We all hate spam in our email boxes. It’s annoying, impersonal, and sometimes offensive. In spite of this, it may surprise you to know that emails can be a very good way to open communication with a prospect.

If you carefully follow the new cold calling mindset within your email, you’ll discover once again that your prospects (readers) will respond much more favorably.

So let’s review some important things to remember about making cold calls the new way, then we’ll look at applying this new mindset within your emails.

The first thing to remember is that the initial focus needs to be on the other person and their world, not on you and what you have to offer. So you don’t begin with a “pitch,” but with a question – an invitation for assistance.

Also, in the new mindset you’re approaching the conversation with the idea that you’re a problem-solver. You’re taking time to identify a problem they’re having. And your focus is on exploring whether or not you can help them solve it.

And remember to remain as natural and relaxed as possible throughout the cold calling process, without expectations, assumptions, and hype.

So now let’s take this mindset, and apply it to emails. Here are 4 important steps to creating the kind of emails that are effective as well as non-intrusive:

1. Start with a question, not a presentation

If you make the mistake of starting your email with a presentation about yourself and your company, it’ll probably feel like spam to the reader. It’s a barrage of information about your product or service. This reads like an advertisement, and usually gets a pretty negative response.

So instead, in the same way you begin cold calls over the phone, you can start out with a question that asks for help. It can go something like this: “Dear Roger, I’m not sure if you can help me, but I thought you could possibly point me in the right direction.”

2. Focus on a specific problem that exists in the reader’s world

You can continue your email by addressing their world. Rather than writing about the benefits and features of your product, it’s a good idea to focus on very real issues that your prospect faces in everyday business life.

For example, you might write, “Would you happen to know who in your organization would be responsible for diagnosing and solving productivity issues related to outdated paper-based filing systems?”

3. Identify yourself only after you’ve identified a problem they’re having