10 cold outreach laws

You matter a bit, of course.

But the “you don’t matter” mindset is extremely useful.

It tunes your approach to delivering value rather than taking it.

What your prospect wants matters. What you want doesn’t.

I get 20+ DMs and connection requests every day.

95% of them try to take value instead of giving it.

For example, they ask me for a favor rather than trying to do one for me.

This is a bad strategy. Try to add value, not take it.

“Hi”
“How are you?”
“Can I ask you a question?”

I get versions of these every day, and I never answer them because they’re starting the interaction by wasting my time and making me dig to find out what they want. Get to the point.

Most people don’t want to interact with robotic people or literal robots (outreach software).

Find a way to add personality to your outreach.

Humor, authenticity, and personalization are the best ways to do this.

Common forms of social proof:

• Knowing someone in common
• Begin endorsed by other people
• Getting results for other people

If you have one of these, use one line of your outreach message to mention it.

Nobody wants to read a 300-word essay.

Keep your outreach concise.

Get to the point right away, state your intentions, maybe ask a question, and finish with a firm CTA.

There’s nothing worse than someone reaching out seeming like a friend, then getting a canned pitch a couple messages later.

If you want to be friends, just be friendly.

If you want to sell, sell.

Don’t disguise.

Creators and professionals usually don’t have time to talk to random people.

Instead, they want to talk to other creators and professional.

Show that you’re in the game with your bio, profile photos, and the content you create.

If you want to do outreach purely for social and long-term financial reasons, that’s fine.

If you want to make money in the short term, build an offer to sell, or sell your employment.

There are two kinds of persistence:

• First is following up two or more times with non-replies.
• Second is doing outreach daily or close to it for years straigh.

Persistence pays.

Show up and follow up.