Inbox fatigue is real. Buyers are flooded with emails, LinkedIn messages, ads, and ‘’quick follow-ups’’ every single day. As a result, many sales teams assume outreach is dead. It’s not. What is dead is generic, volume-driven outreach that treats prospects like entries in a spreadsheet. Sales outreach still works in 2026 - but only when it’s intentional, relevant, and built around the buyer’s context instead of the seller’s quota. 

When done right, outreach doesn’t annoy. It starts conversations. And those conversations are still one of the fastest ways to build a pipeline. So, if you're wondering what sales outreach is (really) and how to make it work for you and your team, hold on to your hat - you’re about to find all of it out!

We’ll also show you how the sales engagement platform and outreach software we made - Skylead - can help you put what you learned into practice!

What is sales outreach?

Sales outreach is the proactive process of contacting prospects or customers to start, continue, or advance a sales conversation. It includes every outbound interaction a sales rep initiates, such as emails, LinkedIn messages, social media messages, calls, direct mail, and follow-ups.

Sales teams use outreach to start conversations with new prospects, continue existing ones, and restart conversations that have stalled. It’s a core part of how the pipeline is built and maintained, especially in B2B sales, where buyers rarely reach out on their own.

Sales outreach isn’t limited to cold outreach, though. It also covers warm follow-ups, reactivating old leads, and ongoing communication during an active deal. Because of that, outreach applies across the entire sales funnel, starting from the first contact through the late-stage decision-making.

Sales outreach vs. sales prospecting

You’d be surprised by how many people confuse outreach with prospecting. One cannot do without the other, sure, but they’re not the same thing.

Sales prospecting focuses on finding and qualifying potential buyers. Prospecting activities include finding accounts that match your ideal customer profile, researching business decision-makers within them, and deciding who is worth reaching out to in the first place. So, as you can see, prospecting happens before the first message is ever sent.

Sales outreach is the execution layer, so to speak, where you actually contact people from your prospecting list.

In short:

• Prospecting helps you decide who to reach out to.
• Sales outreach defines how and when you do it, and it includes the execution itself.

Strong outreach can’t compensate for poor prospecting, and vice versa. Reaching out to the wrong people - no matter how well-written the message is - still leads to low reply rates and stalled deals. At the same time, what good are high-quality prospects if no one contacts them, follows up, or gives them a reason to respond?

What makes sales outreach effective?

Everyone can send a message to a prospect. You don’t even have to write it yourself. You can use Chat GPT for sales copywriting.

But will a message generated with no goal, sent at a random interval, land you a reply? Chances are slim.

Effective sales outreach boils down to:

• Personalization and relevance
• Consistency and timing
• Persistence and value-driven messaging
• Alignment with prospects’ needs and pain points

1. Personalization and relevance

Personalization is one of the strongest predictors of reply rates in sales outreach, but not in the ‘’first-name-only’’ sense.

In fact, personalized emails deliver 32% higher response rates than non-personalized ones, especially when they reference the buyer’s role, company context, or current priorities. Meanwhile, Salesforce reports that 66% of buyers expect sellers to understand their needs and expectations before reaching out.

This explains why surface-level personalization fails. Prospects respond when outreach reflects why they’re being contacted, not just that they are. It’s only natural, then, that messages that connect directly to their situation, challenges, or recent activity consistently outperform generic ones sent at scale.

2. Consistency and timing

The best results are achieved from outreach that's both consistent and well-timed.

Statistically speaking, companies that respond to leads within the first hour are 7x more likely to qualify and close a lead than those that wait longer. 

In outbound sales, timing also applies to sales cadences (or, as we like to call them, Smart sequences - but more on that later). Data indicates that consistent touchpoints across a defined time window work better than one-off messages, as buyers often need multiple exposures before they’re ready to engage. Consistency keeps you top of mind without forcing the conversation prematurely.

3. Persistence and value-driven messaging

80% of sales require 5+ follow-ups, yet 92% of reps quit after 4 attempts. This gap alone explains why many outreach efforts underperform.

That said, persistence only works when each follow-up adds value. Prospects disengage quickly when messages repeat the same pitch or are ‘’just following up’’. Effective outreach sequences introduce new context, be it a relevant insight, a different angle, a clearer use case - anything that gives the other party a reason to respond, really.

4. Alignment with prospects’ needs and pain points

LinkedIn’s State of Sales report found that 68% of buyers are unlikely to engage with sellers who provide insights irrelevant to their business.

Similarly, Gartner reports that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their time interacting with sales reps during the buying process, making relevance critical whenever contact does happen.

How sales outreach impacts revenue growth

Revenue growth rarely comes from one perfectly timed message. It comes from staying present throughout the entire buyer journey.

High-performing sales reps are 2.3x more likely to follow a structured outreach process with defined cadences and follow-ups. These individuals don’t rely on memory or gut feeling to decide when to reach out. They systemize it.

That consistency matters because most prospects aren’t ready to act when they first see your message. The more relevant touchpoints you create, the more chances you give a deal to move forward.

What’s more, many reps leave revenue on the table, thinking that sales outreach stops the moment the deal closes. The fact is, B2B buyers are far more likely to expand or renew when sellers maintain ongoing, value-driven communication after the initial sale.

That said, post-sale outreach helps you:

• Stay visible as customer needs evolve
• Spot expansion or upsell opportunities earlier
• Reduce churn by addressing issues before they escalate.

Main sales outreach channels

Sales outreach can be inbound or outbound, depending on who initiates the conversation.

Inbound sales outreach happens when a buyer shows interest first, for example, by downloading content, requesting a demo, or filling out a form, and a sales rep follows up. In this case, the prospect has already expressed clear buying signals.

On the other hand, outbound sales outreach is initiated by the sales rep and targets prospects who haven’t asked to be contacted yet.

In practice, when people talk about sales outreach, they’re usually referring to outbound outreach.

For that reason, the rest of this blog will focus primarily on outbound sales outreach and the channels most teams rely on to make it work.

Email

Contrary to what some say, email is not dead. It’s simply evolved.

It remains one of the most widely used sales outreach channels in 2026, if not the most used, and there are multiple reasons for it. Namely, email outreach scales well, allows for personalization, and gives prospects the flexibility to respond on their own time and terms.

Studies show that the average cold email open rate in B2B is around 27.7%, and while open rates alone don’t tell the full story, they demonstrate that email still reaches real inboxes. Email is also the channel with the highest ROI in outbound, with an estimated $36 for every $1 spent.

That said, email performance depends heavily on relevance and structure. Generic emails sent in high volume rarely perform well, while short, context-aware messages tied to a clear reason for reaching out continue to drive replies.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn plays a dual role in modern sales outreach: research and sales engagement.

Reps typically use the platform for LinkedIn prospecting, primarily because it is home to over 1B professionals across the globe. 

And although a free version is readily available, they also offer 4 paid tiers:

• Premium Business
• Premium Career
• Recruiter
• Sales Navigator

… with Premium Business and Sales Navigator, in particular, earning most reps’ trust. As its name suggests, Sales Navigator is a subset of LinkedIn Premium designed with sales teams in mind. It comes with advanced filters, features like Sales Navigator alerts, Lead lists, and also Buyer Intent - all of which help reps zero in on the right prospects before moving on to targeted outreach.

Once you’ve identified prospects, you can interact with them through profile views, meaningful comments on posts, connection requests with personalized notes, and, once requests are accepted, direct messages.

Paid subscribers also have access to LinkedIn inMail, the platform’s own version of email, which allows them to contact prospects out of their network.

LinkedIn’s structure, with visibility into your profile, title, and mutual connections, gives outreach an immediate context that plain email lacks, which typically contributes to stronger engagement.

Phone

Albeit not as popular as it used to be in the past, some reps still rely on phone outreach, but they rarely engage in it standalone.

Cold calls work best when they’re:

• Timed after prior email or LinkedIn touchpoints
• Used to follow up on interest or signals
• Focused on starting a conversation, not closing a deal

In most successful outbound strategies, calls reinforce other channels instead of replacing them. That’s because familiarity increases pickup rates and context increases willingness to engage.

Social media

Social media outreach means reaching out to prospects directly on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, along with industry-specific Slack and Discord communities.

These platforms are conversational by nature, so outreach here usually feels more relaxed and contextual. Rather than delivering a polished pitch, reps here often reference a recent post, a comment, or an ongoing discussion. That small bit of context goes a long way in making the message feel relevant and timely, without forcing heavy personalization.

Direct mail

Direct mail may sound old-school, but sales teams are using it again precisely because digital inboxes are so crowded.

When a physical package containing a handwritten note, a book, or a small branded item arrives at a prospect’s desk, it cuts through the noise. It signals intent and attention in a way that digital outreach often can’t.

Direct mail is typically used selectively for high-value accounts, strategic prospects, or when digital channels have stalled.

Video

Ok, video is not exactly a channel; it’s more of a format. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its place in sales outreach.

A short, personalized video (whether hosted on a platform or embedded via email) gives prospects a human face and a concise explanation of why you’re reaching out. It works extremely well in follow-ups or re-engagement attempts where text has gone unanswered. And because it’s so uncommon in cold outreach, it immediately stands out.

Want to take advantage of this right away? You can use Sendspark to record a video once and then personalize it at scale using its AI-powered dynamic video feature. Even better: if you sign up for Skylead first, you can elevate your outreach by adding those personalized videos directly into your multichannel sequences, since Skylead integrates with Sendspark. Plus, Skylead users get 50% off their first month with Sendspark. Create your Sendspark account and use the promo code SKYLEAD50 to claim the offer.

Best practices for successful sales outreach

Knowing the channels is one thing. Using them well is another.

The reps who consistently book meetings and close deals tend to follow a few practical rules, regardless of industry or channel mix.

1. Build an ideal customer profile and buyer persona

Effective outreach starts long before the first message is sent.

A solid ICP defines which companies are worth your time based on firmographics like industry, size, revenue, location, and tech stack. Buyer personas narrow that down to who inside those companies you should talk to, including their role, responsibilities, and common pain points.

Without these clearly defined, you end up reaching out to people who don’t have the problem you solve, don’t feel the urgency, and don’t have the authority to act.

2. Craft compelling, personalized messages

Strong outreach messages connect your value to something specific about the prospect, be that their role, company situation, market pressure, or recent activity. The goal isn’t to impress them with research, but to show that the message wasn’t written for just about ‘’anyone in their industry.’’

If the reason for outreach isn’t obvious within the first few lines, most prospects won’t keep reading.

3. Sequence your outreach instead of sending one-offs

High-performing sales teams plan outreach as a sequence of touchpoints spread across days or weeks. Each step has a purpose: introduction, reminder, added context, or a new angle. Sequences reduce guesswork and prevent outreach from being random or reactive.

4. Leverage sales engagement tools 

Manual outreach is fine… until it isn’t.

When you’re working with a handful of leads, sending messages manually, tracking follow-ups in your head, and switching between inboxes feels manageable. But the moment you try to scale, things fall apart. Follow-ups get missed. Leads slip through the cracks. Consistency drops. And suddenly, outreach turns into a major time drain.

Luckily, there is a solution, and it comes in the form of sales outreach tools and sales engagement platforms.

Not sure which tool to try out? Why not start with Skylead?

Skylead is THE sales engagement platform and outreach tool that helps you book 3x more meetings in less time.

At the very core of Skylead are Smart sequences, a.k.a. advanced algorithms that combine multichannel outreach actions with if/else conditions. The way it works is, you define steps and conditions, and the tool executes the appropriate step based on your prospect’s behavior to reach them in the fastest way possible.

As you go about making your sequence, you also have the opportunity to A/B test up to 5 message variations and personalize messaging using predefined or custom variables

Scaling email outreach is just as straightforward. Skylead lets you connect unlimited mailboxes at no extra cost and rotates them automatically to help you send tens of thousands of emails each month. You can even find and verify emails directly inside your sequences to protect your deliverability. And if you need to warm up a new email domain, we can help as well, thanks to our infinite email warm-up feature, courtesy of InboxFlare.

When plain text isn’t enough, Skylead’s image and GIF personalization lets you add images and GIFs to your messages, complete with names, logos, profile photos, and custom text. It’s a small touch that makes outreach feel human and has been shown toincrease reply rates by up to 76%.

What’s more, all replies land in a Smart inbox, meaning you can reply from it straight away and even use it to keep track of conversions and ROI. 

The result is simple: a structured sales engagement process, fewer dropped leads, and more meetings booked, without adding hours to your workday.

Sounds good? Go ahead and try Skylead free for 7 days!

5. Keep messages short and focused

Outreach messages aren’t meant to explain everything. Rather, their job is to spark interest and earn a reply. That said, focus on one problem, one insight, or one question. Trust me, if a prospect wants more details, they’ll ask.

6. Follow up with intent, not habit

Your follow-up email after no response or a LinkedIn follow-up message will only work if it brings something new to the table. That something can be a new context, a different use case, or a clearer next step. In other words, if you’re following up just for the sake of doing it and have nothing else to say, then, by all means, don’t.

7. Track & optimize results

How do you expect to know if your sales outreach strategy is working without tracking its performance?

Reply rates, meeting bookings, pipeline creation, and deal progression all offer clues about what’s working and what’s not. The best reps review these regularly and adjust targeting, messaging, and timing based on real outcomes.

Sales outreach templates by channel

Cold email outreach template

Use this when reaching out to a prospect for the first time.

Template:

Hi {{firstName}},

I noticed {{companyName}} is {{relevantTrigger/Context}}. Teams in {{industry/role}} often run into {{specificChallenge}} at this stage.

I’m curious - is {{problem/goal}} something you’re actively working on right now?

Real example:

LinkedIn connection request template

This LinkedIn connection message template works best when it references something visible on the prospect’s LinkedIn profile or feed.

Template:

Hi {{firstName}},

Came across your {{post/comment}} about {{topic}}. I really liked your take. It would be great to connect!

Real example:

LinkedIn follow-up message template

Send this after the connection is accepted to keep the conversation open without forcing a pitch.

Template:

Thanks for connecting, {{firstName}}.

Quick question - when it comes to {{areaYouHelpWith}}, is {{challengeA}} or {{challengeB}} more top of mind for you right now?

Real example:

Phone outreach template (opening)

Best used after an email or LinkedIn touchpoint.

Template:

Hi {{firstName}}, this is {{yourName}}.

I reached out earlier this week about {{reasonForOutreach}}. I’ll keep this brief - I was curious how {{companyName}} is handling {{specificChallenge}} today.

Real example:

Social media outreach template

Use this on platforms like X, Reddit, Slack, or Discord when a prospect is publicly active.

Template:

Saw your {{post/comment/question}} about {{topic}}.

Out of curiosity, have you tried {{approach/idea}}, or are you still exploring different options?

Real example:

Video outreach follow-up template

Send a video accompanied by this message when text alone hasn’t landed.

Template:

Hi {{firstName}},

I recorded a short {{length}} video to explain why I reached out and how this could apply to {{companyName}}.

Happy to walk you through it if it’s relevant.

Real example:

Frequently asked questions

What is the 3-3-3 rule in sales?

The 3-3-3 rule is a simple framework used in outbound sales to keep outreach focused and relevant. It suggests that a sales rep should spend 3 minutes researching the prospect, 3 sentences writing the message, and 3 seconds explaining the value.

How to do sales outreach?

Sales outreach starts by identifying the right prospects and choosing an appropriate channel, then reaching out with a clear, relevant message. From there, it relies on consistent follow-ups through a structured sequence.

What is a good sales outreach strategy?

A good sales outreach strategy is structured, repeatable, and prospect-focused. It combines clear targeting, multichannel sequences, relevant personalization, and consistent follow-ups. Instead of relying on one-off messages or intuition, it creates a system that gives prospects multiple chances to respond at the right moment.

What are the most common sales outreach mistakes?

The most common sales outreach mistakes include targeting the wrong people, sending generic messages, stopping follow-ups too early, and treating outreach as a one-time task instead of a process. These mistakes usually lead to low reply rates and missed opportunities, even when the product or offer itself is strong.

How to choose the right outreach channel?

The right outreach channel depends on where your prospects are active and how they prefer to communicate. Some respond best to email, others to LinkedIn or phone. In practice, combining channels and letting prospect behavior guide the conversation is more effective than relying on a single channel.

Start building your sales outreach engine

Sales outreach only works when it’s structured, consistent, and easy to scale. Random messages, forgotten follow-ups, and manual tracking don’t produce predictable results.

The teams that book meetings week after week rely on sequences, multichannel touchpoints, and clear visibility into what’s working. That’s exactly what sales engagement platforms are built for. That’s exactly what Skylead was built for.

With Smart sequences that adapt to prospect behavior, multichannel outreach support, image and GIF personalization, and performance tracking in one place, Skylead removes the friction from outbound. You spend less time managing outreach and more time talking to interested prospects.

The result? 3× more meetings and 11+ hours saved every week.

Start your 7-day free trial now and see results in your first campaign!

Have you ever left a meeting thinking, “This could have been an email”? Truth be told, we all have.

Most meetings go off the rails, not because the presenter isn’t capable, but because there’s no clear sales meeting agenda. This results in missed opportunities, zero alignment, and participants zoning out instead of speaking up.

A well-structured agenda turns that around. It gives your meetings purpose, keeps everyone focused, and makes sure they leave with clear takeaways.

That’s why we asked our sales team at Skylead to explain how they structure agendas that lead to meetings people actually want to attend, and are now sharing their 2 cents on:

• What a sales meeting agenda should include
• 7 steps to create one that actually works
• Best practices to make meetings feel - dare we say - productive

As a bonus, we’ll be throwing in free agenda templates you can plug into your next meeting.

And while the tips below are based on internal team syncs mostly, the same structure can also help you lead better sales conversations with clients - whether it’s a discovery call, demo, negotiation, or quarterly/annual business reviews.

Shall we?

What is a sales meeting agenda? [+ why you need one]

71% of senior managers believe meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Other statistics show that 65% of people feel they regularly waste time in meetings. Not to mention, 51% of employees regularly work overtime due to meeting overload, with 78% of them saying they are expected to attend so many meetings that it's hard to get their work done.

What does all of this tell you?

That the meeting itself isn’t the problem. The lack of structure is.

A sales meeting agenda acts like a map. It tells the participant(s) where you're headed, what’s worth discussing, and how to get there without taking detours. It keeps everyone aligned on goals, time, and ownership, helping meetings become a tool rather than a time drain. 

As Patrick Lencioni, author of Death by Meeting, puts it:

And the reverse is true too:

Good meetings - built on clear agendas - lead to better decisions, tighter alignment, and participants who actually want to show up the next time.

What should be included in a sales meeting agenda?

Now, what does a sales meeting agenda look like?

At its core, it’s a simple document - nothing fancy. You can outline it in a Google Doc, host it on Notion, or even write it down on a piece of paper if you're more old-school; it doesn't matter. As long as it’s structured, that is.

That being said, we asked our sales team what every sales meeting agenda should include, and this is what they told us:

• Clear objectives and goals 
• Agenda items with time allocations 
• Assigned presenters
• Discussion points 
• Action items and follow-ups

Types of sales meetings [+ internal & client-facing]

Salespeople don’t just attend internal meetings. In fact, most of the time, they spend in external meetings with leads, prospects, and clients.

That said, below is the breakdown of the most common sales meeting types, along with the role they play in the sales cycle.

Prospecting & discovery meetings

• Initial outreach - Connecting with new leads to spark interest and qualify fit.
• Discovery sessions - Uncovering a prospect’s challenges, goals, and the type of decision-making process.

Product & value-based meetings

• Demos - Walking prospects through the product, tailored to their needs.
• Proof of concept (POC) reviews - Validating technical fit or showcasing advanced functionality.
• Trial check-ins - Supporting leads who are actively testing the product.

Deal progression meetings

• Proposal discussions - Reviewing pricing, timelines, and next steps.
• Negotiation meetings - Aligning on terms, contracts, and expectations.
• Business decision-maker meetings - Engaging budget holders or executives to drive final buy-in.

Customer growth & retention meetings

• Quarterly or Annual Business Reviews (QBR/ABR) - Strategic check-ins to review performance and roadmap alignment.
• Renewal & expansion planning - Assuring satisfaction, identifying upsell/cross-sell opportunities.

Internal sales meetings

• Pipeline reviews - Syncing with sales managers to assess deal status and blockers.
• Account strategy sessions - Cross-functional alignment on high-priority accounts.
• Team huddles - Quick daily or weekly meetings to check in on goals, share updates, or raise immediate roadblocks.
• Sales performance reviews - Reviewing individual or team metrics, sales KPIs, and areas for improvement with leadership.
• Training & enablement sessions - Ongoing learning moments to sharpen product knowledge, objection handling, or sales techniques.
• Onboarding sessions for new reps - Introducing tools, sales engagement process, sales outreach templates, and team structure.
• Retrospectives or post-mortems - Reflecting on lost deals or campaign performance to identify what worked and what didn’t.
• Territory or quota planning meetings - Setting sales targets, reviewing coverage, or reassigning accounts.

📝 Note: No matter the type and whether internal or external, every meeting benefits from a clear agenda,  especially when there are multiple stakeholders or big decisions on the table.

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How to create a sales meeting agenda [7-step framework]

Now that you know the different sales meeting types and the main components of a great agenda, it’s time to learn how to use them to actually build one.

But instead of giving you a generic checklist, we’re sharing a framework our sales team coined and absolutely swears by.

They call it the SCAAPID framework: 7 steps to creating a sales meeting agenda that’s clear, efficient, and outcome-driven.

Here’s what the letters stand for:

• S - Set clear meeting objectives
• C - Choose relevant topics
• A - Assign roles & responsibilities
• A - Allocate time for each section
• P - Plan for engagement
• I - Include learning, feedback & training opportunities
• D - Define action items & next steps

Sounds good in theory, right? Let’s walk through how to actually implement each part.

1. Set clear meeting objectives

Before you think about topics, presenters, or time slots, ask yourself:

What’s the one thing this meeting needs to achieve?

Your objective is a filter for every item on the agenda. Without one, your meeting becomes a list of updates that could have been a Slack thread.

So, add your meeting objective as the very first line of the agenda doc. It sets expectations and keeps everyone honest about the purpose.

That said, a good meeting objective is:

• Specific (e.g., ''Identify top 5 stuck deals and define next steps,” instead of “Talk about pipeline.”
• Relevant - Tied to your sales cycle, metrics, or current roadblocks.
• Outcome-driven - It leads to a decision and/or action.

Here are a few examples to paint a better picture:

2. Choose relevant topics 

Once you’ve nailed your objective, the right topics will almost pick themselves. That’s because your objective naturally narrows the scope.

Say your objective was to identify stuck deals. Then it makes sense to focus on pipeline reviews, stage-specific blockers, and next steps - not pricing updates.

When in doubt, ask yourself:

• Does this topic help us hit our meeting goal?
• Is this the right audience for this topic?
• Will this lead to a decision or the next step?

In other words, instead of thinking about what the meeting should talk about, think: 

What will help us accomplish the meeting objective?

For example, if you're preparing for a demo call with a prospect who's evaluating multiple tools, topics like “feature overview” or “UI walkthrough” might sound relevant, but they only help if they’re tied to the pain points uncovered in discovery. 

So, instead of a generic demo, focus on use cases that matter to them (e.g., automation, reporting, integrations, etc). That’s what will actually move the deal forward.

3. Assign roles & responsibilities

Every internal sales meeting should have clearly assigned roles to keep things efficient, on track, and actionable.

It's simple, really. If no one owns the meeting, it's bound to drag, derail, or result in...well, nothing.

On the other hand, when everyone knows their role, the meeting runs like clockwork, and more importantly, leads to real outcomes.

In terms of roles, you'll need a:

• Facilitator - to keep the meeting focused and transition between topics. That's typically the sales manager or whoever called the meeting.
• Presenter(s) - owns specific agenda items. Can be an SDR, account manager, anyone who’s responsible for that topic, really.
• Note-taker - responsible for capturing notes and sharing them post-meeting. Though these days, tools and extensions can automate this role.
• Timekeeper - useful for packed agendas. Helps keep each section within time.

Roles look a bit different in external or client-facing meetings. You likely won’t assign a “timekeeper” or “note-taker” in front of the client, and often, these meetings are 1-on-1 between the rep and the buyer. But that doesn’t mean roles don’t matter.

Behind the scenes, you’ll still want to prep who’s leading the conversation, who’s owning the follow-up, and what materials or demos are being presented.

Not to mention, throughout their lifecycle, the client may interact with different people across your organization, from SDRs to account executives to the customer success team. That’s why having clarity on who’s responsible for what is important. After all, it’s what makes for a smooth and consistent buyer experience.

📝 Note: Add names next to agenda items ahead of time, so everyone comes prepared and nothing slips through the cracks.

4. Allocate time for each section

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in a meeting that was supposed to take 30 minutes... but somehow stretched to an hour and a half.

Yeah, us too.

That’s what happens when you don’t assign time to topics. One section gets too much airtime, someone goes on a tangent, and - before you know it - you’ve spent 45 minutes dissecting one missed deal while everything else gets rushed or skipped.

The fix? Add time blocks to each agenda item. It doesn’t have to be exact to the minute, but it should give everyone a sense of how much breathing room each part has.

