Warm Email Prospecting: Cold Calling Without the 'Yuck Factor'

[00:00:00] Sara Conde Hello, everybody. We're just giving everyone a few minutes to come in and while we do that we're just going to walk through some housekeeping slides and introductions. So welcome, everyone, to our webinar for today, Warm Email Prospecting: Cold Calling Without the "Yuck" Factor presented by Ed Gandia. 

[00:00:21] Sara Conde So we're going to wait for everyone to come. And while we're waiting, I'll introduce myself. My name is Sara Conde. I will be moderating webinar today. A little background on me. I've been with MBO for about 7 years as a Director of our Consulting Services Department. What I do is I manage a team of advisers who respond to requests from independent consultants and freelancers who are curious about new service offerings. We do this through consultation appointments, where we learn more about everyone's backgrounds needs, run US events to help determine if MBO services are the right fit. So little quick, I promise MBO commercial. MBO's mission statement, what we do is we make it easy for independent consultants and their clients to work together. Quick, high level overview is really word alternative to self incorporation. So we know what that means is we are sharing our organizations or a corporation with our members so they can take full advantage of all the perks of being in business for themselves, not having to build it all from scratch. So that stuff like the administrative items that are, you know, typically outsourced to several different vendors like liability coverage, invoicing, tax withholding, expense processing, access to benefits, etc. If you want to know more about this, you can always visit our site. But you also have an opportunity at the end of this webinar to let us know if you want one of our advisors to reach out to you. 

[00:01:59] Sara Conde OK, so some housekeeping on webinar set up, you can see the controls listed here. We will be taking questions throughout and we will address them at the end of the presentation. Any questions that we do not get to will be answered via e-mail. We will also be e-mailing the slide deck and a recorded copy of the entire webinar to everybody, all the registrants. So that's a question we get a lot throughout the webinar. People, what are you attend? Just a copy of all the slides and the recording, beginning of the presentation. OK, we will be live tweeting. So if you want to follow this presentation, you can have #MBOWeb and to submit your questions and comments. 

[00:02:54] Sara Conde All right, it's now my sincere pleasure to introduce you to Ed Gandia, and Ed is a successful freelance copywriter, author, speaker and coach. He focuses on teaching freelancers and independent professionals how to earn more in less time doing the work they love for better clients. Me, he's got some impressive credentials. He's the Co-author of best-selling book, The Wealthy Freelancer, Founder of International Freelancers Academy, Host of podcast High Income Business Writing and Smart Freelancing. Additionally, his insights have been featured on CNN Radio, CBS Radio News, Inc Magazine, Huff Post, Christian Science Monitor, AirTrans, Go Magazine, The Writer, along with many others. So let's just say we probably want to listen to what he has to say. I know I've asked my whole team to tune in today, so I'm really interested to learn from this as well. And with that, Ed, I'm going to pass it over to you. 

[00:03:57] Ed Gandia Oh, thank you so much, Sara. It's great to be here. And, you know, if you're on this webinar, I am willing to bet that you realize if prospecting for clients is really not a ton of fun. But, you know, it feels that way I found because we make it harder, much harder than it needs to be. And the good news is that there's a much faster and simpler way to prospect for clients using nothing but e-mail. And that's what we're going to show you today. I'm going to show you a way to prospect that that can actually be enjoyable, not just effective. And it's ideal for independent professionals who don't have the time or the motivation to keep up with kind of the latest fad in self promotion or where they just they find this very painful and they're looking for an easier way to do it. That's inviting. And it feels right to them and the sustainable that's the other thing. You know, a lot of things sound great and you slog through them, but they're just not sustainable. You know, you can't see yourself doing this for years. 

[00:05:09] Ed Gandia So here's a basic overview of what we're going to cover today. We're going to first talk about what warm email prospecting is all about. I'm going to give you the background of how this methodology, how I designed it, how I created it, why my motivation for doing it, who it's for, why it's better than so many other prospecting strategies that you see out there that you may be using right now. I'm going to give you the basic warm e-mail template and then I'm going to show you a sample script. So you see how that template comes alive, how you how you can apply it or to talk about what you want to get out of a warm e-mail, because this is a misconception. You're not landing clients with with warm emails. You're trying to do something very different. And once you understand that, this becomes a lot easier. And then I'm going to show you just a quick overview of some freelancers. I've taught this to some independent professionals that part of you in the results that I've been getting, just so you can kind of get a little bit of motivation to try this on your own. 

