The seal is broken folks.
The cold emailing efforts have finally booked my first meeting. And it was a good one.
I have confidence in the outcome of that call, but we’ll see. My personal philosophy is to stay detached from the outcomes and focus on the process.
So here’s what I’ve done so far:
Reached out to 53 prospective clients
2 positive responses
1 meeting booked
Normally, I’m against counting positive responses. It’s a BS metric in my opinion, but I want to show how positive responses don’t always turn to meetings.
But there are a lot of “axepurts” out there that brag about responses and like to imply they are meetings.
And yes, I know. I could do a lot more to build this up. But I’m still a partner in other ventures and still do client work.
If this little project here takes off, who knows…
Until then, I have to work on this as a “hobby” for now. It does burn inside because I see the potential. But I have to stay disciplined and committed to my current clients for now.
But look on the bright side from a 30,000 ft. view.
This is Week 4 and I’ve been able to work around 2-3 hours on this project per week (including writing this newsletter).
And we’ve already got a prospective client in the pipeline. I have to do a bit of nudging… but I have a good feeling.
So if you’re reading this and you’re currently working full-time, maybe this small progress will give you a bit inspiration?
Again, I’m approaching this with a little more than average effort. But if you were to attack an opportunity with steam coming out your ears…
You could be further ahead than I am now.
If there’s not much progress with P4P in future episodes, I’ll share some things from my other ventures and client work. Whole bunch of chicken McWisdom nuggets I can pull from there.
Anyways, here are some future plans I have for P4P though:
Becoming more established on Twitter
I’ll be honest. I was never a fan of Twitter.
Like I care about a 160 character summary of your day. Or a one-liner about what’s going on your mind.
But again, that’s just me not giving the platform a fair shot. And I can’t deny that my target clients prefer Twitter for communication.
So this is me biting the bullet and figuring Twitter out for the near-future. And this is me posting about this publicly so I have to stay committed now, haha.
Next:
I’m working on a short eBook specifically targeted for my market
When it comes to writing, I’ve had some diverse experience. Children’s books, non fiction book, a kid’s chapter book, and really long sales letters.
So this isn’t really anything new for me.
The purpose of the book is to give me an authority amplifier.
Again, I have no experience in the combat sports market. But I do have similar experiences that are easily translatable.
But to make myself more relevant in the eyes of my market, I’m using this short eBook to demonstrate my expertise and frame some of my philosophies.
Plus, being an “author” comes with a perceived boost in authority. Always helpful when it comes to attracting clients.
Again, using you guys as my accountability partners. I’ve written and published it out publicly. Now I have no choice but to finish it.
OK. So last week I promised I’d dive a bit deeper into cold emailing. So let me dig into the most important piece of your cold email today.
In copywriting, the most important element on a sales page is the headline.
This is one of my favorite headlines ever created. Written by legendary copywriter, John Carlton.
So the real purpose of the headline is to persuade the reader to read the next line of copy. And they’ll continue reading the copy line after line… until they’ve fallen under the spell of a good persuasive message.
If the headline is a dud, it doesn’t matter how good the body copy is. Your prospective customer’s focus is elsewhere.
That’s why you often see massive results for a piece of copy just by changing the headline, leaving everything else the same.
So let’s take that concept and apply it to cold email.
Now I believe there’s a misconception on where the “headline” of a cold email is.
Most people out there will tell you it’s the subject line. And when I hear that, I giggle.
Because after sending tens of thousands of cold emails in the past few years, I’ve recycled between 1-4 variations of a subject line that are timeless.
Here they are for you to use.
“Question for [First Name]”
“Message for [First Name]”
“ Quick question, [First Name]”
“Question for you, [First Name]”
You cannot go wrong with any of these. It will get opened as long as your email hits the main inbox.
Next we have our actual email. I’m not going to go into the full messaging format here. But we have our greeting, “Hi [First Name], Hey [First Name], etc”
Now comes the real “headline” of the email. The first sentence right after your greeting.
I call this the icebreaker line. Other people call it the first line, whatever. So here’s how to write a potent icebreaker line.
First, research the person and find something interesting. Could be a quote, something they care about, something they said in a podcast, article, or an achievement.
Now here’s the structure of how I write the icebreaker line.
Recognition + your opinion.
Validation is like crack cocaine to us. We want to be seen, heard, and understood.
So starting your icebreaker line like:"
“I saw…”
“I heard…”
“I appreciate…”
Then mention the personal thing you researched, in a sort of compliment form. But not too flattering. Or else it’s going to look like you’re kissing ass and that triggers the danger alarm in the reptile brain.
But that’s what the second part of the icebreaker line is for. After recognition, we give our take or opinion on that thing. For example…
Hey Kevin,
I love how you’re documenting your journey on building a new business. It’s so cool!
Versus.
Hey Kevin,
I love how you’re documenting your journey on building a new business. I like how you talk strategy, but I think you should talk more about your reasoning behind everything.
Now both lines give the ego a bit of dopamine.
But in the first line… after the “yes I am awesome” feeling wears off, your brain turns to “ok, now what does this person want?”
Compared to the second line…
It gives the good feeling, but the second part makes the prospect pay attention.
Most outreach approaches put the prospect on a pedestal like a horny teenager mentally undressing an Instagram model.
Giving your perspective and opinion shows you can play on the same level.
I don’t think anyone else will tell you this. But it’s good to challenge your prospects sometimes. Just don’t overboard and be a douche about it. Also, NEVER tell them they’re wrong about something.
Anyways, I’m going to end this week’s issue here. Now you can go off and write a more potent cold email with a good icebreaker line.
And for those of you following along vicariously, contemplating doing your own thing…
Make the Netflix binge a reward for making progress in your venture. Take the goddamn first step.
Trust the process, love the process.
Kevin