A few rules of thumb:

• Prioritize based on the meeting objective.
• Cap open discussions (they’ll expand if you let them).
• Leave 5 minutes at the end to recap and lock in next steps.

This applies just as much to external meetings as it does to internal ones. 

Let’s say you’re running a 30-minute demo with a prospect. Without a rough time structure, you might spend too long on general features they don’t care about and run out of time before you get to the part they actually need. 

Instead, aim for something like:

• 5 minutes: Quick recap of their use case
• 15 minutes: Focused product walkthrough
• 5 minutes: Q&A
• 5 minutes: Next steps

And if something needs more time? It probably deserves its own meeting.

5. Plan for engagement

A common mistake in sales meetings is treating them like a one-way update. Someone talks, others nod, and 30 minutes later, the meeting’s over, with little input or discussion.

The thing is, the best sales meetings are joint sessions where all members (or the majority of them) actively participate.

But if you want people to participate, you need to make space for it - in the agenda AND in the way the meeting is run.

Here are a few ideas on how to make that happen.

How to get teammates to participate in internal meetings

Start with quick wins

Kick things off on a high note by dedicating the first few minutes to celebrating something, such as a:

• Deal that moved forward unexpectedly
• Great objection handling moment
• Creative email subject line that got a hard-to-reach prospect to reply
• Milestone hit by the team (quota, response rate, etc.)

These celebrations not only energize the room but also create a culture where small wins are seen and shared.

You’d be surprised by how often this sets the tone for an open, productive meeting.

Make space for open discussion

Not everything can (or should) be scripted. That said, reserve 5-10 minutes toward the end for open conversation. This can be guided by a prompt like:

• What’s one challenge you’re currently facing?
• Anything you need help with this week?
• Any learnings worth sharing with the group?
• etc.

The goal isn’t to force people to speak, but to give them a chance to.

Add a moment of recognition

Don’t finish the meeting until you’ve acknowledged someone’s effort. Even if it’s just a minute, a quick shoutout for a solid follow-up email after no response, a killer cold outreach message, helping a teammate, or anything else for that matter, is worth calling out.

It signals that showing up and doing the work doesn’t go unseen. And over time, it builds a culture where people feel genuinely appreciated. 

This matters a lot more than you may think. In fact, people rarely leave their jobs because of the work itself. They leave because they feel invisible. Numbers-wise, 66% of employees say they’d leave their jobs if they didn’t feel appreciated. Thus, a bit of recognition in each meeting can go a long way in keeping your team around.

How to keep participants engaged in client-focused meetings

Client-facing meetings are a little different. You don’t need icebreakers or shoutouts; you just need to avoid turning it into a lecture. The best way? Get them involved early and often.

Try this:

• Ask open-ended questions throughout - Instead of presenting for 20 minutes straight, pause to ask: “How does this process work in your team today?” or “Would this help solve the bottleneck you mentioned earlier?”
• Let their answers guide the flow - If they lean into a certain feature or use case, spend more time there instead of going through a generic demo.
• Leave space for objections - Don’t save all questions until the end. Build in time for them to raise concerns so you can handle them in real time.
• Summarize and check for alignment - Every few minutes, recap what you’ve covered and confirm if it lines up with what they were hoping to see.

The better the sales engagement, the more your buyer participates, the more invested they feel, and the closer you are to landing the next step.

6. Include learning, feedback & training opportunities

Most people focus on numbers and next steps, but forget that every meeting is also a chance to level up. Without space for learning or reflection, meetings become routine recaps; useful, sure. But transformative? Not really.

So, carve out a few minutes for learning, shared insights, or feedback.

It doesn’t have to be formal. In fact, the more rep-driven and practical it is, the better. Think of it as peer-to-peer knowledge sharing that sharpens the team’s sales tactics and builds a culture of continuous improvement.

And when it comes to external meetings, don’t overlook them as learning moments, either. A simple question, such as “Was this helpful?” or “Is there anything you’d like us to go deeper on next time?” shows you care and gives you feedback you can use to improve future meetings.

7. Define action items & next steps

You’ve had the meeting. Topics were discussed. Heads nodded. People participated. Great. But what happens afterwards?

If there’s no clear follow-up, all that alignment and input quickly fades, and you’re back at square one.

That’s why every meeting should end with defined action items. Who’s doing what? By when? How will progress be tracked?

Here’s a simple format we like:

• Action - What needs to be done?
• Owner - Who’s responsible?
• Due date - When will it be done?

…and what that looks like in real life:

• Action: Send follow-up emails to new leads
• Owner: Priya
• Due date: Friday

After the meeting, send a quick summary to the participant(s) (email, Slack - whatever works best). This keeps responsibilities clear, reinforces accountability, and gives everyone a handy reference.

Sample sales meeting agenda templates

Not all sales meetings are created equal, as you’ve seen.

For this reason, we've created 3 agenda templates: 1 general for internal purposes and 2 designed for client-facing meetings. Use them as a starting point and adjust accordingly.

1. Internal sales team meeting agenda

Frequency: Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually
Duration: 45-120 minutes (depending on scope)
Attendees: Sales reps, managers, leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders
Presenters {By role and name}:

2. Demo meeting agenda

Frequency: As scheduled with prospects
Duration: 30-45 minutes
Attendees: Account executive / Sales rep + Prospect(s)
Presenters {By role and name}:

3. Follow-up / Proposal meeting agenda

Frequency: After demo or late-stage in sales cycle
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Attendees: Account executive / Sales Rep + Prospect(s) / Decision-makers
Presenters {By role and name}:

Best practices for running effective sales meetings

Even with the best agenda, how you run the meeting matters just as much. 

Below are some tried-and-tested habits to make your sales meetings more effective.

Send the agenda in advance

Don’t make people walk into the meeting blind. Share the agenda at least 24 hours in advance so attendees have time to prepare, especially if they’re presenting or expected to contribute.

As for where to send it? Whatever you already use - Slack, email, Notion, a shared doc. Just make sure it's accessible and linked in the calendar invite.

Set ground rules

When running internal sales meetings, simple ground rules go a long way in making them more productive.

Some examples:

• Cameras on (if you’re remote)
• One person talks at a time
• Keep updates under 2 minutes
• No multitasking (Slack, inbox, etc.)

Set the tone upfront, and remind people as needed. A few expectations agreed on early can save a lot of time (and eye rolls) later.

Stay on track and respect time

Use your agenda as a guide, not a suggestion. Keep an eye on time allocations and gently move things along if a topic is dragging. If something important comes up but doesn’t fit the flow, take note and spin it off into a follow-up - or another meeting.

Time boundaries matter even more in external meetings. If you say the call will take 30 minutes, make sure it does. Prospects often have back-to-back meetings, and going over can leave a bad impression or cut into the most important part of your pitch.

Only schedule meetings when necessary

Some meetings should really be emails. 

That said, if the goal is to share information, give status updates, or report numbers that don’t require discussion, don’t book one.

Save meetings for when real-time collaboration or decision-making is truly needed. Otherwise, you're just eating into everyone's deep work time.

Sales meeting effectiveness checklist

Want to know if your sales meeting agenda is actually working? Don’t guess - track it!

Here’s a simple checklist you can revisit after each meeting for assessment:

Pulse check

• Did attendees feel the meeting was a good use of time?
• Was there feedback on how to improve it next time?

(Use a quick Slack poll or ask during wrap-up.)

Action follow-through

• Were action items clearly defined (owner + due date)?
• Were those action items completed by the next meeting?
• Did the meeting move deals forward or solve real blockers?

Engagement

• Did multiple team members contribute or ask questions?
• Was there an open discussion or knowledge sharing?
• Were people focused (no multitasking, cameras on, etc.)?

Meeting quality

Give a quick 1-5 rating on these:

• Clear objective
• Time managed well
• High participation
• Useful takeaways
• Concrete next steps

If you’re seeing a lot of ❌s or low scores, it’s a signal to adjust the agenda, tighten the structure, or switch up the format.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 4 P's of a meeting agenda?

The 4 P’s typically stand for Purpose, Product, People, and Process. They help ensure your meeting has a clear objective (Purpose), produces tangible outcomes (Product), involves the right stakeholders (People), and follows a structured flow (Process).

What should be included in a sales meeting agenda?

A strong sales meeting agenda should include clear objectives, key topics with time allocations, assigned roles or presenters, discussion points, space for feedback and learning, and defined action items and next steps.

Who is responsible for creating the sales meeting agenda?

Typically, the person running the meeting should own the agenda, which is most often the sales manager or rep leading the call.

How detailed should the agenda be?

Enough to set clear expectations, but not so detailed that it overwhelms. Include objectives, topics, time estimates, and owners. If extra context is needed, link to supporting docs rather than dumping everything into the agenda.

What tools should I use to create and manage sales meeting agendas?

Whatever your team already uses. Common tools include:

• Notion or Confluence for shared docs
• Google Docs or Sheets for collaborative agendas
• Asana, ClickUp, or Trello to track post-meeting tasks
• Slack or email for agenda distribution and follow-ups

How can I make sure every person stays engaged during internal sales meetings?

Assign them to lead different parts of the agenda, ask for input often (e.g., quick polls or round robins), and include open floor or recognition segments. Engagement often comes down to participation.

What’s the best way to follow up after a sales meeting?

Send a short summary that includes the key takeaways, action items, and deadlines. Use Slack, email, or whatever your go-to channel is. This keeps everyone accountable and ensures next steps don’t fall through the cracks.

Set your sales meetings up for success

A good sales meeting gives you clarity, alignment, and energy to tackle the next challenge. And it all starts with a clear sales meeting agenda.

So, take the templates, adopt the SCAAPID framework, try the best practices, and adjust them accordingly. Because when your meetings run better, you perform better.

And if you want more to report on (and brag about) in your next internal sales meeting, Skylead can help. Our sales engagement platform helps you book 3x more meetings with prospects in less time.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today and show up to your next meeting with results worth talking about!

In B2B sales, prospects rarely say ‘’I’m ready to buy’’ outright. They do, however, leave digital breadcrumbs, drop verbal hints, or show signs in their behavior that tell you exactly where they are in their decision-making process. These are called buying signals. Now, knowing they exist and what they are is one thing. But recognizing them, not to mention acting upon them? That’s a whole different story.

Having been in the B2B space for years, we have analyzed thousands of buying signals. Some were loud and clear - a demo request or a pricing inquiry. Others were more subtle, like a prospect revisiting your LinkedIn profile or forwarding your email to a colleague.

What we’ve learned is this: recognizing buying signals in real-time is a skill. Acting on them the right way is a strategy.

Now, it’s time you picked up on both the skill and the strategy. Thus, we’ll be walking you through the different types of B2B buying signals, both obvious and those not-so-much, and show you how to interpret them the right way. You'll also learn how to respond to them appropriately and how to make them work not just for new leads, but for nurturing existing customers too.

What are buying signals and why do they matter?

A buying signal is any action, behavior, or cue that suggests a prospect is considering a purchase. While there are different ways to categorize these signals (by type, channel, or funnel stage), they’re most commonly grouped by strength: strong, medium, or weak. This is usually based on 2 things: how directly the action indicates intent (e.g., booking a demo vs. liking a social post), and how close the buyer is to making a decision.

Now, why bother studying them? Because 77% of B2B buyers do their own research before talking to a sales rep. Which means that, by the time they get in touch, around 70% of the buying process has already unfolded. That said, if you’re waiting for them to raise their hand, you're already behind.

Buying signals help you act before that. They let you spot intent early, prioritize high-interest accounts, and personalize your approach to meet prospects exactly where they are in their decision-making process.

That said, buying signals aren’t just for new leads. They also show up in your existing customer base, for example, when someone starts exploring an upgrade, revisits your pricing page, or goes quiet after initial sales engagement. In all cases, knowing what to look for - and what to do when you see it - is what sets great reps apart.

Types of B2B buying signals

Not all buying signals are created equal. But all of them serve the same purpose: to show you where a buyer stands and what they might do next.

We’ve already mentioned that they can vary in strength. But another useful way to categorize them is based on how and where they show up during the buyer’s journey.

Broadly speaking, there are 4 core types of these buying signals:

1. Verbal buying signals

If you couldn’t guess by their name, these happen during live or chat conversations, such as in meetings, calls, or via email. You’ll hear them when a prospect asks things like:

• How long does implementation take?
• Do you offer integrations with XYZ tool?
• What happens if we outgrow this plan?

What makes these so powerful is how explicit they are. A prospect who’s asking detailed questions is already thinking beyond discovery. Rather, they’re evaluating how your product fits into their world.

2. Nonverbal buying signals

These are trickier to catch but just as telling - especially on video calls or in-person meetings. They include body language cues, such as nodding, leaning in, taking notes, spending extra time reviewing your screen during a demo, etc.

While subtle, these behaviors often indicate interest, curiosity, or agreement. That said, a silent or still prospect isn’t necessarily disengaged. But it does take an observant seller to read between the lines.

3. Digital buying signals

You can find these by analyzing your website traffic, email engagement, content interaction, and other online behaviors that indicate growing interest.

Examples include:

• Repeated visits to your pricing or demo page
• Watching a full product video
• Clicking your CTA in a cold outreach email
• Visiting your LinkedIn profile multiple times

The upside here is scalability. Digital signals can be tracked and scored, giving your sales team constant insights on which leads are heating up and which ones need nurturing. Even better, they can help you actively move prospects down the funnel. For example, if someone keeps visiting your pricing page, your marketing team could place a banner prompting them to book a call, thereby sending warmer leads straight into your sales pipeline.

4. Firmographic, demographic, and opportunity data

These don’t come from the buyers themselves, but rather from the context around them. For example:

• A new VP of Sales joins your target account
• The company raises a Series B round
• Their team starts hiring aggressively
• Their current provider just got acquired

While these don’t scream buyer intent, they mean internal changes are on the horizon, and with them, a renewed interest in solving problems. That’s your cue to step in early, while competitors are still blind to the changes.

18 Buying signals to watch for [+ examples, strength indicators & what to do]

Now that we’ve covered the types of buying signals, let’s talk specifics. 

Below are 18 real-world examples of signals your prospects might show. We have also included examples of what they might say or how they might act, along with how strong each of the signals tends to be. As a bonus, you’ll also find tips and tricks we found extremely useful for pushing your prospects further down the sales funnel.

In terms of signals, we’ll rank them as:

• Strong: Clear indicators of purchase intent. Typically happens late in the funnel.
• Medium: Suggest the buyer is actively evaluating, but might need more nurturing.
• Weak: Indicate early interest or surface-level engagement; not enough to act on just yet, but worth monitoring.

📝 Note: A single signal rarely tells the whole story. Look for clusters of behavior. One visit to your blog? Weak. One visit plus a case study download plus a LinkedIn view? Now we’re talking!

Are objections buying signals?

Yes, sometimes objections are buying signals, rather than signs of rejection. In many cases, when a prospect objects, it means they’re seriously considering your solution - enough to start poking holes in it. That’s a good thing.

Just think about it. Someone who says ‘’I’m not sure this will integrate with our CRM’’ isn’t telling you no. They’re already imagining how your product would fit into their workflow. The same goes for concerns about pricing or timing. If they weren’t interested, they wouldn’t bother raising questions at all.

So don’t treat every objection as a roadblock, as some are actually proof that you’re doing something right. The point is to know when to clarify, when to reassure, and when to dig deeper, which is exactly what effective objection handling is all about.

How to identify and interpret buying signals

Spotting buying signals is part instinct, part process. Yes, some reps are naturally good at reading between the lines. But there are also practical ways to get better at it.

1. Listen actively and observe carefully

A lot of intent hides in plain sight - in how a prospect phrases something, where they pause, what they emphasize. You’ll notice it if you’re actually listening, not just waiting for your turn to speak.

The same goes for nonverbal cues on calls, video, or in person. While you can’t listen to them, you can pay attention to your prospects’ behavior. It will often tell you even more than words.

2. Use lead tracking/analytics tools

When it comes to digital signals, you won't catch them unless you're tracking what matters. Think: email open and click rates, LinkedIn profile visits, return sessions on your pricing page, content downloads, etc. Tools like Mixpanel, Leadfeeder, or Clearbit can show you who's engaging, how often, and in what way.

3. Ask open-ended questions to clarify intent

When something feels like a signal, don’t assume it is. Rather, ask.

Say a prospect brings up integrations. You could follow up with:

• Are you currently comparing tools?
• What would the ideal setup look like for your team?

Make sure your questions are open-ended instead of them being simple yes/no prompts. That way, you can test for real intent without sounding pushy, and give your prospect room to open up, which helps you qualify faster and adjust your sales engagement process accordingly.

4. Look for patterns and validate with feedback

One action might be a fluke. Meanwhile, a cluster of actions? It’s a pattern. If a lead revisits your demo page, downloads a case study, and opens 3 emails in 2 days, there’s probably something going on. Combine behavior data with direct feedback from your calls or emails to confirm the signal before you act, though.

5. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator Buyer Intent feature

If there were ever a cheat sheet to identify buying signals, it would have to be Sales Navigator’s Buyer Intent feature, currently available to Sales Navigator Advanced and Advanced Plus users.

This feature helps you identify not only which accounts are showing interest, but also exactly who at those accounts is engaging, and how. Not to mention, the feature is fully native, meaning you don’t need a separate intent platform or even a CRM sync to use it.

That said, here’s what it tracks and what you can see:

Now, where is the Buyer Intent feature hiding?

Well, you can access it via:

• The Account Hub dashboard (for saved accounts showing new activity)
• Lead and Account Pages (to see specific people/accounts and their actions)
• Homepage Highlights & Sales Navigator Alerts
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters, specifically the Buyer Intent filter and Product Category Intent (for filtering people who are interested in your category, not just your company)

All of this gives your team the context to act fast, prioritize the right people, and reach out when intent is at its peak.

Buying signal or false positive? How to tell the difference

How to respond to buying signals

Spotting a buying signal is only half the job. What you do next? That’s where the deal is won or lost.

Here’s how to respond the right way:

1. Identify the signal quickly

The window of opportunity doesn’t stay open for long. The sooner you notice and interpret the signal, the higher the chance you'll meet them while they are in decision mode. Wait too long, and that intent can fade or shift to a competitor.

2. Personalize your response based on the signal

Not every signal warrants the same playbook. A pricing inquiry? Speak about ROI. A case study download? Reference similar customers. If they watched your product video, ask what stood out.

In other words, adjust your response and sales tactics to reflect what they just did or said. That way, your message feels like a continuation of the conversation.

3. Address concerns and offer help

If the signal is mixed, like a pricing objection or hesitation about fit, that’s not a red flag; it’s a conversation starter, so don’t dodge it. Instead, acknowledge the concern and provide help. You could pull in a case study, loop in a colleague, or simply ask them if they want you to walk through how other customers have handled the same issue.

4. Create slight urgency

No one likes being rushed - but no one wants to miss out either (hence the FOMO). That’s where subtle urgency comes in. You can mention onboarding timelines, expiring offers (only if real), or limited capacity, but keep the tone helpful, not hungry. Urgency works best when it sounds like guidance rather than desperation.

5. Guide the prospect toward the next step or close

Every signal should move the deal forward. Your job? Make that next step clear and easy. That might mean scheduling another call, sending a proposal, getting feedback from other stakeholders, or confirming implementation timelines. Whatever it is, don’t assume they’ll take the leap alone - lead them there.

Taking advantage of buying signals

Spotting a buying signal is all fun and games. But you still need to act on it. The good news is you can do that through Skylead- your ultimate multichannel outreach tool and sales engagement platform.

Skylead is best known for Smart sequences, a.k.a. smart outreach sequences that combine if/else conditions with outreach actions. Smart sequences help you react based on your lead’s behavior, helping you reach them through the fastest possible route.

Now, what’s good about these sequences is that they let you structure your sales outreach in a way that:

• Recognizes buying signals
• Responds to them 

Here’s what that might look like in practice:

Scenario 1: Prospect opens your email

Say you want to address a buying signal where your prospect opens your email but doesn’t reply.

Start by adding an Email step to your sequence. Then, right after it, insert the “If email opened” condition.

Now, say the lead opened your email but didn’t respond. Then, you can add a new path with a follow-up email after no response - one that’s more direct or designed to re-engage interest.

Scenario 2: Prospect clicks your meeting link

Now imagine your first email includes a link to book a call. After that step, you add the “If email link clicked” condition.

If they click but don’t respond, just plug in another Email step to the “yes” path. In this message, you can offer alternative time slots or ask if they need more info before booking, making it easier for them to take the next step.

Not sure which message will work best? Run an A/B test with up to 5 versions to see what resonates. 

Want to make it personal? Add variables (or define your own custom variables) to your message to make it feel custom-made. 

And if you really want to stand out, use Skylead’s native Image & GIF personalization feature. You can add names, pictures, logos, or custom text to your visuals and see your reply rates jump by up to 76%.

Even better, there’s no cap on how far you can scale this. In fact, you can:

• Connect unlimited mailboxes to send tens of thousands of emails per month, all at no extra cost.
• Warm up infinite mailboxes through our partnership with an email warm up tool,  InboxFlare, so your emails land in the primary inbox, not spam.

And if you don’t have your leads’ emails yet? No problem. Just add a “Find & Verify Email” step to your Smart sequence. Skylead will discover and double-verify each email before sending anything, so your outreach keeps flowing without interruptions.

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Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between a sales trigger and a buying signal?

A sales trigger is an external event that creates an opportunity to sell, like a company raising funding, hiring new leadership, or launching a new product. It’s a sign that something’s changing inside the business. A buying signal, on the other hand, is a specific action or cue from the buyer that indicates interest or intent, like watching your product video, asking about onboarding, or replying to a cold email.

Can you automate buying signal detection?

Yes. Most sales and marketing platforms now offer behavioral tracking that can detect buying signals in real time. These tools often integrate with CRMs for sales and sales outreach tools, thereby helping you act on signals as well.

Are buying signals useful for cold outreach?

Absolutely. While buying signals are often associated with warm leads, they’re just as powerful in cold outreach. That’s because, even in cold outreach campaigns, prospects show intent by opening emails, clicking links, replying with questions, etc.

These micro-signals help you:

• Prioritize the right leads
• Adjust your messaging
• Know when it’s time to follow up or try multichannel outreach

What if I misread a buying signal?

It happens. Not every action means a prospect is ready to engage. But if you misread a signal, the point is to remain helpful and keep it low-pressure. You can send a follow-up that adds value or asks a clarifying question, as it won’t hurt the relationship. In fact, it might even uncover real intent you didn’t see at first.

Deals go to those who notice the buying signals

Prospects rarely come out and say, “I’m ready to buy.” But their actions? They give you all the clues.

Spotting those buying signals and reacting fast is what makes the difference - and Skylead helps you do both!

Try it free for 7 days and start turning silent signals into booked calls, more replies, and 3x more deals.

Have you spent hours crafting those perfect emails for them to finally land…in SPAM? We know how frustrating that can be! Email service providers nowadays are stricter than ever about what they let through, and if your email accounts aren't warmed up properly, chances are, your emails will never see the light of day. Worse yet, when your deliverability is affected, so is your sender reputation and, ultimately, your entire success in cold outreach. But that's what you've got email warm up tools for!

Think of them as personal trainers, but for your email. They exist to gradually build up your sender reputation, helping you avoid those dreaded spam filters so your emails land directly where they belong: in your recipients' primary inboxes.

But with dozens of options on the market in 2026, how do you know which one actually works?

To save you time (and your domain), we tested and compared the best email warm up tools, looking at their features, pros, cons, pricing, and overall impact on deliverability.

You’ll also learn:

• What email warm-up is and why it matters
• How email warm up tools work
• How to choose your ideal tool
• Our top recommendations for different use cases

Let’s dive in and find the right warm-up tool to boost your deliverability in 2026.

Our testing process: How we evaluated each tool

Before moving on, let’s make one thing clear: we are not going to provide you with another feature-analysis type of blog.

In fact, our goal was to put each email warm up tool to the test to see how it performs in real life, so we:

• Connected each tool to a new or low-activity email account and sent approximately 200 warm-up emails per tool over a consistent time frame.
• Tracked where those emails landed (Inbox, Spam, or Promotions) to measure real-world deliverability performance.
• Monitored whether emails were opened, replied to, and how the tool engaged with them.

Each tool’s performance was then rated based on its inbox deliverability rate, spam rate, ease of setup, customization options, and overall value for money.

Overview of the 12 best email warm up tools

TL;DR?

Here’s a quick comparison table of the best email warm up tools on the market, along with information on:

• How many of our emails landed in the primary inbox,
• How many went to spam,
• The overall deliverability rate for each tool,
• And their pricing.

Updated on June 4th, 2025.

What is email warm-up?

Email warm-up is the process of gradually increasing the number of emails sent from a new or low-activity account, either manually or automatically, to build a positive reputation with email service providers (ESPs). This helps ensure that future emails land in the recipient’s inbox rather than the spam folder.

Benefits of email warm-up

In 2023, approximately 45.6% of all emails worldwide were marked as spam.

Want to make sure that doesn’t happen to yours? Start warming up your email accounts!

That said, here’s what you stand to gain from doing so!

