Finally figured out why my proposal emails were getting ignored

I spent 3 years sending out quotes to commercial property managers and wondering why I barely heard back from half of them. Last week I had a coffee with an old contact who runs a janitorial crew, and he told me my subject lines looked like spam - just "cleaning quote" over and over. I changed it to something specific like "Mary's Clean - quote for 123 Main St lobby" and got 4 replies in one day. Has anyone else seen a huge difference just from fixing something that small in your outreach?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew_hart41mo ago

Tbh you're right that putting the address first helps, but I'd push back a little on saying people "scan subject lines like spam folders." The real issue is that generic subject lines look like automated spam from a script, not from a real person who knows what they're talking about. Making it specific signals that a human actually wrote it and cares about the details.

nathan1001mo ago

Funny how changing a few words can trick people into actually reading your email.

gavin3651mo ago

Your subject lines looked like spam" - that hit home for me. I was sending out bids for concrete work with the same "commercial flatwork quote" subject line for years. Got nothing back. Then I started putting the address first. Something like "723 Oak Street - concrete estimate for the parking lot." Numbers just started coming in. Funny thing is, the actual email body barely changed. Just that one line on top did the trick. I think people scan subject lines like we scan spam folders. If it doesn't look specific, they toss it. Glad you cracked that code. Funny something so small can make or break your whole outreach.