5 Cold email subject lines for higher open rates + 9 sales demo tips + 3 ways to overcome gatekeepers

Hey - it’s Alex!

Today, I will share with you:

1️⃣  3 actionable SaaS growth tips

• 👉 5 Cold email subject lines for higher open rates

• 👉 9 sales demo tips

• 👉 3 ways to overcome the gatekeepers

2️⃣  ‘Best tip, failure, & learning’ by Felix Eichler (Co-founder & CTO of Userlane)

3️⃣  1 software tool recommendation

… that will help you quickly grow your SaaS product 🚀.

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👉 Before you begin:

✅  Get your FREE copy of the SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet

✅ Unlock your growth potential with a list of 82+ proven SaaS growth strategies

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1. Cold email subject lines for higher open rates

The subject line is key for your open rates.

If no one opens your email, your best email copy is useless.

So don’t ignore the importance of your subject lines.

5 cold email subject lines for sales for higher open rates & more responses.

Steal them.👇

✅ {First_name}, quick question about {topic}

✅ Hit {goal} with {product}

✅ Solution for your {pain point}

✅ {First_name}, congrats on {trigger event}

✅ Is {pain point} a topic, {First_name}?

Some more relevant resources for cold emails:

• 14 types of trigger events that you can use in your emails

• Cold email template

2. 9 Sales demo tips to close more deals

Sales demos are key to the success of your business.

If you get leads to book a sales demo with you, you need to perform.

Otherwise, they will move on to your competition.

Below you find 9 actionable sales demo tips that you can apply today.

Tip 1: Structure of a winning sales demo

A sales demo is more than just presenting your features.

The demo meeting consists of:

• Step 1: Preparation

• Step 2: Discovery phase (or summary of the discovery made before)

• Step 3: ‘Demo’ phase

• Step 4: Next steps

One of the most common mistakes I see over and over is to skip step 2 and step 4.

Tip 2: No pain point, no demo

No pain points?

No product demo!

Only if you do a great sales discovery, you can rock your product demo.

Because a demo is not just 'showing features'. It's about selling values.

You are 'showing' features (e.g via screen sharing), BUT you are 'talking' values.

Better discovery leads to higher win rates.

Tip 3: Discovery - Unfold true pain points

From weak intentions to unfolding true pain points.

Find out what really drives the client.

It's actually easier than you think:

1️⃣  Ask open questions

2️⃣ Ask a lot of 'W' questions

3️⃣  Ask 'Why is that?" at least 5xtimes

4️⃣  Don't jump from one question to the other. Dig deeper and try to really understand the situation of the client.

5️⃣ Repeat what you understood. Ask them if you understood them correctly.

Also, check out the Top 10 Sales Discovery Questions.

Tip 4: Let your customers confirm their pain (in discovery)

You will unfold the pain points of your customers.

It's important that you don't just assume them.

Let your customers confirm their pain.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟯 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁:👇

1️⃣  You: "Did I understand correctly, that you are having XYZ problem, which leads to (negative result 1) and (negative result 2)?"

• -> Prospect: "Yes, exactly"

2️⃣ You: "So what you said is that you already tried (alternative solution 1) and (alternative solution 2), but it didn't solve the problem because of XYZ. Is that correct?"

• -> Prospect: "Yes, that's right"

3️⃣ You: "So, what I've noted down, is that it's the top priority for you to solve problem X, because if you can't solve it, it will have (negative implication 1) and (negative implication 2). Correct?"

• -> Prospect: "Yes, unfortunately, that's true"

Tip 5: Demo phase - Don’t show all your have

Don't pitch all you have. Only what's needed.

It's not that the more the better.

Most of the time, it's the opposite.

Focus on the core features of your product. On the ones that relate to the customers' pain points.

Show them how these features solve their problem.

Tip 6: Show features, but talk about benefits.

This means that you share your screen and show them your features.

But don’t say what you’re doing.

Don't say things like:

‘If you click here, then XYZ happens.”

"This feature is also great, you just click here, and then x happens and then you just click here and then Y happens".

Those are all things you are showing, but not saying.

Instead, tell them why this feature is beneficial for them.

Tip 7: Get a conversation going

After you showed them a feature, ask for their feedback.

Get a conversation going.

Because it shouldn’t be a monologue or presentation.

You need to make sure that they keep following you and most importantly if what you are showing them really solves their pain (or if they understood how/if your product could solve their pain).

So here are a few ways to do this: 👇

• “Would this (what I’ve shown you) solve the problem about X (what you’ve mentioned and confirmed earlier)? “

• “Do you see how that solves your challenge with X”?

• “What impact would this have on your job?”

• “Can you see yourself/your team using this in your organization?”