1. Better deliverability

Warming up your account improves deliverability by building trust with email providers. When you start small and slowly increase your sending volume, providers recognize you as a reliable sender. This keeps your emails out of spam folders and makes sure they reach primary inboxes.

2. Lower bounce rate

When you warm up your account manually, you’ll probably take time to make sure you’re only sending emails to valid addresses likely to receive them. Email warm up tools, however, already have a database of active and valid email addresses, helping you avoid sending to inactive ones. As a result, your bounce rate becomes lower. With fewer bounces over time, your account maintains a stronger standing reputation, ultimately supporting your long-term outreach success.

3. Improved sender reputation

Sender's reputation is like the credit score of email outreach. It’s the measure ESPs use to decide whether to trust your emails. Email warm-up builds this reputation steadily through positive interactions like opens and replies. A stronger reputation means your emails are more likely to reach their destination, helping you maximize your results.

What are email warm up tools?

Email warm up tools are automation tools designed to simulate natural activity from an email account. They gradually send and receive emails, open them, mark them as important, and sometimes reply, all to show email service providers (ESPs) that the account is active and trustworthy. They are commonly used during the sales engagement process to improve sender reputation and increase deliverability prior to launching outreach campaigns.

How do email warm up tools work?

Most email warm up tools operate by sending emails from your account to a network of engaged contacts—often other users within the tool’s ecosystem. They also handle recipient interaction by opening emails, replying, and sometimes even marking them as ‘’Not spam.’’ This simulated engagement is what ESPs look for in trusted senders, making email warm up tools a fast and reliable way to build credibility.

Common features of email warm up tools include:

• Automated sending and replying: The tool sends a controlled number of emails each day, gradually scaling up. They also engage with these emails from the recipients’ side, mimicking real interactions that ESPs expect from reputable senders.
• Spam recovery: If any of your emails end up in spam, many tools can help pull them out to reinforce your sender's reputation.
• Customizable settings: Most tools offer flexibility, allowing you to adjust daily limits, warm-up duration, and engagement targets to align with your sales outreach goals.

Simply put, email warm up tools make it easy to scale up safely. They handle the warm-up process automatically to allow you to run email campaigns that actually find their way to your audience.

Pros and cons of email warm up tools

As you can see, email warm up tools are pretty handy. But just like anything else, they are not perfect. 

Let’s break down their pros and cons to get a full sense of what they offer and where they fall short.

Pros of email warm up tools

1. Automated process

Email warm up tools take the manual work out of the equation. They automate the sending, replying, and engagement needed to build up your reputation, which saves you time and ensures a consistent process.

2. Improved deliverability

By gradually increasing your sending volume and facilitating positive engagement between you and other tool users, email warm up tools help you avoid spam filters and boost deliverability. As a result, your emails are more likely to land in your leads’ inboxes, which means more of them will actually see them.

3. Reputation building

Warm-up tools make it easier to build and maintain a good sender’s reputation. Many of these tools simulate human interactions, which ESPs recognize as positive signals. This reputation-building function is particularly important for new accounts or accounts that have experienced deliverability issues in the past.

4. Customizable settings

Most email warm up tools offer settings you can adjust according to your requirements. This may include making adjustments to daily sending limits or setting the warm-up duration.

Cons of email warm up tools

1. Subscription costs

Email warm up tools can come at a hefty price. This cost may feel like a barrier to some, specifically when other expenses are also in play.

2. Potential for over-reliance

While great for warming up new accounts or improving deliverability, email warm up tools don’t have the same quality. Moreover, relying solely on one without considering email content quality, frequency, or list hygiene could lead to issues down the road.

3. Lack of instant results

Building a reputation takes time, and even with automated assistance, it may take weeks for a new account to reach full-scale sending. So, if you’re looking for a quick fix, a warm-up tool might not be the immediate solution you need.

4. Varying success across providers

Some email service providers are more receptive to warm-up techniques than others. Depending on the ESPs you’re targeting, you may see different levels of success.

12 best email warm up tools to boost deliverability and stay away from spam

So, you know what email warm-up is all about. But now it's time to find the right tool for the job.

Lucky for you, we’ve curated a list of 12 email warm up tools, all so we can help you improve deliverability, reduce bounce rates, and stay clear of those pesky spam filters.

1. InboxFlare

Deliverability rate: 99%

Best for: AI-powered, infinite email warm-up

InboxFlare is an email warm up tool that is only integrated with partnership tools like our Skylead. As a result, you get everything you need for outreach without paying extra!

Skyleadhas long been your ultimate sales engagement platform and cold email software. 

In fact, we were the 1st tool on the market to introduce Smart sequences—ground-breaking algorithm that combines outreach actions with if/else conditions. As a result, you get coherent outreach flows that help you unfold outreach according to the way your prospects behave.

Now, thanks to our partnership with InboxFlare, we’ve taken Skylead to a whole new level! 

We've become a real one-stop-shop solution that lets you:

• Harness the full power of unlimited email outreach,
• Discover & double-verify leads' emails to reduce bounce rates and protect your domain,
• Hyper-personalize GIFs and images to increase your response rate to over 76%,

...but also warm up infinite email accounts to keep your emails away from spam—forever!

That's right! You get all of this at one cost!

All Skylead users can create InboxFlare accounts to start warming up their emails in 30+ languages.

Once you’ve created the account, just add your email and let InboxFlare handle the rest. It's compatible with all major email providers, including Gmail, Outlook, and Zoho, and also supports custom SMTP.

InboxFlare’s AI crafts a warm-up strategy customized to your domain’s unique needs, improving your sender reputation on autopilot. 

But it doesn’t send just any generic warm-up emails—you can choose specific topics, and it will generate and send customized messages on your behalf, making the warm-up process even more authentic.

In addition to building reputation, InboxFlare continuously monitors your email health by checking blacklists, domain configurations, and inbox settings. 

Plus, you can run deliverability tests to assess whether your mailbox server is blacklisted, see where your emails land in different inbox providers, and adjust warm-up accordingly.

Pros

• Included free with Skylead
• Supports unlimited warm-ups and all major ESPs
• AI-personalized warm-up messages
• Warm-up in 30+ languages
• Continuous monitoring of domain health and blacklist status

Cons

• Requires some technical know-how to connect custom SMTP

Pricing

InboxFlare comes at no extra cost! With a Skylead subscription, you can warm up an infinite number of emails and unlock every other feature Skylead offers—all for just $100 a month. 

That means full power to boost your deliverability, use multichannel outreach, and manage leads in one package.

2. Lemwarm by Lemlist

Deliverability rate: 96%

Best for: Detailed deliverability insights

Lemwarm is an email warm up tool developed by Lemlist. But since it’s an add-on rather than integrated into the platform, it’s available for standalone usage.

It works by sending automated emails to a network of over 20,000 users, gradually boosting your deliverability. 

The tool also offers alerts on your deliverability score, spam risk detection based on your email content, and daily insights with expert tips to optimize performance. 

Moreover, detailed deliverability reports help you stay on track and keep your emails landing in the right place.

However, the pricing structure is based on the number of emails you warm up, meaning costs can quickly add up. 

Not to mention, while our testing ran smoothly, one reviewer, Vinayak G., noted:

‘’All our warm-up emails were going to the spam and categories section, which was really frustrating.’’

So, while Lemwarm proved effective to us, specific cases suggest it’s not ideal.

Pros

• Provides daily deliverability reports and spam risk alerts
• Large sending network (20,000+ users) for simulated sales engagement
• Can be used standalone or as part of Lemlist

Cons

• Cost scales with the number of email accounts
• Some users report that warm-up emails still land in spam

Pricing

Lemwarm is free for Lemlist users.

If you’d like to use it alone, you can, but expect to pay the following amount:

3. Mailivery

Deliverability rate: 94%

Best for: Domain reputation tracking

Mailivery is an AI-driven email warm up tool designed to boost deliverability by interacting with real emails behind the scenes. 

It removes emails from spam, generates positive replies, like Lemwarm, and works with a network of over 20,000 real users to simulate authentic engagement.

Its intuitive dashboard provides real-time insights into spam placement and detailed analytics to track your domain reputation. What’s more, you can check if you're blacklisted and get personalized recommendations for improvement.

While Mailivery offers full customization of warm-up volume and timing, which we liked, some users report there’s a bit of a learning curve to it. 

Additionally, the tool limits the number of warm-up emails sent daily despite allowing you to warm up unlimited mailboxes.

Pros

• Advanced analytics and real-time insights
• Works with a network of real users for authentic interaction
• Offers customizable warm-up volume and timing

Cons

• Daily email sending limits even on higher plans
• Some learning curve for new users

Pricing

4. Warmbox

Deliverability rate: 90%

Best for: Simple self-setup

Warmbox is one of the easiest email warm up tools to use and is great for those who want a simple, self-setup experience.

The software automates the whole email-warm-up process using inboxes from real users and doesn’t interfere with your email routine.

Beyond improving deliverability, Warmbox also calculates your Reputation Score, compares it against a community benchmark, and suggests ways to improve. It even sends you alerts if your score drops below a certain percentage, so you can pause campaigns before things get worse.

However, it can get pricey, especially since you’re charged per inbox, and there’s no free trial available. 

Pros

• Easy to set up and fully automated
• Uses real inboxes for more natural interaction
• Reputation Score tracking with benchmark comparisons
• Alert system to warn you of deliverability issues

Cons

• Pricing can get expensive per inbox
• Limited reporting features compared to others

Pricing

5. Mailwarm

Deliverability rate: 93%

Best for: Flexibility in warm-up intensity

Mailwarm helps raise your sender reputation by interacting with your emails daily.

It automatically sends dozens of emails to over 1,000 Mailwarm accounts, where they get opened, marked as important, replied to, and pulled out of spam.

You can track everything through a dashboard that gives you insights into your email activity. You also have the flexibility to adjust Mailwarm’s intensity or pause the warm-up process if and when necessary.

Nevertheless, the major limitation we found is that even with the highest subscription plan, you’re capped at warming up a maximum of 10 inboxes. And considering its hefty price, you may be better off choosing a different email warm-up software.

Pros

• You control how aggressive the warm-up process is
• Daily interactions with 1,000+ internal accounts
• Clean interface and basic tracking features

Cons

• Pricey for the number of inboxes supported
• Maxes out at 10 inboxes, even on the highest plan

Pricing

6. Folderly by Belkins

Deliverability rate: 95%

Best for: Domain reputation analytics

Folderly is developed by Belkins, a company known for its B2B lead generation and outreach services. 

Its main promise is to keep your emails out of spam and promotions folders with an impressive 99% inbox placement rate. It offers insights on why emails end up in spam, helps you optimize templates, checks your DNS records, and integrates with the most popular ESPs like Gmail and Outlook.

We haven't experienced major issues while testing Folderly, but multiple users have complained about it doing more harm than good.

And after reading this review left by Oguzhan U., in particular, we are seriously starting to question the tool’s reliability:

‘’Folderly sent 42,000 undelivered emails in 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) using 8 email addresses in our domain. Our team didn't realize the issue until Monday. Our email domain reputation is completely destroyed. That is completely the opposite of why we wanted to use Folderly.’’

Pros

• Offers diagnostics for email content, DNS, and spam triggers
• Supports Gmail, Outlook, and custom SMTP

Cons

• Expensive compared to most tools
• Reports of deliverability issues or oversending bugs

Pricing

Folderly doesn’t have pricing plans, per se.

Instead, their rates depend on the number of mailboxes you’re warming up and are structured like this:

7. Instantly

Deliverability rate: 95%

Best for: Automated cold emailing with the built-in warm-up

Instantly isn't a standard email warm up tool but one of the best cold email software with built-in warm-up functionality that can be activated with a click.

The software allows you to monitor your deliverability score, showing exactly how many emails land in the inbox or spam. You can also emulate human-like reading by enabling the read emulation feature, which scrolls through emails to simulate authentic interaction.

The tool sends a random number of warm-up emails daily, and you can choose specific open and response rates. 

Moreover, with a pool of over 550,000 real email accounts for warm-up, Instantly.ai's coverage is vast.

The price is reasonable, considering that, starting at $37, you can warm up unlimited emails. 

Nonetheless, some users have reported that its warm-up can blacklist your domain with certain ESPs, so exercise caution if you decide to use it.

Pros

• Warm-up for unlimited inboxes
• Offers deliverability score monitoring and read emulation
• Massive warm-up pool (550K+ inboxes)

Cons

• Reports of blacklisting issues with some ESPs
• Limited control over message content

Pricing

Instantly doesn’t have a dedicated email warm-up plan. 

Nonetheless, unlimited email warm-up is included in their following Outreach plans, along with email outreach.

8. Warm Up Your Email by Mailshake

Mailshake, a popular cold email software, acquired the email warm up tool ‘’Warm Up Your Email’’ in 2024 to ensure its customers' emails hit the inbox, not the spam folder. 

The team at Warm Up Your Email manually interacts with your emails by opening them, replying, and pulling them out of spam. This interaction helps signal ESPs that you’re a trusted sender.

All you have to do is connect your email account and set your daily send volume while they handle the rest. You’ll get insights on how many of your emails land in spam and track your progress with a 10-day spam pattern report that shows your account’s improvement over time.

The downside? The process isn’t fully automated—it’s done manually by the Warm Up Your Email team. This can feel a bit counterproductive if you’re looking for full automation.

Additionally, their top plan caps the number of email accounts you can warm up at 8. 

Not to mention, replies are sent as separate messages, not within the same thread, which might limit the natural conversation flow.

Pros

• Managed manually by a dedicated team
• Offers spam pattern tracking over time

Cons

• Not fully automated and, thus, slower to scale
• Replies are sent in new threads, not existing ones
• Limited to 8 inboxes, even on the top plan

Pricing

Mailshake users can use Warm Up Your Email free of charge. 

As for those who’d like to use it separately, the available plans are as follows:

9. MailReach

Deliverability rate: 93%

Best for: Real-time reputation tracking

MailReach is an email warm up tool designed to enhance your email deliverability, helping you hit more inboxes and land more deals. 

It automatically repairs, improves, and maintains your sender reputation by facilitating genuine, positive interactions with a network of high-reputation accounts.

Its main feature is consistent spam checking, which allows you to track inbox placement and measure deliverability performance. You can run these tests manually or automate them based on your preferred frequency.

MailReach comes with a Smart AI warming algorithm that makes sure your account is properly warmed up before hitting full-scale outreach. At the same time, the Reputation Tracking Dashboard gives you real-time insights into your email performance, allowing you to fine-tune your campaigns as needed.

MailReach works with any email service provider that supports SMTP. However, the setup process can be tricky, especially when connecting emails for the first time. 

Downsides-wise, since pricing is inbox-based and spam checker credits aren’t included in the base cost, you’ll need to account for those extras when budgeting.

Pros

• Smart AI algorithm adapts warm-up strategy
• Real-time reputation and deliverability dashboard
• Frequent spam placement checks
• Compatible with all SMTP-based ESPs

Cons

• Setup can be tricky for first-time users
• Spam test credits are not included in base pricing
• Costs increase with the number of mailboxes

Pricing

MailReach prices are based on the number of mailboxes you’re warming up, starting at $25 per mailbox. 

Spam credits are sold separately, starting at $28 for 100, though you get 20 free credits to start you off.

10. Smartlead

Deliverability rate: 97%

Best for: Email provider matching

Smartlead is another tool that bundles email warm-up into its larger cold outreach infrastructure. 

Its AI-powered warm-up emulates human conversations, allowing emails to appear natural and avoid automation detection. In addition to authentic AI conversations, the system delivers a gradual ramp-up for safe email sending.

One feature we really liked is how Smartlead automatically matches your email provider with that of your recipient. So, for instance, if you have both Gmail and Outlook accounts, and your recipient is using Gmail, Smartlead will use your Gmail account for optimal deliverability.

One downside, however, is the lack of customization—you can’t choose the topics or content for the warm-up messages. For this reason, and the fact that other warm-up tools offer more functionalities, you may be better off opting for one of the Smartlead alternatives.

Pros

• AI-generated warm-up conversations
• Matches sender and recipient ESPs for better deliverability
• Unlimited warm-up included in all plans
• Built-in outreach capabilities

Cons

• No control over warm-up content or topics
• Fewer warm-up-specific features than standalone tools
• May be overkill if you only need warm-up

Pricing

Much like Skylead and Instantly, Smartlead doesn’t have a sole email warm-up plan. 

Instead, this functionality is included in their standard plans, which also give you access to email outreach.

11. Mailflow by QuickMail

Deliverability rate: 94%

Best for: Blacklist tracking

Mailflow is QuickMail's email warm up tool, primarily aimed at its users. Nevertheless, it can also be used separately.

The tool is designed to improve your email deliverability with features like a real-time auto-warmer score for each inbox, SPF and DKIM monitoring, and blacklist tracking across nearly 100 lists. The latter makes it easy to act quickly if any blacklist flags your domain.

Unfortunately, its analytics are somewhat limited for our taste. In addition, the support team is only accessible via email, which can delay issue resolution.

Pros

• Built-in SPF, DKIM, and blacklist monitoring
• Tracks warm-up progress through an auto-warmer score
• Offers a free plan with basic functionality
• Supports up to 100 inboxes

Cons

• Limited analytics compared to other tools
• Customer support only available via email

Pricing

The tool is free for all QuickMail users. 

Nevertheless, those who’d like to use it separately can expect to pay the following amounts:

12. Allegrow

Deliverability rate: 94%

Best for: Integrating with CRM and outreach platforms

Allegrow is an email warm up tool focused on delivering in-depth insights to help optimize your deliverability. 

It offers unique features like Spam Rate Analysis, allowing you to see exactly how much of your email traffic ends up in spam. Also, there’s the Safety Net™, which automatically stops emails that could damage your sender's reputation. 

With continuous DKIM, SPF, and DMARC testing, like InboxFlare in Skylead has, you’re also covered in authentication. At the same time, the Deliverability Leaderboard ranks users by spam rate to prevent one bad sender from affecting the whole team.

Another plus is that Allegrow natively integrates with popular CRM and outreach tools like Outreach.io and SalesLoft.

Not everything is ideal about Allegrow, though. For example, the customization of warm-up messages is rather limited.

Pros

• Spam Rate Analysis and Safety Net™ features protect domain reputation
• Native integrations with tools like Outreach.io and SalesLoft
• Ongoing DNS and authentication checks (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

Cons

• Higher pricing compared to most warm-up tools
• Limited customization of warm-up message content

Pricing

How to choose an email warm up tool

You’ve seen the top email warm up tools—now let’s show you how to pick the best one for your workflow.

1. Look for features you need

Not all email warm up tools are created equal, meaning they come with different features. With that in mind, start by identifying the ones that matter most to you. 

Do you need automated sending and replying? 

Customizable warm-up settings? 

Or perhaps spam recovery features? 

Either way, the tool you choose should have the functionality you need. Otherwise, what’s the point of paying for it?

2. Verify ESP compatibility

Before you invest in a tool, check that it’s compatible with your ESP. Some tools are specifically suited for Gmail, while others are optimized to work better with Outlook, Zoho, or more specialized ESPs. This step saves you from potential headaches down the line.

3. Assess ease-of-use and setup

Your ideal warm-up tool shouldn’t have a steep learning curve. Instead, it should be simple to set up and easy to navigate. 

That said, look for intuitive dashboards, straightforward settings, and clear instructions. The less time you spend figuring out the tool, the sooner you’ll start seeing results.

4. Confirm support for multiple accounts and team usage

Running campaigns across multiple accounts and teams? You’ll want a tool that can handle it. So, make sure the tool supports multi-account use and includes team collaboration features. That way, you can streamline your efforts and keep everything organized.

5. Gauge the quality of customer support

Customer support can make or break your experience with any tool. After all, if things go sideways, you’ll need reliable help.

But how do you know the support quality if you haven’t used the tool yet? Check out reviews from real users. Their feedback usually reveals how responsive and helpful the support team is and whether they’re truly invested in resolving issues.

Ideally, the support team should be reachable 24/7 through multiple channels—live chat, email, phone, you name it.

6. Evaluate cost vs. feature ratio

Finally, consider whether the cost is appropriate for what you’re getting. Some tools are pricey but lack crucial features. Meanwhile, others offer everything you need at a reasonable rate. Compare pricing plans and weigh the cost against features to make sure you’re getting the best quality you can afford.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is email warmup necessary?

Yes, if you want your emails to reach inboxes instead of spam folders. Skipping this step can result in poor deliverability and a damaged reputation. Both of these can seriously hurt your outreach.

How can I warm up my email?

You have 2 options: manually or with an email warm up tool.

To warm up manually, start by sending a small number of emails each day to trusted contacts—people who will open, reply, and engage with your messages. Gradually increase the volume over several weeks, allowing email providers time to recognize your account as trustworthy.

For a faster and more efficient approach, consider using an email warm up tool. These tools automate the process by sending emails to a network of engaged users who interact with your messages, helping to quickly build your sender reputation and improve deliverability with minimal effort.

What is the best email warm up tool?

One person's best may be another person's worst. So, the best email warm up tool for you is the one that has the features you need, all while fitting within your budget.

Did Google ban email warmup?

Google didn’t ban email warm-up outright. However, they have restricted the use of third-party tools that access the Gmail API, which is often used for email warm-up. However, this move is about enforcing their policies against unauthorized API access, not banning the concept of warm-up itself.

That said, this doesn’t mean you can’t use email warm up tools altogether. Many tools offer warm-up services that comply with Google’s policies by avoiding direct API access or by using methods that align with Gmail’s guidelines. So, if you’re using Gmail, just make sure you choose a tool that follows these regulations to avoid any issues.

Email warm up tools: Final comparison [+ our top picks by use case]

Your search for effective email warm up tools ends here!

By now, you should understand just why you should warm up your emails.

And sure, there are plenty of email warm up tools out there. But here’s the bottom line: your emails deserve to be seen. So, why mess around testing each tool when there’s already one that does it all—Skylead?

Skylead is a one-stop-shop tool that can help you warm up an infinite number of emails, discover and verify your leads' emails, and use multichannel outreach—all at a single price!

Sounds too good to be true? 

Take it for a spin with our 7-day free trial to see the results yourself and start getting your emails exactly where they belong: in front of your audience!

Disclaimer: Skylead is not affiliated, endorsed by, or connected with LinkedIn in any way.

Using Chat GPT for sales has proved particularly useful for increasing productivity and efficiency. That’s because it can be a powerful tool for writing highly personalized sales templates that get replies and help you book more meetings, among others.

But, like any other tool, it only works if you know how to use it. Or, rather, if you give it correct prompts.

Our sales and marketing team at Skylead began using Chat GPT in November 2022, when it became widely accessible. Since then, we’ve had plenty of time to test what’s working and what isn’t. And now, we’re bringing all our findings here for you to explore.

Thus, in this blog, we’ll show you exactly how you can use Chat GPT for sales. More specifically, how to use ChatGPT for account-based selling—a strategy that focuses on hyper-personalized outreach to high-value accounts.

We’ll also cover:

• What Chat GPT is and how it works;
• Why you should use it for account-based selling;
• Specific sales use cases;
• Examples of how we give prompts to Chat GPT for prospecting, sales messages, and subject lines;
• What Chat GPT can’t do.

Off we go!

What is Chat GPT and how does it work?

What better way to explain what Chat GPT is than to go straight to the source? 

Thus, here is what Chat GPT had to say about itself:

‘’I am an AI language model developed by OpenAI. I process natural language prompts and generate text-based responses that aim to be coherent, informative, and relevant. My training involves analyzing large datasets of text to understand context, structure, and meaning, enabling me to assist with tasks such as answering questions, creating content, or solving problems.’’

And no, Chat GPT doesn’t "think" like a human. Rather, it’s a chatbot that uses machine learning technology (a type of AI called the "transformer model") to process and generate text. This technology allows it to analyze your prompts and predict the most likely responses based on the data it was trained on.

Speaking of data, GPT-3, which we were introduced to in November 2022, was trained on approximately 570GB of data derived from a larger dataset of about 45TB (terabytes). 

But, as impressive as GPT-3 was, it lacked up-to-date information and browsing capabilities. Therefore, it was much inferior to the models we have now, including:

• GPT-4, now a legacy model;
• GPT-4o and its faster variant, the GPT-4o mini, great for everyday tasks;
• o1 for advanced reasoning and o1-mini for faster reasoning;
• o1 Pro, the best model to date, capable of providing answers to the hardest questions. (*available only to Pro subscribers)

Not to mention, OpenAI has recently gifted us Search GPT, a search engine built directly into Chat GPT that delivers conversational responses complete with relevant sources.

So, as you can see, Chat GPT has come a long way since its inception. And while many things have changed, one thing remains the same: it is a powerful ally for sales reps.

Let’s see why!

Why use Chat GPT for sales?

According to HubSpot, 47% of salespeople around the globe have used Generative AI in 2024. What’s more, the majority of them decided to use Chat GPT for sales tasks rather than its competitors (Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Claude, etc.).

