1. When you copy someone else’s template, you lose your company’s authentic voice. 2. If everyone uses the same email templates, the templates will likely lose their effectiveness. Below are some guidelines for writing your own templates. If you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, or are struggling to get your response rates up, we have products with templates you can purchase. Guidelines For Writing Your Own Emails These are guidelines for writing emails to cold prospects to start a conversation. Once you begin communicating, you can shift towards longer emails with more content, but in the beginning: These emails should look as if they are a single email that came from a salesperson. They should be text-based, not fancy HTML. State simply and clearly why you are reaching out. Make the email easy to read and respond to on a blackberry or smartphone. Offer credibility (e.g., examples of customers). Ask just one simple-to-answer question (such as for a referral). And BE HONEST in all your communications, whether by phone or email. One trick that I’ve seen reps use is to send an email to a new contact with a subject starting with “Re:” to make it look like they are responding to the prospect. Do you really want to start the relationship off with a lie? If you’re a CEO or sales manager, don’t allow or encourage anything that erodes integrity. An Example Of What NOT To Write Subject: Improve sales effectiveness in Q2? Chuck, Are you continually challenged to project accurate revenue?