Sales Email Problem Framing Examples

Your customers should be writing your outbound messaging. I had a bit of an epiphany last week. It’s something that all the best outbound sales people do but I’ve never really been able to break it down this simply in a single sentence before: People that are great at outbound are very good at finding the *repeatable phrases* that prospects use to describe a problem and use those exact words to describe the problem to other similar prospects in their outreach. Example: When we were selling RFP Response Software at Loopio in the early days, sales leaders would consistently talk about how they: 1. "Already answered this question in the past but it was lost in a Google Doc somewhere and impossible to find again" 2. "Had to Ctrl + F in a word doc, copy the answer and paste it into the RFP over and over again" We heard these phrases like clockwork. Hundreds of times... -------- So here's how you use those repeatable phrases in an email to resonate: Hi Mindy, It looks like the team is looking to go up-market with the new job posting up for an Enterprise AE. Going up-market usually means responding to more RFPs. Most enterprise sellers I talk to consistently mention how annoying it is to spend HOURS having to go back to an old RFP, Ctrl + F to find an answer and copy/paste back in...for hundreds of questions. Loopio could help you answer all those questions with one click so you can focus on selling. Sound interesting? ---------- This type of email got us hundreds of meetings because it clicked with everybody that responded to RFPs. So the question becomes.... what are your repeatable phrases? #sales #outbound #prospecting

Most reps don’t give problem statements the time and attention they need. It should feel like you spent *way* too much time on the problem. Especially in a complex deal, where you need lots of people to agree on: [1] The Problem’s Framing. e.g. “Are MQL’s dropping because return on ad spend is down? Search ranking is dropping? Not capturing organic traffic?” [2] The Problem’s Cost. e.g. “Is this really something we want to spend * that * amount of money on right now?” [3] The Problem’s Priority Level. e.g. “Yes, that’s frustrating, but it’s not really a ‘problem’ because it’s not blocking any type of strategic project.” Here's an example. Say we're thinking about capturing leads on a website. [1 + 2] Start with costs + framing: "Every month, at least 50,000 visitors hit our site, but only 1% convert on our site forms, vs. our target of 2%, costing us 500 conversations per month. (Roughly $2.5 million in ACV based on the current sales funnel.) ^ Not every problem is that "measurable." But the overall framework is: "Every [ frequency ], at least [ reach ] are affected by [ frame the problem ], costing us [ cost ]." [3] Next, layer in consequences to a strategic priority: "Which means we’re spending more on paid ads to hit our targets, driving up our CAC. If this isn’t addressed by the start of Q1, we’ll miss both our revenue and our CAC targets — forcing us to raise at a lower valuation in an already tough capital market." ^ Notice the key phrases here: "Which means... [ negative outcomes]. If that’s not addressed by [ timing ], then, [ it gets worse ]." If you can’t frame a high-cost, high-priority problem, your deal will stall. It’s just a matter of time. If you can write a clear problem statement everyone agrees on, you’ll win. It’s just a matter of time.

Marketers understand something sellers forget: Nobody starts an ad with the clean carpet. They start with the kid spilling spaghetti on it. Show the problem before you sell the solution. Kimberly Pencille Collins from #samsales Consulting showed a room full of over 100 ICs from Sales Assembly member companies an Airbnb ad that demonstrates this perfectly: Four friends at a party. Having a great time. Event ends. They all go back to their separate hotel rooms. Doors close. Party's over. Then the voiceover: "Pay for four hotel rooms to stay apart? When you could get one Airbnb and stay together." Story first. Value prop second. Most cold emails do the exact opposite. They lead with the solution before establishing why you should care. Look folks, your buyer isn't thinking about your product. They're thinking about their budget meeting, their boss, their actual problems. You have to emotionally prime them before you can sell them anything. Think about it this way: Tide doesn't open their ads with advanced stain-fighting technology. They open with wine on a white dress. The messy reality you'll recognize. THEN they show you the solution. Sales emails skip straight to the solution and wonder why nobody responds. The fix requires more work but it's simple: 1. Show the situation first. What's frustrating them right now? What challenge are similar buyers facing? 2. Then introduce your solution. Once they're nodding along thinking "that's exactly my problem," now you can explain how you fix it. Here's what this looks like in practice: Don't lead with: "We train sales teams on LinkedIn Sales Navigator to generate more pipeline." Lead with: "Most sales leaders bought LinkedIn Sales Navigator licenses for their team. Expensive licenses. Then noticed nobody's using them. Not because the platform doesn't work - because reps don't understand how to use it as a lead generation machine." Now that VP of Sales is thinking: "Wait, are you watching me right now?" That's emotional priming. That's storytelling. That's GETTING THEM TO CARE before you tell them what you do. Your buyers probably know what your product category does. They don't need feature education. They need you to show them why their current situation isn't working for them specifically. Story creates urgency. Features don't.

𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸, 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺'𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝟭%. "It's just the market," they insisted. "Nobody answers emails anymore." I wasn't convinced. So I pulled up their templates alongside thousands of others I've analyzed over the years, and the patterns were immediately clear. The emails that consistently get responses in today's crowded inboxes aren't the ones with the catchiest subject lines or the most persistent follow-ups. They're the ones that feel like they were written by a human being who's done their homework. Looking through my swipe file of emails with 30%+ response rates, I found myself returning to five core approaches that just work: I call the first one "The Pattern Interrupt" – where instead of saying what everyone else says, you notice something specific and ask a genuine question about it: "I noticed you recently shifted your messaging from security-focused to efficiency-focused. I'm curious what prompted that change?" Then there's what I call "The Contrarian Insight" – where you respectfully challenge conventional wisdom with actual data: "While analyzing conversion patterns across 50 companies in your industry, we discovered something that contradicts the common belief about [specific topic]. I'd be happy to share what we found if it might be useful." My personal favorite is "The Genuine Connection" – where you reference something they've created and add actual value to the conversation: "Your recent post about sales enablement challenges really resonated because I've been wrestling with the same issues. Have you considered [thoughtful question related to their perspective]?" For every client I work with, we build a custom "Message Testing Framework" where we develop variations of these templates specifically for their market, then test them with small batches (about 20-50 prospects each). 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨 – 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨. 𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙨. 𝘼 𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙗𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝-𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙨 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙥𝙚𝙧. What consistently works across industries is specificity that shows you've done homework, offering value before asking for anything, and genuine curiosity rather than formulaic personalization. And brevity matters – almost every high-performing email I've analyzed is five sentences or fewer. Which of these approaches would make YOU respond? I'm genuinely curious. #SalesEmails #ProspectingTemplates #OutboundSales

Here's how I write a cold email to an Enterprise account, without pitching a solution. - CEO spoke about X (x = observation about a strategic objective their business is pursuing) - Not sure if you're seeing Y (y = hypothesized problem that commonly occurs as a result of that objective) - Are you weighing the pros and cons of A vs B? (A & B = two possible actions their business might take to address that problem; ex: hire a dedicated ENT sales team vs. upskill their existing MMKT sales team) - If so, ALPHA company was in a similar spot. Open to hearing how they thought through it? - Either way, great to see X. Instead of leading with our solution, we're leading with insight into how others have thought through the problem. Not sure how to fill in the "A&B" section? Go back to deals your team won. How were those accounts solving the problem before they bought from you? (Tip: go to the call recording of that first call and listen for how they were currently solving the problem) And, what other categories of spend (not direct competitors) did they evaluate in addition to your solution? Ex: when I was selling sales methodology, I wasn't just competing against other sales training companies. I was competing against sales tech, re-orgs, hiring, etc.

I’ve coached thousands of sellers on how to create the perfect sales pitch using a framework called the 5 P’s. Until today, I have never shared this with anybody except my coaching clients. Here’s why it’s so effective: when most companies create a first call deck or sales pitch, they make it all about their own company and how great they are.   𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬! The reason why is simple: customers don’t care about your products and services. They care about themselves, achieving their goals, and solving their own problems. Yet most pitch decks fail to speak to the problems which customers face and the pains they are causing. That’s why I created a framework which focuses solely on the customer’s challenges and how your solution can solve them. 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟓 𝐏’𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐏 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫: 𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦: What problem do most prospects you work with face that your company can solve? The problem should be very high level, and important to Senior Executives at the company. It should be a business problem, not a technical problem. For example, if I sell CRM, the problem I solve would be rep underperformance, low rep productivity, or missed forecasts. All of which are important to a CRO or CEO. 𝟐. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧: Why does the problem exist? What is the root cause of the problem? By understanding the source of the problem, you demonstrate credibility and establish immediate trust with prospects because you are speaking their language. In the above example, I could say that reps often miss their forecasts because leadership has poor visibility to their sales pipeline and no way to accurately predict which deals are most likely to close, all of which a CRM solves for. 𝟑. 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧: What pain is the problem causing? The pain is always focused on the metrics that are impacted by the problem. For example, missed forecasts could mean a reduction in stock prices, missed revenue targets, and sales layoffs. 𝟒. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞: How does your company solve the problem? The promise should always solve the primary reasons you just outlined. So for example, AI driven forecasting would prevent inaccurate manual forecasting and low visibility to deals. 𝟓. 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐟𝐟: What metrics do you positively impact by solving the problem? Key payoff metrics for a CRM would be improved rep quota attainment, productivity, and accurate forecasting, all of which drive top line revenue & profitability. In this week's training video, I walk you through how to create the perfect sales pitch using the 5 P framework. You can find the training here: https://lnkd.in/gmu_Bdu3 PS - If you want to access a copy of the Problem Mapping Template so you can fill out the 5 P’s for your own solutions, get it here: https://lnkd.in/gASNe_em

