
The cold emails which got me meetings at Twitter, LinkedIn and GitHub - rubygnome
http://www.startupmoon.com/how-i-got-meetings-at-twitter-linkedin-and-github-using-cold-emails/
======
jhspaybar
I spent 8 years as a car salesman, and I almost had to laugh at the things in
here. I did mostly email and telephone based sales and this single blog post
seems to sum up the years of training I had at various dealerships. In
retrospect, much of it is obvious, but it's really awkward to say things like
"I'll be in town the week of X and would like to set up time either Tuesday
morning or Wednesday afternoon, which works for you?".

There's a ton more in there that is really great advice, but as someone who
was a relatively successful salesman, if you're not a salesman and you're
criticizing this or think this is cheesy, please understand this is how you
"sell".

When this is being done to you, most people don't realize it, and even like
the presentation. Even as someone trained in many of these techniques, you
know they're being used, but if done properly it just makes for a pleasant
experience and you don't even care.

~~~
marban
The only that's missing are a couple of quotes from Glengarry Glen Ross

~~~
mindcrime
_We 've added a little something to this month's sales contest. As you know,
first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Know what second prize is? Second prize
is a set of steak knives. Third prize is, you're fired._

~~~
marban
A-B-C

~~~
mindcrime
A(ttention)

I(nterest)

D(ecision)

A(ction)

------
mn321x
I wonder much success an overweight, typically bearded engineer would have
with the same cold emails? Surely the appeal of meeting an attractive brunette
must have helped?

Yes I'm cynical, but good looks have been found to have a significant
influence on success at interviews.

~~~
rrhyne
The email doesn't contain the headshot. I'm betting most people don't research
me, but they do research the link in my emails.

However, if thats the only type of person your clientele will talk to, theN
hire a smart, driven brunette, or blonde or a guy who walks some other part
that fits the role.

~~~
sssparkkk
She has a Google+ page with a headshot that will be shown next to her email
when using gmail.

------
swalsh
" I learned that people you approach through intros will probably meet with
you as a favor to someone else but they won’t use a new product unless they
have a good reason, time and will."

There's a lot of truth to this. We once approached a team in a "big telcom".
Another team at the company referred us to them because the product was
relatively successful for their purposes. The new team took the time to listen
to us, and I think understood our value proposition, but these guys were
dinosaurs. The prospect of changing how they do things, and taking a risk
buying an expensive product was not interesting to them. They seemed more
interested in coasting until their upcoming retirement.

~~~
jeanjq
This rule apply pretty much everywhere and especially to VC. If you want to
talk to a VC find some one who can introduce you. If you can't do that then
work on your network.

------
waterside81
The advice in this post combined with Dan Shipper's awesome post the other day
([http://danshipper.com/nothing-happens-until-the-sale-is-
made](http://danshipper.com/nothing-happens-until-the-sale-is-made)) serves as
a great blueprint for how to kickstart your startup's sales.

Not sure what it was about Dan's post, but it really resonated with me and
motivated me to make 8 sales pitches yesterday. Already got 2 replies, one
negative, one positive. Point being, if you don't shoot, you can't score.

------
omn1
The title is horrible. "Marketing for Developers -- Applying a low touch
approach". Hm, that looks like something in my ads/spam folder.

The mail starts with some random blurb about the company. Honestly I don't
care (yet). All I would think is: Why are you contacting me? How did you find
out about me? They say they solve problems. Which problems? How are they
related to my field of work?

After that I wouldn't even care to read the rest. Sorry, this is bad
execution.

~~~
free652
I'd probably even never open such email on my business email. I get a lot of
random emails from a lot of people, I don't think they're the first to figure
firstname.lastname@business.com out.

~~~
alxndr
When I get recruiter spam to my work email, I always ask how the writer came
across my address. Usually I don't get a response, but sometimes I've had them
come clean about either using a service, or guessing.

------
GruppeC956
Great post! Have already forwarded it to one of our sales guys.

One thing I would like to add from personal experience: It's really easy these
days to connect to a lot of people on LinkedIn that you have never met or even
heard of before. I am tempted to say the acceptance quote of a "cold
connection" is about 50%.

Once your network has a decent size, you can connect to almost anyone from
your industry (in our case gaming and mobile) even if you only have a free
LinkedIn account (like I do) because you have a least a couple of people from
their company already within your 2nd/3rd degree connections, and then you can
literally add the entire board. Believe me, more C-level guys than you might
think will accept you if your profile looks like you are a decent person.

The reason I writing all this is that I have been much more successful getting
meetings through LinkedIn than through cold email. I feel that if I send a
LinkedIn message to somebody I am connected to (but that I do not know
whatsoever), that person is much more likely to a) open the message in the
first place because the sender is not anonymous but rather has a name, face,
and a job, and therefore b) also much more likely to read/digest what I am
actually writing. And from here it is only really about what you have to say
and sell anyways....

The bottom line is that while LinkedIn is a tool intended for connecting
people that know each other, it actually works best for connecting (and
selling something) to people you do not know at all.

Give it a shot!

~~~
wslh
Beyond what I said below about the effectivity of LinkedIn InMail, I don't
like cold connections because I think it give less value and strength to the
network. If the graph is complete (fully connected) what is the value behind
the edges?

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alsothings
I cannot get passed the title. Unless the only cold emails the author sent
were the ones that got the meetings, s/which/that.

(Actually I did read the article, and in it she says "cold emails produced 7
meetings at Twitter, Klout, LinkedIn", so either she sent 7 cold emails or the
title should use 'that' not 'which')

~~~
Udo
Since we're doing grammar advice:

 _> I cannot get passed the title_

I think, and please correct me if I'm wrong, this should be "I cannot get
_past_ the title". :)

A bit of lenience might be in order since the author is from Israel and
English may not be her first language (then again, native speakers might not
necessarily do better).

~~~
alsothings
I thought you were right for a second, but I'm fairly certain that 'passed' is
what I meant. It's the past tense of pass, and thus the correct word. see
[http://www.grammar-
monster.com/easily_confused/past_passed.h...](http://www.grammar-
monster.com/easily_confused/past_passed.htm) for a good set of examples.

I appreciate that the which/that distinction is tricky, but one is a
restrictive clause and the other is not, changing the meaning of the sentence.

~~~
cyxxon
The site you linked to explains why "past" is correct IMO:

"To pass often means to move past, and this is where confusion can arise. Of
note, to pass can also mean to sail past, to fly past, to run past, to hop
past, etc. - the method of moving is irrelevant. This is worth bearing in
mind, because if you have used a verb indicating motion already, then it will
be partnered with past and not passed."

The verb here would be "get". See the examples at the bottom for use as a
preposition.

Or did I now fuck it up again? ;)

~~~
alsothings
possible, I'm much less sure about my use of passed versus past here then the
use of which instead of that in the title. That said, I had thought 'get' did
not indicate motion across the sentence here 'passed' did, so passed is
correct. But I could totally believe I'm doing it wrong.

------
dror
The line between "cold emails" and spam is quite thin.

If you don't want me to mark your email as spam: * Do your research about me
and my company and what we need. If we're a scala shop, yeah, I'd be
interested, but if we're a python shop, you're likely to annoy me with your
pitch for a scala product. * The fact that you're the co-founder certainly
helps. * Use your company's email. Using a random gmail account makes me think
that you're using it as a throwaway account. Don't even think of using
hotmail, yahoo, etc. * Don't spray. If I find out that you've sent emails to 5
of my co-workers at the same time, you're much more likely to go to spam.

I've been on the other side, and these are all rules that I've used when I
tried to get people interested in my products.

------
hawkharris
The advice in this post is excellent. I would only add that it can be more
effective to open by mentioning the other person's work and / or achievements
(instead of pitching yourself and your company in the first paragraph). Most
people are selfish and they want to know what's in it for them, even if that
something is just recognition.

~~~
asdfologist
Many smart people would see right through it.

~~~
hawkharris
See through what? If you're inclined to contact a person or company, you
probably do admire that person or organization's work. If you genuinely
appreciate it, let them know sooner rather than later. And if you don't, don't
contact them.

------
wslh
I prefer to start sending messages via LinkedIn InMail to pass spam filters.
That's their main advantage. Another positive thing about LinkedIn is adding
context: the recipient is aware that the distance between him and you is
short.

~~~
reidrac
That's interesting. To me looks like almost 100% of the time LinkedIn messages
are misdirected and too close to be spam that I almost never bother to reply
if I'm not genuinely interested.

When I get a proper email _directly_ to my inbox, it immediately gets my
attention and it's likely to get a reply.

~~~
wslh
99% of the messages and invitations I receive from e-mail and LinkedIn users
are by people who want to connect without studying what I do. They don't
follow the basics.

BUT, the messages I send try to be laser focused and I have a good success
rate of conversions (~20%)

~~~
reidrac
I guess LinkedIn messages are easier for lazy/busy people that need to contact
lots of people.

If I get a direct email that is definitely not based on a template means that
that person a) found my mail and b) spent some time on the process, so I
usually reply as courtesy.

I applaud your approach, although I think it's difficult to get noticed in a
noisy channel and LinkedIn messages are overused.

------
alecsmart1
A little unrelated, but for cold emailing, should I be using my Google
business email or another generic email? I do not want to get banned if
someone reports it as spam. Would you recommend any webhost which I can use
for this safely?

~~~
belorn
Sending unsolicited marketing to people is always hazardously. Not only do you
have to worry about your email account and domain name reputation, but there
are also national and local laws to consider.

------
late2part
I'd like to see a comparative study of how this works for a slender attractive
female such as the author v. a fat older man.

~~~
orenbarzilai
Yes she is attractive. But people open her emails and respond because of the
content, it's not like they see the subject and skips the content directly to
her Thailand facebook album.

------
Spiritus
What's a cold email? I don't get it.

~~~
gabriel
The email equivalent of cold calling people:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_calling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_calling)

------
martinshen
Just a quick heads up: you spelt Takipi as Tapiki in the first sentence.

