Even after\u00a0outsourcing my e-mail to a virtual assistant<\/a>, there are still a few messages that come over the transom.<\/p>\n Since the success of\u00a0the book<\/a>, I\u2019ve been able to see some of the worst e-mail pitches out there. Here is an example of how to do it properly, with 5 tips and good template phrases bolded:<\/p>\n<\/div> Hi Tim,<\/p>\n I hope all is well (and I gather from your celebrity that it is\u2014I can\u2019t seem to go a week without seeing your book or name somewhere).<\/p>\n I know you place tremendous value on your time so I\u2019ll be brief<\/strong>.\u00a0The website I launched last fall (www.SmartRaise.com) has evolved into a much more far-reaching venture: a software company that provides fundraising optimization and online advocacy solutions for nonprofits. I\u2019m raising $500-750k for the business, called Donor Loyalty Corp, and have a meaningful percentage of that already committed from various Angel investors.<\/p>\n Naturally, I\u2019m<\/strong>\u00a0courting a number of prospective Angels from my personal network to hopefully fill out the rest of the round. However,\u00a0I was curious if your experience has taught you any lessons about<\/strong>\u00a0identifying seed-stage investors\u00a0and, more specifically<\/strong>,\u00a0if you\u2019ve come to know any Princeton Alums or other individuals who have an appetite for deals like these.\u00a0I\u2019ve attached my<\/strong>\u00a0fundraising deck\u00a0for some context<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I understand if you\u2019re too busy to answer in-depth or would prefer not to discuss the topic given our limited interactions in the past. However, if the professor in you has any pearls of wisdom or specific thoughts, they would be greatly appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n Thanks in advance and I hope we can connect.<\/strong><\/p>\n Best,<\/p>\n Robert J. Moore \u201806<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> 1<\/strong>.\u00a0It\u2019s short and what he\u2019s requesting is clear. No \u201clet\u2019s jump on the phone for 10 minutes; it\u2019ll be worth your time.\u201d<\/p>\n 2<\/strong>.\u00a0He\u00a0made an impression in our initial meeting<\/a>, and he hasn\u2019t\u00a0irritated me with zero-content \u201ckeeping in touch\u201d e-mails<\/a>. He hasn\u2019t worn out his inbox welcome.<\/p>\n 3<\/strong>.\u00a0He makes it clear that he\u2019s doing his part and has explored other avenues before asking for my help. It\u2019s amazing how many would-be mentees or beneficiaries ask busier people for answers Google could provide in 20 seconds. That puts you on the banned list. Explicitly state what you\u2019ve done to get answers or help yourself.<\/p>\n 4<\/strong>.\u00a0He used the executive recruiter referral trick. Seldom will a headhunter call a gainfully employed CXO-level executive and ask them to take another position. They\u2019ll instead ask the exec if they know anyone who might be interested in position X. The intention is clear (might you consider this job over your current employer?), but it gives the executive a comfortable decline option.<\/p>\n 5<\/strong>.\u00a0He makes it clear that it\u2019s OK if I can\u2019t help or if I\u2019m too committed elsewhere. This \u2014 paradoxically \u2014 makes it much more likely he\u2019ll get a response, which he did.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> The above 5 tenets should be considered for any e-mail to someone<\/a> who probably deletes more e-mail in a day than you read in a week. If they appear in media regularly, assume that you are competing against at least 100 similar requests.<\/p>\n E-mail is like food. Good recipes produce good results, but you need to follow the proper steps.<\/p>\n<\/div> Tim Ferriss has been listed as one of\u00a0Fast Company\u2019<\/em>s \u201cMost Innovative Business People\u201d and one of\u00a0Fortune\u2019<\/em>s \u201c40 under 40.\u201d He is an early-stage technology investor\/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and\u00a050+ others) and the author of five #1\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0bestsellers, including\u00a0The 4-Hour Workweek<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers<\/a><\/em>. The\u00a0Observer<\/em>\u00a0and other media have called Tim \u201cthe Oprah of audio\u201d due to the influence of\u00a0The Tim Ferriss Show<\/em>\u00a0podcast<\/a>, which is the first business\/interview podcast to exceed 100 million downloads. It has now exceeded 600 million downloads.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[694,736,737,735],"tags":[697],"class_list":["post-26647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-growth","category-facebook","category-linkedin","category-social-media-content-development","tag-featured"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Scott","author_link":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/author\/scottadmin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calepin.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"e-mailing](\"https:\/\/calepin.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/e-mailing-busy-people-400x288.jpeg\")
Source: https:\/\/tim.blog\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n
Here are a few notes on this e-mail and what makes it more likely to get a response<\/h2><\/div>
Conclusion<\/h2><\/div>
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