Our prospects are inundated with sales outreach. Most of it is generic, self-centered copy riddled with product features and company facts. Steal these three simple brain-backed techniques to write relevant emails that your prospects won’t ignore.
Lessen Cognitive Overload
When our prospects see too much information, their brains become overwhelmed. This overload makes them more likely to ignore what they see or be paralyzed with indecision.
Instead of trying to cram every idea you have and everything you want to communicate into your outreach, focus on one clear idea. A common mistake is trying to share all of your features and benefits. Instead, write about one customer pain point or desired outcome at a time. That single idea allows your prospect’s brain to quickly and easily process your message.
To lessen cognitive overload, remember that your goal is to start a conversation rather than communicate your entire value proposition.
Leverage the Primacy Effect
With an attention span of about 8 seconds, your prospects will decide almost instantly whether to keep engaging with your sales outreach. Lead with a relevant insight or pain point to hook them fast. When we immediately say something relevant to our prospects, we also leverage the primacy effect
People are more likely to remember the first few pieces of information they encounter. You may have experienced this when your first impression of a brand tends to override future interactions.
With sales outreach, think of your opening line like a social media hook. If you’ve not captured their attention in the first few seconds, they will move on to another task. How you capture their attention will set the tone for the rest of the interactions they have with you and your brand.
To leverage the primary effect, ensure your opening is highly relevant for the recipient of your messaging. Make it immediately clear why your message is worth their time.
Reduce Decision Fatigue
The more decisions we are asked to make, the less likely it is that we will make any decision at all. This is why, according to Gartner data, 56% of deals are lost to the status quo.
To overcome decision fatigue, make it as easy as possible for your prospects to engage with your sales outreach.
Concepts like lessening cognitive load (simplicity, clarity) and leveraging the primary effect (relevance, immediacy) pair well with reducing decision fatigue. The goal is to remove friction from the sales process.
My favorite way to minimize decision fatigue is by including only one concise call to action (CTA). Make sure you are only asking your prospect to take a single action to not divide their attention. Divided attention is a fast path to inaction.
Audit Your Outreach
Your sales outreach is competing with hundreds of other messages and plenty of other distractions. By lessening cognitive overload, making your openers count, and reducing decision fatigue, you give yourself a chance to break through.
Small changes can have big impacts. Take a moment to audit your sales outreach using these 3 techniques and let us know about your results.
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Leslie Venetz is a globally recognized B2B sales expert, corporate trainer, and founder of The Sales-Led GTM Agency. With nearly two decades of experience, she specializes in modern outbound sales strategies that drive revenue, build trust, and empower sales teams to excel. As a LinkedIn Editorial Top Voice and top 1% sales thought leader, Leslie’s insights have reached over 100 million views worldwide, transforming the performance of sales leaders and their teams. She is the author of Top 50 USA Today bestselling book, Profit Generating Pipeline.
Having personally made more than 250,000 cold calls and influenced over ten million through her training programs, Leslie has helped thousands refine their prospecting skills, overcome objections, and lead sales conversations that convert. She has delivered hundreds of keynotes and workshops for top-tier B2B brands and consulting firms across four continents and has been featured in prestigious publications like The Wall Street Journal and Success Magazine.
A recipient of 20+ industry honors, including 2024 Sales Innovator of the Year, Leslie is redefining what it means to be an ethical, effective, and high-performing sales professional.
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