer’s journey. But there are plenty of benefits of alignment, such as:

• Improved sales performance.
• Enhanced customer experience (28% of salespeople report this).
• Stronger lead quality (26% of teams see this improvement).
• More effective content creation.
• Better understanding of customer pain points.

Think about it this way: Your marketing team needs to know what questions prospects are actually asking during sales calls. And your sales team needs to know what content is available to support their conversations.

Pro tip: Set up regular meetings between sales and marketing. I’ve seen teams transform their results just by having weekly check-ins where both sides share what they’re hearing from customers.

3. Focus on upselling and/or cross-selling.

I’ve worked with plenty of sales teams that see their biggest wins by focusing on existing customers. And it makes sense — according to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Sales Report, existing customers make up 72% of company revenue on average, while new customers account for just 28%.

With that much revenue coming from retention, it’s no wonder 26% of sales professionals prioritized existing customers over acquiring new ones this year.

But it’s not just about keeping customers happy — it’s about creating opportunities to grow those relationships. Almost 92% of sales professionals try to upsell, and nearly half of companies report up to 21% of their revenue comes from upselling. Cross-selling follows a similar pattern, with 87% of reps using this strategy and companies seeing up to 21% of revenue from cross-selling.

As Andres Lares from Shapiro Negotiations Institute points out, improving engagement strategies with existing clients can fuel even greater success.

“When one of our financial services clients experienced a significant slowdown, we helped them use this time to develop a more sophisticated stakeholder mapping and engagement process,” explains Lares. “This improved their current pipeline and substantially increased revenue per client, with much more cross-selling success.”

Here’s what I’ve learned about successful upselling:

• Build relationships beyond the initial sale.
• Stay in regular contact with existing customers.
• Understand their evolving needs.
• Time your offers based on their business cycle.
• Make recommendations based on their usage patterns.

The takeaway: It’s easier to grow accounts when you maintain strong relationships beyond the initial sale. Whether through upselling, cross-selling, or simply staying top-of-mind, investing in existing customers isn’t just good practice — it’s a smart, revenue-driving strategy.

4. Revisit your sales training.

If your reps continue to miss targets, it’s time to take a fresh look at your training and coaching initiatives. Here’s something that might surprise you: Approximately 70% of salespeople lack formal training, and 84% of sales training content is forgotten within three months.

I’ve worked with teams that assumed training was a one-and-done process, only to realize later that gaps in knowledge were holding them back. A little extra coaching can go a long way — not just in improving numbers but in building confidence and momentum.

As a sales manager, consider the following questions:

• Are your new or junior-level employees starting on solid footing, or could they benefit from more comprehensive training?
• Are your seasoned reps up-to-date on the latest technology and strategies?
• Are your reps leveraging your CRM to its full potential?
• What areas need the most improvement (prospecting, nurturing, closing, etc.)?

If training has been an afterthought, it might be time to take a closer look at where your team could use more support.

5. Refine systems and processes.

To sell successfully, your sales team needs a refined system to track prospects and monitor deals. But when was the last time you took a step back to assess whether those systems are actually working?

During slower periods, it’s the perfect time to audit your sales process and spot inefficiencies. As Cambria Davies, a former HubSpot product manager, puts it, “Consider what is and isn’t working for your reps and prospects to tailor your new process to better fit their needs, so more deals are closed and more customers are delighted.”

I’ve worked with teams that assumed their process was solid — until they looked at the data. Deals that should have closed were stuck in limbo, and reps were spending too much time on manual follow-ups instead of meaningful conversations.

Reilly James Renwick from Pragmatic Mortgage Lending tackled this issue by systemizing their sales process and automating follow-up sequences within their CRM, which increased conversion rates by 18.3% in a single quarter.

If you’re unsure where to start, observe your reps in action. Ask yourself:

• What does a typical deal look like from start to close?
• How much time passes between each stage?
• Where do prospects tend to drop off?

A clear view of your sales system makes it easier to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Small refinements — whether it’s adjusting follow-up cadences, improving CRM usage, or streamlining approvals — can make a huge impact on your team’s efficiency and results.

6. Create a sales enablement strategy.

Sales enablement helps reps sell more effectively by providing the right tools, training, and content at every stage of the sales cycle. A well-structured enablement strategy ensures new hires ramp up faster, experienced reps have resources at their fingertips, and teams consistently hit their targets.

And it’s only becoming more essential — 59% of B2B sales pros in the U.S. now use sales enablement content, a 48% jump from last year. Even more telling? Salespeople who leverage enablement content are 58% more likely to outperform those who don’t.