[00:06:17] Ed Gandia So they're already gave you a little bit of background on myself. And I'm working freelance B2B writer and copywriter. Spend most of my time these days as a Business Building Coach for freelancers and independent professionals. But I came from a corporate sales background. That, by the way, in the picture is not me, that actually leads to a story. And when I was in Sales, I seem to have a knack for finding organizations that required their sales team to cold call. These are very difficult environments. It just did OK. If you weren't making your numbers, first of all, you're on the chopping block. And you know, what was expected was that you would pound the phone. You know, you just get on the phone and start dialing for dollars. And it was very, very challenging for me. 

[00:07:11] Ed Gandia Now, fortunately, I was young. I had time. I had the energy, I had the drive. But, man, it really wore me out. I remember the days where I kept a journal and just so I could kind of keep track of my stats and, you know, days or I do 75, 100 calls. I don't even know, looking back how I did that. But by Friday, I was just completely done. I really was fried. And I remember to this day, this is 15 years ago, right around this time of year. We went out to dinner on a Friday evening with some very good friends. And so this is one of those weeks I've been cold calling just like a mad man. And this is a new job, so I was selling for for a company that that sold professional IP services to Fortune 500 companies, Fortune 1000 really. And so my friends were asking me during dinner, hey, you know, so tell us about your new job. How is it going? And yes, I told him a little bit. I didn't want to tell him that. I was just hating it because of what I had to do. But I forget how it happened. But the subject came up. So my good friend's father and how she was, you know, he was still working, but he had a couple of years left until he retired and he was in I.T. and he worked for this company. I'm thinking, man, this sounds really familiar. This company, this name and this guy says, well, what's what's your dad's name? And she told me and it hit me. I had just cold called her dad earlier that afternoon. And I thought, you know, the guy was really nice, you know, and he wasn't rude. He let me off the hook and he just told me very nicely, not interested. You know, we're covered, but I found it embarrassing. I thought, you know, here I am, like resorting to calling my good friend's father, you know, and just interrupting as they were. And to me, that was kind of rock bottom anyway. And I knew there had to be a better way. 

[00:09:19] Ed Gandia So this idea, this methodology was born from just this desperate need to find a better, classier, more effective way of reaching out to prospects and trying to generate some some dialogue. Now, since then, I've gone on and off using this, trying different ways of doing it. I have refined the system. I've actually since I became an independent professional, I transferred the way I do this to this business. And since then I've taught it to thousands of other freelancers and independent professionals to use it very effectively, including how to make it how to work it into your work week so it becomes again sustainable in something that's just habitual. You don't just do it when you need work. 

[00:10:08] Ed Gandia Now, let's talk about what it is and what it's not, because I think it's very, very important. This is a very different type of e-mail prospecting or e-mail marketing. It's not your standard everyday e-mail marketing. This is not about mass e-mailing. This is not about sending newsletters. This is not about trying to automate your prospecting. This is not about pretending that it's a personal note when you really sending the same note to a bunch of different people. In fact, it's the opposite of all that. And I want you to think of warm e-mail prospecting as artisanal prospecting. So this is a individual 1-to-1 e-mail communication. Each e-mail has to be personally handcrafted, if you will, in written for one person only, just like artisanal cheese or wine. Right. These are handcrafted products that are done with with care. These are not mass-produced. And it's very important that your e-mails retain that feel and that tone. And I will tell you, when done right, these messages can really position you as a knowledgeable professional with a very relevant and timely message. And I found it to be one of the quickest, most effective ways to attract and land high quality clients without the "yuck" factor of cold calling or the cost/time requirements involved with many traditional marketing tactics. 

[00:11:38] Ed Gandia Now, as you'll see here, and I'm going to show you some examples whom these e-mails are different from 99% of all marketing e-mails your prospects are getting. And there are several reasons for that. They're less intrusive. You know, e-mail doesn't have to be read immediately. It cold call, you have to take it or don't. And when you leave a voice mail, you know, it's a linear thing. You can't necessarily skip ahead. You can't skim it. E-mails don't interrupt like cold calls do. They're also more relevant. You know, they're easier for the prospect to consume. They speak to very specific things that you noticed about a prospect. Prospects can scan the messages quickly for relevance. It's also a more convenient medium for busy prospects who's just kind of scanning to see if something is relevant. It's also more personalized. E-mail is a better medium I found for delivering a personalized message. It automatically when you read it, you can tell it was handcrafted, it was written for you, not for a bunch of different people. And you know, the great thing about e-mail is that 99% of marketing e-mails are not personalized. So if you do this right, the personalization can really stand out. In fact, as you'll soon see there's an implied message that, look, this is me to you. This is actually a human being who type this out and wrote this specifically for you. 

