an exam ple of a very successful email that I get a good response to is:

Subject  line:  Keen to listen

Email:

Hello ....  I am not sure if this is relevant, perhaps you could let me know.

I have come across your details on (state where you have found them) Brilliant CV by the way. You have probably been inundated with calls/emails from recruitment consultants - you probably never want to speak to another consultant again!!

The reason I wanted to make contact, is that I am helping a client find someone with your skills and experience.  However, I have no idea what you are specifically looking for, if indeed you are still looking.

What would be the best way for me to find out?

Although I have not measured the results of it's success, I feel that it gets a large response and really helps to make contact with people I have failed to make contact with any other way.

It might be worth giving it a try

Generally $100 - 200K positions - sometimes sales positions which are not that high on base.

As stated, emails (utilizing various methods including industry specific data bases) work to open doors with passive candidates.  But the response % is far, far lower.  No one in this industry can make the claim you made.

We also have had great success with emails.  But your article (I don't have it in front of me) claimed something like an 80% response rate. And your sample messages were (in my humble view)  quite wordy - in a world where people lack patience.  There is also a high degree of skepticism when someone they don't know calls them an opinion leader or something like that. 

I don't know how many you send out on an average search (say for a sales manager) - maybe you send a small number and make them highly personalized.  We have been using emails marketing for years in executive search and the response rates are far lower - yet the method is still highly successful for candidate contacts and referrals.