Oftentimes when building a company or product, you'll need to turn to others for advice and feedback. Sometimes, that's easy - you have some people in your network who can help. Other times, you realize that it'd be best to ask some strangers... but asking strangers for advice can be daunting! Here are some tips to make your cold outreach go as smoothly as possible.
1. Qualify
Before you start reaching out to people, take a few minutes and think about who is most likely to be able to help you, as well as be interested in the topic at hand. If you think that product managers at small companies are your best best, don't reach out to people at Facebook. If you want to know more about what it's like to be a teacher in a high school, don't reach out to a college professor. Doing a little qualification up front will not only make you more efficient in the long run, it will also minimize the possibility of annoying people.
2. Personalize the outreach
At the very least, you should use their name in any greeting... but there are tons of other opportunities to personalize the email you send. Taking a minute to do a little research and add some personalization will go a long way in making people feel less spammed.
3. Acknowledge their expertise
You chose to reach out to them because they know something about a topic that you don't - make sure they know why. Include things like "I thought you might have a unique perspective after being a teacher for 20 years" or "I saw that you have a lot of experience in machine learning..." People enjoy feeling like experts - lean into that!
4. Make it as easy as possible for them to help you
Ultimately, they're doing you a favor by answering your questions. Make the situation as smooth as possible for them - work around their schedule, show up on time, don't be the one who makes the meeting go over, etc.
5. Follow up with them
If you had a great conversation with someone, keep them looped into your progress if they seem interested! This might mean sending them an email a couple weeks later sharing some new things you learned, or it could just be connecting on Linkedin so they can see any public updates you post abou what you're working on.
Want to develop a more personalized strategy around cold outreach? I'm always here to help! Schedule 20 minutes with me today.