Background: I'm in the early stages of developing my own Project Management tool (no MVP yet) and want to have some conversations with potential target customers to get a better idea for market needs before I invest too heavily in the wrong direction with my prototype. I've had conversations with most of my personal connections but I want to interview at least 50+ potential customers and so I'm using my linkedin trial to try and find some fresh leads via cold InMail.
What do you think of this InMail message template? Would you respond?
SUBJECT: Project Management Software
Hello [FIRSTNAME],
My name is Peter and I'm conducting UX research into what project managers want from the next generation of Project Management tools.
If like me, you feel the current range of project management solutions are too clunky, too simplistic, or just don't gel with the rest of your team, then I'd love to have a short video chat with you (20-30 minutes) about what your ideal project management tool might look like. Your feedback will be used to design a next-generation project management tool, or possibly some simple add-ons that can complement your existing tools and give you the project management experience you've been looking for.
If you're frustrated at having no input into how these tools are designed then now is your chance to be heard. As an added bonus, once I understand the specific needs of you and your team I may be able to recommend a better set of tools for you based on my knowledge of products that are already available on the market.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Peter
Hi Peter,
The message feels genuine and I like the tone. However I think it is too long. Break it down into smaller paragraphs. Assume that the recipient is quickly checking out the message via a notification on his mobile. A lengthy message is a big turn off. Especially the added bonus section, I think it's not required.
regards,
Swami
Thanks, Swami. I'll open it on my mobile and see if that gives me some new perspective.
Responding to you as well here now. Yes, I would respond to that email, this can be due to me not getting a lot of emails in general and just liking the feeling of a clean inbox.
As @anilkilic said I would change the last sentence a bit. You sound very confident in your message up until the point you say "I may be able to"
If I was a cold lead I would immediately think "may be able to? 🤔" that can set off alarm bells for some people.
Not sure how you could implement this but I read somewhere that when cold emailing one should try to use the words "I" and "me" as sparingly as possible and if they are used to use them only after first addressing the lead in the sentence.
Thank you, yes that sentence seems to be the main problem point. I've also read that I should be saying "you" 10x as much as "I/me" but haven't been able to come up with a message template that satisfies that metric yet. :-(
Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it.
Too long, most would just ignore the wall of text.
You want to keep your pitch concise. Try something like this:
Name, I'm seeking feedback for a product management tool.
I would love to hear your thoughts about the current tools on the market.
Let me know when suit you for a quick chat?
I think it's too long and requires too much of a commitment from someone to get a response. Maybe give them something for free instead and then engage with the ones who download. I wouldn't give someone 30 minutes of my time from a cold email unless I felt like I owed them something. I'd keep it under 4 sentences and more casual.
Try to find person email and send it via email. In my experience works much better than messages on LinkedIn.
I've seen this pretty heavily promoted online as a good alternative, but here in Australia the anti-spam laws are pretty clear that cold emailing is just straight-up illegal.
Yea than LinkedIn is the better option.
Pete I did high ticket cold outreach for a living -- and believe me there is a lot to be changed here. if you're interested I could give you the rundown on how to get people actively wanting to talk, help, and buy your product.
my discord is: do#3695
Hi, Delight. I'm completely new to this so a tiny bit of one-on-one help would be amazing. I've got to go deal with kids' breakfast routine right now but will look you up on discord when I'm back online. Thanks for the generous offter.
Consider adding a calendly link to lower the friction of getting the meeting scheduled.
I think confidence is over rated in this instance. You don’t have a product, you are asking for help indirectly. Consider asking for help directly. People like helping others.
Try to add at least 1 personal sentence to every in-mail. “I see we both worked in ... at the same” the point is to show you at least explored their profile before bothering them.
You lost me at 20-30 minutes. I mean I hate jira as much as the next guy but I dont want to talk to some rando on the internet about it for that long.
My advice for your cold email. Cut down the requested time, you can always take longer if they are interested.
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Thank you so much for that insight. I guess that's why Grammarly only gave me 2 points for confidence! I'll try and rework it.
I'm also still trying to figure out how I portray myself - I don't want to come across as just one guy doing this in his spare time, but I also don't want to be dishonest about how far along this business is.
Thank you so much for your feedback
I have also tried the presenting as a CEO part but most of the time it both sounds and looks silly when it becomes clear to the customer that well I indeed am the CEO but that there are no other people part of the company either and that I have just decided to give myself that title to sound better or boost my ego.
Just in my humble opinion, it sounds silly giving titles as CEO unless there's a team behind the product.
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The founder I can agree with for sure just not the CEO. Not throwing any shade to the people portraying themselves as the CEO in emails etc. even if they are a one-person team since in the end both founder and CEO are correct terms but for a one-person rodeo the founder works much better