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Just want to say to those of you who don't have great communication skills, and know it. This recipe pretty much applies to all cold emails, or any email with a
by ejcx 10y ago
Just want to say to those of you who don't have great communication skills, and know it. This recipe pretty much applies to all cold emails, or any email with a party that you want something from and don't know well.
Job interviews, consulting cold emails, VC, someone who has the keys to your destiny and does not know it yet.
The most important things are, in my mind:
1. If possible, make the email actionable for the other party.
2. Don't waste the other party's time.
3. The more you write, the more opportunity you can shoot yourself in the foot. Remove sentences you don't need.
This has been my ticket to opening new doors so many times. Make it easy for people to help you.
- HappyTypist 10y agoThese principles apply to ALL business emails. Short, actionable, respectful emails with precisely the context needed (and nothing more) is what you need. I have received personal replies from CEOs of major publicly traded companies, with some Google-fu and a quick email.
- Taylor_OD 10y agoI'm in sales/tech recruiting and I learned long ago that my two to three sentence email will get far more responses than the three-5 paragraph emails most people send.
- adentranter 10y agoAny Advice if they don't reply to your first email? Twitter? Facebook? Find a Mutual Friend to introduce you?
- ams6110 10y agoMaybe try once more then assume they are telling you something. Move on.
- erikb 10y agoDon't waste people's time is the kind of advice that is hard to follow, though. How would you know? If you spend two days writing a 2000 word essay to someone you obviously think that it's important.
- beat 10y ago"Hi, I'm ${ME}. I'm the founder of ${COMPANY}, and we make ${STUFF} that ${IMPRESSIVE}. Would you mind if I sent you a 2000 word essay, or would you just delete it after five seconds?" Don't waste two days writing a 2000 word essay if there's a significant chance it will simply be ignored. Establish the relationship first. Heck, I'd have a hard time getting my wife to read a 2000 word essay, no matter how important I thought it was personally.
- prawn 10y agoIt's important to you but it might not be so important to them. I completely agree with the parent's notes - keep it quick and clear. The sooner I can find out whether I want to help you or work with you or whatever, the better.