Thinking about using it yourself? Here are a few compelling reasons to do so, particularly if you are doing account-based selling:

1. Scalability

Chat GPT can make the account-based selling process scalable by helping you come up with sales messages, emails, and follow-ups for individual leads or accounts. But not just any messages. We’re talking about hyper-personalized ones that hit the mark. As long as you feed it the right inputs, that is, such as your ICP’s pain points, goals, and industry details.

2. Speed and efficiency

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve tried your hand at writing sales messages. Thus, you know that doing it from scratch can be incredibly time-consuming. Well, not with Chat GPT. This chatbot can streamline content creation for various touchpoints, be it LinkedIn messages, LinkedIn inMails, cold emails, or follow-ups. 

Just think about it. Instead of spending 30 minutes on one cold email, you can spend 5 minutes giving prompts to Chat GPT and tweaking the response. Multiply that across your outreach strategy, and you’d be saving hours on end.

3. Consistent messaging

The average SaaS sales cycle lasts 84 days. When it comes to account-based selling, the process can last a lot longer, meaning it’s important to stay consistent all the way through. Chat GPT can help out with that by making sure your tone, messaging, and overall approach remain uniform. For example, once you’ve found successful prompts, you can reuse them to maintain brand voice while scaling your outreach.

4. Handling sales objections

Sales reps often face repetitive objections, typically concerning pricing, product/service fit, or timing. Lucky for you, Chat GPT can help generate objection-handling responses tailored to specific situations. Just provide it with the specific objection and a desired tone (e.g., conversational, formal, persuasive), and you’ll get replies that move the conversation forward.

5. Enhancing sales teams’ productivity

Let’s face it: salespeople perform at their best when they focus on…well, selling. In other words, building relationships and closing deals. Seeing as Chat GPT can take on repetitive tasks of generating ideas for outreach, drafting copy, summarizing lead insights, and more, it’s clear that it can be a serious productivity booster for sales.

Chat GPT for sales use cases

Using Chat GPT when trying to land high-value accounts (or any accounts for that matter) has its merits.

But the question is, what stages of the sales process should it be used for? Truth be told, all of them.

Nevertheless, let’s show you a few areas where it proved most useful for us at Skylead.

Prospecting assistance

If you’re thinking about using Chat GPT for sales prospecting, think again. This chatbot can’t help you find leads and accounts, and if you ask us, it will never be a good replacement for the best prospecting tool out there - Sales Navigator.

Nonetheless, it can complement your LinkedIn prospecting efforts by helping you refine and prioritize the right accounts through:

• Research – Essential in account-based selling is to approach each lead with deep insights. Chat GPT can help summarize information from a LinkedIn profile, company news, industry trends, etc, giving you a clear understanding of your prospects.
• Lead qualification – Not every account deserves your attention. By feeding Chat GPT key details, you can quickly validate if a lead aligns with your ideal customer profile and Buyer Persona before investing time and resources.
• Lead scoring – Prioritization is crucial when working with a small number of high-value accounts. Using Chat GPT, you can create sales frameworks that rank leads based on growth potential, industry fit, or other scoring criteria, helping you focus your efforts on the most promising accounts.

Lead generation support

Much like you can’t use it for direct prospecting, Chat GPT can’t magically generate leads for you. What it can do, however, is streamline the LinkedIn lead generation and lead gen process in general.

For example, you can use it to:

• Generate personalized ice-breakers (e.g., LinkedIn connection messages) according to, for example, your leads’ latest LinkedIn posts.
• Write compelling outreach messages that will resonate with your audience. Yours is to provide it with information on your ICP and Buyer Persona, their pain points, and your service/products’ USPs, and tweak the output accordingly.
• Draft effective follow-up messages that keep leads engaged without coming off as pushy.

Moreover, you can ask Chat GPT to provide several iterations for each of these. Then, you can engage in A/B testing to determine which brings about the best results.

What more control over your lead generation? Your best bet is to use Chat GPT in combination with a software that streamlines the sales engagement process.

Sales enablement

While a sales engagement platform helps you get more sales opportunities, sales enablement tools empower your team with resources to close those opportunities more effectively.

Chat GPT is no such tool. But it can, once again, complement the process by generating content that helps sales reps communicate and strategize better among each other.

For example, you can use it to create onboarding material for new team members, sales playbooks, cold outreach templates, cold calling scripts, objection handling guides, and more.

Client onboarding

Closing a deal is only half the battle. If your clients aren’t onboarded properly, chances are, the deals will flop. This is where Chat GPT can come in handy. 

Namely, it can be used to generate guides that walk clients through setup, best practices, and product adoption so as to help them get used to it.

Additionally, you can use Chat GPT to create troubleshooting guides or answer frequently asked questions.

You can also use it to generate welcome emails and, thus, set the right tone at the beginning of the onboarding process. 

How to use Chat GPT for sales

There are plenty of ways you can use Chat GPT for sales.

But it’s not enough to just use it. You need to know HOW to use it.

One of the biggest problems is that not everyone knows how to communicate with Chat GPT, which is the key factor in successfully using this very advanced chatbot. 

Basically, the better prompts you give, the more satisfying results Chat GPT will bring back.

However, bear in mind that the prompt you give doesn’t need to be final. 

Once you give the initial prompt to Chat GPT, you can always adjust its answers in 3 ways: 

• By giving another prompt(s) a try;
• By feedbacking the answer and giving additional prompts to make Chat GPT adjust the answer;
• By editing the answer manually to fit your needs, especially if it needs a small tweak. 

Now, let’s go ahead and show you practical examples of how to engineer Chat GPT prompts for sales. 

How to give prompts to Chat GPT for sales prospecting

Before we get deeper into the topic, let me just clarify once again that Chat GPT can’t be used for prospecting on LinkedIn. 

It even confirmed so itself!

And here’s what it said when asked why it can’t find prospects:

So, as you can see, the reasons are purely legal and ethical.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean you absolutely can’t use Chat GPT for sales prospecting. You just need to be creative about it.

That said, let’s show you a few ways this advanced chatbot can lend a hand in the process.

Way #1: Have Chat GPT summarize leads’ information and identify pain points

Chat GPT is great at summarizing information. For that reason, it can be quite an ally when researching your leads.

Unfortunately, for the reasons above, you can’t give it a LinkedIn profile URL and expect it to extract the information you need.

I tested this out myself by giving it a prompt with my profile URL.

Here’s what it had to say:

Still, I wanted to double-check if this is something it really can’t do, so I gave it a different prompt.

Since I have no experience with ‘’artificial intelligence and machine learning,’’ I was fairly certain Chat GPT couldn’t get profile information from a URL alone. 

However, it can work with the information you copy-paste from profiles.

But since this would take a while (depending on how much information is there), the better approach is to download your lead’s profile in PDF format.

Once you’ve downloaded it, simply attach it to the chat and give a prompt.

This is what I got:

You can also ask Chat GPT to identify pain points your lead could be facing based on the information it collected, as I did here.

And if the response is too long, like mine was, you can always ask it to summarize it further.

Way #2: Feed your ICP and Buyer Persona information and give a prompt to qualify leads

The percentage of deals you close will depend on the quality of your leads.

Thus, before you invest time and resources into contacting the lead, you need to determine if they align with your ICP and Buyer Persona. In other words, you need to qualify them.

Luckily, Chat GPT can help you qualify leads by feeding it your ICP and Buyer Persona details.

Since it already helped me filter out information from my lead’s profile, I gave it the following prompt to see if we were the right fit.

Meanwhile, Chat GPT responded with this:

Not bad, Chat GPT, not bad!

Way #3: Input criteria of choice and give a prompt for lead scoring

Similarly to qualifying leads, this chatbot can also help you score them based on any criteria of your choice (e.g., job type, events attended, engagement level, etc.).

To get the desired results, create a prompt that includes your specific scoring criteria. Then, include lead data that aligns with it.

Here’s the prompt I gave.

And the response.

How to give prompts to Chat GPT for sales messages 

In this chapter, we will show an example of how we instruct Chat GPT to write a cold email. 

For the best results, we always advise our users to give precise instructions on the types of sales messages they want Chat GPT to write. 

Also, sometimes, you need to make it clear that you need Chat GPT to generate both a cold email and a corresponding subject line. Meanwhile, other times, by simply asking it to write an email, it will suggest the subject line as well. 

That said, Chat GPT is not perfect, and it cannot read your thoughts (thank God!), so always strive to be as precise as possible when giving prompts. 

So, let’s go ahead and see different ways to converse with Chat GPT for sales. 

Way #1 Copy & paste information and give a prompt

So, to start, assemble the following on a sheet of paper: 

• The characteristics of your ICP and Buyer Persona(s) within;
• Pain points of your Buyer Persona and how your problem solves those pain points;
• Unique selling proposition of your product or service. 

Then, you can copy and paste the relevant information, such as the desired length of your email, your buyer persona’s goals and pain points, how your product solves them, and/or your product's USP. 

So, this was my initial prompt.

This is what I got. 

I personally found this email to be a bit too salesy and kind of “dry.” And this is exactly what I mentioned as a feedback. 

So, there’s no need to write an entirely new prompt. You can give honest feedback to Chat GPT. 

Here’s what I’ve got. 

As you can see, you can go on and on like this.

You can give feedback to Chat GPT on any part of the sales message you get or even edit the initial prompt until you find the most satisfying results. 

Here’s where you can edit your prompt. 

I will again remind you that, sometimes, it’s easier and better to edit the email manually or even mix and match different parts of different sales messages generated by Chat GPT. 

Way #2 Copy & paste information and give a prompt to use messages in a sales automation tool

You can apply the same principle (or any other below) to prepare sales messages to use in sales automation software. 

Just make sure you tell Chat GPT which variables (placeholders) you would like it to use so that the automation tool you’re using can personalize your sales outreach at scale. 

I used the same prompt as above, just changed the instructions part. 

Here’s the prompt. 

This is what I got. 

I liked the answer, but I noticed it was above 80 words. (again, always check because Chat GPT is not perfect!)

So, I gave feedback and got another result. 

(Also, by clicking the “Try again” button, you can go on and get new solutions over and over again.)

Way #3 Upload your lead's LinkedIn profile and give a prompt

You can upload your lead’s LinkedIn profile and give the same instructions as above to write a more personalized message. 

Firstly, go to your lead’s LinkedIn profile and download it in PDF format.

Again, the reason why you want to download the PDF lies in the fact that Chat GPT is not ‘’on LinkedIn.’’ This means you can’t simply copy and paste someone’s LinkedIn URL because their profile isn’t publicly available information.

You can, however, copy-paste information from your lead’s LinkedIn profile or take a screenshot of their profile. You’ll get the same results.

Either way, for the sake of practice, let’s say you decided to download a file, as I have.

Once you’ve done so, upload the PDF to Chat GPT and give the instructions.

This is what I’ve got. 

I wasn’t very happy with the result, so I asked Chat GPT to give me a few other solutions. 

And another one. 

And another solution. 

Remember that you can also combine the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd way to give prompts for more precise instructions. 

That is, upload your lead’s CV and then write their pain points, goals, and your product's unique selling points in the prompt. 

Way #4 Use LinkedIn posts to personalize icebreakers in your cold emails

A great way to instantly connect with your leads and increase your response rates is to make a reference to their LinkedIn post that resonated with you and that (ideally) you can tie to your product or service. 

Just copy and paste the post to Chat GPT and give a prompt to use it in the introduction of your cold email. 

Again, the reason why you cannot just copy and paste the link to the post is that Chat GPT can only use publicly available information. As such, it cannot access LinkedIn profiles or posts published on them.

Here’s what my prompt looked like. 

This is what I’ve got. 

I have to be honest; I was pretty happy with it right away. 

Way #5 Use Chat GPT to fight the most common objections

The simplest way to use Chat GPT to address the most common objection handling situations is to upload the email you’ve sent, your lead’s objection, and instruct Chat GPT on how to answer it. 

You can copy/paste the majority of the information. 

Here’s what my prompt looked like. 

This is what I got from Chat GPT.

I felt as if it was selling right off the bat a bit, so I gave another prompt. 

Way #6 Use Chat GPT to write follow-ups after no response

Following the previous example, you can also ask Chat GPT to write a follow-up email after no response. 

The easiest way to give a prompt to Chat GPT is to copy/paste the email and give instructions. 

Of course, if you need something more specific, make sure you include details, too. 

My prompt was very simple this time. 

This is what I got. 

I didn’t like the answer because I wanted my lead to answer or start a conversation with me instead of pushing for a sales pitch. 

How to give prompts to Chat GPT for sales subject lines 

Whether writing an email or InMail, subject lines are the key factor to a higher open rate. 

That said, here are 3 ways to use Chat GPT for sales subject lines. 

Way #1 Copy & paste your cold email and give a prompt

Copy and paste the email to Chat GPT and ask it to suggest subject lines. 

Here’s what my prompt looked like. 

This is what I’ve got. 

You can go ahead and play with it just like we did in the previous examples. 

I asked Chat GPT to make the subject lines shorter, for example. 

Way #2 Insert keywords and important information and give a prompt

Describe your product (you can also copy and paste information regarding your ICP and Buyer Persona that you think should be included in your subject line) and give a prompt to Chat GPT. 

Here’s my prompt. 

Here’s what I’ve got. 

Best practices for writing ChatGPT prompts for sales

As you can see, if you want to get the most out of ChatGPT for sales, your prompts need to be of high quality.

Generally speaking, a vague or incomplete prompt will result in generic responses, while a clear and detailed prompt will produce satisfactory results. 

That said, here are some best practices to follow when crafting prompts for your sales tasks:

• Be specific and detailed - The more information you provide, the better the response will be. Include details such as your leads’ characteristics (e.g., job title, industry, pain points), the purpose of the message, your USP, and your value proposition.
• Provide context - Give Chat GPT background information to help it generate appropriate responses. Context might include the goal of your message (e.g., book a meeting, respond to an objection) or the tone you want to achieve (e.g., semi-casual, formal, friendly).
• Break down complex prompts - If you need Chat GPT to generate multiple pieces of sales engagement content (e.g., an email and subject line), make this clear in your instructions. You can also break prompts into steps to keep it focused.
• Ask it to act as a sales expert - For a more precise response, have Chat GPT walk a mile in your shoes. This primes it to approach your request with the tone, expertise, and structure a sales professional would use.
• Use examples and templates - If you have a preferred style or template, share it with Chat GPT as part of the prompt. This helps make sure the output aligns with your expectations.
• Give it feedback - Chat GPT rarely gets it perfect on the first try. Therefore, it’s best you treat the first output as a draft and refine it by giving feedback or further instructions.
• Keep it action-oriented - Sales messages require a clear call to action. So, to make sure the response drives the next step, include instructions for a CTA in your prompt.

Limitations of using Chat GPT for sales

While Chat GPT is a powerful tool that can improve various stages of the sales process, it’s not without its limitations. 

Therefore, when using it, it’s important to have realistic expectations and use it as a complement—not a replacement—for your existing sales strategy.

That said, here are a few areas where it falls short.

1. It can’t find or generate lead

Despite its versatility, Chat GPT isn’t a prospecting tool, as mentioned. That means it can’t browse LinkedIn, scrape data, or find new leads for you.

However, Chat GPT can help once you’ve collected lead information by, for example, summarizing profiles, generating outreach messages, or qualifying leads based on the details you provide.

2. It’s not always accurate or up-to-date

In the past, when Chat GPT didn’t have access to the Internet, it struggled to provide up-to-date information. That doesn’t seem to be the problem any longer, at least not by a high margin. However, it still tends to frequently ‘’hallucinate’’. In other words, this chatbot has a tendency to provide false information. Therefore, it’s important to fact-check every response it provides.

3. It requires clear prompts

Chat GPT doesn’t possess human reasoning and logic. So, if your prompts are vague, generic, or incomplete, the output will reflect that. Therefore, to get high-quality responses, you must provide clear instructions, context, and details.

To paint a better picture, here is an example of a bad and a good prompt:

• Bad prompt: “Write a sales email.”
• Good prompt: “Write a cold email for a SaaS tool that automates LinkedIn outreach. The target is mid-level marketers struggling with lead generation. Keep it under 100 words, friendly, and include a CTA.”

4. It lacks human nuance and emotional intelligence

No matter how advanced Chat GPT is, it can’t fully replicate human creativity, tone, or emotional intelligence. While it can generate effective outreach messages, it might miss subtle cues or context that a human would naturally pick up on.

So, if you want to use Chat GPT for sales, use it as a starting point, but always add your personal touch.

5. It can be too generic without refinement

While Chat GPT can quickly produce sales copy, the output may lack originality—especially if you don’t refine it. 

Generic messaging is a surefire way to turn prospects off, particularly in account-based selling, where hyper-personalization is key.

To avoid this:

• Continuously provide feedback to Chat GPT to improve the tone and content.
• Combine different outputs or edit manually to inject creativity and personalization.

For an added touch of personalization, we recommend using Chat GPT-generated sales copy with Skylead’s native image and GIF personalization feature.

Just upload your visual into the built-in editor in our tool, and enrich it with:

• Text;
• Variables (e.g, your leads’ first name, last name, company name, etc.);
• Your leads’ or your LinkedIn profile image;
• Your leads’ logo;
• Custom logo.

Feel free to play around with it as you see fit. And who knows? You may even beat the 76% response rate that we got using this feature!

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Chat GPT for sales?

Yes! Chat GPT is a powerful assistant for creating sales content, including LinkedIn messages, cold emails, and follow-ups. It streamlines repetitive tasks and helps you focus on strategy and relationship-building. However, it’s important to treat Chat GPT as a support tool and add your personal touch to ensure authenticity.

Can Chat GPT find sales leads?

No. Chat GPT isn't a replacement for prospecting tools like Sales Navigator. However, it can help you qualify leads, summarize research, and prioritize high-value accounts by analyzing lead details you’ve already collected. Think of it as a tool for organizing your prospecting list, not building one from scratch.

Are Chat GPT-generated messages GDPR/compliance-friendly?

Chat GPT itself does not guarantee GDPR compliance. Thus, it’s up to you to make sure your outreach follows GDPR. To ensure compliance, avoid using personal data without permission. Also, always include an unsubscribe button in cold emails. When in doubt, review messages manually or consult legal experts.

What are the costs of using Chat GPT for sales?

The cost depends on the Chat GPT subscription you choose. The free plan offers basic features with slower responses, while the popular Plus plan costs $20/month. In the meantime, Teams pay $30/user monthly, and the recently introduced Pro plan is $200/month. For the Enterprise pricing, contact OpenAI’s sales team.

How can you integrate Chat GPT with CRM software to streamline the sales process further?

Integrating Chat GPT with CRM software can be achieved through APIs or webhook integrations. This allows automated data exchange, enabling Chat GPT to personalize communications based on CRM data and improving the sales process by offering tailored interactions and insights.

Can Chat GPT be used to generate not just initial outreach messages but also to automate ongoing communication based on recipient responses?

Yes, Chat GPT can be used for more than initial outreach; it can automate ongoing communication by analyzing recipient responses and generating follow-up messages. However, this requires a sophisticated setup to interpret responses accurately and respond appropriately, maintaining a balance between automation and personal touch.

Make the most of Chat GPT for sales!

As you may see, your options for using Chat GPT for sales are infinite. 

Our only advice is not to be afraid to experiment and to give new prompts and feedback until you are completely satisfied with the result. 

Also, keep in mind that you can always manually adjust any response Chat GPT gives. 

But why stop there when you can pair it with one of the best sales engagement tools and cold email software out there?

Yes, we’re talking about Skylead!

Make the most of Chat GPT for sales with Skylead and our 7-day free trial. Start landing more meetings, closing 3x more deals, and saving 11+ hours every week.

Got questions? Feel free to drop by our chat. Or, schedule a demo with our sales team and see just how powerful our tool is—live in action!

Disclaimer: Skylead is not affiliated, endorsed by, or connected with LinkedIn in any way.

If you're in sales, chances are you've given social selling on LinkedIn a try. You may also be all too familiar with the following scenario: you spend hours sending invites to connect, crafting messages, and follow-ups only to realize the results are…nowhere to be found. Conversations die out before they've truly begun, engagement is flat, and you're left wondering if all this effort is even worth it. But LinkedIn isn’t the problem. It's how you're using it. LinkedIn is a powerful sales engine, but only with the proper LinkedIn sales strategy.

So, how do you create one? And, more importantly, how do you put it to work?

Since our sales guru, Andrea, are experts on sales (and LinkedIn), we thought we'd pick their brains to answer these. And now, we'll be using their knowledge and firsthand experience to break down:

• How to create and execute a LinkedIn sales strategy that gets results;
• How to track and analyze its performance;
• And what mistakes you need to avoid to minimize wasted efforts.

So, if you are ready to turn things around on LinkedIn sales-wise, it's time to dig in!

How effective is LinkedIn for sales?

Why bother using LinkedIn for sales engagement to begin with?

Because it’s home to over 1 billion professionals spread across 200 territories. Out of these, a whopping 63 million are decision-makers and another 10 million C-level executives. This means your audience is definitely there. You just need to get to them.

Basic users are slightly limited when it comes to LinkedIn prospecting and LinkedIn lead generation. And while you can use any LinkedIn Premium subscription to get to sales leads, Sales Navigator remains your solid bet.

That’s because it’s aimed precisely at sales professionals and equipped with over 50 lead and account LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters that simplify prospecting. Not to mention, it comes with advanced features that aren’t available to other Premium subscribers (e.g. Buyer Intent and Persona features).

We could spend hours talking about the LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Premium differences. But instead, let’s focus on the stats that prove just how effective LinkedIn, or Sales Navigator, is for sales professionals.

Namely, its users manage to:

• Close 31% more deals
• Connect to 4x more decision-makers
• Save 65+ hours annually due to reduced tool switching

Moreover, Forrester Consulting conducted a study on Sales Navigator in 2023, where they revealed that this subscription yields an impressive 312% ROI over the course of 3 years. It also pays itself off in less than 6 months.

So, if you’re in sales and LinkedIn, especially its Sales Navigator, isn’t part of your strategy, it’s likely you’re losing out on some serious opportunities.

What is a LinkedIn sales strategy & why do you need one?

A LinkedIn sales strategy is a structured plan for using LinkedIn to find prospects, generate leads, and drive sales. It focuses on tapping into LinkedIn’s networking opportunities, sharing valuable content, and using sales tools to connect with potential customers, build relationships, and nurture them into clients.

In fact, with a LinkedIn strategy in place, you can:

• Target the right individuals who fit your Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona.
• Build credibility and trust through thought leadership posts, insightful comments, and meaningful conversations.
• Increase efficiency by focusing on high-value activities like nurturing warm leads and minimizing time spent on low-potential prospects.
• Drive measurable results by converting these leads into paying customers.

On the other hand, without a clear and actionable LinkedIn sales strategy, the results are often wasted effort, time, and, ultimately, money.

What should you do before creating a LinkedIn sales strategy?

So, having a social selling strategy for LinkedIn is a must. That much we established.

But now, let’s show you what you should do before you create one, according to our sales team at Skylead.

Identify your sales objectives & goals

Every successful LinkedIn sales strategy starts with clear objectives. That’s because defining them upfront helps you measure success later on.

To establish them, think about what you are trying to achieve.

Are you looking to:

• Generate leads, 
• Increase product demos, 
• Or drive sales directly?

Objectives are meant to guide your strategy and point you in the right direction.

But a strong LinkedIn sales strategy also needs goals to keep you focused and on track.

Unlike objectives, goals are specific, measurable, and highly influenced by key performance indicators (KPIs).

For example, your goals could be to:

• Bring 250 warm leads from LinkedIn in Q1.
• Increase product demos by 30%.
• Bring $20K of sales directly from LinkedIn.

To track these goals effectively, you’ll need to define relevant KPIs.

Based on the examples above, your sub-KPIs could be to:

• Increase connection requests by 50%
• Reach a 30% response rate

When clearly defined, KPIs become measurable, allowing you to plan activities, allocate resources, and monitor progress efficiently. As you move closer to your goals—and, ultimately, your objectives—you can refine and optimize these metrics to improve your results over time.

Define your ICP and Buyer Persona

After you identify your objections and goals, it's time to figure out who to target. In other words, you should define your Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona.

Your ICP represents the type of companies that benefit the most from your product or service. 

In the meantime, your Buyer Persona is a more detailed representation of decision-makers within those companies.

To paint a better picture, say you’re selling a CRM for small businesses. In that case, your ICP may include SaaS companies with 10-50 employees. As for your Buyer Persona, it could be a VP of Sales who struggles with pipeline visibility and wants to simplify the sales process.

With these two defined, you can focus on the right people and improve your odds of driving sales.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile

What’s the first thing your prospects will see after you’ve invited them to connect?

Your LinkedIn profile!

Thus, it needs to make a strong first impression. Otherwise, your entire efforts could be for nothing.

So, before creating and implementing a LinkedIn sales strategy, you need to optimize it for impact.

Firstly, begin with your profile photo. Use a high-quality, professional image where you look approachable and confident. Avoid selfies or overly casual pictures, as they don’t inspire trust.

You should also make your LinkedIn cover photo count. Use it to highlight your expertise, showcase your company’s branding, or feature an eye-catching tagline that tells prospects how you can help them.

