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.
How to Email Busy People
21–30 of 62 posts
Re: How to Email Busy People
#22Be brief and say what you want.
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Re: How to Email Busy People
#23I've had some success with sending email that has a short and long version (or if you include the subject itself, 3 levels). Ask your main question in the first sentence or two, enough to provide context, detail, and what you want. At the end say "[more detail below if needed]". Draw a line in the email ===== and include more detail below that they can dip into if necessary.
It's nice to see that a journalism degree is universally applicable.
What you describe is basically an inverse pyramid news article.
Hook Lead Background News
Putting it into 5 sentences is where the art comes in...
Re: How to Email Busy People
#24in cases like this, i always tell people to write like a news article: open with your conclusion!
nobody wants to read through as you try to explain all the reasons for your conclusion. if you can't draw them in in the first line, you've lost them
Re: How to Email Busy People
#25Be brief and say what you want.
Balance the two.
Be direct in your requests, include enough details (pick the right ones!), say thank you, and cut out everything else.
Re: How to Email Busy People
#26As 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 the number of messages in the queue and you may pushback (temporarily suspending message submission) and provide priority to users. They'll see their queue position and eventully some feedback once processed tldr, not understood, contact me @xxx, ...
Re: How to Email Busy People
#27I'm trying to work out emailing for sponsorships for projects that we're running. It's generally cold-calling, but not a shotgun approach - we work pretty hard to come up with companies who would have something to gain from the project. I'm going to try some of these tips, but would an email with 'Seeking Sponsorship' in the subject get caught in your personal spam filter?
I suggest being as specific as possible. Seeking Sponsorship for [whatever]. Otherwise, it seems to comes off as an impersonal, mass-bcc'ed email, spammed to like a thousand email addresses.
Re: How to Email Busy People
#28I find it works best to keep each email short and direct. Provide a title which has real content. Keep on topic. NEVER mix two topics in an email; inevitably all but one of the topics will be ignored.
Re: How to Email Busy People
#29I agree this advice does not only apply to emailing VC's. It applies to emailing ANYONE in the course of doing your job: interns to CEO's. 5 sentences often is too much. If you can get it down to 3 sentences (or even 1 or 2 with judicious subject line) that is better. Just state the situation and what action you request. For christ's sake, above all, don't resort to voicemail.
I agree on the voice mail, although I've come to realize that some people avoid email and online communication altogether and if you don't call them, you won't talk to them.
Many people do this to avoid a papertrail. Sometimes its a good idea to followup with an email summarizing the conversation when working with these types.
Re: How to Email Busy People
#30i 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...