Strangers don't care about your company

I reviewed 200+ cold emails last month.

The same mistake showed up in almost every single one.

The first line was about the sender.

"Hi [Name], I'm Jake from JX Creative and we help B2B companies..."

Delete. Next.

"Hi [Name], we've helped 50+ companies grow their pipeline..."

Delete. Next.

"Hi [Name], I noticed your company is hiring..."

Wait. That one's different.

The emails that get deleted talk about YOU. The emails that get replies talk about THEM.

Your prospect opens your email with one question in their head: "Why should I care?"

If your first sentence is about your company, your product, or your results — you've already lost them.

But if your first sentence is about THEIR company, THEIR problem, or THEIR situation — you've earned the next line.

Every cold email that books meetings follows the same 4-part formula:

1. Personalized callout — Reference something specific about their company, their role, or their industry. Not . Something a human would notice.

2. Pain point question — Ask about a problem relevant to their situation. Don't assume they have it. Ask. "Are you running into X?" works. "I know you're struggling with X" doesn't.

3. Value prop + credibility — One sentence. What you do + one proof point. "We helped [similar company] book 15 qualified calls in their first month." Done.

4. CTA — One question. Low friction. "Worth a conversation?" or "Open to seeing how this works?"

That's it. 4 lines. 75 words. No essays. No company bios. No feature lists.

A real example from a campaign we ran last month:

"Hey Sarah, saw that Ridgeline just opened a Denver office. Growing teams usually mean growing pipeline pressure.

We helped a fintech company in a similar spot book 47 qualified calls in 60 days using cold email.

Worth a quick look?"

42 words. 12% reply rate.

Compare that to what most people send — 200 words about their company, a bulleted feature list, and "Let me know if you'd like to schedule a call at your earliest convenience."

One talks about Sarah. The other talks about you.

Know their world. Ask about their problems. Prove you can solve them. Make it easy to say yes.

If your emails aren't getting replies, go read your last 5 campaigns. Count how many sentences are about you vs. about them.

That ratio is your answer.

Hit reply and send me your worst-performing cold email. I'll tell you exactly what's wrong with it.

P.S. If you want to skip the DIY version and have us build your cold email system for you, I'm happy to talk through whether it makes sense. [Book a call here]

P.P.S. If this was useful, forward it to someone whose cold emails sound like a LinkedIn pitch deck. They need this more than they know.