Why Sales Enablement Matters

• Higher win rates. According to G2, organizations with a sales enablement strategy achieve a 49% higher win rate on forecasted deals.
• Faster onboarding. Sales enablement can reduce onboarding time by 40-50%, helping new reps ramp up quickly (G2).
• Stronger sales performance. 76% of leadership teams believe sales enablement is crucial to driving results (G2).

Source

Your Sales Enablement Strategy Should Include:

• A sales content library. Product guides, competitor comparisons, case studies, demo scripts, and an internal knowledge base.
• Training & coaching programs. Continuous skill development, onboarding resources, and best practices.
• Technology & automation. CRM integrations, AI-powered recommendations, and automated follow-ups.

How to Improve Sales Enablement

• Audit your enablement resources. Are reps using what’s available? What’s missing?
• Set clear training and content goals. Focus on areas that slow deals down or create bottlenecks.
• Make enablement an ongoing effort. Sales training shouldn’t stop after onboarding.

I’ve seen how the right sales enablement strategy makes a difference. Having resources available isn’t enough — reps need a clear, structured way to access and apply them in real sales conversations. When that happens, they can engage buyers more effectively, handle objections with confidence, and close deals faster.

7. Develop a future-proof sales plan.

Successful sales teams don’t wait for market shifts to dictate their next move — they build strategies that keep them prepared for what’s ahead. A strong sales plan provides structure while allowing for adjustments as conditions change.

Whether business is booming or slowing down, planning for the future means setting clear financial benchmarks, identifying potential risks, and creating opportunities for long-term growth.

Financial planning plays a major role in building a resilient sales strategy. Sales teams that track revenue goals and break-even points are in a stronger position to adjust their approach when needed.

“Our sales team is aware of this break-even point to exceed every month, plus an extra 10% as a margin of safety,” says Iqbal Ahmad. This extra buffer helps businesses stay on track even when sales cycles fluctuate.

A future-proof sales plan also requires ongoing evaluation. Tracking key sales metrics, monitoring customer trends, and adjusting tactics based on performance data keeps teams prepared for changing conditions.

From my experience, teams that take a proactive approach to sales planning build a stronger foundation for long-term success. A well-structured plan should evolve with the business, keeping sales teams ready for whatever comes next.

8. Avoid burnout.

Let’s talk about something that often gets overlooked during slow periods — team burnout. Burnout isn’t just an individual issue — it affects team performance and workplace culture. A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 44% of U.S. employees feel burned out at work, with 45% feeling emotionally drained and 51% feeling completely used up by the end of the workday.

In sales, where high-pressure targets and constant outreach are the norm, burnout can hit even harder.

I’ve seen how unchecked burnout leads to disengagement, lower productivity, and higher turnover. That’s why regular check-ins aren’t just helpful — they’re essential. When business is slow, take the time to reassess how your sales reps are doing. Are they feeling motivated? Do they have the right tools and training to succeed? Are they setting smaller, achievable goals to stay on track?

If you notice signs of burnout, here are a few ways to help:

• Encourage Open Conversations. Make it easy for reps to share concerns about workload and stress.
• Ensure They Have the Right Resources. Not having the right tools or clear processes can lead to a lot of frustration.
• Promote Work-Life Balance. Encourage taking breaks, unplugging after work, and using PTO.
• Offer Professional Development. Learning new skills can re-energize reps and help them stay engaged.

9. Work on professional development.

When sales slow down, it’s easy for motivation to dip. Instead of waiting for things to pick back up, reps can use this time to build new skills and refine their expertise. In my experience, teams that actively invest in professional development come back stronger, more engaged, and better prepared to close deals when business ramps up again.

Here are a few great ways to make the most of slow periods:

• Take courses. Learn new sales techniques, negotiation tactics, or industry trends.
• Get certifications. Strengthen credibility with recognized sales or product certifications.
• Read industry blogs. Stay informed on market trends and competitor strategies.
• Deepen product knowledge. Understand your offering inside and out to handle objections with confidence.
• Update your online presence. Refresh LinkedIn profiles, highlight achievements, and build personal brands.
• Attend conferences and networking events. Connect with industry peers and gain fresh insights.

When reps focus on professional growth, the entire sales team benefits. I’ve seen firsthand how stronger skills lead to better conversations, more confident selling, and a higher-performing team overall.

10. Perform a competitive analysis.

A slowdown isn’t always about internal challenges — sometimes, shifts in the competitive landscape play a role. Pricing adjustments, marketing moves, and product changes can all impact customer behavior. I’ve found that a well-executed competitive analysis not only clarifies where you stand but also reveals opportunities you might be missing.

