A not-so-fun fact I learned after one year as a full-time consultant is that January is when some consulting clients cut back their hours as they revise budgets for the new year. That's okay, but it also meant I needed to dive back into prospecting — identifying new potential clients and working to win their business.

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You likely receive prospecting emails from time to time. I sure do. Many of them are... not good. Emails with subject lines that try to pretend we've already been communicating. Emails with a tone of desperation begging me for a reply. Emails that start off with awkward jokes.

There's no one solution to crafting the perfect email to win new business. But I can offer you some key advice: Make your emails sound human.

I have clients who complain to me that their email sequences aren't working. To be clear, these are email sequences to email addresses that haven't opted into anything yet. Spoiler alert: That's why they're not working. Automated sequences of emails to people who don't know you are a waste of everyone's time.

The reason those emails don't work? The reason most sales emails don't work? They're not personal. Writing great emails takes effort. If you have a list of 100 prospects, it's easier to send them all one message, I know it. But it's far less effective.

Take the hour or two to write to each lead individually. Yes, you can copy and paste a bunch as needed. But you also must take the time to research the company you're writing to. "I see you just launched Project Foxtrot." "I note that you recently announced a new deal with so-and-so." "I love your logo, because it looks like the mascot for my favorite team."

I'm not saying those are all A+ lines, but they absolutely show your recipient that you, a real live human, wrote the message.

Our email app junk detectors are good. Our brains' junk detectors are even better. We are so incredibly good at weeding out crap. So the trick is — don't be crap. Write careful, thoughtful, personalized emails.

It's harder. It's slower. But it's far more effective than the alternative.

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