[00:13:11] Ed Gandia Warm e-mails leverage 3 very powerful psychological triggers. And I'll just tell you right now what they are. I've mentioned them already, Personalization, Relevance and Gravity. So they're short and to the point. So, you know, again, inboxes are just bursting at the seams with irrelevant and generic e-mails. And the ones that try to pass as personalized are really mass e-mails in disguise. So when you take the time to handcraft a short e-mail that's personalized and very relevant, you immediately stand down. You know, and I want you to think about this because we already do this, but you may not think about it consciously. Let's say and let's not say it's a friend. Let's say you get an e-mail from an acquaintance, somebody you've met before. And it was written to you, right, you open it up, hey, remember me? Hey, I was just checking in with you to see if you know you're going to this event or whatever it might be. It doesn't really matter. The point is, what's going on in your head. You're not you're not wondering if this is something that this person, let's say his name was Bill, sent to 47 other people. You know, that Bill sent this e-mail to you. You opened it for a couple of reasons. One, you recognize the name, but even if you didn't, you never, as you opened it and started reading it, suspected that something's off here. You know, that this is really not written for you. So it really for it to work, as you'll soon see, it needs to retain that. And that's one way it works really well. I found that this approach can keep you very focused and motivating. From motivated from a purely emotional standpoint, prospecting with e-mail will help you stay creative and energized because you're not going to feel like a pass when you do if you do cold calling. You know, and as you start getting results, you'll feel even better about adopting this. It's a longer term business building strategy. Not that this is the only thing you'll do, but you'll feel better about using this kind of as a recurring strategy. It's less expensive than most other strategies. There's no postage. You don't need to buy or rent to lift. The best lists, in fact, are not really lists. You're going to do it on an ad hoc basis many times. You're going to manually compile these these names. You're not going to kind of start with a huge list. It's actually overwhelming. 

[00:15:36] Ed Gandia It's quick and immediate. So as you'll see, this method just involves a bit of research. Taking time to write a customized and personalized message but we're not talking about a lot of time here. You know, certainly not the amount of time that many other prospecting approaches require. Plus, your prospects get the message immediately. You don't have to wait days or week. And it's also flexible in that it allows you to choose prospects to go after. You know, I'm a big believer in inbound marketing and establishing thought leadership and getting your name out there and developing kind of a a following and word of mouth and referrals. That's all great. I'm not saying abandon that. You absolutely should do that over the long haul. But I think it's critically important that you also have one or more proactive strategies. In other words, strategies that allow you to pick specific prospects based on your goals, your preferences, where you're known, what you may know about a prospect in directly target those prospects that gives you some control over where you take your solo business. And that's where e-mail prospecting comes in. And this is probably the fastest and most cost effective way to find land high quality clients. When you do it right. 

[00:16:55] Ed Gandia This strategy is ideal for any type of solo professional that targets other businesses or organizations. That say the big exception is if you're targeting individual consumers and I wouldn't think there's anyone here on this, in this webinar who would fit that description. But let's say you're I don't know, see your professional organizer and you help both businesses and homeowners clean up their garage in their closet, that wouldn't work. But if you're targeting businesses, even non-profits, it just this could really work well. 

[00:17:34] Ed Gandia All right. So let's go right to the meat here. Now that you kind of understand why this is method has an advantage. So here's the basic template. Don't worry. I'm going to explain each of these in detail. Your subject line really needs to refer to the meaningful connection that you're going to speak about in the e-mail body. And then you're going to go in the e-mail body straight into that meaningful connection. You're not going to waste time trying to warm up the prospect. Then you're going to talk about or describe your value statement. You can include a credibility element of some type. It could be a URL or it could be some sort of written element. And I'll explain that. And then you cap it off with a softened invitation to connect, then, of course, your e-mail signature. So let's talk about each of these in detail. They're all very important. 