A competitive analysis can:

• Identify gaps in the market. Look at what products or services competitors offer. Ask yourself questions like, “Are there gaps in their offerings?” and “Do we offer a product or service to fill that need?” These gaps can help your sales team position your product.
• Uncover market trends. If you find that a competitor has an offering that you don’t, think about why. Is a new trend emerging in your industry? If so, you might want to consider how new trends will fit in your offerings and/or disrupt your sales process.
• Sell more effectively. Get a look at how competitors are selling their products or services. Learn about their sales process and use it to inform your own process.

A strong competitive analysis starts with the right questions. I always recommend asking:

• How are competitors positioning their products?
• What sales channels are they using?
• Why do customers choose them — or don’t choose them?
• What objections do their buyers commonly have?
• What is their revenue?
• What do their programs or products look like? Do they work with partners?

During periods of slow business, understanding how your product compares to competitors can help you strategize for future success and growth.

11. Brainstorm new products or services.

Sales reps have the best pulse on what’s happening with customers. During slow periods, I’ve found that tapping into your sales reps and asking them to brainstorm ideas for your product team can lead to innovative solutions.

The numbers back this up. According to HubSpot’s research, companies that maintain innovation during slowdowns see:

• 25% higher customer satisfaction rates.
• 33% better employee retention.
• 40% faster recovery when business picks up.

Here’s how to make the most of this downtime:

• Identify customer pain points. Sales reps hear firsthand what customers are struggling with. Are they frequently requesting a feature that doesn’t exist? Is there a service competitors offer that your company doesn’t? These insights can guide product development.
• Refine existing offerings. Sometimes, customers don’t need something brand new — they just need a tweak to what already exists. Whether it’s improving onboarding, adding integrations, or adjusting pricing models, small changes can make a big impact.
• Look for market shifts. If an industry trend is gaining traction, slow periods are a great time to evaluate whether it aligns with your business and how you could adapt.

Renwick from Pragmatic Mortgage Lending has seen businesses use slow periods to rethink their approach and unlock growth. One of his clients used this quiet time to revisit the customer journey.

“That was where a decision to invest in an intuitive user interface was made, enhancing their digital experience,” Renwick explains. “This firm also refocused its marketing campaigns toward improving its customer loyalty programs. In just six months, this company was retaining 22.76% more of their customers.”

I’ve seen companies turn slowdowns into an opportunity for reinvention. By brainstorming with your sales reps, you’ll learn more about your customers and how to sell to them. Also, this can help your sales team grow better.

12. Conduct customer interviews.

Is business slowing down? If so, I’ve found that talking to customers is one of the best ways to re-engage and learn. A simple conversation can reveal things your sales team might not even be aware of — new pain points, unexpected wins, or fresh use cases for your product.

Customer interviews also help with creating buyer personas, customer testimonials, and case studies. Your sales team can use real customer stories to build trust and handle objections, making conversations feel less like a pitch and more like proof.

If you’re reaching out for customer interviews, keep it simple:

• Start with your biggest advocates. Who’s been vocal about loving your product? They’re the easiest people to approach. Send them a quick email introducing the idea. If they’re open to the idea, you’ll need to write interview questions, conduct interviews, and gather their stories in a digestible, distributable format.
• Ask open-ended questions. I always go with something like, “What were your biggest pain points before using our product?” or “How does our product help your team reach its goals?”
• Turn insights into action. The best interviews don’t just sit in a Google Doc — they get used in sales decks, case studies, and onboarding materials.

The best part? These conversations don’t just help your business — they help customers feel heard. And in my experience, that goes a long way in building loyalty.

13. Automate your sales process.

Slow business periods are the perfect time to clean up and automate your sales process. I’ve seen sales teams waste so much time on repetitive tasks — manually logging activities, sending follow-ups, or updating the CRM — when a little automation could free them up for more important work.

Aja Frost, a contributor to the HubSpot Sales Blog, points out that automation is especially useful for:

• Follow-ups. Automating email follow-ups ensures no lead slips through the cracks.
• CRM Updates. Automatically logging prospect activities keeps everything organized without extra manual work.
• Long Sales Cycles. For deals that take months to close, automation helps nurture leads without reps needing to check in constantly.
• Cold Leads. Instead of chasing low-converting leads, automation can segment and handle outreach so reps can focus on better opportunities.

And there’s a real payoff: Sales teams that automate their processes see a 15% boost in productivity and a 12% decrease in marketing costs. That’s according to a report from Kissflow, which highlights how automation saves time and money while improving efficiency.

If your team isn’t already automating parts of the sales cycle, here are a few easy wins:

• Create reusable email templates for outreach and follow-ups.
• Set up automated workflows in your CRM to log prospect interactions.
• Use scheduling tools to make booking calls seamless.

The way I see it, automation isn’t about replacing personal connections — it’s about eliminating busy work so sales reps can focus on actual selling. And during slow periods, setting up these systems makes sure your team is in the best position when business picks up again — so instead of scrambling to catch up, they can hit the ground running with a more efficient process.