Then, focus on your LinkedIn headline. Emphasize the value you bring or the problem you solve instead of simply typing out your title. For example, try ''Helping SaaS companies streamline their sales process and close more deals.’’

Your headline should be complemented by a strong LinkedIn summary. Focus on who you help and how and the results you’ve achieved. Keep it conversational but professional, and don’t forget to include keywords your audience might search for through Boolean search.

Finally, opt for a custom URL (e.g., linkedin.com/in/yourname). It makes your profile easier to share and looks way more professional in emails and on business cards.

Prepare supporting resources

Outbound outreach is one of the LinkedIn sales strategies. But truth be told, the chances of your closing a deal after the 1st message are slim, to say the least. Your prospects will likely have questions before they're ready to convert. Some of them may also object to what you're offering.

But, as our wonderful Head of Sales, Andrea, says:

''Hearing things like “I’m not interested” or “I don’t have time” doesn’t mean you’ve lost your prospect. It just means you need to handle their objection.''

Some objections you can handle on the spot. But it's better to be safe than sorry. In other words, you should prepare supporting resources.

For instance, Andrea commonly uses case studies that our marketing team has prepared to handle objections involving uncertainty about profitability. They demonstrate measurable results in terms of the ROI that our sales engagement platform, Skylead, has delivered to other businesses.

Some other resources you could create yourself or have your content team do to aid objection handling include:

• Blog posts that explore your prospects' pain points in detail and provide solutions to them
• Videos, such as product demos and how-to-guides
• Case studies that explain how you solved others’ problems
• eBooks or whitepapers that establish your expertise

A good practice is to also anticipate the most common questions or concerns your prospects may have and prepare materials/scripts to support your answer.

For example, if they say:

• ‘’This seems too expensive,” have a value breakdown or an ROI report ready to provide.
• ‘’I’m not sure this will work for my industry,” share industry-specific case studies or testimonials.
• ‘’I don’t have time to implement this,” explain how your solution saves time in the long run.

Having these resources ready in advance allows you to respond quickly and confidently. Thus, they minimize the chances of potential deals going to waste.

How to create a LinkedIn sales strategy

By now, you should know exactly who your target audience is. But you still need to think about the best way to reach them.

That said, you can use one or combine several prospecting strategies into a broader LinkedIn sales strategy.

To get you started, here are 4 prospecting strategies. Need more? Check out our LinkedIn prospecting blog, where we’ve covered a total of 18!

Different prospecting strategies to include in your LinkedIn sales strategy

1. Using Sales Navigator filters to zero in on ICP and Buyer Persona

Sales Navigator filters help you translate your ICP and Buyer Persona into actionable search criteria.

That said, one of Andrea’s LinkedIn sales strategies is to rely on account and lead filters to filter out ICPs and promising individuals inside them.

Then, they build Lead lists that they later use to create outreach campaigns in Skylead.

But Skylead doesn’t only support campaign creation from Sales Navigator Lead lists—it also allows campaign creation directly from its search results. This is a faster approach, though not as detailed as the first. 

What's more, you can create company lists first through Sales Navigator URL, and let Skylead help you zero in on people who work in those companies. In other words, once you added your companies, Skylead can help you find and match contacts within those selected companies so your pipeline stays aligned to your ICP. This way you can really zero in on your target companies that are most likely to convert, are your true partner, and have greater lifetime value.

Apart from  account based prospecting, we introduced a game-changing feature - AI data enrichment which you can use to:

1. Enrich contact & company data
2. Prompt AI to get specified info or generate personalized icebreakers for each contact
3. Use all gathered info directly inside your sequences as variables.

It’s Clay-like in what it can uncover, but it’s connected to your outreach workflow, so you avoid constant tool switching and data importing.

2. Fishing for leads through LinkedIn groups

Speaking of search filters, did you know that Sales Navigator, unlike standard LinkedIn, has a dedicated "Groups" filter? This one is especially useful since it allows you to isolate members of specific LinkedIn groups, which you can later reach out to.

Before jumping into sales outreach, though, you’ll need to take a few preparatory steps:

• Identify groups your audience is likely a part of.
• Compile information about these groups into a single place for easy reference (e.g., CSV file).
• Consider joining these groups yourself to engage with members (if they are active).

That said, most LinkedIn groups are inactive these days. Nonetheless, the right groups can still be valuable sources of leads. You just need to be strategic about how you use them.

3. Setting up lead alerts to determine the right moment to reach out

Sales Navigator has a handy feature that helps you stay updated on your leads’ activity— Sales Navigator alerts.

You can use these alerts, as our sales team does, to track when:

• Leads post or engage with content.
• They’re mentioned in the news.
• They switch roles or companies. 

This can help you identify whom exactly to reach out to and when with relevant, personalized messages. 

So, if you want to increase the likelihood of starting meaningful conversations, incorporate these alerts into your LinkedIn sales strategy.

4. Attracting prospects through thought leadership content

Thought leadership isn’t a direct prospecting strategy. Nonetheless, it plays a big role in warming up leads, increasing brand visibility, and making your direct outreach more effective.

At its very core is content. That’s because quality content grabs attention, starts conversations, and builds trust.

That said, your content should speak directly to your target audience's pain points, challenges, and goals. So, before you go about creating it, think about what your ICP and Buyer Persona would find valuable. Then, make a list of topics you could cover that aim to educate rather than only sell.

You'll also need to plan for different content formats, such as:

• Text-only posts
• Images
• Videos
• Carousels
• LinkedIn Pulse articles
• LinkedIn polls

From our experience and that of our sales team, videos and carousels drive the most engagement and have the highest reach on LinkedIn. Still, you want to balance them with other post types to keep your content appealing to those with different consumption preferences.

Moreover, LinkedIn's algorithm loves consistency. This means that to remain on people's radars, you need to post at least 2-3 times a week. Thus, it's important to create a posting calendar. And stick to it!

Of course, posting is only part of the equation. You’ll need to reply to comments you receive, keep conversations going by asking follow-up questions (this will increase your reach, too!), and comment on others' posts. That's how you’ll establish credibility and authority on LinkedIn and build thought leadership that sells for you.

How to prepare a LinkedIn sales strategy message according to the prospecting strategy

Your messaging is just as important as the strategy and sales tactics you’re using.

Since each strategy calls for a slightly different tone and structure to really connect with your audience, we’ve got you covered with some practical tips to simplify message creation.

And to make it even easier, we’ve included message examples for each strategy—personally approved (and used) by Andrea!

1. Sales Navigator filters

Focus on personalization and contextual relevance when reaching out to prospects found through filters.

• Reference a detail from their profile or company to make your outreach feel extra personal.
• Keep your message concise, focusing on how you can address a specific challenge they face or offer value.

Template example:

‘’Hi {{FirstName}}, I came across your post about {{PainPoint}} and couldn’t help but think about the challenges that come with it. 

When I worked with {{SimilarCompanies/Professionals}}, we tackled this by {{Solution}}, leading to {{TangibleBenefit}}. 

I’d love to share a few insights or ideas that might help you achieve something similar if you're open to it.''

2. LinkedIn Groups

When targeting leads from LinkedIn Groups, establish a connection by referencing your shared interest in the group or ongoing conversations.

• Mention the group explicitly to build rapport.
• Position yourself as helpful and not overly promotional.

Template example:

“Hi {{FirstName}}, I saw we’re members of the same group, {{GroupName}} and wanted to reach out. 

I specialize in {{Expertise}} and thought it’d be great to connect and exchange ideas!”

3. Sales Navigator alerts

Timing is everything when using Sales Navigator alerts. Thus, craft your message around the alert to show you’re paying attention and reaching out with purpose.

• Acknowledge their recent activity, like a promotion or a post they shared.
• Use the alert as a conversation starter in the sales engagement process.

Template example:

“Hi {{Name}}, congratulations on your new role at {{Company Name}}! 

Transitioning into {{Role}} must be exciting. But having worked with others like you, I know how tough it can be trying to handle {{SpecificChallenge}} while navigating new responsibilities.

One approach that’s proven effective for others in your field is {{Solution}}, which helped them achieve {{Result}}.

I’d be happy to share more details. Let me know if you’re open to a quick chat!”

4. Thought Leadership content

When reaching out after sharing thought leadership content, reference your post or their comment to bond immediately.

• Highlight shared values or goals to build credibility.
• Use the message to guide them toward exploring your expertise further.

Template example:

“Hi {{Name}}, I noticed you liked my recent post about {{Topic}}. It’s great to see others in {{Industry}} contributing to the discussion! 

I’d love to hear your thoughts—what’s been your biggest challenge with {{Issue}}?”

How to execute a LinkedIn sales strategy

After choosing one or more prospecting strategies we talked about, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and execute. This is where strategy meets action.

No matter which approach you take—leveraging Sales Navigator filters, finding prospects through LinkedIn groups, setting up lead alerts, or sharing thought leadership content—the next step boils down to one activity: outreach.

Here are some tips to help you effectively execute your LinkedIn sales strategy in your outreach messages.

Focus on value, not the pitch

By now, you've probably done the research about the lead from Sales Navigator, so instead of leading with what you sell, highlight what they’ll gain. Share a resource, insight, or quick win that showcases you as a trusted partner rather than just another salesperson. Think about your approach as: “Here’s something useful” before “Here’s what I offer.”

Leverage social proof

Share success stories, results, or testimonials from clients in the same industry or role as your leads. Instead of saying “Our tool can help you,” say “[similar company] cut response time by 30%. You can read all about it here.” This kind of credibility reduces resistance and builds trust faster.

Nurture with consistency

Most deals don’t happen on the first touch, so they need a bit of nudge 🙂 . That said, comment on their posts, engage with their content, and send a thoughtful follow-up that adds new value. Building familiarity makes it easier for them to say yes when the timing is right.

How to analyze the success of your LinkedIn sales strategy

Crafting and executing a LinkedIn sales strategy is only half the battle. To make sure it’s working as intended—and to make improvements where needed—you need to track and analyze its performance.

That said, the first thing to do is analyze the KPIs that you defined in the strategy. Doing so will help you determine which parts of your strategy are driving results and which need to be refined.

Depending on the type of KPIs that you want to analyze, you can use LinkedIn’s native analytics to track:

• The demographics of your profile viewers (e.g., job titles, industries, locations).
• The performance of your posts and articles, including impressions and engagement rate.
• Trends in follower growth and audience interactions over time.

In terms of specific LinkedIn sales strategies, LinkedIn’s social selling index is a good indicator of whether your thought leadership strategy is working or not.

Furthermore, if you aren’t sure of the impact of the messages you prepared in a strategy, a good practice is to experiment with A/B testing.

Of course, if results aren’t there immediately, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Often, they take time to show. That said, Andrea suggests you give your LinkedIn sales strategy 2 to 4 weeks to reflect progress. Only then should you evaluate its performance and optimize it accordingly.

Common mistakes to avoid when creating and executing a LinkedIn sales strategy

Even the best-intentioned LinkedIn sales strategies can fall flat if certain pitfalls aren’t avoided. 

That said, here are some of the most common mistakes to watch out for—and how to steer clear of them.

1. Not adjusting your strategy to your audience

Your audience isn’t a monolith, so your approach shouldn’t be universal. After all, a generic strategy often leads to low engagement and missed opportunities. 

Avoid this mistake by:

• Tailoring your messaging and content to the specific needs and pain points of your ICP and Buyer Persona.
• Regularly revisiting your target audience criteria to make sure they’re still relevant.

2. Sending generic connection requests

Nothing screams “spam” more than a connection request that says “Let’s connect!” without context. These requests often get ignored or outright declined. 

Instead, personalize every connection request with a reference to something specific about the prospect, such as their recent post or a common interest.

For example:

"Hi {{FirstName}}, I loved your recent article on {{topic}}—it gave me some great insights, such as {{insight 1}}! I’d love to connect and exchange ideas on {{shared interest}}."

3. Sending sales pitches right after connecting

The fastest way to lose a connection is by pitching your product or service immediately after connecting. Social selling is about building relationships above all. 

Therefore, engage with their content before sending a direct message. When you finally message them, focus on providing value first and your offerings second.

4. Neglecting to follow up with connections

Not everyone will respond to your initial outreach message. That doesn’t mean they’re not interested, though. In such a situation, a lack of follow-up can cost you some valuable opportunities. 

Avoid this by sending a polite and value-driven follow-ups spaced a few days apart.

To follow up after no response, feel free to share a relevant blog post or case study with a message like:

"Hi {{FirstName}}, I thought this article might be helpful based on our earlier conversation about {{topic}}. Let me know if it resonates!"

5. Giving up too soon

LinkedIn sales strategies often take time to show results, as we pointed out earlier. Many give up after a few weeks of minimal engagement. By all means, don’t do the same! 

Instead:

• Be consistent with your efforts.
• Evaluate your performance occasionally and make data-driven adjustments.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How do you use LinkedIn effectively for sales?

Focus on building relationships. Optimize your profile, create engaging content that speaks to your audience’s pain points, and use Sales Navigator for targeted prospecting. Combine this with personalized outreach and consistent engagement to nurture leads and drive conversions.

What’s the recommended balance between inbound (content-driven) and outbound (cold outreach) efforts in a LinkedIn sales strategy?

A 60/40 split is often ideal, from our experience. This means you should devote 60% of your efforts to inbound (content-driven) strategies to build trust and visibility and 40% to outbound (cold outreach) to directly engage with prospects. Then, adjust as you go based on audience response and resource availability.

Seal the deal with the proper LinkedIn sales strategy

Creating and executing a successful LinkedIn sales strategy is the difference between chasing leads aimlessly and actually closing deals.

So, take the time to plan it out and put it into motion when you're confident you’ve got it right. And whatever you do, don’t cut corners - success on LinkedIn is all about doing things the right way.

Just keep in mind that results may not come overnight. But that’s just part of the process. Be patient, stay consistent, and tweak things as needed. Over time, it’ll all start to click, and your hard work will pay off.

If you are looking to scale your outreach, you've likely come across Instantly.ai. This cold outreach software, launched in 2021, promises to help you find, contact, and close your ideal clients.

But before you commit to it, there are a few things to consider. 

Is it worth the investment? 

What do others have to say about it? 

And how does it compare to other tools on the market?

If you're ready to get answers to these questions, dive into our review that reveals:

• Notable Instantly.ai features
• Downsides to using it
• Real users’ opinions on the tool
• How much it costs

We’ve even added a list of 12 alternatives, just in case Instantly features do not fulfill your business needs.

Let’s jump right in!

Instantly.ai or alternatives?

Instantly.ai is one of the best cold email software and an email management platform that’s quickly become popular for email outreach. 

This cloud-based tool allows users to set up automated email campaigns with follow-ups to reach leads at scale.

Users can add leads to their campaigns by either importing a CSV file with lead information or using Instantly.ai’s native B2B Lead Finder tool.

The software also offers a Unibox, which consolidates all email conversations in one place and various options for message personalization. 

Speaking of personalization, to enhance your outreach, you can use its:

• Pre-set or custom variables
• Spintax - multiple variations of a text to avoid repetition
• Liquid syntax - dynamic text based on data

Additionally, Instantly.ai supports A/Z testing, which lets you test up to 26 different versions of email copy.

Data from Instantly.ai can be pushed to different CRMs and tools via Zapier webhooks.

However, the platform also has a built-in CRM that helps track lead statuses and enables you to make calls and send SMS directly from the platform.

Finally, the software can verify your leads' emails, reducing the chance of bounces and protecting your domain's reputation.

With the basics covered, let’s take a closer look at Instantly.ai’s main features.

Instantly.ai features

Unlimited email accounts

Instantly.ai allows you to connect and manage unlimited email accounts.

As they like to say, this enables you to:

‘’Infinitely scale your outreach.’’

However, despite being able to connect unlimited email accounts, the tool caps the number of active leads and emails you can send per month based on the subscription plan.

Nonetheless, Instantly.ai is still useful for email outreach, especially for those who need to reach a large number of leads quickly.

Why? Because you can use all connected accounts in the same campaign. 

This is possible due to the software’s inbox rotation feature. This feature alternates sending emails from different accounts. In turn, it helps you send more emails daily without triggering automation detection.

Unlimited email warm-up

Instantly.ai is one of the few sales outreach tools (or outreach tools in general) with a built-in unlimited email warm-up functionality. 

This means that you can warm up every new email address that you connect to it to ensure that:

• Fewer emails end up in spam
• Your sender’s reputation remains optimal 

B2B Lead Finder

Instantly's B2B Lead Finder is a database with 160M contacts designed to help find leads that are highly relevant and accurate.

The feature relies on a range of filters — some of which match Sales Navigator filters. These include:

• Job Titles
• Location
• Industry
• Employees
• Revenue
• Domains
• ...etc.

What's more, the feature supports keyword-based searches and lets you apply multiple filters simultaneously. This helps you better narrow your search and pinpoint the most promising leads according to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and buyer persona.

Another useful feature of the Lead Finder is Lead Enrichment. To use it, upload a list of contacts, and the system will enrich it with additional data. 

Instantly.ai disadvantages

Instantly.ai excels in many aspects. However, certain disadvantages make it less than ideal and position other tools as superior.

Instantly.ai doesn’t support multichannel outreach of any kind.

Moreover, email sequences that you can create with Instantly.ai are pretty basic. You can’t set them up to adjust based on your leads’ behavior. So, if your leads don’t respond, there’s not much you can do.

Why, yes, messages can be personalized. Unfortunately, rich media content, including images and GIFs, can’t.

Analytics could also be improved to provide deeper insight into campaign performance. Additionally, there is no option to export stats to CSV or PDF.

While Instantly.ai claims you can scale your outreach infinitely, that's not quite accurate. In fact, their basic plan lets you send 5,000 emails per month only. Consequently, the mid-tier plan limits you to 100,000 emails, and the top plan caps at 500,000 emails. 

Plus, they limit the number of leads you can upload to the platform. Depending on the plan, you can either upload 1,000, 25,000, or 100,000 leads.

Finally, while the tool can enrich your leads’ information, including their emails, this functionality will cost you extra. Not to mention, there are limits to how many leads you can enrich.

This is a huge con, considering that a certain tool lets you send tens of thousands of emails a month and verify as many emails as you want at no additional cost.

But we’ll get to that shortly.

What Instantly.ai reviews say

While doing the research, we stumbled across both positive and negative Instantly.ai reviews.

As for the positive aspects, we noticed many users are praising the interface.

For instance, one of them, Jonas R, says:

‘’The automation of follow-ups and the user-friendly interface make it incredibly efficient for managing my cold outreach campaigns.’’

On the other hand, Zirva Z. has pointed out certain flows in her review:

‘’The leads aren't great, and being limited to adding only 100 at a time is really frustrating.’’

She also went on to mention that:

‘’It's not very useful unless you have a really high budget.’’

Instantly.ai pricing

Instantly.ai has 2 main pricing categories  — Sending & Warmup and Leads — with multiple sub-plans.

Sending & Warmup is the pricing plan for sending and warming up emails. 

As such, it doesn’t include access to the B2B Lead Finder and is divided into 3 individual sub-plans. 

The pricing varies and is determined based on the number of leads you can upload and emails you can send.

Meanwhile, Leads plans are meant to streamline prospecting and entail full access to the B2B Lead Finder feature. 

There are a total of 4 of these. They differ in price depending on the number of leads you can verify and include:

But remember, if you want to use Instantly.ai to send and warm up emails and generate leads, you can’t purchase a plan from a single category. Instead, you’ll need one from each.

This means that the price of using the software can quickly skyrocket. 

For instance, if you were to subscribe to their lowest-tier subscriptions, you’d pay a total of $84 for both each month. On the other hand, their highest-tier plans combined set you back an exorbitant $850 a month. 

That said, you might be better off using a tool that offers much more at a lower price.

12 best Instantly.ai alternatives

Are you interested in exploring other software on the market? If so, here are 12 compelling alternatives to Instantly.ai that may provide you with better value for your money.

1. Skylead

Well, hello - that’s us! 😊

Skylead is a leading cloud-based multichannel sales engagement tool that is 100% compliant with LinkedIn's ToS.

It's commonly used by:

• Sales professionals and entrepreneurs who aim to free up as much as 11 hours a week for booking 3x more meetings.
• Marketing professionals seeking to distribute content and secure more backlinks.
• Recruiters on the hunt for the best talent.
• Lead generation agencies focused on acquiring high-quality leads for their clients. 

The biggest difference between Instantly.ai and Skylead is the support for another professional social media platform. 

As a matter of fact, our software allows you to create multichannel campaigns that combine different outreach actions. All thanks to our Smart sequences.

The tool also lets you personalize messages with preset and custom variables. While at it, you can even engage in A/B testing to determine how to best approach leads. 

However, what truly sets Skylead apart in the personalization department is our native image and GIF personalization feature.

Not to mention, Skylead also offers infinite email warm-up, courtesy of our partnership with an email warm-up tool, InboxFlare.

Finally, our tool comes with advanced reporting capabilities and even supports CSV and PDF exports. You can also integrate it with any CRM or tool you like using Zapier webhooks or API.

Now, let’s get deeper into our features that are changing the outreach game as we know it.

Email automation

Much like Instantly.ai, Skylead lets you add unlimited email accounts to help you send tens of thousands of emails a month. 

However, unlike it, it doesn’t limit the number of active leads you can have. You can input unlimited leads, allowing you to reach out to more people.

If you were wondering how it’s possible to send thousands of emails a month, well, it’s because our tool supports inbox rotation. This means that Skylead alternates sending emails from different accounts to keep you within safe limits on each.

Email discovery & verification

Namely, our software can find and verify your leads’ emails. In turn, it reduces the chances of bounces that impact deliverability and your sender’s reputation.

And guess what? You can take advantage of this feature without breaking your campaign creation flow. 

Just add the Find & Verify Email step to your sequence for the tool to find and double-verify the existence of your leads’ emails.

The best thing about this feature is that it has one of the highest, if not the highest, email-finding probabilities on the market. 

Not to mention, it’s both unlimited and comes at no extra cost. In other words, as long as you’re subscribed to the tool, you can use it as much as you want. 

This makes Skylead more cost-effective than Instantly.ai, which requires a separate subscription to enrich emails.

Smart sequences

And that brings us to the star of the show: Smart sequences.

In essence, they are algorithms that combine outreach actions with if/else conditions. As a result, you get coherent outreach flows that helps you unfold outreach according to the way your prospects behave. That said, here's one smart sequence example.

Of course, there are a thousand more ways this can go. Smart sequence builder is your playground, so feel free to experiment with different branching paths.

Or, you can try our tried and tested Smart sequences templates inside the tool for guaranteed results!

Smart inbox

Smart inbox, although serving the same purpose as Instantly.ai’s Unibox, is far superior. That’s because it doesn’t only aid email management. It also lets you manage your conversations from both platforms.

But what makes our Smart inbox truly irreplaceable is the opportunity to label chats. These labels are great because they can help you keep track of ROI and conversions. That said, you can choose between a couple of predefined ones or add your own.

Image & GIF personalization

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And we agree, which is why we introduced our image and GIF personalization feature.

Believe it or not, by personalizing visuals for each recipient, you can increase your response rate to more than 63%.

That said, our image and GIF editor lets you upload any picture you like and personalize it with:

• Your lead’s name
• Their and/or your profile image
• Their and/or your company logo
• A custom message

The choice is yours! Either way, you’ll surely leave a lasting impression. 

In fact, just look at the astonishing 76% response rate we got using the following visual!

Advanced analytics

Speaking of results, Skylead comes equipped with advanced analytics, which are available on the Reports page. 

Here, you can see how all of your campaigns are performing or examine the stats for a single campaign.

That said, there are 3 ways to observe results:

• In a graph form, to visually compare oscillations between different metrics;
• In table-view, to observe fluctuations on a daily basis;
• Step-by-step, to see how your A/B tests are performing.

Unlike Instantly.ai, Skylead even lets you download these reports. The good news is that there are 2 different formats to choose from: CSV and PDF.

What Skylead reviews say

Skylead reviews are positive, with people praising it for what it has helped them accomplish.

For instance, Daniel Hoffmann, a Managing director at Toplevel Performance, has said that:

“Since I’ve started working with these clients and using Skylead, I have earned approximately $33.000.”

In the meantime, NewPoort's founder, Toine Boelens, has highly praised our Smart sequences and email finder and verifier:

‘’If/else conditions in Smart Sequences are also great. It's low code, so it's great because I'm not good at coding yet. I also like the Find & verify business email step, which finds email addresses most of the time. So you get, like, two ways you can get in touch with the client. ‘’

Instantly.ai vs. Skylead

Pricing

Skylead has a singular plan that costs $100 per seat. To test out the tool and its functionalities, feel free to take advantage of our 7-day free trial period. Moreover, our customer support remains available for a 1-on-1 onboarding call—completely free of charge!

2. Lemlist

Lemlist is a cloud-based tool primarily used for email outreach. Nonetheless, its higher-tier subscription supports multichannel outreach, letting you add automatic LinkedIn actions and calls to the mix. That said, it may not comply with LinkedIn's ToS like Skylead does.

In terms of LinkedIn automation, the tool can visit your lead's profiles, invite them to connect, and send them a message. Moreover, you can add conditions to your sequences to cover several outreach scenarios.