[00:18:23] Ed Gandia The first is your meaningful connection. And a meaningful connection is not a person. This is really a statement that ties what you do to the services, the value you provide to something you notice about that particular prospect. Now, it doesn't have to be an event. A lot of people think, oh, you mean like if they have this big news announcement? Yeah. I mean, that's a type of meaningful connection. If it's tied to the services, your offer somehow, but it doesn't have to be a trigger event. It can be something you noticed on their website or some company attribute that would make them likely to need someone with your skill set. Something they do that's tied to the services you offer. I think of it as a bridge. You know, one side this is the thing you saw that you notice and on this side is what you do and the value you offer. And you're connecting both of those. You're building a bridge between them. And I'll show you some examples to make it come alive. Value statement is the next thing. And that's just a sentence or two that explains what you do for whom. And why you're different from many competitors, it can also explain why that difference matters if you really need to get into detail, but you usually don't. 

[00:19:41] Ed Gandia The credibility or credibility element could be a bunch of different things as you have some flexibility here. You can include a link to your About Me page or link to some relevant work or a list of previous clients or the link to a page of some testimonials. But it doesn't have to be a link. It could be a success or quick success story, 1 or 2 sentences about how you helped, you know, ABC company solve a particular challenge or anything that would help you sound credible. And again, doesn't have to be a link. It can be a list of recent clients or a description of an award award you've received. Some big accomplishment, years of experience in a particular industry or unique background that you might have anything like that. You really just kind of adding some "umpf" to your value statement and making sure the prospect understands that, you know, you're not just some cook. You're real, you know. 

[00:20:35] Ed Gandia Invitation to connect. You don't have to be warty or elaborate here. In fact, I just share with you my favorite call to action. And it's a question. Should we connect? Should we connect? That's it. Sometimes I say, would it make sense to schedule a brief call soon? Interested? That's it. There's a natural human tendency to want to respond to questions and be very powerful. If you've kind of made a really solid business case and done it briefly and then cap it off with a question, it just invites an answer. 

[00:21:15] Ed Gandia Now, I mentioned Brevity, so I might as well bring this up now. You want to do this in a 125 words or less. Brief. I know that sounds wow, that sounds like a lot. When you start writing them, you'll see it's not a lot of room. Remember what I said earlier? One of the key psychological triggers is brevity. It's important that it's personalized, relevant and brief. And if you give yourself that limit and you're strict about 125 words or less, you're going to achieve that. In fact, what I found is the more you do this, the better you can get at doing it and even less, even 100 words or less, but 125 should be the maximum. 

[00:21:57] Ed Gandia So let's get to some samples. So you see how this comes alive here. These are actual samples from just different independent professionals, freelancers out there. I changed some of the names just for privacy reasons. I'll go ahead and read them to you. And again, I know you guys are going to get the the slide deck for this, and I'm here for the resource for you. That's got some more samples. But you have just in case you can't see this really well, because it's small print subject line reads. You have very inspiring stories. "Hello, Mindy. I came across your website a few times over the years because I do a lot of work with nonprofit organizations. As I look through your site this morning, I read Sabrina story. It was very inspiring!" So let me just stop right there. So notice right away the meaningful connection, right? You have it in the subject line. You have very inspiring stories. In right away, didn't try to say, hey, how are you? Let me introduce myself. You don't know me. My name? No. I came across your website a few times over the years because I do a lot of work for nonprofits. As I look through the said profit, here's what I read. And I was really impressed. OK, I'm writing because I work with nonprofit organizations to create marketing materials that really get notice and increase donations. So what is that? That is the value statement. 

[00:23:16] Ed Gandia OK, so this next paragraph, I hope the Arts Council for Santa Cruz increase awareness of their events and bring new donors to the organization is also involved in projects that were awarded a procedure Southtown Grant through the National Endowment for the Arts. What is that? That is part of the credibility element. So notice she went ahead and included a URL to samples of her work, but she really kind of added some more meat to it by talking a little bit about what makes her different in her background. So that's a combination of her difference and some credibility. Now, notice the call to action, right? Should we schedule a brief call to discuss how may be able to help you? Very powerful. 

