Brrrrrr. Cold emailing. Flip the script and get warm responses.
Here are some counterintuitive tips that work:
Effective emails readily appear to be from a real person, with high social status, providing benefit to the recipient.
So what does that look like?
1. All lowercase subject line with no punctuation. Appear high status. Powerful people move quickly.
2. Ask questions in the body that trigger a “no” response. “Did you give up on solving this?”
3. Include a word the recipient will immediately recognize (name of contact, event attended etc.)
4. Follow-ups: use only one word. Subject: “status?” Body: blank. Surprisingly, trying and caring less gets more of a response (The Law of Reversed Polarity). High status, low neediness.
5. The more you show, the less excited your client will be. Do a one-and-done blow-them-away pitch, and send succinct follow-ups.
6. Attachments scream a needy marketing/sales/mass mail attempt, not personal outreach. Have a small, low-friction ask first. Eg. “If I send a brief overview can you spend 5 minutes looking at it?”
7. Suggest calls 1 week out.
8. The more important the email response, the shorter it should be. A short question with minimal explanation.
9. End with “Thanks”.
Inspo: Oren Klaff (thanks)