You can also perform any other action on LinkedIn. However, you’ll need to add it as a manual step to your campaign, the same as calls.

The software offers advanced personalization features, including custom images, intro lines, and dynamic landing pages. 

It's also known for Lemwarm, a built-in email warm-up tool that helps emails stay away from spam.

Now, even though Lemlist comes with an email finder and verifier, like Skylead and Instantly.ai, it limits the number of emails you can discover and verify by plan. In fact, even with their most expensive plan, you can only discover and verify up to 1,000 emails a month. If your needs exceed this, you can purchase additional credits. However, this comes at a cost of $1 per 100 verified emails.

That's not it for limitations, though. For instance, you can't connect unlimited email accounts to the tool. Moreover, although Lemlist offers a B2B lead database with over 450M contacts, the quality of leads isn't the highest.

This is somewhat compensated for with the Chrome extension for prospecting on LinkedIn. However, considering that Chrome extensions inject code into LinkedIn that may jeopardize your account, you might want to think twice before using it.

Instantly.ai vs. Lemlist

Pricing

3. Apollo

Apollo.io is a multichannel sales engagement platform that combines email, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calls in seamless sequences. 

It allows users to set up campaigns that feature both automatic and manual emails.

When engaging leads via LinkedIn, Apollo can automate connection requests, messages, and interactions with posts. 

However, its multichannel sequences—known as Playbooks—are relatively simple. Namely, unlike Skylead's Smart sequences, they don't unfold according to your lead's behavior, making them less than ideal.

Regarding integrations, the platform natively integrates with tools like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Slack. 

The software also has A/B testing capabilities, which help optimize outreach efforts. Additionally, it comes with a built-in AI writing assistant that those previously using ChatGPT for sales writing may find convenient.

Now, in terms of pulling leads into a campaign, Apollo does it through its databases of over 275M contacts. However, certain users have complained about the quality of these leads.

Like Lemlist, the platform can also scrape new leads from LinkedIn. However, this process, yet again, involves using a Chrome extension and could lead to account penalties. This means that the tool is not compliant with LinkedIn's ToS.

Instantly.ai vs. Apollo

Pricing

4. Smartlead.ai

Smartlead is a robust email outreach tool designed to automate and streamline lead generation efforts. 

It supports unlimited email accounts and email warmups, features inbox rotation, and uses a Master Inbox for streamlined email management. 

The platform offers advanced personalization options like variables, spintax, and liquid syntax, along with split testing capabilities for up to 26 email variants. 

Smartlead also integrates with various CRMs, including HubSpot, via API and webhooks.

However, it has some drawbacks. 

Additionally, it lacks image and GIF personalization and an email discovery feature that Skylead has.

Finally, while you can create subsequences for each campaign to make it reactive to your leads' behavior, you must break the campaign creation flow to do so. Not to mention, you can only add leads to your campaign through a CSV file or HubSpot.

Instantly.ai vs. Smartlead.ai

Pricing

Pro and Custom plans support adding additional seats, with each costing $29 a month.

5. Mailshake

Mailshake is a cloud-based tool designed primarily for sending emails and follow-ups. 

Nonetheless, it does have a Chrome extension that transforms it into a multichannel outreach and may violate LinkedIn's ToS. You can use to set up simple outreach sequences to automatically:

• View your leads' profiles on LinkedIn,
• Send them invites to connect,
• And messages.

At the same time, you can use the extension for cold-calling purposes, as it comes with a built-in dialer and call recorder. However, this option is available strictly for leads based in the US and Canada. 

Moreover, you can integrate the tool with more than 1,000 software via Zapier webhooks. In terms of native integrations, there are those with Pipedrive and Hubspot.

A/B testing is supported, too, and so is inbox rotation. Unfortunately, you can't connect unlimited email accounts to Mailshake as you can with Skylead and Instantly.ai. In fact, the highest-tier subscription limits you to a maximum of 5 accounts.

LinkedIn automation and calls are restricted to the highest-tier plan, too.

Lastly, the use of a Chrome extension for LinkedIn actions risks account restrictions.

Instantly.ai vs. Mailshake

Pricing

6. Woodpecker

Woodpecker is a tool that automates emails and follow-ups to help individuals connect with ideal clients.

What's great about it is that it lets you connect as many email accounts to it as you want, just as Skylead, Instantly.ai, and Smartlead do. The same can be said about inbox rotation.

Sequences you can create with Woodpecker are condition-based. This means they adapt according to the way your leads behave.

With Woodpecker, you can A/B test up to 5 different variations of your message copy. And if you have trouble writing, its AI writing assistant is there to help.

Moreover, the tool supports plenty of 3rd party integrations, such as the one with Dux-Soup. This integration allows its users to tap into LinkedIn outreach, not just email, but it will cost you more.

That said, not everything's ideal with this tool. 

Why, yes, the Dux-Soup integration turns Woodpecker into a multichannel outreach solution. The catch is, however, that they must subscribe to Dux-Soup’s Turbo plan for this to be made possible. This raises the cost of a subscription that's already steep and depends heavily on the number of contacted prospects.

Instantly.ai vs. Woodpecker 

Pricing

The exact cost of the Cold Email and Agency plan is determined by the number of leads contacted. It ranges between $29 for 500 contacted leads and $395 a month for 25,000. 

Although price points for these plans are the same, they differ in one thing: the Cold Email plan is designed for individuals, whereas the Agency plan is meant to be used by teams. That said, the latter supports adding additional users at the price of $27 per each.

Additionally, the Dux-Soup integration adds an extra $55 a month to the subscription.

7. Salesloft

Salesloft is a cloud-based sales engagement platform ideal for sales teams that want to automate workflows and connect with more prospects. 

Its Cadences—a form of campaign—integrate email, phone, and Sales Navigator tasks, though only emails are automated.

Nonetheless, the platform shines in email tracking and advanced analytics, offering A/B testing and customizable email templates. 

However, Salesloft only integrates with Sales Navigator, missing support for LinkedIn Premium and Recruiter accounts.

Additionally, it lacks the Smart sequences that Skylead has, which limits touchpoints with leads. 

Users have also complained about a less user-friendly interface and a buggy dialer.

Instantly.ai vs. Salesloft

Pricing

At this time, Salesloft doesn’t disclose its pricing details for either of its plans: Essentials, Advanced & Premier. Instead, upon visiting the "Pricing" page, their bot prompts you to contact their team for a tailored quote.

However, the information on the Internet suggests that users are paying anywhere from $75 to $125 per user a month.

8. Outreach.io

Outreach.io is a complete sales engagement platform designed to streamline the sales process for enterprise teams. 

It integrates email, phone, LinkedIn, and live chat into a unified workflow, allowing for seamless multichannel outreach.

The platform lets you create personalized outreach sequences with automated follow-ups and response-based triggers. However, any actions on LinkedIn that are part of your sequences must be completed manually which means they are compliant with LinkedIn's ToS.

The tool integrates well with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot for smooth data synchronization.

Key features include robust email tracking, detailed analytics, A/B testing, and a library of customizable email templates. 

Outreach.io also provides AI-driven sentiment analysis, call scheduling, and a pipeline calculator to estimate necessary sales expenses.

Its conversation intelligence tool, Kaia, offers real-time call transcription and insights, enhancing sales interactions and coaching.

In terms of cons, it's worth noting that the platform can be expensive for small businesses. Furthermore, no free trial is available, and the interface is complex.

Also, the platform connects to Sales Navigator accounts only and caters primarily to sales professionals. As such, it may lack features that marketing experts and lead generation agencies need, such as email discovery and verification.

Lastly, users can connect a maximum of 2 email accounts to the tool unless otherwise outlined in the contract.

Instantly.ai vs. Outreach.io

Pricing

Much like Salesloft, Outreach.io doesn’t disclose pricing details to non-users. Instead, the price is customized and heavily depends on the number of users within a team.

However, we did some research online and found that one user was quoted $130 per month per user, with a minimum requirement of 20 users.

9. QuickMail

QuickMail is an effective outreach tool that goes beyond email campaigns. 

It supports multichannel outreach, combining email, LinkedIn, calls, and SMS to help you reach your prospects where they are.

Linked outreach actions that QuickMail can perform are automatic and include:

• Profile views
• Connection requests
• Messages

This means that they are not compliant with LinkedIn ToS like Skylead is. Contrary to tools like Skylead, which lets you import leads directly from LinkedIn, QuickMail offers 2 import options: a CSV file or Google Drive.

The tool comes with a built-in email warm-up and an inbox rotation feature that maintains high deliverability rates. It supports A/B testing and natively integrates with popular CRMs like Pipedrive and HubSpot. Nonetheless, you can integrate any tool with it via Zapier.

While email verification is available, QuickMail relies on 3rd party tools for this. 

Similarly, Image and GIF personalization, while there, isn't native. For this, you’ll need Hyperise, which incurs additional costs.

Moreover, if you want to use LinkedIn in your outreach, you'll need QuickMail’s Chrome extension, which can put your account at risk.

You can add unlimited team members to your QuickMail account. However, you can connect a maximum of 50 email accounts and 15 LinkedIn accounts to the tool. And this is for the highest-tier subscription.

Instantly.ai vs. QuickMail

Pricing

10. Snov.io

Snov.io is a cloud-based multichannel outreach tool that lets you create automated campaigns that combine emails and LinkedIn touches. These include profile visits, post likes, messages, and connection invites.

The platform lets you add "triggers" to your sequences, similar to Skylead's if/else conditions. These make your outreach smart and adaptable based on how your prospects react. 

Additionally, Snov.io comes with a built-in email warm-up tool and a CRM. While the CRM isn’t the most advanced, it has enough functionality to be a good choice for those on a budget.

Snov.io can verify your leads' emails, but this feature isn’t unlimited. In fact, the number of emails you can verify depends on your plan. 

Furthermore, for LinkedIn automation, you’ll need to pay an extra $69 per LinkedIn account you want to add to the software.

While Snov.io's LinkedIn automation is cloud-based, the tool prompts you to use their 2 Chrome extensions: 

• One for prospecting on LinkedIn
• Another for finding leads' emails across the web. 

However, if you choose to use them, be cautious: they may put your account at risk as this tool is not compliant with LinkedIn's ToS.

Instantly.ai vs. Snov.io

Pricing

11. Salesblink

SalesBlink is one of the best Insantly.ai alternatives for cold emailing. 

It uses its AI, BlinkGPT, to craft smart email sequences with follow-ups that adapt based on your leads' behavior. 

Plus, with its email warm-up feature, your messages are more likely to land in your leads’ inboxes instead of their spam folders.

SalesBlink lets you connect unlimited email accounts and automatically rotates them while sending emails, thus keeping you within safe limits. 

Furthermore, it comes with a Unified inbox that keeps all your conversations in one place, similar to Skylead, Instantly.ai, and Smartlead.

Although SalesBlink supports adding multichannel tasks to your sequences, these tasks need to be done manually making them complaint with LinkedIn's ToS.

The tool also provides email verification, but this feature is limited. Simultaneously, it isn't available to the subscribers to the lowest-tier plan.

Instantly.ai vs. Salesblink

Pricing

The number of emails you can send with the software depends on your plan. 

For example, the basic plan lets you send up to 6,000 emails, while the top tier allows up to 100,000.

12. Hunter.io

Hunter.io is a tool renowned for its email finding and verification capabilities.

It boasts a user-friendly interface and frequently updates its database with new publicly available emails. 

One of its standout features is the ability to invite team members and grant role permissions, which makes team collaboration much easier. 

Additionally, Hunter.io offers multiple cold email templates and supports integrations with various CRMs and software via Zapier.

However, there are some limitations. For example, you can only create outreach campaigns if you connect a Gmail or Outlook account. Other email service providers are not supported. It also lacks features like A/B testing, advanced message personalization, and email warm-up.

Furthermore, the tool requires a bit of a learning curve, and the support response time can be slow. 

Instantly.ai vs. Hunter.io

Pricing

How to cancel Instantly.ai subscription?

If you’re not satisfied with Instantly.ai, you can cancel your subscription and try another tool from our list.

Here's how:

1. Log into your account.
2. Go to the Billing page.
3. Under your active plan (s), find the "Cancel plan" button. Click it to confirm your cancellation.

If you have one plan only, you can use it until the end of the billing cycle.

However, if you have both a Lead Finder and Email Outreach plan and cancel only one, the cancellation of said plan takes effect immediately.

Also, if you want to cancel multiple plans, keep in mind that you'll need to cancel each one individually.

Lastly, to confirm your plan is canceled, look at the date listed next to the plan on the Billings page.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is instantly.ai?

Instantly.ai is an advanced email automation tool designed to help individuals manage their email campaigns more effectively. It offers a range of features, including unlimited email accounts, email warm-up, B2B Lead Finder, and a Unibox.

What does instantly AI do?

Instantly.ai automates various aspects of cold emailing and customer relationship management. It helps users manage multiple email accounts, warm up emails to improve deliverability, find new leads, and keep track of them. The platform also consolidates all emails into a single inbox, making it easier to manage conversations and follow-ups.

How to use instantly.ai?

Using Instantly.ai is easy. Just create an account, add and configure email accounts, and use the email warm-up feature to prepare your accounts for sending. Then, create and launch your email campaigns and manage interactions through Unibox. Finally, use the tracking and analytics page to analyze campaign performance.

Is instantly.ai free?

Instantly.ai is not free but offers various pricing plans to suit different needs and budgets. Each plan provides access to a range of features, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your requirements.

Does Instantly AI have a free trial?

Yes, instantly.ai offers a free trial for new users. This allows you to test out the platform and its features before committing to a paid plan.

How many emails can you send with instantly AI?

The number of emails you can send per month depends on the plan. For instance, the lowest plan limits you to sending 5,000 a month, whereas the Custom plan allows you to send more than 500,000.

Instantly.ai vs. alternatives: What’s the better option?

And there you have it—our deep dive into Instantly.ai and its top 12 alternatives.

As you’ve discovered, Instantly.ai has some powerful features.  But it's not perfect, mainly because of the lack of multichannel outreach support that tools like Skylead have.

That said, if your strategy relies heavily on engaging prospects across multiple channels, Instantly may not be for you.

Luckily, your perfect alternative is out there, waiting for you to discover it.

We've given you the options. Now, it's up to you to try them out.

But why not start with Skylead? 

With a 7-day free trial, you can experience the true power of email and LinkedIn automation combined.

So, come chat with us, sign up, and begin scaling your outreach — to infinity and beyond!

Disclaimer: Skylead is not affiliated, endorsed by, or connected with LinkedIn in any way.

Alongside your profile picture and LinkedIn headline, your LinkedIn cover photo plays a crucial part in your LinkedIn identity. 

Not only does it contribute to your overall professional image, but it represents an important element in forming the first impression for your LinkedIn profile visitors. 

As such, a LinkedIn background photo requires an equal amount of attention you would dedicate to any of the other sections of your LinkedIn header. 

Therefore, in this blog, you’ll learn:

• How to change your LinkedIn cover photo for personal & company pages on desktop and mobile; 
• The size of a LinkedIn background photo for personal & company pages;
• What online tools to use to craft a perfect LinkedIn cover photo;
• Top 17 LinkedIn cover photo ideas with real-life examples for any profession to make your profile stand out on the platform. 

How do I change a LinkedIn cover photo? 

Change LinkedIn background photo for LinkedIn personal profiles 

On desktop 

This is your LinkedIn background photo. 

You can change it anytime and as many times as you wish. 

#1 Click on the pencil icon in the top right corner of your LinkedIn profile’s header. 

You will see two pencil icons, the lower one takes you to change your name, last name, headline, locations, etc., while the upper one takes you to change your LinkedIn cover photo.

#2 Click on the Pen icon to access the LinkedIn background photo editor. 

Here you can:

• Upload a new cover photo,
• Crop it,
• Apply filters,
• Adjust brightness,
• Rotate it, 
• Zoom it, etc. 

By clicking the Adjust icon you can make additional corrections to your image, such as

• Brightness
• Contrast 
• Saturation
• Vignette

On mobile

To change your LinkedIn background photo on mobile, go to your LinkedIn profile page and click the Pencil icon in the top right corner. 

#2 In the bottom, you’ll find the options to edit, add a photo, or delete the existing one. 

#4 Once you’ve uploaded the photo, you’ll get the same editing options as on the desktop. 

Change LinkedIn background photo for LinkedIn company pages

On desktop 

To change the LinkedIn background photo on your LinkedIn company page, you must either be the page’s admin or be given access to the page with editing permissions. 

Then, go to the LinkedIn company page you’re managing, and click the Pen icon here. 

You will get a dropdown menu to:

• Upload a new cover image (check out LinkedIn cover photo size recommendations in this blog’s next section)
• Adjust the current cover image;
• Or, delete the current cover image. 

Once you upload a new LinkedIn banner for your company page, or if you click to adjust the current one, the LinkedIn cover image editor will give you options to:

• Upload a new cover photo,
• Crop it,
• Apply filters,
• Adjust brightness,
• Rotate it, 
• Zoom it, etc. 

 Also, by clicking the Adjust icon you can make additional corrections to your image, such as

• Brightness
• Contrast 
• Saturation
• Vignette

What is the size of a LinkedIn cover photo?

In 2026, a LinkedIn cover photo size for personal profiles should be a maximum of 1584 x 396 px and a minimum of 1192 × 220 px, up to 8MB, and in JPEG, GIF, or PNG file formats. 

When it comes to LinkedIn cover photo size for company pages, LinkedIn recommends a size of 1128 x 191 px, which is at the same time the minimum size, up to 8MB, and in JPEG, GIF, or PNG file formats. 

Also, another thing to bear in mind is that LinkedIn cover photos are cropped differently on mobile and desktop devices. So, make sure to view your profile on both kinds of displays when setting up a new LinkedIn background photo. You don’t want important parts of your banner to be hidden or simply look bad. 

Luckily, there are many online tools to help you make an ideal LinkedIn cover photo, and you don’t even need to be design-savvy.

Where can I find LinkedIn cover photo templates? 

Nowadays, many online design tools have templates specifically for LinkedIn - such as posts, profile images, and background photos that require very little editing to look good. 

Otherwise, if you wish to put in more effort, there are websites with free or paid stock images, or you can consider hiring a designer or someone design-savvy to do it for you. 

Start with these.

In our next section, you will find 10 ideas on different types of LinkedIn cover photos depending on the message you wish to get across with it. 

Top 17 LinkedIn Cover Photo Ideas For Any Profession

As mentioned above, your LinkedIn background photo should complement your profile picture and headline and offer clarity on what your business is all about to your profile visitors already through the LinkedIn header section. 

However, this doesn’t mean that you have one solution only. 

Here’s a list of 17 LinkedIn cover photos that represent good practices with real-life examples.

Highlight your customers’ goals on your LinkedIn background photo

An excellent way to draw attention to yourself is to highlight your client’s most common pain point or ask a question that you know they’ll answer affirmatively. 

Of course, it should relate to your service and a pain point your product or service can solve. 

Make sure you communicate these messages clearly and include an important award or some kind of social proof (if any). 

Showcase the people you serve on your LinkedIn cover photo

Featuring your customers is beneficial because people who visit your LinkedIn profile know right away if they potentially fall into that category. 

Additionally, people are more drawn to images of real people, faces, and their expressions, so a LinkedIn cover photo of this kind will make them want to investigate further. 

A LinkedIn background photo that showcases your clientele or your target clients doesn’t need to be their actual photo, of course. You can get a stock image that features people who are good examples of the types of people you serve. 

Use the location or the location of your business on your LinkedIn banner

OR

Highlighting the location of your business makes sense if what you do is restricted to a specific area or it’s particularly significant for it. 

These types of LinkedIn cover photos don’t have to be necessarily limited to industries such as tourism for example. Still, they can be applied to any business or industry that acts locally. 

On the other hand, displaying the city where you work or where you came from or that is particularly dear to your heart independently from the location of your business can ‘humanize’ your LinkedIn profile a bit. 

Just because LinkedIn is a professional network whose members are encouraged to connect, network, and chat in the name of business, that doesn’t mean you should hide that you are a human before anything else. People are more likely to work with those whom they can connect with, rather than robots. 

Put your hobbies or interests on your LinkedIn cover photo 

Speaking of ‘humanizing’ your LinkedIn profile, there’s no better way to do it than sharing something that interests you outside of your work schedule. 

You could use your LinkedIn background photo to tell others about your hobbies, volunteering activities, or any kind of extracurricular activities. Opinions on sharing personal pictures on LinkedIn vary, given the platform’s professional nature. However, if the sharing is genuine, not excessive, and comes from a desire to build authentic connections, we say go for it. 

No matter if you’re on LinkedIn to network, get clients, or find a job, everyone likes to see there’s more to you than just your professional, online self. 

Display objects or tools relevant to your job on your LinkedIn background photo

Featuring an object such as a photo camera if you are a photographer can seem a bit ‘unsurprising’ but it doesn’t need to be! Just look at how creative, yet informative the above LinkedIn cover photo is. 

Without even reading through this LinkedIn user’s profile, you can understand what he does for a living and what technologies he knows (JavaScript, React, NodeJS). 

Furthermore, he adds a personal touch to his LinkedIn background photo by mentioning the things he loves, believes in, and does outside his regular working hours. 

This type of LinkedIn cover photo is excellent for freelancers and people who are searching for a job, as it says straight off the bat what your professional strengths are. 

Use a LinkedIn cover photo of you doing your work 

A picture of yourself doing your work can be a great choice if your job is actually some kind of service that can be presented clearly in a photo. 

On LinkedIn, usually, these types of LinkedIn cover photos are typical for motivational and public speakers, or for those who want to highlight them speaking in front of larger audiences. 

It doesn’t mean that it will not work for other industries as well, just put your creativity to use and make sure you have someone to take a good shot of it. 

Clearly state what your job is on your LinkedIn banner 

OR

This is a pretty straightforward, nothing-too-crazy yet effective way to make it very clear to your LinkedIn profile visitors what you do for work. 

As you may see from the above examples, you can describe what you do (example #1) and how you do it, or simply list your professional roles (example #2). 

This way, it is very clear what your business is about to whoever lands on your LinkedIn profile. 

Showcase your product or service on your LinkedIn background photo

This is a pretty straightforward, yet effective way to tell your profile visitors what you are all about in general or at the moment. Furthermore, it is a great way to promote a book, podcast, service, you name it.

As you may see from our examples, displaying your product or service could be accompanied by a catchy Call-To-Action. 

Display your career path on your LinkedIn cover photo

If you find your career path to be the most valuable part of your curriculum or your valuable unique selling point, here’s a creative and smart idea of how your LinkedIn profile visitors can learn all about it. 

This LinkedIn member decided to display his path from a college to the company for which he currently works. However, this creative idea can be applied in many ways depending on what you wish to highlight in your LinkedIn background photo. 

Use your company’s LinkedIn cover photo for your personal LinkedIn background photo

OR

Some companies have LinkedIn cover photos designed specifically for their employees. This can be the simplest way to tell your profile visitors where you work right off the bat. 

Featuring a LinkedIn background photo with just your company’s logo or some other kind of visual representation of your company can be a good choice if you feel strongly about the brand. 

Furthermore, your company’s LinkedIn cover photo can contain a mission statement, values, or any message that your brand wants to get across. 

Put an inspiring quote on your LinkedIn banner

An inspirational quote on your LinkedIn background photo can refer to something you personally believe in, or it can have to do with your brand. 

If combined with an attractive design, this type of LinkedIn cover photo can be pretty effective and inspiring to people visiting your LinkedIn profile to investigate your services further. 

Put a picture of an office space or a building for corporate, executives, legal, & similar to your LinkedIn cover photo

OR

The above example is a good LinkedIn cover photo of people working in corporate, upper management, legal, and anyone who finds their business space to give off the impression of professionalism, a specific status symbol, high-level service, or similar. 

Furthermore, if your office is a well-known building, or it has been there for ages so that it even become part of the city's history, displaying it in your background might give your LinkedIn profile visitors a sense of familiarity. 

Make your LinkedIn banner a collage 

Finally, you can make a collage visually representing your interests, product or service, target audience, yourself while doing your work, or pretty much anything you wish to showcase on your LinkedIn cover photo. 

However, keep in mind that crafting appealing collages is not as easy as it might seem – they should be informative without becoming cluttered or chaotic. Therefore, unless you are a skilled visual artist, you might want to hire a designer to do it for you. Collages are pretty effective, so it could totally be worth it. 

Summary 

Before diving into choosing your ideal LinkedIn cover photo, consider your focus — clients, yourself, workspace, or tools. 

Which emotions do you wish to convey? Empowerment, trust, professionalism? 

What kind of LinkedIn background photo would enhance your professional image while aligning seamlessly with your brand? 

This strategic approach ensures your LinkedIn presence resonates effectively with your target audience and lays the foundation for effective sales engagement once those profile visits turn into leads. Speaking of sales engagement, why not use Skylead to save up to 11 hours a week on it? All features are available for a 7-day FREE trial starting today! Don’t miss out!

Disclaimer: Skylead is not affiliated, endorsed by, or connected with LinkedIn in any way.

