Quick Trick to Increase Cold Email Responses

by Scott

People you don’t know are always more likely to respond to your emails when you’ve been referred. It signals you’ve been vetted.

Unfortunately, we don’t always have someone willing to introduce or refer us to the person we’re trying to reach. One way to combat this is by creating a referral. The methodology is pretty simple and can be applied even before you’ve identified the decision maker:

Step 1. Call Above Someone in the Organization

By calling above, I mean call someone who holds a higher, related position within the corporate hierarchy. I.E. If I’m trying to reach the VP of marketing, try calling the Chief Marketing Officer’s office.

When you reach this person, simply ask them who is responsible …
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How Skillshare Helped Me Finance A Nicer Apartment

by Scott

I love a lot of things about Skillshare. But today I’d like to highlight what it’s done for my finances and purchasing decisions.

Most people’s income is static with the exception of a year-end bonus. This yearly income determines their monthly budget. I.E. If I made $48,000 I’d have a little over $2500 a month after taxes to spend on rent, groceries, entertainment, bills, etc.

In this situation, purchasing decisions are a zero sum game because our income is capped. If I’m moving and want to spend an extra $200 on rent, that means I’ll have $200 less to spend on entertainment, tank tops, Dos Toros etc. The bottom line is we’re forced to make sacrifices.

What’s amazing about Skillshare is that it …
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How To Ask Someone For a Coffee Meeting

by Scott

I encounter a lot of people who want to “get coffee sometime.”

A lot of them are younger people I haven’t met or brief acquaintances looking for advice or help.

If you fall into this category (vs. a friend/colleague), there are effective ways to go about asking for coffee that make people more likely to meet with you as well as elicit a greater sense of respect for their time.

I’m breaking this down into two parts.

1. How to increase your odds that a busy, cool person will meet with you

2. An effective way to ask for a coffee meeting

Increasing the Odds This Person Will Meet For Coffee

You’ve identified the person you’d like to grab a cup of joe with. Let’s just assume …
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Business Development 101: Silence Can Be Your Friend

by Scott

In the business development world, the world silence usually has a negative connotation, but when you’re pitching it can be a good thing.

People are naturally uncomfortable with silence during a phone conversation with a new acquaintance. When they encounter it, they don’t know what to do…so they just start talking.

Often there are valuable pieces of information that prospects hold close to their chest. An example might be how interested they are in buying your product or service. Just like on a car lot, they might not want to seem too interested to maintain bargaining leverage. Other times there’s questions that are just awkward to ask directly.

You can use the silence disposition to your advantage in these type of scenarios. Purposefully …
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How to Start Using Twitter and Building Your Presence (Non-Toolish Remix 1.0)

by Scott

Getting started on twitter can be daunting. What does RT mean? Who do I follow? Is there etiquette on here? Why did @sexylexy46 who follows 45,000 people and is followed by 5 just follow me? I wondered all these things when I started out and did a lot of stupid things in the process of trying to build a digital presence. I have a lot of friends trying to “break in” to the startup scene, so I figured I wrote a post on my learnings to help them avoid some mistakes I made.

This is my unofficial guide of how to get started and build a digital presence on twitter – something that’s really useful for people looking to break into …
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I’m Teaching A New Skillshare Class on Business Development

by Scott

I just posted a new class on Skillshare called Business Development: Going In Cold

About The Class

This class is an entry level Business Development/Sales class focused on how to go about getting meetings with people you don’t know. This class is ideal for entry level BD/Sales people working at startups who will need to maverick their way into getting in the door or anyone interested in this role at a startup.

In this class I’ll teach the basics of:

Building A Pipeline
How to Identify Decision Makers and Play LinkedIn like a Keyboard
How to Find Anyone’s Contact Information
How to Write a Cold Emails that Actually Gets Responses
How to Ask for Intros Without Being A Toolshed
Cold Calling Strategies* – Cold calling will always suck, but …
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Riffing on Uncertainty

by Scott

Have you ever been scared sh*tless to do something? I bet you that the outcome was uncertain in this situation.

Have you ever done that thing that scared you sh*tless and in one form or another succeeded?

You stood up to the bully on the playground and he backed down.
You got the girl at the bar that everyone was afraid to talk to.
You left the job everyone hated to go build an amazing company.

You conquered fear to achieve success. Fear that was grounded in uncertainty. There is no better feeling.

Uncertainty is a funny beast in my life. I’m addicted to it, yet I simultaneously try to combat it whenever I can.

I love going out in New York. Not because I’m particularly excited …
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BD 101: Acknowledging the Language Barrier

by Scott

One mistake people make in BD and sales is they assume prospects speak their language.

“We provide a free API….”
“It’s the simplest CMS on the market…”

These are presumptuous statements. I’d like to think that the prospects I reach out to know what an API or CMS is, but it’s just not always the case. If understanding my value proposition is contingent upon familiarity with specific terminology I risk losing an opportunity. Why? Because people are too lazy to investigate something they’re not familiar with. That’s why it’s imperative to communicate your value in such a way that anyone can understand. It sounds incredibly obvious, yet I see people make this mistake time and time again.

For initial outreach I aim to include …
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