Cold email isn’t dead—bad cold email is. In a recent Lusha webinar, Charlotte Johnson shared how she consistently hits 13–15% reply rates by focusing 45% of her time on signal-based prospects. Her approach blends smart targeting, proven structure, and scalable personalization—so reps can stop blasting and start booking real meetings.
The numbers don’t lie. In 2025, the average cold email reply rate sits at just 4%. But while most sales reps are drowning in silence, top performers like Charlotte Johnson (President’s Club winner & 150% quota-crusher at Salesloft) from Salesloft are booking 3-5 meetings per week with a 13% reply rate.
What’s the difference? It’s not about sending more cold emails. It’s about writing cold emails that get replies.
In a recent Lusha webinar, partnering with 30MPC (30 Minute to President’s Club), Charlotte shared the exact playbook that helped her crush 150% of quota. Over 1,400 sales professionals joined to learn her approach, and the strategies she revealed are practical for anyone looking to write cold emails that actually get responses.
Why most reps fall flat
The old spray‑and‑pray method just doesn’t work in today’s market. Budgets are tight. Executives care about operational efficiency, profitability, and headcount reduction, not vague revenue promises. To get replies, your messaging must either solve a pressing problem or align with a company priority—nothing vague will cut through the noise.
The secret of account tiering and signals
Charlotte revealed how she allocates her prospecting time, and it’s not what most people expect:
Tier 1 accounts (30% of time): High-value prospects that could help hit quarterly targets. These get 30 minutes of deep research per account, focusing on business initiatives from annual reports and investor updates.
Tier 2 accounts (20% of time): Good-fit prospects that become pipeline workhorses. 10 minutes of research using trigger-based personalization.
Tier 3 accounts (5% of time): Potential fits that might not be ideal. Just 2 minutes of research.
Signals (45% of time): This is where the magic happens. These are prospects who are more likely to buy based on specific triggers like new leadership hires, funding announcements, or expansion into new markets.
Emails to signal‑based prospects earn 13–15% reply rates, outperforming Tier 1 (around 9%) and the market average.
Charlotte specifically mentioned how Lusha signals and AI recommendations help streamline this process. Instead of spending hours manually researching each prospect, the platform surfaces buying triggers automatically—from hiring trends to funding announcements to technology changes.
“I wish I had this when I was starting out 6 years ago,” Charlotte noted about Lusha’s capabilities. “Back then, it was just a small LinkedIn extension. Now you can get all these signals fed to you without the manual work.”
The three-part email structure that works
Every effective cold email follows this pattern:
Hook: Something only that prospect would care about. If you could send the same hook to anyone in marketing, it’s not specific enough.
Problem + Solution: The challenge must connect directly to your hook. Don’t talk about cute dogs and then pivot to sales productivity. The connection needs to be natural.
Low-pressure call to action: Instead of asking for a meeting, ask for a reply. Try “Worth exchanging a few messages to learn more?” or “Should I send you a quick 30-second video showing how this works?”
Real example: How tier 1 research pays off
Charlotte walked through her approach to landing a meeting with a tier 1 account.
Here’s what her research uncovered:
- The company was focused on profitability (found in their annual report)
- They were hiring aggressively in revenue roles (careers page)
- They’d just expanded into Canada (press release)
Her email hook? “Building pipeline processes for regions like Dallas and Dubai must be keeping you busy.”
The problem she identified was specific: “Your current reps and those you’re hiring are based in Europe, meaning they’ll be handling international territories. How are you ensuring your sales reps can adapt their messages across markets and execute confidently?”
That level of research took over a week and multiple touchpoints. The meeting was booked, but the prospect had just renewed with a competitor for three years.
This is exactly why Charlotte doesn’t spend 100% of her time on tier 1 accounts. Sometimes perfect research meets bad timing.
Read more: How to build a winning lead generation process
Scaling without losing the human touch
The challenge with personalization is time. You can’t spend 30 minutes researching every prospect. Charlotte’s solution: scalable templates based on common signals.
Examples include:
- New product launches
- Hiring specific roles (with context about what the role suggests)
- Team maturity and structure changes
Each template is specific enough that it only applies to certain prospects, but generic enough to use with multiple people facing the same situation.
Charlotte demonstrated how she uses Lusha’s template library within the Engage platform to scale these personalized messages, allowing her to maintain relevance while reaching more prospects efficiently.
To keep her messaging sharp and human, Charlotte also uses a writing assistant trained on her own tone. The result? More specific, less salesy emails that actually sound like her—and get replies.
The closed-lost goldmine
One of the biggest missed opportunities in most CRMs? Previous prospects who didn’t buy. Charlotte estimates there are easily 5-10 meetings sitting in every rep’s closed-lost list.
These prospects already know your solution. They understand the value. The timing just wasn’t right. A well-crafted re-engagement sequence can bring them back when their situation changes.
What this means for your outreach
The key takeaway isn’t about specific tactics. It’s about mindset. Stop thinking about how many emails you can send and start thinking about how relevant each email can be.
Charlotte’s 13% reply rate comes from sending fewer, better emails to the right people at the right time. She’s not reaching out to 600 prospects hoping something sticks. She’s strategically targeting prospects who are most likely to respond and buy.
The tools exist to make this easier. Intent signals, funding data, hiring trends, and AI-powered research can help you identify the prospects worth your time. But the foundation is still the same: understand your prospect’s world and speak their language.
Read more: Here’s how RevOps teams are upgrading their cold outreach strategy.
Ready to improve your reply rates?
The difference between a 4% reply rate and a 13% reply rate isn’t just better results. It’s more meetings, shorter sales cycles, and hitting your targets with less stress.
The strategies Charlotte shared aren’t theoretical. They’re battle-tested approaches that work in today’s market. The question is whether you’re ready to move beyond spray-and-pray and start prospecting with purpose.
Because while everyone else is complaining about how “cold email is dead,” the smart reps are quietly booking meetings and crushing quota.
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