How to write the first email to a company that doesn't know you

A purchasing director or a managing director gets dozens of emails a week from suppliers they don't know. Almost all of them look the same: they start by talking about the sender, explain everything they do and end by asking for a half-hour meeting. Most are deleted before they are finished. The first email doesn't have to sell anything: it only has to get a reply.

Before writing: three questions

Who are you writing to? The person who makes that purchasing decision, with a name and a job title. An email to "info@" or "purchasing@" rarely reaches the person who decides.
Why now? A real, recent reason to write: a trade fair they are exhibiting at, a new plant, a new hire, a new market. We explain it in how to know which companies need what you make.
What can you offer that helps them even if they don't buy? Something concrete and with no strings attached: a list, a fact about their market, an idea applied to their case. If you can't think of anything useful, you are not ready to write yet.

The structure: four lines

The greeting, with their name. Nothing else. No "I hope you're well".
Their industry's problem, told as something that often happens. Without claiming it happens to them or pointing fingers: "In industry X it's common that…". If you have a real signal about their company, the first sentence comes from there.
What you do, in one sentence, connected to that problem. Not your story or your list of services.
A yes-or-no question that offers something concrete: "Shall I send you…?". It is much easier to answer than "when do you have half an hour?".

All in all, it should fit on a phone screen without scrolling. We set ourselves a limit of about 500 characters.

The subject line

Short, concrete and without tricks: no capitals, no "urgent" and no promised results. Better something that sounds like a work conversation than an advert, for example "New distributors for [company]" or "Projects before the contract is awarded".

What to leave out

Introducing yourself in the first paragraph.
Attachments and several links: they look like advertising and hurt delivery.
Jargon: "synergies", "solutions", "leverage", "leads".
Figures without a source and success stories you can't show.
Saying you've seen their website or catalogue if it isn't true: it shows straight away.

An example (fictitious)

Subject: New distributors for Example Machinery

Hi Laura,

In machinery it's common for the distributor network to grow at the pace of trade fairs: a new country every two or three years, and markets with demand that stay uncovered.

We spot which distributors in other countries fit what you make and open the conversation with the person who decides.

Shall I send you five distributors that fit your machinery?

The company and the person are made up; the structure is the one we use.

The follow-ups

Many people reply to the second or third message, not the first. But each follow-up has to add something new, not just "did you see my email?":

A few days later, a different idea about their industry and the same offer.
Then, a short question that helps them think about their own case.
Finally, a polite close: if now isn't the right time, you leave it there.

Two non-negotiable rules: follow-ups stop as soon as they reply, and anyone can ask you to stop writing and it is respected immediately.

The technical part nobody sees

A good email is useless if it lands in the spam folder. Before writing to companies that don't know you, send from your own properly configured domain (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), start with a few sends a day and write only to verified, well-chosen contacts. Twenty good messages are better than 500 identical ones.

How to do it continuously

Writing a good first email is easy. Doing it every week for dozens of companies, with a real reason for each one, follow-ups that stop on their own and a record of everything, is what ends up being dropped. That's why we run it for you: we find the companies that fit, write to the person who decides and hand you the conversation when there is interest. See how we approach it for machinery, technical textiles or contract furniture.