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A cold outreach strategy that works

patrickrivera.co

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Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#31

Post by ghaff »

jonfw wrote: post #25
mrfusion wrote: post #8

I’d like more help with step one. Just finding the contact information. I’ve tried connecting over linked in and never gotten a response.

firstname.lastname@company.com has worked for me in the past. When I was in college I met a CTO at a campus event and emailed him this way, ended up being offered a job.

That's not really a cold outreach though. LinkedIn can be OK if you can send a message of the form "We met at XYZ and talked about ABC..." Though I'll not infrequently miss LinkedIn messages simply because they go into a Gmail tab that I don't make a point of checking--and most of the LinkedIn messages I get are very ignorable.

You can usually find the company email convention, as you say. (That specific example wouldn't work in my case though and, for larger companies, email collisions mean there are a fair number of non-standard addresses.)

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#33

Post by ghaff »

tsomerville wrote: post #12
codingdave wrote: post #2

This fell flat for me. "Researching needs" started out talking about understanding the need of your audience, which is correct... but then devolved into google-stalking them to learn their hobbies. And the rest of the piece sounded like Sales 101, not a new approach. Which also means that those of us who are bombarded by cold contacts from sales guys pretty much see all these actions for what they are - sales pitches…

He is talking about how to get a job - not sell you something.

Isn't getting a job at least in part about selling yourself?

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#34

Post by _jal »

goatherders wrote: post #26
_jal wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spam like this earns an immediate "remove all email addresses from your lists @ourdomain.com and let me know that you are suppressing them from your future mailings", ccing your mail provider's abuse address. The second mail gets your domain blocked and I tell your provider they're on notice. Some of us still take spam seriously.

I recognize we start from different places on this, but unrequested email does not necessarily equal SPAM. We had a guy a few months ago who threatened all kinds of litigation and reporting etc. when we reached out cold. At the same time, one of his colleagues responded with interest and just before Christmas their company signed a 5-figure annual deal with our client to provide an endpoint security solution they nee…

I agree that there is a difference between sales spam and scam spam.

This is why we provide the former with a warning before being blocked, while the latter gets no such courtesy. (We don't engage in legal threats over it, that's pointless and stupid.)

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#35

Post by BlackCherry »

rsp1984 wrote: post #20
BlackCherry wrote: post #17

This blog post over complicates and mythologizes an extremely simple process. That is to not be embarrassed or ashamed to ask people you want something from what you can do to get it. Additionally, this is survivorship bias. His emails sounded very professionally immature and while this companies leadership may have found it endearing, I could easily see other groups of people finding it off putting. What this guys e…

The way I see it he was just very motivated to get the job / internship. I didn't find his emails "professionally immature" either. For sure I'd much rather invite / interview him as opposed to one of the 100s who just send their CV via email with not much else.

To clarify "professional immaturity" does not mean personally immature/childish. It means he comes across as extremely green, new to the professional world, etc.

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#36

Post by danial »

Patrick, if you’re reading this, I enjoyed this article. It reminds me that if you spend a little bit more time researching your prospect, you are more likely to get positive results. Another lesson is that it helps to focus on a few prospects you really want to work with, rather than spray and pray. Thank you for sharing.

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#37

Post by goatherders »

_jal wrote: post #34
goatherders wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recognize we start from different places on this, but unrequested email does not necessarily equal SPAM. We had a guy a few months ago who threatened all kinds of litigation and reporting etc. when we reached out cold. At the same time, one of his colleagues responded with interest and just before Christmas their company signed a 5-figure annual deal with our client to provide an endpoint security solution they nee…

I agree that there is a difference between sales spam and scam spam. This is why we provide the former with a warning before being blocked, while the latter gets no such courtesy. (We don't engage in legal threats over it, that's pointless and stupid.)

Honest question b/c I'm curious: does this mean that as a policy you won't engage with cold outreach regardless of what is being offered? And if so, do you ever consider that such a policy may indeed hinder your business?

A non-zero portion of unsolicited sales-based emails DO include something of meaningful value.

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#38

Post by ghaff »

notahacker wrote: post #22
BlackCherry wrote: post #17

This blog post over complicates and mythologizes an extremely simple process. That is to not be embarrassed or ashamed to ask people you want something from what you can do to get it. Additionally, this is survivorship bias. His emails sounded very professionally immature and while this companies leadership may have found it endearing, I could easily see other groups of people finding it off putting. What this guys e…

I think it also depends what you're looking for. If you're applying for one of multiple already-existent temporary positions for inexperienced people enthusiastic about learning on the job, appearing to be desperately keen on working for that company specifically probably gives you the edge over many other candidates that might have slightly more impressive universities on their CV. Some fields like marketing might a…

That's pretty much how I read it as well. Sure, for an internship, lots of enthusiasm probably differentiates you from a form letter and a resume (which, lacking much real experience, doesn't tell you a lot anyway). And, honestly, a followup along the lines of "Thanks. I'm still really interested in your company. Do you have internships or other programs?" would probably have worked at least as well as offering to fetch coffee.

But, as you say, you're probably not going to get an opening created for you unless you have connections and/or a special skillset.

Re: A cold outreach strategy that works

#40

Post by reaperducer »

hirako2000 wrote: post #29

It's a non scalable outreach tactic. It's not a strategy. Yes it has a good chance to work, if you are willing to spend hours researching your target, hours producing free content for that target, and insisting until the target gives up and give you what you want.

Why does everything have to "scale?" It's an SV-bubble cliché that's really getting tired.
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