Thread by @MotwaniSuhas

Some advice on Recruiting Interviewees for Early Customer Research from Prof. Eisenmann in the HBS PM101 class:

1. Cold e-mails > other forms
LinkedIn messages rarely work; one HBS project team got a 16% response.

Instead, look people up on LinkedIn, then guess at their email address — most companies use one of just a few formats, e.g., jsmith@, john.smith@ or john@s — and test your guess through an email verification website

2. An intro is always better than a cold email, so look for shared connections via LinkedIn, alumni directories, etc.

Say you're a student and up your odds.

3. Use the format, Vision/Framing/Weakness/Pedestal/Ask (mnemonic: “Very Few Wizards Properly Ask”)

4. According to sales guru Aaron Ross, when cold calling, you’ll get a better response to a “short, sweet” email that simply asks for a referral to the best person in the recipient’s company than to a “salesy” email that asks “Do you face challenges X,Y, and Z?”

In case you want to dig deeper, found a bunch of screenshots from the archive:

More on point 1 from a recent book "Talking to Humans"
(h/t @adityamohanty_ )

When you are trying to reach someone you do not know, there are a few things to remember:

1. Keep things concise, no one has the time
2. Offer to keep things convenient (meet near their office, etc)

3. Slightly controversial: Name-drop when you can but don't go overboard
4. Follow up if you don’t hear an answer, not too many times
5. If you are leaving a voice mail, practice it first (you might think it sounds practiced, but to others,
it will sound more professional)