If you're like most salespeople, you spend an inordinate amount of time developing your cold-call emails, hoping to craft the perfect message to get prospects to say, "Yes! I want to meet with you immediately."

That's a fine goal. But it takes a lot of practice to find exactly what it takes to pique your prospects' interest. Before you sent it to your entire list, put your email to the test. Here are 3 ways to evaluate the effectiveness of your prospecting email: 

1. Self-evaluate.Send the email to yourself and then read it as if you were your prospect. Be brutally honest. Would it interest you enough to respond? Or would you just delete it?

2. Ask a trusted client for feedback.Send the email to a client you know well, someone you know wants you to succeed. Ask him for honest feedback.

3. Use it on some real prospects.Don't worry if it's not perfect yet. Treat this deployment of your email as an experiment. You can always learn from the results and improve it as you go.

If you're worried about the effectiveness of your prospecting email, go on a fact-finding mission. And remember that one email will not make or break your business. You'll have many more chances to engage with your target prospect. 

See also:

• How's your sales pitch?
• The No. 1 thing you need to do to succeed
• Ongoing relationship is important

Jill Konrath is the author of SNAP Selling, Selling to Big Companies and Agile Selling. If you're struggling to set up meetings, click here to get a free Prospecting Tool Kit.