What makes it so good is Sean's approach: it's short, to the point, and professional, with some personality so as to not be stale or boring.
He was thankful and found common ground by mentioning a shared connection from a previous conversation. This creates credibility and serves as an invitation for Tiffany to comment on, as he asks her to tell him about any challenges she may face. It provides a starting point for him to suggest solutions.
It showcases how LinkedIn
prospecting messages can go a long way in creating a sale. These messages are themselves a type of
cold outreach, and LinkedIn is a great place for this as it's strictly designed for business people to interact with each other. This makes your cold outreach somewhat warmer than it would be via other methods such as email or calls.
Although you want to be working within the bounds of your comfortability and your own creativity, you will find that the best LinkedIn messages to prospects do share many of the same attributes.
While there is no exhaustive list of these attributes, as they may vary according to industry and specificity of approach, looking at examples will provide you with a general idea. Brevity, politeness, and connection via personalization are great starting points.
Here's another example of a great cold message, this time from personal experience.
I was talking to my wife one morning about an individual she read about who has a company in the medical-psychology field. Her company gives talks and offers courses to corporations and schools.
During the conversation with my wife, I realized the woman she was telling me about had a very similar background to mine. It seemed like we also shared many of the same views on work and life in general. I decided to look her up on LinkedIn and found out that I was right - so I decided to reach out.
After referencing a piece she had written as the introduction to my cold message, and a little bit about how we're similar, I wrote the following:
"I've had the mindset you're talking about for a long time now and it's refreshing to see that someone like you is out there teaching it!!" The response I received from her said:
Hi Rob, Thank you for connecting with me via LI and for your words- they mean more than you know :) I was so very amazed by your story, it really mirrored mine- even down to being in sales and selling air-time… I feel so very honored to be able to bring this message to younger children… I just read a couple of your Medium articles- outstanding! It's a good example of how an effective cold message and reply can be.
As you might imagine, we continued our conversation over time, had a few calls and meetings, and are now working together on several projects which are mutually beneficial.
This is all because I saw a commonality and crafted a cold message that was able to get her attention in a way that praised her work and let her know I appreciated what she's doing.
Had I done this through a
cold email or anywhere other than LinkedIn, I'm not sure it would have been quite as effective. I kept my message simple and didn't ask for anything in return other than connecting.
Here's the thing, we're all looking for ways to find more opportunities, more prospects, and ultimately, more sales. Knowing how to navigate the place where most digital interactions are happening in the business world, LinkedIn, is a skill you simply cannot afford to fail at.