Everyone is talking about the Social Selling Index and with good reason. LinkedIn SSI score came into our lives to explain and answer our questions like why my posts have fewer impressions, what I am doing wrong in my outreach, and how my LinkedIn profile can get more integrity in the eyes of the algorithm. Moreover, social selling leaders have 45% more sales opportunities than the ones with a lower LinkedIn SSI score.

That said, if you haven’t already, it’s best to jump into this story and boost your LinkedIn SSI score immediately. However, if you don’t know where to start or what to improve first, don’t despair. We are here to give you tips and pointers from our first-hand experience on improving your LinkedIn SSI score and making this platform work to your advantage.

What is the LinkedIn SSI score? 

Social Selling Index is LinkedIn’s measurement of how effective you and your profile are at building your brand. In other words, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and establishing relationships.

Users with a higher LinkedIn SSI score are better positioned to become thought leaders, do LinkedIn lead generation and therefore more likely to succeed in closing the deal. This is LinkedIn’s way of awarding those with high social selling skills.

Where to find LinkedIn SSI score? 

SSI is available to everyone, whether using a free or paid LinkedIn account. (If you are not sure where to find it, copy and paste this 👉 www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi in your browser’s search engine. Go ahead and check it. This is your first step towards knowing what you are doing right and what needs a little extra push. 

This is what you can expect. 

Founded on the above four sections, LinkedIn SSI score shows your success as a salesperson and how effectively you are using the platform. 

Each of the segments can grow up to 25 points, with the total score anywhere between 0 and 100. This implies that all four sections are equally valued when measuring your Social Selling Index on LinkedIn.

Tips to increase LinkedIn SSI score

Tip #1: Complete your LinkedIn profile

If you want to boost your personal brand and Social Selling Index, you need to first complete your LinkedIn profile.

Yes, your personal brand starts with a neat and complete LinkedIn profile. The way you communicate with your leads, the way you nurture them, the type of content you post, they all add up. But first and foremost, your profile. 

It’s just like in the real world. It takes only a few seconds for someone to form the first impression. And they get attracted or rejected by your looks, not your brains. Sorry, it’s just the way it works. 

That said, there are many steps that you can follow to improve the Social Selling Index pillar #1 “Establish your professional brand”. Here is what we did and saw an immediate increase in SSI:

• Upload a professional profile picture that gives the impression of you being a reliable, yet approachable expert in the field.
• Write a catchy LinkedIn headline that sums up what your career is all about.
• Dedicate time to a summary that will make your profile stand out and grab the visitors’ attention. 
• Fill out your professional achievements, but don’t overwhelm us. It’s like sending a CV to a recruiter. Only career highlights, please. 
• List your fortes. 
• Ask for recommendations (from people you worked and had a close bond with). 
• Endorse others and others will endorse you. The law of reciprocity rocks.  

While striving to fully complete your LinkedIn profile, always have in mind the keywords you would like to be connected with and searched by. Just like you are optimizing your content to show up on Google, you are optimizing yourself to show up in your leads’ search engines. 

If you’re still unsure how to set up your entire profile, check out our masterclass. 👇

Tip #2 Find the right people

Speaking of search engines, who is showing up in yours? 

As mentioned above, LinkedIn was created to suit business needs. Not personal. Read that again. 

Don’t invite people to connect because you like their looks. There are other platforms designed for that. 

For you to improve the LinkedIn SSI score pillar #2 “Find the right people”, focus on expanding your network according to the following parameters: 

• People you already know in person.
• Users that are from the same industry, are industry thought-leaders, or share an interest in the same industry as you. 
• LinkedIn members from adjacent industries.
• Audiences that you think (or even better: you researched) would be interested in your product or service. 

Fortunately for all of us, LinkedIn has developed plans, each of them with different perks, depending on what you’re expecting from the platform. 

LinkedIn Premium Business, for example, has the same filtering options as LinkedIn basic. However, it does give you unlimited profile search and views, together with 15 Paid and 800 free monthly LinkedIn InMail credits. 

On the other hand, Sales Navigator, designed in particular for salespeople, has numerous other options that will make your life easier while searching for that perfect lead. Aside from Sales Navigator advanced filters, it has Lead Lists, Saved Searches, and 20 Paid and 800 free monthly InMail credits. 

You can improve the quality of your network and leads by: 

• Checking out LinkedIn groups of your interest.
• Reaching out to people attending a certain LinkedIn event.
• Using the Boolean Search to narrow down your audience with more precision. 

Tip #3 Engage with insights

Don’t just stand there looking good. Say something. Post on LinkedIn and share your vision with the community. Don’t be afraid to speak up, as the world is full of people thinking differently. Luckily for you, there is plenty of fish in the sea and you will for sure find like-minded users. If that’s what’s worrying you. 

For the LinkedIn algorithm to like you and for your Social Selling Index pillar #3 “Engage with insights” to grow, you need to: 

• Post engaging and valuable content.
• React and comment on other people’s posts.
• Reshare what you find worthy of resharing. 

LinkedIn SSI score is not the only one benefiting from your engagement with insights. 

LinkedIn pushes people who give value to the platform by sharing their insights, encouraging constructive criticism, and starting meaningful conversations. These users come up in the search results more often and get more exposure in comparison to inactive users. 

That said, make every post count. From our experience, here is what made a difference:

• Providing value, 
• And offer a solution to a pain point our network is struggling with.

By engaging with insights, you are telling people who you are and what you stand for. Consequently, you will start being surrounded by like-minded people. 

A LinkedIn post can be an excellent source of leads. People who react and comment on a certain topic from your or your target industry are apparently interested in the subject. And are all gathered at one place, making it easy for you to reach out to them. Not to mention, making a reference to a certain post is a serious game-changer when it comes to acceptance rates. 

Tip #4 Expand network and create relationships

You can have 500+ connections and not stand out as a particularly “engaging” member of the LinkedIn community. 

If you just had a LinkedIn profile long enough and behaved professionally, you are likely to have gathered quite a lot of connections. There you go. But that doesn’t help the LinkedIn algorithm, nor does it grow your LinkedIn SSI score. 

For you to improve pillar #4 “Establish relationships”, do the following: 

• Approach other users with a valid reason, be genuinely curious about their career path, ask business-related questions, be ready to reciprocate, and know when to stop (read: don’t spam them).  You can use the following LinkedIn connection message template:

Hey {{firstName}}, 

I loved your {{topic}} post and followed every advice. So far, I have achieved {{achievedResult}}. Thank you so much! I would love to connect and exchange some experiences! 

• Comment on other people’s posts or on the comment someone else left. The only way to provide value and show integrity is to give your honest opinion instead of repeating what others said. 
• Introduce your connections. If you see that someone works in the same or adjacent industry, or they might benefit from each other, speak up. Not only will your connections appreciate it, but they are more likely to return the favor. 
• Be responsive. Answer to messages, Invites to Connect, and post comments in a timely (and respectful) manner. 

Briefly, you cannot go wrong with making a pleasant social interaction. In addition, what we found worked like magic was incorporating personalized images & GIFs in the outreach. It even increased our response rate to 63%.

Tip #5 Analyze LinkedIn SSI score and improve

Once you start improving your SSI, the job is not done. You need to keep track of your Social Selling Index score, analyze it, and see what area you need to improve. From our experience, experimenting with different social selling strategies and monitoring your SSI changes usually does the trick. 

Frequently asked questions

How frequently does LinkedIn update the SSI score, and can changes in my activities impact my score immediately?

LinkedIn updates the Social Selling Index (SSI) score daily, reflecting changes in user activities almost in real time. Engaging consistently in recommended activities—like making connections, sharing content, and interacting on the platform—can positively impact your score, demonstrating the dynamic nature of SSI.

Are there any known limitations or criticisms of the LinkedIn SSI score as a metric for evaluating social selling effectiveness?

The LinkedIn SSI score, while useful, is not without criticisms. Some argue it may not fully capture the quality of social selling efforts or the depth of relationships built. It's a quantitative metric that might overlook the qualitative aspects of networking and sales effectiveness.

How can companies or teams collectively improve their LinkedIn SSI scores, and does LinkedIn offer insights or tools for group performance enhancement?

Companies can improve their collective LinkedIn SSI scores by encouraging consistent, strategic activity on the platform, including content sharing, engaging with connections, and endorsing skills. LinkedIn does offer analytics and insights for company pages, which can guide teams in enhancing their overall social selling performance.

To sum up

In real life, you make sure you look professional, your network at events, you are kind and genuinely interested in other people, and you stand behind your values and opinions. Hopefully. 

That’s LinkedIn in a nutshell. Just online. 

If finding the right people and nurturing relationships is something you would like to take to another level, then start a 7-day Free Trial and see how a sales engagement tool like Skylead can lend you a hand, all while saving you 11+ hours a week!

Disclaimer: Skylead is not affiliated, endorsed by, or connected with LinkedIn in any way.

The topic of how to cancel a LinkedIn invitation is rarely discussed, simply because people tend to leave invites pending for… Well, forever.

However, everyone should monitor their pending invites, especially if you are in sales or a recruiting business, as the integrity of your LinkedIn profile can get damaged. Yes, it’s that serious.

So to keep your integrity intact and help you reduce the number of pending invites in the first place, in this article, we’ll cover:

• Why do you need to cancel your LinkedIn invite;
• What you need to know about the cancellation process;
• How to cancel LinkedIn invitations that are pending for a long time;
• Why your LinkedIn invites aren’t getting accepted;
• How to create engaging invitations that will increase your acceptance rate.

Why should you cancel your pending invitations?

You should cancel LinkedIn invite because of 3 reasons:

• There’s a risk of getting your account restricted;
• Your LinkedIn experience can get damaged;
• LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new ones unless you clear the list.

Let’s clarify these statements.

Firstly, and most importantly, if you do not cancel your LinkedIn invite for a long time, you risk piling them up. It would be fine if LinkedIn didn’t have an eye out for suspicious activities. And, yes, LinkedIn does consider this suspicious. 

In other words, if you do not withdraw your pending invites after a month or two and leave them piling up, LinkedIn can restrict your account. Moreover, you won’t be able to send any other connections until you clean out your pending invite list. 

Secondly, if the connection doesn’t accept the invite for a while, the chances are they either are not interested, or they aren’t within your business industry. 

To clarify. The quality of your network on LinkedIn plays a significant role in experiencing benefits while using this platform. So, one of the things that will boost your career is taking the effort and making a strategy to connect only with people related to you and your business, and cancel LinkedIn invites sent to those who are not.

Lastly, a word on the street is that if you have too many pending requests, LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new ones. Some people say they reached a whopping 3000 pending invites before LinkedIn restricted them from sending more invites. LinkedIn didn’t publish the precise number of how many pending requests you can have officially. However, to avoid this scenario some people experienced in the past, be sure to clean your list regularly.

What you need to know before proceeding to cancel LinkedIn invite?

Before you withdraw any of your LinkedIn invites, you should know a couple of things first.

First of all, you can’t cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk.

Also, if you send a LinkedIn connection request to a person, they will see the notification as soon as they log into their account. However, in case you cancel the LinkedIn invite before the user sees it, they wouldn’t even know that you’ve sent it.

In addition, canceling an invite will stop the recipient from receiving further LinkedIn notifications or emails to remind them of the request.

When can you cancel your LinkedIn invite?

You can cancel LinkedIn invite you’ve sent accidentally or that you regret sending, as long as the LinkedIn member hasn’t accepted your invitation.

In case the LinkedIn user accepts your connection request, there is always an option to remove them from your connections.

If you withdraw your request, you will have a tiny restriction.

After you cancel your invite, you won’t be able to resend it to the same recipient for up to 3 weeks.

How to cancel LinkedIn invite in 5 simple steps?

In case you’ve sent the requests you wish to withdraw or are pending too long, here’s how you can do it.

Cancel LinkedIn invite via desktop

First, go to Linkedin, and click on My Network in the header bar.

Once you do, you will see the list of invites other people sent you. Hit See all # in the top right corner. 

If you don't have any invites you need to approve on this page, the section will look slightly different. In this case, just click the Manage button.

Here, you can see all the invites people sent you. To find the ones you sent out, go to the Sent tab and click the Withdraw button to cancel the LinkedIn invite.

Lastly, LinkedIn will double-check if you wish to withdraw your invite with the notification. Continue the cancellation process, and you will be done.

Canceling invites via Android 

You can withdraw invitations using your android phone too, and the process is not that different than the one using your PC. 

First, go to your Network page, and click the Invitations button.

Next, click the Sent tab, and withdraw the invites you wish.

How to cancel LinkedIn invite on iOS

The process is somewhat different on iOS devices. So if, for example, you have an Apple phone, here is how you can cancel LinkedIn invite.

First, go to Notifications at the bottom of the screen. Then, click the Invitations button at the top. After the pop-up opens up, click View invitations you sent.

From there, choose the LinkedIn invites to withdraw and cancel them one by one.

Why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted

Speaking of connecting on LinkedIn, the best case practice is to connect with people related to you, your position, and your business industry. Naturally, if you are a salesperson or a recruiter using LinkedIn for lead generation, you’d go with your target group.

In the end, no matter who you wish to connect to and why, the goal is the same – to get the right message across and be accepted. However, there are numerous reasons why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted or stay pending for a long time. So, to help you increase your acceptance rate, let’s first cover the possible reasons why this metric is not high at the moment.

1. Incomplete LinkedIn profile

Sending invitations actively to users without previously setting up your profile is a huge mistake.

There are many profiles on LinkedIn that look like this, and you don’t want yours to be one of them. 

Start from yourself - would you accept an invite from this kind of profile? No, you wouldn’t. 

If you have no photo, no description of any kind, and no experience details, no one on LinkedIn will take you seriously. Why would they want to connect with you without knowing who you are, right?

So if you send a request to someone with a profile like the one above, go back and cancel LinkedIn invite yourself. Then focus on setting up your LinkedIn profile first.

2. Someone is really not interested in accepting the invite

One reason may be that the user does not wish to connect with you and just prolongs declining your invite. I know - it’s like ripping off the band aid, but it had to be said. 

3. Outreaching unknown people without context or common connections

This depends on the person, but some LinkedIn users don’t accept unfamiliar people. To clarify, those people sometimes see nothing they have in common with you, which makes them skeptical.

In this case, it’s good to have or reference a mutual connection, so they do not ignore your request.

4. Sending generic message requests 

This mistake is the one that most LinkedIn users make. They think that writing something generic like “Hey, I’d like to connect with you” is enough to have their request accepted. Yeah, right!

These requests may be accepted in some cases, but not by a person who gets a lot of invites daily. Such people tend to get tons of messages that resemble yours and mostly ignore them. So, why would they make an exception for you?

What’s more, with this kind of message or no message at all, there is a chance the recipient can click the Ignore button and then the I don’t know this person option. With too many “I don’t know this person clicked“, you risk getting your account restricted by LinkedIn.

5. First touch selling 

The chances of successfully selling something via the LinkedIn invitation request are close to zero. 

You have probably received tons of invitation messages where someone is trying to sell insurance to you.

It is not the way sales work. Nowadays, it’s all about social selling and sales engagement, where building trust and delivering value come before the pitch.

In your invitation message, you should explain why you want to connect with the user you’re reaching out to, but not by trying to sell something. First, focus on personalizing, building normal human connections, and providing value before they buy anything you’re selling.

How to create engaging LinkedIn invites and boost acceptance rate

We cannot stress this enough. Before you even start creating and sending out your invitations, you need to optimize your LinkedIn profile first.

Almost every LinkedIn user will check your profile before they decide whether they should accept or ignore your invitation. That’s why it’s in your interest to give them a strong reason to accept your invitation, get value from you, and create a relationship.

After you’ve taken care of your profile, you’re ready to start inviting other users to connect. Here is our advice on how to do it more efficiently.

Prepare the ground for an invitation

It’s easy to connect with your colleagues or someone you know because those people know you personally.

However, even if you don’t know someone, you can try to remove that obstacle by becoming more familiar with that person. In other words, it’s good to start engaging with the posts of those potential connections. 

Start liking their posts, create meaningful comments, and try to make a connection with them before sending an invite. 

This will pave the way for you to build a relationship, and those users will start to perceive you as someone who is a valuable connection. Consequently, you won’t get in a position to cancel a LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time.

Personalize your invite messages

Before sending an invitation, make your messages as personalized as you can. It is a must if you want to improve your acceptance rate.

Sending personalized messages helps you leave a good first impression. Also: 

• Addressing users by their names, 
• Referencing something familiar to them, 
• And avoiding generic phrases 

play an important role in creating a strong relationship between you two.

Start by answering how you came across their profile and what made you want to connect. Don’t worry - the time you invest in LinkedIn prospecting your potential connection always pays off here.

Since you’re limited to 300 characters, you can use it to be more direct and honest. 

Discover 20 ready-to-use connection invite templates with up to 78% acceptance rate.

Mention common interests

Adding many LinkedIn users who aren’t from your niche can decrease the quality of your LinkedIn feed and make it full of irrelevant content. That’s why connecting with someone that you share interests with is a great approach.

Mentioning the shared interests in your invite will show those users that you’ve invested some time into getting to know about them and their work. Moreover, you can mention the topic you wish to discuss with them. A message with these two elements will skyrocket your acceptance rate for sure. So, you won’t have to be in a position to cancel LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time. 😉

For example, start your message by commenting on your mutual job position, an event you both attended, or a post you both liked a while back. 

Involve a little humor 

It’s essential to have a professional tone of voice when you write your connection invite. However, “professional” doesn’t mean not having some sense of humor. You can always add a subtle joke here and there to make your invite stand out.

Moreover, using humor in your outreach is a nice pattern interrupt and has an immediate effect. Here is our example.

Check out our list of 35 position-related jokes ready to use in your outreach. 

At the end of the day

We hope this article helped you understand why your requests have been pending for a long time and learn the tricks to improve the acceptance rate. 

Remember: you must keep track of the requests you sent and clear the list on time. This is just so you don’t land on the LinkedIn radar for suspicious activity and get restricted.

That said, we recommend you invest time in your connection messages and your LinkedIn profile because, that way, you'll likely not be in the situation where you have to cancel a LinkedIn invite.

And if you wish to save 11+ hours a week, hours that you can better spend crafting winning messages and optimizing your profile, Skylead is here to help! It's the #1 sales engagement tool to use if you wish to optimize your sales processes.

Sounds good? Sign up for our 7-day free trial & take a glimpse at what it can do for you!

CRM software and tools are definitely here to stay. There is no doubt that, with the global CRM market growth projection of $128.97 billion worth in 2028, the substantial popularity of the best CRM software is yet to come. 

And with the reason. Firstly, CRM offers a wide range of benefits, including centralized data and automation of tedious sales processes. Above all, a well-implemented CRM software can reach ROI up to $45 for each $1 spent. 

We all wish to jump on this train. And some of us already did. But in the sea of CRM software, how would you know which one is the best for you? Whether you are starting out or considering changing your CRM software, we’ve got your back.

Therefore, in this article we will cover some of the best CRM software, why they are the best, and how to integrate them with other tools.

Furthermore, we will cover what CRM software is, if you need it and if you should buy it. Let’s get to it!

What is CRM?

Customer Relation Management, aka CRM software, is a tool that helps companies collect, organize and manage data and streamline processes related to customers’ lifecycle. 

In other words, sales terms, CRM software helps teams visualize their pipeline and organize or perform tasks related to the buyer journey. Furthermore, it pinpoints the location of specific prospects in the sales funnel, their status, the next activity the sales team needs to perform, and potential value. 

CRM software substitutes various spreadsheets and documents companies use to keep up with prospects’ or customers’ data. It stores all information in one place - such as messages, meetings, pain points, buyer persona type, and, in some cases, calls with customers - everything you need to know about specific leads to help you build a relationship and close deals. Lastly, CRM software shows how effective your sales strategy is and if something in your process needs improvement.

Customer-wise, CRM software provides information about each customer, their history, and any pending tasks related to nurturing and upselling. 

Why is CRM one of the most valuable assets a company can acquire?

Why CRM? To clarify, let’s check out a couple of statistics first: 

59% of companies tested say that CRM helped them improve Customer Retention and Satisfaction Rate by 47% and reduce lead costs by 27%. (FounderJar)

According to Salesforce, 81% of sales representatives emphasize the importance of having a view of data across the complete customer journey.

97% of sales professionals tested think that technology and CRM software are either essential or crucial for business. (LinkedIn)

Looking at the previous statistics and many more across the internet, CRM software is an essential tool for sales teams, and for good reason. To clarify, they are not just any tool on the market - they make building the relationship and social selling easier tasks and help the sales team be more customer-oriented - which is the core point of today’s sales. 

Best CRM software can…

1. Centralize and label your data

CRM keeps track of all leads’ data. In other words, CRM’s centralized storage offers salespeople all the information on every individual prospect or customer at hand so they can build relationships and close deals faster. 

In addition, since the prospect base can be distinct, the best CRM software also labels and sections your customer data. To clarify, you as a salesperson must know at any given time where your prospects are in the pipeline, on what note you ended the conversation, are they warmed up, or what is the next step towards closing the deal. CRM software does this for you by analyzing and labeling existing data in the system with various parameters you set. Therefore, you can be more customer-oriented by creating different messages depending on the buyer lifecycle and more personalized outreach.

2. Automate the process

With almost every piece of data being actionable, the best CRM software can automate some tedious parts of the process for salespeople, so they can focus on nurturing prospects through the pipeline. For example, appointment scheduling, assigning leads to different sales reps, or updating and importing the prospects’ data. 

3. Offer analytics to close more deals and increase customer satisfaction

We can’t stress enough how important it is to conduct data analysis. Luckily, creators of the best CRM software out there share our opinion. Hence, every CRM has an analytics or reports page to help sales teams make data-driven decisions. 

In other words, CRM can help you see how many deals you won or lost, what tactic you used, deal value, and much more. Thanks to this, salespeople can adjust their approach, close more deals, and improve customer satisfaction and retention.

4. Remind salespeople of pending tasks 

Sometimes we as people, amongst other work, forget to write a follow-up email or two, or simply a meeting slips out of our mind. It happens. However, forgetting such tasks can cause a lost prospect or a customer. However, CRM software offers a solution to this problem, and it is an option to alert you of actions needed for every customer in the pipeline to make sure these mistakes never happen. 

To buy CRM software or to create a spreadsheet? That is the question.

Our experience says to buy. CRM software offers many useful features that you can use to streamline and automate processes and save you much more time than the spreadsheet.

However, if you are just starting out, perhaps you don’t have the necessary budget or have a small company, you might want to consider creating a CRM in a spreadsheet for yourself. It can help you understand how CRMs work and how your business can benefit from them. 

Additional tip: If you want to level up but are not ready to pay for the CRM itself, try out some CRM software with free plans, such as Bitrix24, Really Simple Systems, or EngageBay.

Nevertheless, if you or the company scales up, do not dwell on these spreadsheets or free plans (unless you want to), as you might miss out on the amazing features that some of the best CRM software have.

In case you wish to buy CRM software, here are the ten best CRM software currently on the market (people’s choice).

10 best CRM software for sales

CRM software is an essential tool for every sales team. However, as prospects differ, so do the salespeople. In other words, not every CRM suits every business's needs. So, how would you know which one is the best for your business needs?

Thus we present you with the top 10 list of highest-rated, best CRM software for the sales team from various listing websites. For this article, we are going to calculate the current average rating from the most popular review sites:

• G2 
• Capterra
• Software Advice
• GetApp
• Software Suggest

Furthermore, we will list who they are most suited for, advantages, disadvantages, pricing, and additional information to help you find the best CRM software for you. Let’s get started.

Salesmate - Best CRM software for cold calling

This CRM software is great for small and medium businesses who are cold calling. In addition, Salesmate has a relatively easy-to-use interface and quick access to the features you require.

Salesmate can be integrated with Gmail or Outlook. Furthermore, each sales member can centralize prospect data, including email messages, and share them with other team parties. 

Salesmate also offers reports that enable business owners and managers to track sales reps’ productivity and achievements. Team leads can also listen to calls by using the call recording option.

Advantages:

Salesmate has an option to generate tasks for you automatically. If, for example, someone fills a form on your website, that lead can directly go into Salesmate, and it automatically creates the task to follow up with that lead. 

Secondly, there are calling and texting features so the sales reps can contact leads. Thus, it eliminates the need for adding other tools and saves budget, in a way. 

Disadvantages:

A couple of reviewers reported a periodical system lagging. Furthermore, since every text message and call minutes have an additional price, the amount billed each month increases by that sum. This can be a problem for some users, as the amount can escalate if not properly and regularly managed. 

Price: 

• Starter: $15 per user / month or $144 billed annually
• Growth: $30 per user / month or $288 billed annually
• Boost: $50 per user / month or $480 billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.64

HubSpot CRM - Best CRM software for teams that are developing

There is no doubt that HubSpot surprised everyone with free access to the CRM software. However, the free version does come with its limitations. 

In a free account, you get:

• Contact management
• Deal pipeline
• Quotes
• Meeting scheduling
• Live chat
• Reporting dashboard

If you wish for anything else, you need to upgrade to a paid version. 

HubSpot CRM is perfect for individuals or companies that are just getting started with CRM software. Furthermore, it is useful for other medium-sized businesses that outgrew that phase.