🚨 Bad B2B Marketing Agency: Our client offers cybersecurity solutions. Let's create ads explaining their service and run them across every platform. The more people we reach, the better the chances of making sales. 👍🏽 Good B2B Marketing Agency: Our client offers cybersecurity solutions, but generic messaging won't cut through the noise. Instead, let's segment their audience and tailor messages to specific industries: - Manufacturing: Emphasise supply chain optimisation. - Healthcare: Highlight data security and compliance. - Finance: Focus on real-time analytics and reporting. By tailoring the messaging to each sector, the campaign should be effective. 🚀 Great B2B Marketing Agency: No one cares about cyber security, we need to make them care. So we’re going to wrap up our ICP’s key problems and desires into stories. Example: Key problem: They have valuable data and are afraid of being hacked. Key desire: To feel secure and worry-free with their IT. Story: "3 years ago, Amazon lost $121 million in 31 seconds due to a hack. In just 31 minutes a hacker: - Found a hole in their IT. - Manipulated it. - Stole $121M. The irony is, that would have never happened if they had just done the same simple security check we do for our clients every day…. etc etc” But a great story alone is worthless… So, we’ll amplify it by sharing the story across key employee brands. These receive 20x more views than company pages (on average). Over the next 6 weeks, we’ll share different stories that highlight key problems our ICP is dealing with. This will do 3 things: - Keep the problems top of mind. - Associate our client with those problems. - Position our clients as the go-to solution for them. Then we’ll launch a “Bridge resource” focused on helping them solve the issues we’ve been highlighting. We’ll give it an outcome-focused title like: “7 Simple Ways To Avoid IT Hacks in 2024” Our warm leads will come out of the woodwork and showcase interest when they download it. We’ll run the people who sign up through an email sequence which pushes them to book sales calls & demos. Our clients will have prospects queuing up to work with them. 💡 We’ve run this same process for over 150 clients now in various industries, it works every time. At the end of the day, marketing is about communicating to your ICP that you solve a key problem they have. This story system does just that. P.S. Follow me to learn how to use stories to get your company noticed Niall Ratcliffe 📚

The Power of the Problem Statement: Why Framing Matters The problem statement dictates whether your audience—executives, cross-functional teams, or decision-makers—sees the customer friction(s) as critical or dismisses it as just another CX initiative. How you frame the problem has a direct impact on whether it gets prioritized. This isn’t just about describing what’s wrong; it’s about creating a narrative that ties the problem to what the business values most: revenue, cost efficiency, competitive advantage, or strategic growth. Why Framing the Problem Correctly Matters - 1/ It Defines the Stakes A well-framed problem statement makes it impossible to ignore the issue. It connects customer pain to business risks, such as revenue loss, increased costs, or reputational damage. 2/ It Aligns to Strategic Priorities A problem that doesn’t align with company goals will never get prioritized. By framing the issue in terms of strategic objectives—like growing revenue, reducing costs, or improving operational efficiency—you ensure it gets attention. Key Question for CX Pros: What are the top 3-5 strategic goals our CEO or leadership team discusses in internal meetings? How does this problem impact those goals? 3/ It Creates Urgency A strong problem statement emphasizes why the issue is escalating and what the business risks by delaying action. Without urgency, even well-framed problems can be deprioritized. Key Question for CX Pros: What’s getting worse if we don’t act now? How will this impact the business in the next quarter, year, or longer? How to Write a Prioritizable Problem Statement 1/ Start with Frequency and Reach Specify how often the issue occurs and how many customers or employees are impacted. Key Question: How widespread is this problem, and how often does it happen? 2/ Quantify the Impact Include measurable costs, such as revenue loss, increased expenses, or churn. Key Question: What is the financial or operational cost of this issue to the business? 3. Tie It to a Strategic Goal Explain how the problem impacts a key business objective, such as revenue growth, efficiency, or market competitiveness. Key Question: What company-wide goal is this problem jeopardizing? 4. Show the Escalating Risks Highlight why the problem is worsening and what the business risks by not addressing it. Key Question: What happens if we don’t fix this now? See 👇 examples for strong / weak problem framing statements.

Are your sales emails so ‘nice’ they’re costing you deals? Here’s the brutal truth: wimpy, apologetic emails get ignored. If you’re typing 'sorry to bother you' or 'I hope this finds you well,' your prospects are already scrolling past. Weak vibes don’t win. Confidence does. After working with hundreds of clients (and seeing countless sales pitches), I’ve spotted the fix. Ditch the fluff—try these rewrites: Weak: 'I’d love to show you our software sometime.' Bold: 'We cut ABC Corp’s downtime 50% by locking out ransomware. Want that? Let’s talk.' Weak: 'I think our solution could help…' Bold: 'Our solution stops IT-OT chaos cold.' (No 'think.' Own it.) Weak: 'Just wanted to share some info…' Bold: 'Here’s how we’ll save your production line—based on your last earnings call.' Prospects skim. TL;DR kills deals. Short, punchy, problem-solving emails win every time. CEO tip: Write like your product’s a game-changer. It is. Stop tiptoeing—clarity and guts close sales. This hit home? Smash that Like, drop your best email hack in the comments, or share this with your team. Let’s kill the 'nice' epidemic together! #SalesTips #EmailHacks #Copywriting #BusinessGrowth #Leadership