Three case studies
Cold email prospecting the Don Corleone way
Secure more first sales meetings with senior decision makers.
Case study 1 is in the first part of Cold Email Prospecting
Case study 2
AB Seals, a supplier of premium pump and valve seals
(Note: This case study is based on the sales planning I facilitated for a seal and gasket manufacturer. AB Seals, Premier and Petrocorp are invented names to protect the company. Figures and percentages are also invented to protect confidential information.)
Background to the case study
The seals are used in valves, pumps and isolators, to prevent leaking
Target prospects:
Petrochemical and chemical production plants and manufacturers.
The sales challenge:
The company’s ‘Premier’ range of seals are over three times the price of the industry standard products sold by competitors, however they are less likely to leak and last thirty percent longer on average before needing replacement.
There is no immediate pay-back from changing to Premier seals. Pay-back doesn’t start to kick-in for over a year, perhaps longer.
Most buyers and plant maintenance managers have constrained budgets and are unable to pay more to buy the Premier seals. Most are also risk averse and unwilling to try something new or recommend to senior management a change that may not deliver an immediate or short-term payback.
Step 1: Target the right decision maker
AB Seal’s sales team previously approached buyers or plant maintenance managers. Both are constrained by a budget and tasked to reduce replacement part costs. If you did manage to convince them that ‘Premier’ seals are the better long-term buy, they would then need to get approval to buy from the Production Director or higher authority.
Are buyers or plant maintenance managers motivated to do this? And can you trust them to do a good selling job on your behalf?
ABC Seal’s sales and marketing director and team decide to target CEOs and Production Directors with a campaign focused on investing today for medium and longer term production increases and lower maintenance costs.
Step 2: Identify the most effective bait
Based on feedback from existing customers that have used Premier seals for several years, the sales and marketing team brainstormed the advantages to prospective customers.
- Because Premier seals leaked less and last thirty percent long, customers have progressively fewer planned or unplanned maintenance shutdowns. Past customers reported increase production output of between two and three percent in the second year.
One large petrochemical plant increased annual production output by several million pounds. - Premier’s seals deliver almost a hundred times their investment cost in outcome benefit over two to three years. A financial no brainer!
- One of AB Seals major customers reported that the time spent replacing leaking seals reduced by 26% over the previous year. They benefited from a significant reduction in planned and unplanned maintenance costs and plant shutdown time and cost. Another no brainer!
- Reduced leakages also increase site safety and improve the environmental footprint. What’s not to like.
The sales and marketing team asked their current customers for testimonies (validations of the outcomes and benefits) as well as case studies to support their claims for Premier seals. These are powerful and essential selling tools for a sales and marketing team.
Step 3: Let’s write the sales email
Start with a compelling subject line:
The only function of the subject line is to capture attention and seduce the target decision maker to read what comes next, with the expectation of discovering something of real value to their business.
‘Premier’s new valve seal boosts refinery output by £2.2m’ ( 56 characters )
‘Production increases after change to ‘Premier’ seals’ ( 52 characters )
‘Premier seals increase Petrocorp production output’ ( 51 characters )
(Only if your customer Petrocorp gives you permission to refer to them.)
The body copy
The email copy picks up on the headline and develops the main argument for agreeing to a phone conversation or meeting. Notice that the content of the email touches on plant shutdowns (a costly problem) and production increase without additional production cost. It focuses on future outcomes that specifically attract a senior decision maker.
Dear Mr Jones
Just over a year ago Petrocorp in Sunderland, as well as several other European refineries, ran a program to replace their industry standard valve and pump seals with our high performance Premier range.
Typically, planned and unplanned maintenance shutdowns, to replace leaking seals, typically reduced by 14% in the first year, delivering an average 2.3% increase in production output, and for practically no additional production cost.
Continuing their replacement program, Petrocorp project a further reduction in their maintenance shutdowns as they replace all their other industry standard seals over the next two years, further increasing their production output.
Please can we meet to discuss?
Please call me on 01234 123456.
Alternatively, please reply to this email with a convenient time for me to call you, or your secretary, to diary a brief exploratory discussion or meeting.
Best wishes
John Foster
Senior Account Manager
(If you have a case study for Petrocorp, include an offer in the email to post them a copy. Yes post not email. Post gets delivered to them directly and sits on their desks. Emails can get lost in a busy inbox and may never be read.)
© Mike Kingston 2026
Case study 3
An accountancy practice targeting smaller businesses
Background
ABC Accountants target smaller owner-managed businesses.
The sales challenges
- Almost every small business owner already uses an accountancy firm and fewer than one in a hundred are actively considering changing. If approached, 99% say they are happy with their present accountant – even though some aren’t.
- Many owners of smaller businesses mistakenly believe that changing their accountant will be difficult and time consuming and a change will show little benefit. The devil you know…
Step 1: Identify the most effective bait
The accountancy firm’s partners first brainstormed the advantages for smaller businesses that change to their services. Advantages they can use as bait in their emails.
Many of their current clients confirmed that after changing to ABC Accountants the time taken to do their day-to-day and year-end accounts reduced by 30% to 40%, sometime more. This released time for these business owners or directors to focus more time on their business and enjoy more time with their family or hobbies.
The accountancy partners decided to make this the focus of their email and telemarketing sales campaign.