[00:23:55] Ed Gandia All right, here's another one. Read about Slate in the Houston Business Chronicle. Hi Meredith, in the Houston Business Journal about Slate's impressive growth from 0 to more than 100 employees in just 3 years. Congratulations. So, again, notice the it's a meaningful connection. Here's what I found. I haven't gotten yet to what I do, but it touches at least on the prospect. So notice, you know, that's another thing I didn't really mention outright earlier. You really want to focus on them, not you not notice. Here's who I am. Notice how awesome I am. No, start with them. OK, that's where you start your bridge with a meaningful connection. I'm writing because I may be able to help you clearly and concisely communicate with your employees. Among my 10+ years of professional writing experience is more than 7 years writing employee and benefits communications. So that's what I do. It's a value statement. I've won several awards for my writing, including the PR Communicator of the Year from the Houston Press Club, and I excel in translating corporate speak into engaging content that employees will take time to read. So that's the second half the value statement while adding some credibility, which she then backs up with a link to samples of her work. Would it make sense for us to connect in the next few weeks? So very relevant. Noticed very personalised. So again, remember what I said earlier. You want this to feel like it was specifically written for you. If you're Meredith and you're receiving this, there should be no doubt it shouldn't even come up, shouldn't even think about the fact that maybe this is sent to many different people. No, there's no doubt, just like when you get an e-mail from a friend or an acquaintance, you just know that this was written for you. Very, very powerful. It's important to do that. Those are part of the triggers and the brevity keeps it professional and increases chances that it will be read all the way through, at least skimmed. And if it's skimmed and done well, then that's going to draw the person to just read the whole thing. So you ask yourself, I mean, if you were to get something like this, how would it stand out in your inbox? It probably would. I'm not saying you going to respond to it, but I'm saying it will at least stand out. And that's the first step in making these work. 

[00:26:16] Ed Gandia All right. This one a little it's a little harder to read. The subject line reads, Excellent work on the Newtrix.com site. Hi Kelly. I've browsed your website a few times over the years, as I'm very much into my home garden and sustainability. Yesterday I got your e-mail about your new website. Congratulations - that looks fantastic. I'm writing because my husband and I run a web design agency that works with small to mid-size businesses. We act as a virtual design department for companies that don't want to hire in-house staff to create and maintain online stores and catalogs - or to do website maintenance and e-mail marketing. Just recently, we lowered electrolyte.com's bounce rate. Increased their per-visitor page views and created an e-mail marketing campaign that increase our sales by 30%. Would it make sense to connect on the phone? No sales pitch, just seeing if we might have a good fit. Very, very relevant, very personalized brief. I mean, there's just no doubt this is written specifically for Kelly and gets right to the point. There's no need to warm up the prospect. 

[00:27:18] Ed Gandia I'll share with you one more, this is what actually wrote the other day, you know, I still use a strategy all the time. So in mostly these days to reach out to high profile people who are very difficult to reach. I mean, so the theme elements are there and notice how I still use it. Just a different, slightly different flavor of the template to get attention and get a response. My response rate is really, really high. So this is one that I wrote to Will Henshall, the CEO of a company called Focus@Will - it's a music service that allows you to practice very relevant for people in the group. I don't own stock in them or anything, but I love their service and I've been using it for a couple of years. I love it. It allows you it's musically it's designed just to get you in the flow and to help you stay focused. So I just wrote him an e-mail to see if he'd be interested in being a guest on my podcast. And I got a response within hours with a yes and emailed. This is exactly word for word what I wrote. I'm a focus of a Lighthouse Group member and a big fan of Focus@Will. I also have a very popular bi-weekly podcast for freelance writers and iTunes. Included the link. I'm writing to see if you consider being a guest in a future episode to discuss how the right time and flow of music can help create a professional development in focus. This would be a 30-minute Skype audio interview. Interested? So notice the elements are still there, right? Subject line, meaningful connection. I want to do this is you. This is this is something I want to do for you or something I notice about you, OK? And then I open the e-mail with the same thing. I notice it's about you. I know this about you. Here's what I got. So that's the meaningful connection. Here's the bridge. Here's why I'm writing. Here's what I do. Are you interested? Very brief, this is under a hundred words long. 

[00:29:08] Ed Gandia So, you know, you can probably realize this, but just by by reading this, but I want to emphasize this is a very important point. The goal of a warm e-mail is not to land a client. The goal is to start a conversation. Essentially, what you want from your e-mails is to get the prospect to respond with a question or statement that indicates some level of interest. If you have some level of interest, you can work with that. You know, that's the heavy lifting. And that's what you want to do. You want to get an answer or response is something like interesting. Tell me more about what you do. Or we may have a need for someone with your skills. Can you send me some information about your fees. Or you know, we were working with another designer, but she recently left to work full time with another client. Can you touch base with me in 3 weeks? I'll be in a better place to discuss at that time, something like that. And then from there, your next job is to get the prospect on the phone. And that's where the real selling is done, you know. But believe it or not, you've done a lot of the heavy lifting by this point. And that's the part that I think is so frustrating about prospecting. A lot of people don't know how to do that. Heavy lifting, how to get someone to start a dialogue with you. This stuff really, really works. 

