Easy “multi-threading” email 📫
One thing I’d do on almost every deal: have an exec on your team email their counterpart on the buyer’s side.
Just a quick intro. No ask.
Reps often tell me they’re worried this will backfire, that their champion will get mad.
I’ve personally sent (and seen) hundreds (prob thousands?) of these emails and can count on one or two hands all the times it’s gone sideways. The upside is well worth the minimal risk.
As long as you know how to draft a good email for your CRO, VP, etc…
I think it’s often helpful to start with a not great example (then we’ll fix it):
Hi Jane,
It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m the Chief Revenue Officer here at TechCo.
I understand you may have been briefed on the conversations our teams have been having around the TechCo implementation.
Are you available for a call to get to know each other, review our proposal, and answer any questions that may come up?
Best,
Isaiah
This might work. Or… it might get forwarded from the exec to your champion with an “FYI”… (then your champion turns around and forwards to you with a “WTF”)
What’s wrong with this version:
Overly formal and rigid (should be classic exec speak)
Email should start with your champion’s name to increase open rate
Your product should be described by the outcome it delivers/problem it solves, not simply your company name
Asking for a call is often too big of an ask
So how should it look with those comments in mind? ✅
Hi Jane,
Annie has been working with Bill on my team on the project to decrease ramp times for new reps towards the 2027 plan. Good to meet, btw – I’m the CRO here at TechCo.
I always like to have a direct line to my counterpart when I’m buying something so I try to make the same available on our end.
Lmk if there’s ever anything I can do to help, especially once we’re hopefully up and running.
Isaiah
Note: another opening line I like for emails like this is: “Been following along with the conversations our teams have been having about…” because it feels very natural, though I think I’m most likely to default to the more utilitarian “name drop.”
Notice about this version of the email:
“Annie” will show up in the inbox preview, increasing open rate
Framed in context of what we’ll DO, not who we are
More “exec speak” and casual writing
Explain WHY I’m reaching out (and it’s sincere)
No ask, just offer to be helpful
Timing in the sale: It’s best to deploy this strategy once you’ve established real intent on the buyer’s side and have (or are very close to having) a real champion, BUT before you really NEED something from the exec.
Ideally you get a warm nothingburger of an acknowledgement, which means you’ve made a good impression AND opened the direct line should you really need it later (e.g., deal goes sideways, etc).
Live sales training tomorrow (free)
A quick reminder: our next free session, How to Use Repetition to Be More Persuasive, is tomorrow, Tuesday, October 6 at noon Eastern.
We’ll walk through a bunch of scenarios and examples of natural repetition that actually teach the most important points of the sale to your champion.
Sign up here! (103 reps already registered)
How the best reps ramp into a new role 📺
How you plan to ramp is worth talking about in interviews. Once you start the job, you mostly need to do two things:
Learn everything needed to sell the product
Generate pipeline
Today I want to focus on number 1.
ALL of the best reps I’ve ever seen ramp into new roles were extremely diligent students for their first month or two.
They:
Listened to 100+ recorded sales calls
Asked thoughtful, probing questions of everyone possible at the company
Did as many practice mock sales calls as they could get others to tolerate
Consumed external sources (LLMs, industry news/podcasts etc, followed relevant personalities on social media and so on)
Studied (and in some cases built) libraries of common questions, objections, and industry terminology
And importantly they almost all knew enough to SELL the interviewers during the hiring process on the fact that they were going to do this AND specifically on what they had done in the past (and would do again) to be successful.
Just think about the impression that makes on a hiring manager. You’re interviewing a candidate and they tell you that in their last role they watched 100 recordings in their first 5 weeks, interviewed 10 internal stakeholders, did 25 mock calls, and basically fully altered their algorithm to feed them news, terminology, etc.
Control what you can control.
Housekeeping
We’d love to meet (you or someone you know):
Anyone who wants to break into tech sales (entry level or career changers, remote or NYC)
Any NYC AEs (at every level)
Remote AEs (commercial/mm, Strat, founding AE)
We’d also love to hear from you! Anything we can do to make the weekly email better?