Tip 8: Liste more & get rid of buzzwords

One thing that I see a lot of times with junior salespeople or non-sales founders, is that they think talking more and using buzzwords help them win customers.

It's actually the opposite.

Better do this:

1️⃣ LISTENING MORE

2️⃣ USE SIMPLE WORDS

3️⃣ GUIDE BY ASKING QUESTIONS

Your goal should be to understand the customers' problems.

The best salespeople listen more than 50% of the time.

They lead the conversation by asking the right questions.

Tip 9: Align on the next steps

At the end of your sales demo, you should summarize the pain points and how you solve them (on a high-level).

Agree on concrete next steps (e.g. decision call on date X or Q&A Session next XYZ).

Plus, always follow up after the sales demo.

A great sales demo follow-up email helps you to decrease your sales cycle and win more deals.

❗Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter. In the next episode, I will share with you powerful sales demo follow-up email templates.

3. Ways to overcome the gatekeeper (in cold calls)

If you’re doing cold calls, the chances are high that you frequently face ‘gatekeepers’.

Gatekeepers are real and so hard to overcome.

But if you handle them right, you will get more decision-maker calls.

Here are 3 ways to overcome them 👇

𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀

In your call opener, relate to something that happened recently (=trigger event).

This could be for instance: the decision maker joining an event, social media post, press article, engagement with your product (e.g. signup), or communication (opened an email today).

This could sound the following:

You: "Hey, this is Alex from (company name). I saw that (name of decision maker) (trigger event).

Could you please connect me with (name of decision maker)?”

The gatekeeper responds: "Okay, and what do you want from him/her?"

Then you need to add either something valuable or create urgency/curiosity/relevance.

The gatekeeper then sees value in connecting you with the right person.

You (for signup trigger): "Just wanted to make sure that he/she got all the information to move forward with this important decision (e.g. for signup)"

or

You (for social media posts): "Just wanted to share some relevant tips on how other companies reacted to a similar situation"

𝟮. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽

By asking the gatekeeper for help, they feel seen and powerful.

Appreciate their work.

Don't act like they 'stop' you from doing your work, rather turn them into your best friend.

You: "Hey (name of gatekeeper), is (the one you want to reach) available?"

Gatekeeper: "No"

You: "As (name of the decision maker) is responsible for (relevant topic), I need to get in touch with her/him. Could you help with that?"

𝟯. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀

By adding relevant references in your call opener, the importance of your call increases.

The gatekeeper labels you as a 'priority'.

At least not as a spammer.

You are different than the other 99% of calls. It creates FOMO.

You: "Hey, this is Alex calling. (Name of reference) told me that (specific topic or problem) is not only relevant to them but also for (name of company). To make sure that this is true, could you connect me with (name of decision maker), as she/he is responsible for (the topic you want to discuss)."

Of course, it doesn't work 100%.

👉 What's your best way to overcome gatekeepers?

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💡 Best tip, failure, and learning by Felix Eichler (Co-founder & CTO of Userlane)

Enjoy it while you're doing it.

You can't postpone having a good time to later because that (shockingly) might never happen. Fall in love with the process, not the outcome.

Building a company is hard. But also incredibly rewarding at times.

It takes consistency and it's easier to achieve that if you enjoy what you're doing. If you enjoy the process of getting there, independent of the outcome you will achieve.

This doesn't mean completely detaching from your company. Rather, this is about playing an infinite game, that you can sustain in the long term. If you find fulfillment (or even joy) in your work despite (or even because) of the challenges ahead of you, you've already won.

🧠 Do you want to share your best tip with 500+ SaaS professionals? Reach out to me via Linkedin.

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💪 1 software tool recommendation

I can highly recommend evaboot.com if you use Linkedin Sales Navigator for lead generation.

It’s super easy to extract leads from your sales navigator search and find verified emails for them. Get a CSV file with all the leads and easily import them to your CRM (Pipedrive, Close, Hubspot) or sales engagement tools (Lemlist, Outreach)

P.S. Check out **my list of best software tools for SaaS startups.**

Happy growth 🚀.

Alex Estner

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TL;DR

• Cold email subject line for higher open rate.

• 9 sales demo tips to close more deals.

• 3 ways to overcome the gatekeepers.

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🚀 Whenever you’re ready, 3 ways I can help you:

1. Follow me on Linkedin for more actionable tips to grow your B2B SaaS business.

2. Download your FREE copy of the SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet and get access to a list of 82+ hand-picked, proven SaaS growth strategies.

3. Work with me 1:1 to grow your B2B SaaS business - send me a DM on Linkedin or book a free 15min virtual coffee with me to learn more about my offering.

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