Why long sales emails fail on mobile

Long, complex emails don’t make me think you're smart. They tell me you don't understand basic buyer behavior. Your prospects aren’t reading your sales emails. They’re skimming. They’re standing in line at Starbucks, cleaning out their inbox. They’re looking for a reason to delete, not to reply. If your email doesn’t pass the 1, 10, 100 test - it’s getting ignored I teach this framework to every sales team I work with. It’s simple and it works. Here’s how to apply it: 1 = One clear call to action Do not ask for a meeting, feedback, interest, and availability in the same message. You get one ask. Make it count. 10 = The first 10 words must earn attention This is your subject line + preview text. It’s the only thing your prospect sees before deciding to open or delete. If those 10 words don’t create curiosity or show relevance, it’s over. 100 = Keep your total word count under 100 The average exec scans an email for 3–4 seconds. If they can't get context immediately, your email is an auto-delete. Make it short. Make it relevant. Make it easy to reply. The 1, 10, 100 Rule isn’t about oversimplifying your message. It’s about respecting how buyer's interact with cold email so you can deliver more value and earn more engagement. 📌 Remember RELEVANCE is essential. Don't think a well-formatted email replaces the need to say something that matters to the reader. ✨ Enjoyed this post? Make sure to hit FOLLOW for daily posts about B2B sales, leadership, entrepreneurship and mindset.

Sure, cold email is hard right now. But dude, we gotta stop playing the blame game. It's not because of poor deliverability rates. It's not because of spam filters. And it's not because people don't use email anymore. It's because your email probably sucks. You use copy/paste templates. Sending the same emails to multiple people with different jobs. And not personalizing. What do you expect to happen? Alright, rant over. Let's talk about what to do about it. Lesson today: Make sure your emails are "mobile ready." Lavender 💜 has some great data on cold emails: - Prospects are 8x more likely to open emails on their phone - Short and mobile-optimized emails see 83% more replies - Emails under 50 words get 60% more replies than emails with 150+ words If your emails aren’t short and mobile-optimized, you will not likely get a response. - Word count: Keep emails under 75 words - Mobile ready: Use short, 1-2 sentence paragraphs The basic formula looks like this: ✅ Reason: Why you’re reaching out to the prospect ✅ Problem: Speaks to the prospect’s potential problem(s) ✅ Social proof: References relevant work with similar companies ✅ Call-To-Action (CTA): Speaks to prospect’s priorities and problems === Example #1: A company that sells electronic document capture software to clinical operations leaders Subject line variations:  - FAPI - Startup timelines - FDA approval Hi Frank, Reason 👉 Saw that you just got FDA approval to proceed with the Fibroblast Activation Protein Inhibitor (FAPI) clinical trial. Problem 👉 As you launch this trial, we usually hear that manual paper systems and Excel databases create extra work that could delay startup dates. Social Proof 👉 We’re helping operations leaders capture trial data more easily to shorten startup timelines to under 4 weeks. CTA 👉 Worth a quick chat? Jason === Example #2: A company that sells software to help contact centers reduce incoming calls Subject: Interconnection cost reduction Reason 👉 Saw the announcement of the interconnection cost reduction initiative, Anne. Problem 👉 Usually, that means there’s a focus on reducing incoming support calls and pushing customers to self-serve. Support leaders oftentimes run into challenges knowing which digital investments are actually deflecting calls. Social Proof 👉 We helped Constellation dramatically reduce cost to serve by finding the sources of increased call volumes. CTA 👉 Can I share those insights with you? === You can't get away with mediocre cold emails anymore. Tighten up your message. Optimize for mobile. And invest more time to improve your copywriting skills. Tomorrow, I'm partnering up with ZoomInfo to teach the Cold Email playbook we've taught to AE/SDR teams at Shopify, Gong, Rippling, Zoom, and many more. Register here to join us: https://hubs.ly/Q02_Y0fW0

I reviewed 367+ emails last year from SDRs & AEs Here's the common mistakes. - 40% of them had no trigger / observation - it was just generic " We do x y z" - 73% of them had above 70 words - that's too long for your prospect to read - 83% of them had no thought how it looked on mobiles - large blocks of text - 68% of them had complex terms related to their industry - it's confusing - 34% of them had a long complex CTA - the ask was super unclear Remember these basic rules with writing cold emails: - Keep your email under 75 words - Make it mobile-friendly - break text up - Keep it relevant - have a reason for the email - Focus on one pain per email - don't feature slam - Have a clear CTA - interest-based or a lead magnet A quick test with all emails Read it out and ask yourself, would I respond to this? If the answer is anything else apart from yes, re-do it. I’ll be talking about my biggest cold email hacks on my newsletter “Sell Smarter” tomorrow Check it out in the comments to sign up!👇

Your cold emails are too long. Full stop. The research shows that emails between 74-100 words get the highest response rates. Why shorter works: → Mobile-first world - Most emails are read on phones  → Attention spans - You have 3-5 seconds to hook them  → Cognitive load - Busy executives scan, they don't read  → Easier decisions - Less content = faster yes/no How to cut the fluff: 👉 Before (143 words): "Hi John, I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out because I noticed that your company has been growing rapidly, and with that growth often comes challenges around managing commission calculations for your expanding sales team. I've been helping companies similar to yours solve this exact problem, and I thought you might be interested in learning about how we've helped organizations like Gong reduce their commission calculation time from 5 hours to 5 minutes while improving accuracy to within 2%. I'd love to schedule a brief 15-minute call to discuss how this might apply to your specific situation. Would you be available next Tuesday or Wednesday for a quick conversation? Please let me know what works best for your schedule." 👉 After (74 words): "Hi John, Noticed you have 150+ reps which suggests you're hard-pasting Excel into Google Sheets for commission calculations. Built an app that calculates payouts for hundreds of reps in 5 minutes even if you have complex rules. Gong reduced their time from 5 hours to 5 minutes - accuracy within 2%. Worth exploring?" The editing process: 1. Write your first draft 2. Cut everything that isn't essential 3. Count words 4. Cut 25% more 5. Read it out loud 6. Cut again Every word must earn its place. What's your current average email length? 

Do you know where people are opening your emails? A lot of the emails that I see are specifically designed for desktops… When in reality, over 75% of consumers say they check their emails most often on mobile devices. And if your emails aren’t optimized for mobile devices, then you could be in trouble. There’s nothing worse than an email where: – The formatting is all over the place – Subject and preview lines are snipped in half – It’s jammed to the brim with long paragraphs that look like a research paper These types of emails are nightmares for businesses. They drop engagement, lose your customers’ trust, and actually push people away from your brand… So when you’re writing your next email, please make sure that it’s mobile-friendly!