Over the weekend, I had the chance to meet up with Dean Yeong.
Dean is a growth product manager at AppSumo. And he works remotely from Malaysia.
I asked him how he managed to get hired at a world-class company like AppSumo. His answer? "I just emailed Noah Kagan, the founder!"
Few years ago, he emailed Noah Kagan to ask why Noah's still using an outdated email marketing platform – Aweber. A few emails exchanges later, he started doing some work for Noah and quickly became head of content at Sumo.com
Check out one of Dean's content articles at AppSumo:
Dean Yeong
Today, he leads product growth at a USD$80 million annual revenue company.
One thing that surprised me most when I sat down to chat with Dean, is how down-to-earth he is. I managed to turn on my camera and record a portion of our chat.
You can watch the video below:
Sorry about the noise. The cafe's music somehow bled into the microphones, a lot.
4 cold outreach tips (With examples)
Cold outreaching work. You just need to do it correctly.
How do I know that? Because that's how we find speakers for Underdog Con.
Here are 4 tips that will help you be successful at your cold outreaches this week.
1. WIIFM - What's In It For Me
Most people are busy. The last thing they want to do is to "get into a 15-mins meeting".
Find out what they want. And then highlight that in your cold email.
For example, when I needed to invite judges to help in an event I was running – I didn't just title my emails with "Hey, would you judge this event. K thanks!"
Instead, I figured out what they possibly want and angled my email to hit right at that. Check out the email that I sent below.
2. It's never about you
Me, me, me.
The truth is nobody cares about your promotions or if your company is a 10-time award receiver. They only care what you can do for them.
3. Tell them how you came across them
"Hi Reuben, my name is Bernard, and a web developer from XYZ company, an award-winning company in..."
Whoa, whoa. I don't know you!
Here's how I would rephrase the intro email to sound less like a creep.
"Hi Reuben, my name is Bernard. I came across you through Underdog Marketing conference..."
Now that they know how you knew them, they'll be more open to talking with you.
4. Give first.
Most cold emails start out with an ask.
"Hey Reuben, your website's copy sucks. I found this error here, here and here. I'm a great copywriter. Hire me."
Wow, I just got insulted for my bad work. Do you think I'd hire this person? No!
One of the best cold emails I've received is from a copywriter who showed me exactly how I could do better and actually sent me the work done!
All I had to do, was copy his work and use it on my email. Wow!
At that time, I became super interested. I replied and was ready to talk about engaging his services – but he never replied.
Reach out to someone now.
Who is someone who you need to get in touch with now. What's stopping you from reaching out to them?
Today, I want you to list out 3-5 people you want to reach out to – and actually do it! Email them, drop them a LinkedIn message or say hi on Instagram, it doesn't really matter.
