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How to Email Busy People

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Re: How to Email Busy People

#31

Post by daniel_levine »

chmike wrote: post #26
daniel_levine wrote: post #11

As a former founder and now VC, I am thrilled about this post. It's so true. There is nothing I like more than learning about startups and helping entrepreneurs and founders. If that wasn't the case I would find some other line of work. That's why I'm so sad when people view my inability to get to email in a timely fashion as a proxy for my interest or the type of person I am. I just get a ton of email and it's impos…

Could You please specify if there are undesirable mails in the ton of mails you get or if you are just saturated of information ? Suggesting as a solution to retry sending mail again and again will worsen the problem. You'll get echos in addition to signal. Maybe people in your situation should use a pull method (~on demand messages) using a web service for this purpose. People who want to get in touch with you see t…

if it's undesirable email that keeps getting sent then I'll either ignore it forever (unlikely) or more likely respond with a reason I'd rather not get your email.

If someone repeatedly puts effort into emails to me then I will respond because they deserve that much for taking the time.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#32

Post by arctangent »

pg wrote: post #8

Be brief and say what you want.

I wish I could upvote this more than once. I'm a professional so I don't need requests to be sugar coated. I also don't need lots of detail in the first email. If I'm interested then I will get back to you!

Re: How to Email Busy People

#34

Post by ErrantX »

Here's something I learned: don't be wishy washy. Avoid pandering to the person you're emailing - it takes up words and sounds pathetic.

I've done this in the past and been the recipient. It just goes bad.

Busy people work on short terse communication, unless they are actively in a conversation with you. And, in general, they will appreciate the first few emails you send them being of the same - condensed and full of content.

Never worry about being rude by not saying please every other word.

On another note, I mildly dislike this one:

Show your target respect by responding to everything immediately. Just because the VC you're emailing might not get back to you immediately, doesn't mean that you have the same privilege. Ron Conway famously makes immediately email responses a pre-condition for investment.

I'm a busy guy, I get a LOT of work email each day. And yet the people we work for seem to see slow response as an indication of laziness :S Even though it takes them a week to respond. Yes, you're important to me, you are potentially worth a lot of money to me and I really want to keep you happy. But give me a fracking chance!

So, investors, cut founders a bit of slack :)

Re: How to Email Busy People

#35

Post by fedd »

gavingmiller wrote: post #30
fedd wrote: post #21

i used to use http://five.sentenc.es/ as a guideline. i tried to use http://three.sentenc.es/ , but as i am not a native english speaker, it's hard for me to be compact AND understandable at the same time.

I'm curious what your experience has been using the (two|three|four|five).sentenc.es guides? Do people respond better/worse when you've got that in your email? My thought is most people receiving this message would view it negatively...

i can't say.

i noticed that busy people themselves tend to write very short letters: a pair of questions, no hello/goodbye, nothing personal. seeing that, i started to think that writing five sentences is a respect for their attention and time; i include the disclaimer (signature) to the bottom to indicate that i am not just a dumb, but trying to be short for the recipient's sake.

if they ask specific questions, i elaborate in many sentences (just like i do now :), and then they sometimes don't respond (if we didn't met) or respond after a month (if a person knows me personally). i right imagine how they see the Tolstoy's War and Peace novel, get upset, but as they generally like me, move my lame english masterpiece to some Later folder and move on.

the initial cold emails of any number of sentences stay 90% unanswered.

thrice i shot messages on facebook to the complete strangers that i read about in press (3 sentences: "cograts with new post, would you consider project like ours, if would, i'd be glad to blah blah blah"). and once i got a respond, which forced me to write a long letter which was also answered...

so i dont know if it really works (cold emails are unlucky by nature), but i like to think that being short is a new form of politeness.

(i even tend not to write cold emails at all now! zero sentences, hehe)

Re: How to Email Busy People

#36

Post by erikb »

ErrantX wrote: post #34

Here's something I learned: don't be wishy washy. Avoid pandering to the person you're emailing - it takes up words and sounds pathetic. I've done this in the past and been the recipient. It just goes bad. Busy people work on short terse communication, unless they are actively in a conversation with you. And, in general, they will appreciate the first few emails you send them being of the same - condensed and full of…

"Don't be wishy washy" he said and than goes on writing 1000 more words about that topic.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#38

Post by fedd »

ErrantX wrote: post #34

Here's something I learned: don't be wishy washy. Avoid pandering to the person you're emailing - it takes up words and sounds pathetic. I've done this in the past and been the recipient. It just goes bad. Busy people work on short terse communication, unless they are actively in a conversation with you. And, in general, they will appreciate the first few emails you send them being of the same - condensed and full of…

i think responding immediately makes sense: the other party is at the computer/by the smartphone. they tend to read the freshest emails that come, and if they have thought on the topic just a few minutes ago, they may jump to your letter and respond to you with more useful info.

wait half an hour, and the emailing session of your potential investor could be over, and your response would be buried under other important bullshit in their inbox.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#39

Post by danilocampos »

As I said in the comments, isn't there a little irony in an essay on concise communication that opens with seven mostly content-free paragraphs? Much more effective, I suspect, would be to rely on the title as a hook, launch right into the prescribed methods, and argue the case in each one.

As it is, how to actually email busy people is an entire window scroll away.

Re: How to Email Busy People

#40

Post by dasil003 »

ErrantX wrote: post #34

Here's something I learned: don't be wishy washy. Avoid pandering to the person you're emailing - it takes up words and sounds pathetic. I've done this in the past and been the recipient. It just goes bad. Busy people work on short terse communication, unless they are actively in a conversation with you. And, in general, they will appreciate the first few emails you send them being of the same - condensed and full of…

I doubt Conway is that stupid to correlate email responsiveness with entrepreneurial ability, but on the other hand he probably appreciates prompt responses so he lets people believe that.

Also, there's a pecking order. If you are some unknown founder who really needs Conway you should respond as fast as humanly possible. On the other hand, if Conway wants something from Steve Jobs he probably should respond quickly.

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