Relevance > Personalization.

What kind of subject gets a prospect to open their email? What intro line gets someone on a cold call to stay on the line? It’s a message that’s relevant to the recipient. 

What is a relevant message? Too often we think first about personalization. But personalization is just a part, an important part, but still, just a part of relevance. Without considering what’s likely to be relevant to your prospect, you won’t get a reply that turns into an active deal. 

So, what are some of the flavors of relevance:

1. Personalization. Personalization is a form of relevance that highlights an interest, experience, or past action of a prospect. It works, in part, because it fulfills an individual’s need to be seen, valued, and recognized. 

When an SDR sends you a cold email that references your university’s mascot, does it capture some of your attention? Maybe. You might get a small jolt of satisfaction because the personalization has made a small connection to you. While it can help to open a door, it’s not going to keep deals alive.  

2. Logical relevance. This form of relevance connects with something that I know I should focus on. It speaks specifically to the needs or wants of a person or organization. These requirements could be to reduce cost, risk, or effort. They could be to increase revenue and business value. These are strategic priorities that people know must be worked on. 

If you can link to these priorities, they must evaluate – even if it’s only briefly – whether it can help them. That’s your opening. 

3. Emotional Relevance. This is the option that threads the needle between both. Personalization can be difficult to scale (how many college mascot comments can you make) and logical relevance can easily fade into the background (how many times have you heard about 15% productivity improvements). 

Consider how someone would feel if they were able to win more deals. How they felt when they were in a stressful situation or previous role. Can you connect to an experience that’s common across your prospects? Finance leaders all know the pain of inaccurately forecasting to the board. HR leaders know what it’s like to have a major payroll error. 

Think about how these kinds of emotional and scalable stories can be used in your prospect emails and call scripts.