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Comment by pitt1980 | Hacker News Reader

pitt1980

That's probably roughly it

"I'm a software developer

I'm looking for ideas to create useful software for (whatever industry target is in)

I would love to buy you coffee and pick you brain about what software could be developed that would solve problems you have"

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They don't care about you. Make the conversation about them. The sooner you are talking about them, the better.

Figure out a way to offer some value to them. http://bit.ly/oeZDzC [whitetailsoftware.com]

When you are speaking with them, ask open questions like "What are your three biggest problems in X business?"

One of the three is usually hiring quality people. Anyone got a solution?

More ideas on refining the calling approach: http://bit.ly/vPCtuI [blog.asmartbear.com]

Hi, I'm Ian, the author of the blog post. Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm a little late to this thread.

I'm a fan of your posts and listened to the the interview you gave (eh the link escapes me) and found it super interesting.

After listening to your interview, one thing that I thought of was the advantage you had in at least starting with an industry that you know exists. You can speak their lingo already, you may have some theories on their problems, etc.

But what if you are starting from scratch? In my case, I'm going totally blue sky and just contacting random industries. I contacted farm inspectors, CNC milling companies, elevator repair companies, OSHA consultants, and other random companies. And how honest would you be about your approach, and your ignorance of their industry?

So far I've taken the approach of being as honest and authentic as possible. Perhaps to a fault, I should probably fake up some confidence.

Another thought I had, I think you may have mentioned this in the podcast interview, is in addition to "making it about them" is to offer something of value in return. I have a background in IT support and consulting. So one thing I was thinking to offer was a free IT assessment of their network. Maybe even include an attached invoice with the amounts zero'd out.

I know that the cold email approach is inferior to calling, but I wanted to dip my toe before I took the plunge into cold calls. For what it's worth the one on-site interview I got just lead to a second interview with a different company last week. So I wouldn't say these emails are totally worthless.

Also, what's your workflow for finding cold prospects? I found the most time consuming task was just creating a spreadsheet of contacts, and googling for companies. Maybe I should go to a business library and work with a librarian or something.

Okay, sorry to re-reply but here are the two versions of the email I sent. Mind skimming them and tell me what I did horribly, horribly wrong? I'd honestly love your feedback. I think I would follow something shorter than this but the same in spirit for cold phone calls. So maybe you can save me some pain and anguish.

Polite Version: Dear %fill:FirstName%,

First off, sorry for this out of the blue email. I found your name %fill:FoundYourNameSource%, and was hoping you might be able to help me.

My name is Ian Fitzpatrick, I'm the founder of a small software company in Saint Paul. I'm investigating ideas for my next software product, and I'm interested in creating an application that serves your industry.

I see that you're a %fill:JobRole% at %fill:CompanyName%. Are there any parts of your job that you feel are a hassle, repetitive, or error-prone -- where if you had the right software at work, your life might be a little easier? That's the kind of thing I'm super interested in hearing about.

If you have just 20 minutes available any time this week, I'd love the meet and pick your brain. I'm honestly just trying to learn, and hopefully create a product that makes your life a little easier.

Impolite Version:

Hi %fill:FirstName%,

I’m a software developer investigating some projects ideas in the %fill:IndustryName%. I’d like to understand the problems and successes you've had at %fill:CompanyName% a bit better. I’m not trying to sell you anything, I would just like to hear your thoughts on a few things related to the industry.

Do you have 20 minutes available to meet at some point in the next week? I'd like to conduct an informal interview with you.

Oh and if you look closely, you'll see I completely stole my copy from you. Doh.

That's about what I was thinking, too. It might be good to explicitly say that they would have a lot of influence over the product, so it would ideally be well-suited to their needs. And, they would have special privileges/discounts/whatever, when it hits the market. What do people think about extending/stating those kinds of things, or does that set expectations too high?

I'd nix the money part. This is all about good communication. If you communicate your intention to help the person you're emailing in some way early then you've changed the whole dynamic of the interaction.

If you say "I'm a smart guy looking to solve problems, can I pick your brain?" then you've hurt yourself. You've created a situation where you are asking for help and not giving it.

If you say "I'm a smart guy who's been researching problems in your industry and would like to toss some ideas at you to see if they'd be helpful for people like you" then you've created a situation where both people benefit. You're getting your questions answered and the mark is getting ideas that could potentially help him too.

This is a really simplified version but the idea of creating a relationship that benefits the other person makes it far more likely that they'll agree to what you're asking.

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