Step 2: Write the sales email
They explore compelling subject lines
‘Small business? How to cut your accounts admin time by half’ ( 59 characters )
‘Owners of small business halve accounts admin time’ ( 52 characters )
‘Are your evenings and weekends spent doing the accounts?’ ( 54 characters )
They write the body of the email
The email copy picks up on the headline and develops the main argument for wanting to find out more. Notice that the initial content of the email is about reduced accounts admin time, something the owners of all smaller businesses want.
Dear Mr Jones
Do you spend some of your evenings and weekends keeping up with your accounts, when you could be relaxing with your family and enjoying life.
Perhaps we can help.
After joining us, every one of our small-business clients reduced the time it takes them to keep up with their day-to-day and monthly accounts. Some even halved the time.
They now have more time on their business as well as more time for the family or hobbies. And easier accounts can also mean less work for us and that lowers your accountancy fees.
Can we help you as well?
Our first task, with every new client, is to find ways to simplify the accounts and make them quicker and easier for you to do. That also means you can get invoices out faster and get paid sooner.
We also look for different ways to reduce the amount of tax your business, and you personally, are required to pay. Many of our new clients now keep more of the money they earn. That’s more money to invest in your business or more money in your pocket. Perhaps both. And as Chartered Accountants, we ensure your tax and VAT submissions fully conform.
And don’t worry. Changing to our accountancy service is quick and easy, we can manage the change-over for you.
If you would like to explore how you can spend less time on your accounts, free up time and pay yourself more, please call me, Jane Foster on 01234 123456 to discover the possibilities.
Alternatively, please reply to this email with a convenient time for me to call you. And an initial exploratory discussion is always free.
Best wishes
Jane Foster Chartered Accountant,
Partner
ABC Accountants.
© Mike Kingston 2026
Case study 4
A digital marketing agency targeting larger companies
(Note: This case study is based on a digital agency that gave me feedback after attending one of my Chamber training courses. They achieve a 320% increase in contact requests from target prospects on their first use of this email approach. AB Digital Marketing and Smith & Jones Insurance are invented names to protect the real company. Figures and percentages are also camouflaged to protect confidential information.)
Background
AB Digital Marketing specialise in email and social media marketing. In this case study they created a targeted email prospecting campaign to generate new leads and enquiries for their prospective customer’s sales team to follow-up.
Step 1: Identify the most effective bait
AB Digital Marketing’s sales planning team researched the outcomes their customers achieved by using their services. They asked their customers questions like this: ‘Did the sales leads from our digital marketing campaign encourage your salespeople to spend more time on new customer development.’
Customer feedback confirmed that their email prospecting campaigns generated a reliable flow of high quality leads for their sales teams. Nine out of ten customers confirmed they had secured a valuable number of new customers, significantly reducing their cost of sale. (The reduced cost of sale included AB Digital Marketing’s fees.)
Step 2: Give decision makers a compelling reason to read your email
From the client research, the digital agency identified three significant outcomes for their target customers. In order of importance these are:
- Salespeople approach many more potential customers
- Increase in new customers and sales income
- Reduced selling cost, increased competitiveness and higher profitability
They asked several of their loyal customers if they can mention their success when they approached other companies or write a case study, with the assurance they would not communicate sensitive information to their competitors. They offered incentives to get endorsements and case studies.
Step 3: Let’s write the sales email
Write a subject line they feel compelled to read:
‘40% increase in new contracts for Smith & Jones Construction’ ( 59 characters )
* Change your reference customer so they are relevant to the different prospects you approach. And do make sure you have your customer’s permission to mention them.
‘Email marketing doubles new accounts for Sheffield caterers’ ( 60 characters )
‘Email marketing wins 30% more customers for fabricator’ ( 55 characters )
If you’re not sure what subject line is best, write some alternatives then pick the best two and test each on a small number of prospects. You might then like to test the winner against other, new subject lines, just to be sure you get the best.
The body of the email:
This example targets the chief executives of regional Insurance Brokers.
Be wary of targeting people responsible for sales or marketing. In the past they may have had a poor experience with their own or another agency’s digital marketing and convinced the boss that it wasn’t for them. They will probably block you. That’s why it is important to target senior decision makers who have the most to gain. Like the following example targeting the CEO’s of Insurance brokers county wide.
Dear Mr Jones
Smith and Jones Insurance of Cambridge secure 37% more new clients
(Generic version: Leading Cambridge insurance broker secures 37% more new clients)
Smith and Jones Insurance supported their sales team throughout 2025 with our targeted lead-generation digital marketing campaign. From the start, the campaign attracted 37% more new clients over the previous year, with a significantly lower cost-of-sale ( with the digital campaign costs included ) and with an increased profit margin.
To discover how our digital marketing campaign achieved this for Jones Insurance, please call me, James Parker, on 01234 123456.
Alternatively, please reply to this email with a convenient time for me to call you, or your secretary, to arrange a brief, exploratory discussion.
Best wishes
James Parker, Partner
AB Digital Marketing.
© Mike Kingston 2026
Want to read future b2b sales articles?
In the coming months my new articles will cover:
- Why every b2b salesperson must fear a buyer’s objections – And how to avoid objections killing your sale.
- Until you give these three reassurances no prospective customer listens to your sales pitch – And you risk leaving with nothing.
- How you stop buyers nibbling and squeezing your price – And without ever risking an order.