14. Set goals.

Sales reps are usually focused on hitting their monthly quota, but that’s not the only goal that drives success. When business slows down, I’ve found that setting new goals — ones that go beyond just closing deals — keeps teams motivated and sharp for when things pick up again.

• Mentor goals. Meeting with a mentor once a week for fresh insights and coaching.
• Activity goals. Improving the quality of outreach by asking more “Why?” questions during sales calls.
• Win rate goals. Focusing on closing a higher percentage of deals instead of just chasing more leads.
• Incentivized goals. Rewarding specific behaviors with bonuses or recognition to keep motivation high.

And structured goal-setting pays off. HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Report found that 56% of sales professionals are exceeding their goals, despite 54% saying selling has gotten harder. Sales reps who focus on improving efficiency, targeting new markets, and refining their sales process are finding ways to stay ahead, even in a more challenging landscape.

Even small changes — like setting a goal for the number of discovery calls or prospecting emails sent each week — can have a big impact. Another strategy I’ve seen work well? Strategic promotions. If sales are slow, why not plan a limited-time offer that helps reps close deals while reinforcing their goals? A well-timed discount or bundled package can push hesitant prospects to take action.

I’ve learned that reframing sales goals during slow periods keeps teams engaged and improving, rather than just waiting for things to pick up. When you use this time to refine strategy, it pays off when the momentum returns.

15. Practice sales strategies.

Slow periods are the best time to sharpen sales techniques. I’ve learned that refining prospecting, pitching, and closing strategies during these times can make a huge difference when business picks up again. A strong sales cycle includes five key stages, and each one offers an opportunity to improve:

• Prospecting. Try new outreach techniques like social selling, warm emails, or personalization through research.
• Connecting. Strengthen discovery calls by asking more “Why?” questions, such as “Why is this problem a priority now?” or “Why hasn’t this challenge been solved before?” These questions help uncover a prospect’s motivations and whether they’re a good fit.
• Researching. Dig deeper into LinkedIn, press releases, and industry reports to uncover insights on a prospect’s company. I’ve found that researching and knowing what’s happening within a company makes it easier to build rapport and ask meaningful questions.
• Presenting. Roleplay is a powerful way to improve sales pitches and objection handling. If formal training isn’t available, I’ve seen practice sessions set up with colleagues and found that even informal feedback can help refine messaging.
• Closing. Experimenting with different closing techniques, such as:

• Soft Close. Presenting the benefits without pushing for an immediate commitment.
• Assumptive Close. Ask questions like “Does this sound like it would solve [pain point]?”
• Sharp Angle Close. When you change direction and catch your prospect by surprise by trying to close the deal. Respond to a request with a condition: “If we can include that feature, will you sign today?”

Sales is a skill like any other — the more you practice, the sharper you get. Using slow periods to fine-tune strategies means when business picks up, reps will be ready to engage prospects more effectively and close more deals.

16. Collaborate with other sales reps.

When I notice business slowing down, I’ve found that the best way to keep momentum going is through collaboration. Sales can feel like a solo job at times, but the most successful reps I’ve worked with don’t operate in isolation. They learn from their peers, trade insights, and refine their strategies together.

One of the most effective ways to do this is peer coaching. Setting up film reviews, where reps analyze and give feedback on each other’s calls, is one of the fastest ways to sharpen messaging and objection handling. If your team doesn’t already have a formal mentorship program, now is the time to start one. Pairing new reps with experienced ones creates a natural learning environment and helps the entire team level up.

Another strategy I’ve seen work well is knowledge-sharing sessions. Have reps bring their most effective sales emails, outreach messages, or discovery call techniques to a team meeting and break down what works and why. When sales pick back up, your team will be better prepared to tackle objections and move deals forward.

Slow periods can be frustrating, but they’re also an opportunity. Reps who take the time to learn from each other come out of these lulls stronger, more confident, and ready to close more deals.

Turning Slow Periods Into Growth Opportunities

Working on this piece gave me a new appreciation for how much opportunity there is in a slow business period, if you use it wisely. I went into this thinking about slowdowns as something to overcome, but after digging into expert insights, I see them differently. They’re a chance to refine, reset, and even get ahead.

Sales pros who thrive in the long run aren’t just great at closing deals when the pipeline is full. They also know how to optimize their process when things slow down. Whether that means improving sales enablement, automating tasks, sharpening techniques, or collaborating with peers, the most successful teams treat downtime as an investment in future success.

If sales are slow right now, remember this: There’s always something to refine, automate, or improve. The work you put in now won’t just help you through this slump — it’ll set you up to sell more effectively when business picks up again.