My idea is to cold email people and ask for their time. So far I haven't had any success with this.
Has anyone tried this before?
You say you haven't had any success. Draw out your funnel and dig into where, specifically, you are failing.
Do you have a raw volume problem? Which of the following is most representative of how many emails you send per day: 50? 10? 3? If you have a raw volume problem, is it because you cannot identify people to email fast enough, cannot identify contact information fast enough, or cannot force yourself to push the send button fast enough?
Do you have a response rate problem? Is your response rate much, much lower than, say, 10~20%? If you have a response rate problem, is it because your subject lines are bad? Is it because your offer is bad? Do you have an attractive offer? (There are ways to position "talk to insiders to figure out how I could help them" that are attractive to the insider and ways that are less attractive. What is in it for your counterparty?)
Do you routinely transition conversations into a successfully scheduled conversation? Does that conversation typically go reasonably well or not go well? Do you have a specific next step in mind after that conversation? Do you have high uptake to that next step?
> There are ways to position "talk to insiders to figure out how I could help them" that are attractive to the insider and ways that are less attractive.
Could you tell more about those attractive ways? I struggle with that.
Uh, fix your attitude first. You have technical skills that you feel may apply to their area. You have time, interest, and inclination to figure out how to make that work. You want to tailor a solution to their company's specific problem, or at least the problems you uncover in anyone who will discuss them with you. (This is as opposed to selling some one-size-fits-all type of thing, or telling them what they need.)
All of that has value, and that's the value you're offering. Prove it by doing what research you can on their company's problem, and lead with that. Sure, you don't know that what you're thinking actually makes sense and would be of use to them. And given that you're an outsider, it honestly probably won't. But having the conversation you're trying to have is a way to make it make sense.
When we were getting our business off the ground I wrote connection request messages to the C level guys in large companies we were hoping to work with. I was honest and said that id like to talk with them just to see if what we were thinking of doing was something they would be interested in.
A lot of them responded (especially ones from start-up backgrounds) and the resulting discussions were extremely positive. Even where we didn't end up working with them we learned a lot. But most of them are our clients/partners now.
Its amazing how many people are just happy to help. Im my experience the lowest & highest levels of the companies are the easiest to approach.
If you would like to connect with people but they are not in your network a good idea is to connect to headhunters or people who post a lot in that industry. It shouldn't take many to build up a network of 2nd level contacts you can send a connection request message to directly.
But once you've got an individuals profile details; it's relatively straight forward to reach them via a work address.
When you contact people, ask for an informational interview. This is described in the book What color is your parachute?
If possible, don't cold call. Find ways to establish some contacts. Find events to attend or other means to start making social connections. It will go vastly better if you can say "So and so gave me your name." or "We met at X event. I was wondering if I could have a few minutes if your time to learn a little more about X."
The best advice I've found is this post by Steve blank on getting meetings with busy people: https://steveblank.com/2013/08/12/how-to-get-meetings-with-p...
Basically offer people something in return for their time. Do your homework and genuinely try to help people when you ask for their time. It may feel inefficient or slow, but your hit rate is so much higher w this approach than a shotgun approach that it's worth it
Not to say that shotgun approaches can't work, it just depends on your audience. I used linked in searches combined with a tool called hunter.io that guesses people's emails based on public info w reasonable accuracy, downloaded the email addresses into excel and did a mail merge. The results were that like 60-70% of the emails were wrong, and of those like 10% responded, and of those maybe I got calls with half. So single digit hit rate. It took maybe a half hour to get 100 emails sent, so a half hour or so got me 2-4 calls maybe
This effort was for physicians however, so for other groups your numbers will likely be better. Many physicians aren't on linked in and don't have emails on their websites, so your linked in searches won't be that efficient. They are also extremely busy and inundated with annoying survey requests / marketing materials. For this group cold calls actually were almost better
I also have a habit of contacting higher-ups of the institutions I'm associated with (my company, my kids' school, etc.). Usually with jokes. Sometimes with complaints, in which I say things that I really shouldn't be saying if I value my job, but a little honesty and reasonableness seem to go a long way.
Quite a ways from what you're looking for, but the same rules probably apply: if you have something to offer, even if it's only your rapt attention for a topic of interest to them, then tell them up front in the first sentence or two. No tricks. Be honest. Make it easy for them to decide to not respond as quickly as possible (rather than eg hinting at things or being ambiguous, hoping they'll interpret things in the most favorable light.) Value their time, and express that in how you write the email (but not by saying "I know how important your time is" or whatever. That's bullshit. You value someone's time by being efficient and not wasting it.)
If you're just asking for their time, you're doing it wrong. Why should they give it to you? Tell them why they should care first, then put your ask after.
It's best if you really do have something of value to them. Then your email just needs to effectively and efficiently communicate that.
1. An information-dense subject line 2. Tell them a soft compliment 3. A sentence about yourself 4. Say what you're up to 5. A very very very simple ask, don't make them think. Once they respond you can send a follow-up, at this point pretty much everybody will feel obliged to respond.
My experience is only with cold emailing VCs, the reply rate was around 40% (including cordial rejections). CTR was over 70% (had a link in there).
Understand that emails are easy to ignore. The Old School phone call is still a remarkable tool. They need to HEAR your voice. I'm a real guy, reaching out on a professional networking basis. I promise to be brief. Your advice and perspective would mean a lot.
Have some rock-solid questions ready. And be sure to ask if there's anyway you could return the favor and help them?