Episode Summary

Rich Nazzaro sits down with Beth Mastre, a 30-year sales veteran, to discuss why email marketing isn’t dead—it’s just being done wrong. Beth shares her framework for transforming sales outreach from pitchy, self-centered messages into relationship-building conversations that actually get meetings.

Guest

Beth Mastre — Sales strategist and creator of an AI-powered email tool that helps sales teams craft effective outreach. With three decades of sales experience, she specializes in teaching teams how to lower barriers and create genuine connections with prospects.

Key Takeaways

1. Email isn’t for selling—it’s for getting meetings. The only metric that matters is whether your outreach results in a conversation.
2. Stop pitching, start teaching. Instead of leading with “here’s who we are and what we do,” share insights about industry challenges, common mistakes, or questions prospects should be asking.
3. Create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Frame your outreach around what prospects don’t know rather than what you offer.
4. Make relationship deposits. Every touchpoint should add value to the prospect, not extract it.
5. Sales teams don’t have a prospecting problem—they have a fear problem. Fear of rejection, fear of saying the wrong thing, and fear of not hitting quota all contribute to ineffective outreach.
6. The “HVAC Guy” approach: The best salesperson doesn’t just quote a price—they walk through your situation, identify problems you didn’t know existed, and educate you before ever discussing solutions.

Memorable Quotes

• “People are happy to be unhappy. They have containment around their unhappiness.”
• “Email’s not for selling. Your email is about getting a meeting.”
• “You don’t have a prospecting problem, you have a fear problem.”
• “Your first meeting is kind of free. If you get the meeting but then you pitched, you might not get your second meeting.”

The Three Responses Framework

When you reach out with insights about industry challenges, you’ll get one of three answers:

• “We didn’t know, so we don’t have a plan” (easy opportunity)
• “We know, but don’t have a plan” (they need help)
• “We already have a plan” (rare—ask what else they’re working on)

Beth’s Email Rules

• Never say “us,” “me,” “we,” “our,” or “they”—use “in the industry” or “other organizations” instead
• Subject lines matter more than you think (her best performer: “requesting discount”)
• Keep it short and focused on one relationship deposit
• Always end with a simple ask: “When do you have 20 minutes?”

AI in Sales: Beth’s Perspective

AI tools can help, but only when built on solid frameworks. Generic AI-written emails will “burn people so hard and so fast.” The key is feeding AI with proven methodology and intellectual property—not just asking it to write cold emails.