Advantages:

HubSpot overall offers various nifty features, including sales playbooks, sequences, workflow automation, and reporting. In addition, this CRM can process up to 1,000,000 contacts and users for free and offers unlimited storage. Their Starters pricing plan is pretty fair and is somewhat beginners friendly, as opposed to other CRMs on the market. 

Disadvantages:

If you wish for additional features, pricing for professional and enterprise packages is pretty steep. Furthermore, it does not directly support Dynamics 365, and pipeline and managing deals are not that intuitive. 

Pricing: 

• Starter: $50 per 2 users / month or $540 yearly
• Professional: $500 per 5 users / month or $5400 yearly
• Enterprise: $1200 per 10 users / month, billed yearly

Listings rating: ⭐4.504

Salesforce Sales Cloud - Best CRM software for sales experts 

This is a complex and useful CRM that allows sales professionals to manage and build relationships with their prospects and customers. Salesforce Sales Cloud helps you optimize your workload, maximize your budget, and offers real-time data all in your favor so you can close more deals. 

This CRM is not for beginners. In other words, they offer features galore that can be useful to sales experts already using CRMs for a couple of years, but if you are a beginner, you might want to test out and use other systems for a while before jumping to Salesforce. 

Advantages:

Salesforce’s various and unique features are actually its advantage. Furthermore, they offer mobile app for Android and iOS to let you do the work on the go. 

Salesforce also possesses the visual workflow drag-and-drop feature and lets you create, do and change tasks fast. In addition, Salesforce Sales cloud integrated with Slack so you can engage with prospects and customers in real time. 

Disadvantages:

Salesforce is not beginner friendly and it is billed annually.

Pricing:

• Essential: $25 per user / month, billed annually
• Professional:: $75 per user / month, billed annually
• Enterprise: $150 user/month, billed annually
• Unlimited: $300 per user / month, billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.5

Zoho CRM - Best CRM software companies interested in contact and pipeline management only

The core functionality of Zoho’s CRM is contact management, pipeline management, and purchase control. Its dashboard is customizable, and it allows users to brand it according to their business brand. 

Advantages: 

One of Zoho's biggest advantages is that it allows you to reach people who use Twitter and Facebook. Furthermore, Zoho CRM tracks their actions and categorizes them as contacts so you can connect with them. 

Disadvantages:

Zoho is a kind of CRM with mixed feelings - its interface is a bit outdated, it doesn't work well with extensive outreach, features are sometimes not communicating between each other, and billing annually are perhaps the reasons why Zoho is so low on the list. 

Pricing: 

• Free Edition: Free up to 3 Users.
• Standard Edition: 20€ per user / month or 14€ per user / month but paid annually  
• Professional Edition: 35€ per user / month or 23€ per user / month but paid annually
• Enterprise Edition: 50€ per user / month or 40€ per user / month but paid annually
• Ultimate Edition: 65€ per user / month or 52€ per user / month but paid annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.292

Monday Sales CRM - Best CRM software for workflow

Before, Monday was a project management software, but now with its product development, it is much more. Now-developed Monday Sale is CRM software that centralizes your entire workflow and customer data. It allows tracking every aspect of the sales cycle, from lead generation to after-sale customer nurturing.

This CRM is best for small and medium-size businesses, and it is completely customizable.

Advantages: 

Monday offers various templates that you can use for your workflow. In addition, the Monday.com dashboard is clean and straight-to-the-point, so you can easily spot any issues in your sales cycle.

Disadvantages:

Their pricing plan is confusing since they require a minimum of 3 seats, and you cannot use it as an individual (you can, but you need to pay for 3 seats). Furthermore, Monday Sell has issues with tablet and mobile device apps, and workflow automation needs additional manual work.

Pricing:

• Individual: $0 free forever (up to 2 seats), billed annually 
• Basic: $8 / seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Standard: $10 seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Pro: $16 seat / month (3 seats minimum), billed annually 
• Enterprise: Contact Monday.com for a custom quote

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.675

Zendesk Sell - Best CRM software on a budget

Formerly Base, Zendesk Sell is a CRM software perfect for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides access to all channels the sales team uses for communication including SMS, voice calls, and emails. 

With Zendesk Sell, it is pretty easy to gain a full insight into the specific lead, thanks to features such as funnel tracking, customizable lists, templates, and conversion rate tracking. 

Advantages:

One of the best features Zendesk Sell has is a calendar-reminder system. In addition, Zendesk Sell can be linked with Microsoft Office and possesses one tool that automatically detects duplicate leads and task sequencing.

Disadvantages:

Zendesk users reported problems such as slow loading time, mistakes in automated data entry, and issues with customer support. In addition, subscriptions are billed annually, and users need to pay more for certain features.

Pricing:

• Starter: $19 per user / month, billed annually 
• Professional: $49 per user / month, billed annually 
• Enterprise: $99 per user / month, billed annually 

Listings rating: ⭐4.216

Copper - Best CRM software if you use Google Workspace

This is a CRM software with the main emphasis on Google Workspace. It has a well-designed UX/UI. What’s interesting about this CRM is that it contains in-app voice transcription, allowing you to take bullet points from the call right away.

Like other CRMs, Copper offers detailed reports and suggests improvements in workflow, while alerts keep you focused on the most important tasks. Furthermore, Copper is a nice CRM if you are a beginner or if you wish to change your current CRM.

Advantages:

The main advantage is that Copper integrates completely with Google Workspace - Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. In addition, the onboarding process is seamless and the system itself is simple to use.

Disadvantages:

Firstly, you are not able to attach files to emails you send in Copper. Secondly, workflow automation is a bit confusing since Copper uses rule-based workflow automation, and it may be time-consuming at first. Furthermore, another thing you might need to spend time with is filtering and extracting data.

Lastly, there is a lack of flexibility outside Google Workspace. To clarify, companies that use different email providers will not be able to integrate them with Copper. 

Pricing:

• Basic: $29 per user / month or $300 annually
• Professional: $69 per user / month $708 annually
• Business: $129 per user / month (with annual commitment) $1.428 annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.53

Pipedrive - Best CRM software for multiple pipelines and customization

CRM software, Pipedrive, handles all the essential sales CRM features. It is intuitive, and you can easily separate priority deals and create different strategies for each lead. 

Advantages:

Firstly, Pipedrive lets you build multiple sales pipelines and customize stages which are great for sales reps or team leads who manage various pipelines at once. 

Secondly, Pipedrive’s star feature is that you can create web forms and LeadBooster chatbot, a custom chatbot to pop up next to a webform. Pipedrive then automates the process and puts lead directly into your pipeline. 

In addition, Pipedrive’s powerful AI understands leads’ behavioral patterns and can give you hints on how to close deals with them. 

Disadvantages: 

Pipedrive can’t send a follow-up message or birthday greetings based on a date at this moment in time. In addition, users noticed some lagging issues and poor mobile app experience. Lastly, customizable reports are not available.

Pricing:

• Essential: $15 per user/month or $12.50 per user / monthly billed annually
• Advanced: $29 per user/month or $ 24.90 per user / monthly billed annually
• Professional: $59 per user/month or $49.90 per user / monthly billed annually
• Enterprise: $119 per user/month or $99 per user / monthly billed annually

Listings rating: ⭐4.446

Salesflare - Best CRM software (people’s choice)

The best CRM software on our list is Salesflare. It is a CRM software primarily for startups and small businesses, but many agencies and enterprises use it. Salesflare is intuitive and easy to use and can be integrated with more than 400 other productivity tools like Trello, thanks to Zapier.

Salesflare offers automation features, such as an automated address book, timelines, file repository, and sending emails based on triggers. It can also provide task suggestions automatically. 

Advantages:

The good thing about Salesflare is that they provide dedicated support no matter the plan you choose. In addition, for all technical advice, you can even talk to developers. 

Furthermore, they have a mobile app, various team access levels, and a great data gathering system. Lastly, Salesflare will automatically log phone calls or meetings, and gather contact information from email signatures, and even social media profiles.

Disadvantages:

Fortunately, there aren't many disadvantages when we talk about Salesflare - the users seem pretty content. There are, however, a couple of suggestions from them: it would be nice to have email drip functionality, and email reporting needs improvement.

Pricing:

• Growth: $29 per user / month (billed annually) or $35 billed monthly
• Pro: $49 per user / month (billed annually) or $55 billed monthly
• Enterprise: $99 per user / month (billed annually) or contact their support for custom plan

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.73

EngageBay - Best CRM software for enticing your sales team

Cloud-based CRM, EngageBay is a software that integrates sales, marketing, and finances on a single platform. The core function of this software is complete automation. Furthermore, it offers contact management tools specially designed to be simple to use. In addition, it can track web activity, email response, and analytics. 

EngageBay easily Integrates with Gmail, Office 365, or any other service, with integration capabilities through Zapier or other similar integrations to further streamline your sales efforts.

Advantages:

The possibility to make a call from this CRM is a big plus, as well as an option for transcripts. In addition, what separates EngageBay from other systems is the possibility to gamify sales processes and thus keep your sales reps motivated. 

Disadvantages:

A couple of lesser disadvantages came up with EngageBay. There is less troubleshooting documentation, email templates are limited, and the Chrome plugin doesn’t trigger an event, so automation needs to be done manually.

Pricing:

• A free plan is available, limited to 1,000 contacts emails 
• Basic: $12.99 per user / month, $11.69 per user / month annually 
• Growth: $24.99 per user / per month, $22.49  per user / month annually
• Pro: $49.99 per user / month, $44.99 per user / month annually

Listings rating: ⭐ 4.636

How to use CRM software with other tools? 

We all know that only one tool won’t do if you wish to optimize your sales workflow as much as you can unless that one tool has everything you need, which is pretty rare. 

So, in addition to CRM, you might be using sales engagement or meeting scheduling tools. So the question arises - is it possible to integrate them all? Short answer - yes.  

Long answer? Let us show you how you can do it.

For example, let’s take our sales engagement tool, Skylead. This tool helps you outreach leads and take action depending on their behavior. As you fill your pipeline with it, it leaves you more room to concentrate on important matters such as building relationships and closing more deals. 

In addition, you can integrate Skylead with your CRM of choice by using webhooks. A webhook helps you transfer data to other applications immediately, when certain action happens. For example, as soon as the lead responds in a Skylead campaign, a webhook is triggered, and will automatically send lead’s data to your CRM. 

Moreover, webhooks are the most common way to integrate tools directly into your CRM and push data about the leads in one place. You can create them by using tools such as Zapier. 

Apart from using webhooks, you can also push your prospects’ information to your CRM by using Skylead’s global BCC option. To use it, simply insert the email address you get from your CRM in Skylead’s Global BCC option. This option is available only if your CRM of choice doesn’t offer direct sync with your email but through BCC.

The best CRM software in conclusion

With so many CRMs on the market, it can be daunting to go through every single one of them. But if we take software listing websites into the account you can more or less see the situation on the market. 

So, let our list be your guide to narrow your choices, or figure out what other solutions are out there. Thus, here is the short overview of the best CRM software currently on the market.

Wish to use an advanced sales engagement tool in combination with your CRM software and close even more deals? Then, try out Skylead for free - an outreach that thinks for you!

What would you say is the first thing that catches your prospects' attention in their inbox? That is right, email subject lines. They are undoubtedly the most integral part of your cold email outreach. In just seconds, the faith of your outreach success is determined.

How? Well, if you do not create catchy email subject lines, you risk getting your email deleted, your open rate becomes much lower, and you will be disregarded as Spam. Consequently, this ultimately leads to a lower number of warmed-up leads and closed deals. Furthermore, effort and time spent will go to waste.

Don’t panic. We’ve got your back.

In this article, we are explaining what the subject line is and why it is important for your email outreach. Furthermore, we are digging deep into catchy email subject examples, why they work, and help you create your golden subject line that catches your prospects’ attention immediately.

What is an email subject line and why is it important?

Let’s start with the basics. When you open up email inbox, you can notice the 3 following components of the email message:

• Senders’ name,
• Subject Line, 
• And Preview text. 

Email subject line is a text line next to the sender’s name, describing the title of the email message. In other words, it is an indication of what the message is about and why you should read it. 

Email subject line communicates value, sets expectations, and entices recipients to discover more about the topic by reading the email message. 

Getting your email subject line just right will make you stand out in the sea of other emails and increase the open rate. In sales terms, this means increasing the chances of getting your message across and warming up leads so you can close more deals.

Another thing worth mentioning is the importance of the Preview Text.

A preview text, aka preheader text, is a line next to the subject line that shows the beginning of your email message. In some cases, preview text can be custom-made if you use newsletter software or similar tools, but in most cases, it shows a preview of your message. That is why it is important to perceive them in synergy rather than separate components to make your sales engagement as effective as you can (but we will talk more about this below).

How to write catchy email subject lines: Tips to get started

Email subject lines’ first and foremost purpose is to get your prospects to open up your email. In other words, you need to catch their attention and entice them towards this action. 

Therefore, make email subject lines mean something. Let’s go through a couple of steps to get started. 

1. Determine the type of subject lines

As a salesperson, especially when doing a cold outreach, your job is to set the tone of the email subject lines. There are many ways to do it - making bold, sweet, or commanding statements - but first, you need to figure out the email content. After that, write down the email core meaning, and choose the type of tone which best fits your outreach message, personality, and prospects’ preferences. 

The usual subject line types for sales are:

2. Straight to the point 

Be clear and concise about your email subject lines whenever you can. The reason is that often prospects prioritize the emails by their subject line and order of reading/replying. For this reason, the email subject line should communicate what the message is all about and its importance. 

Avoid vague subject lines, such as “While I wait for your response”, that doesn't show anything about the email content as it will end up at the bottom of the priority list, and prospects will eventually forget it.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t get crafty with it. You can create wordplay such as “Let’s Taco ‘bout your performance”, create a theme as “Let’s schedule a coffee chat”, or even use the power words to enhance your catchy email subject lines.

3. Power words in email subject lines

Specific words can trigger an emotion in us on a conscious or subconscious level. Let's take the word “happy” for instance. After reading it, you suddenly felt a slight uplift in your mood, didn’t you? What happens with the word “Sad”? You felt slightly down there, correct? 

Words are indeed powerful. So using specific words in subject lines can do the same for your prospect. To be more precise, using Power words can really catch your prospects’ attention and activate an emotion. Furthermore, if you put the Power word at the subject line beginning, it will draw even more attention.

Here are power words example list to catch your prospects’ attention and get them to open up your email:

Note: The important thing is to set expectations with power words, but be careful not to overpromise, as this will only annoy your prospects. And do not go overboard with them.

4. How long should email subject lines be 

On average, email subject lines should ideally be 4 to 7 words. If you need more words, aim for a subject line no longer than 9 words, which is the upper limit. Furthermore, contemporary inboxes can reveal up to 60 characters on average, depending on the email provider. 

Also, keep in mind that some people check their emails on mobile devices, which show only 41 to 50 characters. This roughly translates to 7 to 8 words. Therefore, to lower the number of characters, you need to remove any filler words, such as just, hi, thanks, going to, etc.

Note: If you plan to reach out to your prospects using LinkedIn InMail, you should know that the subject line character limit is 200 characters. Check out our complete guide on how LinkedIn InMail works and 13 InMail templates for a better response rate.

5. Use subject lines and preview texts in synergy

As we mentioned earlier, the preview text is a line of text found next to the subject line. It shows the first couple of words of your email message. In addition, it can show custom text if you use a newsletter software tool. 

Preview text is just as important as the subject line - it is your chance to deepen the message and make it more effective to get your prospects to open up an email. 

Preview text is usually 35 to 90 characters long, depending on the email provider. To make a subject line and preview text work together, it is best to perceive a preview text as a collection of details that didn’t fit the subject line. Here is an example:

Subject line: 🎁 A discount gift for you

Preview text: Happy Women’s Day! Up until the end of March, you get a discount of […]

Note: To convince a prospect to keep on reading the email and perform the desired action, make sure you get your opening paragraph and a Call To Action right.

Email subject lines best practices [and some worst ones to keep away]

Now that we’ve set the email subject lines basic steps, let’s go through the best practices and what you need to avoid.

Subject lines best practices 

1. Personalization

Did you know that personalizing subject lines can increase the open rate by 22.2%? The increase in open rate happens because personalization creates a sense of familiarity in leads. Especially if you found those leads by prospecting on LinkedIn. Furthermore, it comes across as genuine and that you care for them. 

Personalize your email subject lines using the following demographic, psychographic, and firmographic data:

• Interaction with your brand
• Their location
• Years in the company
• Current company
• Interests and values

To gain a full understanding of how powerful personalization in outreach can be, check out our blogs on how to increase the level of personalization in outreach and how to personalize image and GIF to improve response rate.

2. Use emojis In email subject line

In modern days times, emojis can be a nifty tool to spice up your subject line. They are a friend in need to get your point across, make your email stand out in the inbox, and they cost only one character (speaking of saving the space in the subject line :).

To back this up, take a look at the following statistics:

Emojis in subject lines had an open rate of 56% higher than those without them.

Not bad, ha 🧐?

3. Include numbers

Catchy email subject lines that include numbers achieve 45% higher open rates. This way, prospects will perceive your subject line as more precise and attract their attention. Use numbers to state how many tips you send them, time stamps, or statistics to increase the value.

4. Email subject lines specifying time

Providing your prospects with the right information that is in correlation with time will attract their attention as it represents information that is a “current trend”. Nicely timed subject line will increase an open rate, as well as response rate depending on the email body.

Example: 

Here is how to boost your April’s website performance

5. Hint the valuable content

One of the perfect ways to increase the open rate is to give your prospects a sneak peek into the body of the email. This catchy email subject lines’ teaser can be in the form of content that prospects will value, such as images, infographics, and guides with top 5 tips.

Example:

Why Sales Needs To Get Out There And Use Social Selling More (Webinar)

6. Subject line testing

You need to test your email subject lines to be sure you got them just right, and there are a couple of ways you can do it.

A/B testing

Every audience is different, and in some cases, one subject line that worked previously won’t be that effective anymore. And then, there is the following fact:

A/B testing can increase email open rates by 49%.

That is why you need A/B tests as much as possible. In order to do this, take 3 to 5 subject lines and send out those cold outreach emails to check which one has the highest open rate.
For example, in Skylead, you can test different subject lines for your outreach campaigns on autopilot and see which one works best for you.

Online email subject line testers  

Online email subject line testers are nifty tools to have at hand if you are not sure about the effectiveness of your subject lines. Whether you wish to test the emotional tone of voice or the overall effectiveness of your subject lines, you can use tools such as Send Check It, EMV Headline Analyzer, or GradeMyEmail.

Email subject lines DON’Ts

1. Hi there

Avoid phrases such as Hi there, Greetings George, or Hello. The reason is they aren’t specific enough and do not show any hint of what the email message is all about. Instead, draw your prospect’s attention by clearly stating the purpose.

2. Misleading prospects

Being deceptive and promising your prospect one thing in the subject line and showing them another will annoy them. Consequently, you will lose trust and respect instantly. Not to mention, you will fail to close the deal with the prospect forever. Therefore, avoid click baits, or RE: and FWD: entirely just to get them to open up an email.

3. DO NOT USE ALL CAPS OR BUNCH OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!

See how that was unnerving and frenzy-like? Using letters in Caps Lock or with multiple exclamation points is a synonym for spammers these days. It also looks aggressive and distasteful, and you do not wish that for your brand, trust us. Furthermore, if you use this kind of email subject line, you risk getting your emails in the Spam folder. However, Caps Lock and exclamation points are not prohibited - you can always use one from time to time to emphasize your statement, but please do not go overboard.

4. Avoid spammy words

Similar to all-caps-lock words and multiple exclamation points, spam words can also ruin your outreach efforts. These words have been all over the internet for many, many years (not to mention billiards in the 80s) and are now considered repulsive and plain out pushy. 

Here are a couple of examples to watch out for:

• Act Now
• Cash 
• Cheap
• Credit
• Double your ROI
• Earn Extra cash
• Millionaires
• Free
• Fast money
• Get it today

Catchy email subject lines examples and templates

Follow up email subject lines

1. Had a {{Topic}} idea for you since we last spoke 

Example:

Had a social selling idea for you since we last spoke

2. Been thinking about what you said 

3. Should I give up on you and close the file? 

4. I forgot to mention in our meeting that…

5. The final and easy step…

6. Tuesday meeting at 10PM

7. Sending info I promised 👉

8. I spoke with {{ReferredName}} and they said…

Example:

I spoke with Mark, and he said…

9. Down to business - How we can help

10. Need any help?

11. {{firstName}} I need your advice

12. Have 5 minutes for a quick call?

13. I don't expect you to open this email but…

General cold outreach email subject lines

1. ❤️ how you contribute to {{DesiredResult}}

Example:

❤️ how you contribute to closing the deals faster

2. {{firstName}} let’s connect

3. Are you completely happy with {{CompetitorName}}?

4. Get lifetime access to {{SoftwareName}}

5. What are your insights from {{Event}}?

6. The most exciting opportunity for {{Industry}} companies in 2024

Example:

The most exciting opportunity for insurance companies in 2024

7. Saw your amazing post - Interested in creating shared content?

8. Exclusive for {{CompanyName}}: 3 tips to get conversion faster 

9. Congrats on {{Achievement}} 🥳

Example:

Congrats on becoming CEO 🥳

10.  Join forces? 👊

Urgent email subject lines 

1. Do you have these numbers and analytics yet?

2. Hot conversion data insight for {{CurrentMonth}}, 2024

3. Resource on {{Topic}} that’d go great in your {{Topic}} post

Example:

Resource on Email Statistics that’d go great in your Outreach post

4. Omg {{firstName}}...

5. It doesn’t look good

6. 10 must-know trends to keep up on the market

7. Your Free Trial is ending!

8. Save 30% before the New Year

Email subject lines that entice curiosity

1. Everyone’s favorite {{Occupation}} trick is…

Example:

Everyone’s favorite Sales trick is…

2. 🤫 Real secret to {{Task}} or {{Benefit}} is…

Example:

🤫 Real secret to outperform outreach is…

3. About your approach…

4. I have a question about how {{DoingRelevantTask}}

Example:

I have a question about how you handle budgeting

5. Does Thursday work for you? 

6. New year, a new strategy to {{Goal}}

Example:

New year, a new strategy to achieve 50+ conversions a month

7. Are you taking advantage of your detailed reporting?

8. How we accomplished {{DesiredResult}} in 2 months

Example:

How we accomplished 6x more sales in 2 month

9. {{RelevantTopic}} trends that are the talk of the town

Example:

Sales strategy trends that are the talk of the town

10. Save 5 hours a week with {{Task}} on autopilot 

Example:

Save 5 hours a week with outreach on autopilot

11. 56% of {{JobPosition}} use this trick to improve conversion

12. A cheat-sheet for better conversion — Interested?

13. {{Topic}} resources that can help you at this time

Example:

Cold outreach resources that can help you at this time

14. 4 tips to help increase sales during hard times 💪

15. It’s that simple 😃

16. Few in the {{IndustryType}} know about these hacks

17. Pick one out of these 2 strategies

Email subject lines that address pain points

1. How to survive {{PainPoint}}

Example:

How to survive working 10 hours a day

2. 5 easy steps to beat {{PainPoint}}

3. How to deal with {{PainPoint}} 

Example:

How to deal with LinkedIn algorithm

4. 5 Ideas for {{PainPoint}}

5. A resource to help you with {{PainPoint}}

6. How happy are you with {{Department}} performance?

Example:

How happy are you with Sales performance?

7. Steal this strategy from us - It will work for {{PainPoint}} 😁

8. 7 tips for turning {{PainPoint}} around 

9. Proven solution to {{PainPoint}}

10. Tired of {{PainPoint}}? Let’s have a chat

Subject lines that relieve pain and offer solution 

1. The fastest way to reach your Q2 target 💹

2. Here is the shortcut to {{Benefit}} 🙌

Example:

Here is the shortcut to tracking performance easier 🙌

3. Help is on the way - best strategies for LinkedIn lead generation

4. Problem with closing the deals? Here is how to fix it easily

5. Save up 5 hours of work per week

6. {{ProductOrSolution}} empowers companies such as {{CompanyName}} 

7. Ready to implement {{Tool}} to eliminate {{PainPoint}}?

Example:

Ready to implement Skylead to eliminate wasting time on manual outreach?

Personalized email subject lines

1. {{firstName}}, I was researching {{CompanyName}} and…

2. {{ReferredName}} said to reach out to you… 

Example:

Your colleague Steve said to reach out to you…

3. {{ReferredName}} think you’ll love us too

4. {{firstName}} I loved your post on LinkedIn about {{Topic}}

Example:

Sandy, I loved your post on LinkedIn about how to modernize sales

5. Does this work for you {{firstName}}?

6. {{firstName}}, a quick question regarding your performance

7. {{firstName}}, I notice you try to achieve a 50% increase in sales

8. Opportunity for {{CompanyName}}

9. Partner up with {{CompanyName}}

10. {{firstName}}, I have a story for you

11. {{TheirCompetitorName}} VS {{CompanyName}}

12. {{firstName}} perform {{Task}} better from Now on 💪

Example: