There have been numerous blog posts about how to execute cold outreach. There are a variety of variations, but to sum up all the good ones – be relevant to the person you are sending it to.
Before the SalesStack conference, I got this email from Juliana Crispo who is the founder of StartupSalesBootCamp and a rising star on the sales circuit. I did not know who she was before she reached out. I thought her email was a great example of how to do it and there is a lot to learn. Here are my thoughts:
- Just reach out — I once asked David Brock for advice on how he built his network. One thing really stuck with me. He told me if he see someone doing something interesting or smart, he will just reach out to them and introduce himself. For example, when someone leaves an interesting comment on his blog, he will reach out to introduce himself and talk about it. Or if he sees a great blog post, he will reach out. If you want to meet someone, you have to ask – that’s what Juliana did. But when you do….
- Mention them — Her opening sentence showed she has followed and enjoyed my work. The specific references showed she wasn’t full of it. (Note: I get lots of template emails that try to say they “like my stuff”. The specific reference to the video shows diligence.)
- Have a take and don’t suck — My ode to Jim Rome here. She doesn’t just mention my work, but provides her opinion and experience with it.
- Ask for meeting — She goes for the meeting and provides visibility on when she is available.
- She makes it easy for me to reply – She doesn’t ask me to call her (my least favorite close: “Hey I reached out to you so why don’t YOU call me” – yeah right). Instead she allows me to send a couple times and she will take it from there.
- Oh and it was short…very short — 3 paragraphs of no more than 2 sentences each. Easy to read.
Let’s call this a win. See our email interaction below:
Great stuff and a lot to learn from.
I haven’t blogged in awhile. That felt good.
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