[00:30:21] Ed Gandia And I just show you I want to show you some emails that I've received. I get these, you know, just about every month, sometimes 2 or 3 times a month from people who have implemented the strategy with great success. This is Lindsey Kelks Meredith, she wrote me late last year just letting me know, hey, I tried this and I want to give you an update. It took a while to get the hang of it and reach out to the right people. As I said earlier, it just takes a little bit of time to kind of get used to this format and getting used to keep it brief. But then she says, hey, but I've used this to gain some pretty kick butt clients as a freelance designer. And then she named me. She gave me 3 names. She goes after the toy industry, 3 names that anybody in this call who have kids would recognize. Big, big names in the industry. And this is over a period, I think, of a year. And she says, now, I just got to keep it up. I just been so busy I haven't been doing it like I should. 

[00:31:16] Ed Gandia So another one from Bonnie Nichols, she said, hey, I started using this for the past months and she learned about this through a webinar like I'm doing right now for you guys. Said I'm a new business owner. I've gotten 2 responses, so far, from 2 good-sized companies, one turn into a quick job. The other will turn it into some work once I get through their vetting process. So let's see. And then this one I this is a sometimes I get handwritten notes. It's crazy. I got this over Christmas break from Corinne Mackay in Colorado. She said, so I've been finally got motivated to connect with some clients and I've been wanting to work with for a long time. My third e-mail led to an assignment from client I've been tracking for almost 2 years. And Corinne let me know. Hey, I've been doing this for 12 years and, you know, I'm just now doing this and it's working extremely well. 

[00:32:08] Ed Gandia So, you know, this this stuff really works. And I wanted to kind of talk about something I mentioned earlier, because this is a hidden benefit that a lot of people don't think about. The beauty of doing something like this is not just the fact that it can be very effective. The beauty in the understated benefit is that many times it's not that we don't want a prospect, it's simply that we don't know what to do next. We agonize over where to start or the next steps, so we do nothing. And I bet if I could get a show of hands in here, many of you guys would raise your hands or start nodding right now. Right. So you're not sure where to start. So you keep putting it off and putting it off. Would warm you prospecting does is it gives you a framework. It gives you a series of very simple steps that can turn prospecting from something you dread and avoid into a habit because it feels doable for one. And secondly, it's easy to kind of systemize it, you know, to develop a process around it and to write short e-mails. You know, anyone can write short e-mails? It takes practice, but it's tangible. It's doable. It's not abstract. Like so many of the strategies out there that people want to watch. Sounds great, but I don't even know. How do you do this? How do you systemize that? Warming or prosperity can help you do that. 

[00:33:25] Ed Gandia In fact, I wanted to offer you guys something. This is completely free. I have a free cheat sheet that goes into much more detail, into what we talked about today. Gets into even more advanced strategies on how to make this more effective for you. You guys can download it. I'm making a special link for you guys. Free to go there, SmarterFreelancing.com/MBO. So check it out. If you download it again, it's free. I'll also send you some very practical free training videos and handouts. They go deeper into the strategy and how to deploy it. So this is kind of a big topic. And I know it's simple, but there's a lot to it. And so anyway, if you download this, you'll get some more information from me. It's free and we'll show you how to delve deeper into it and how to kind of deploy it in your own business. So, yeah, see how we're doing with that. Sara, we're ready. 

[00:34:23] Sara Conde Yeah. Thank you so much. And I know that I'm going to be one of the people that downloads that. The practical examples are really helpful. With that said, we did have some questions that people had. I'd like we have some time left, so I'd like to go through a few of them. So we had Jennifer asked. If we don't have our own like about my website, is it fine to just link to our LinkedIn profile or do you recommend having a site created? 

[00:34:51] Ed Gandia You know, it's a great question. I always recommend you have a site. Now, don't let that stop you. I would say, look, in the meantime, link to your LinkedIn profile. I think it's fine. I think every independent professional should have a website. Even if you work for clients long term and you typically only have 1 or 2 clients at the most. I think it's important because when you need it, you need it and it becomes the hub for your marketing activities and it's always out there working. I think LinkedIn is great. Many times when people are searching for your name. If LinkedIn is the first thing, it will pop up. But, you know, it's still no substitute for a website. 

[00:35:28] Sara Conde We had him Jim ask, what if you can't find any information on the prospect for the meaningful connections section? 

[00:35:36] Ed Gandia Yeah, great question, my default is what I see on the website. So when I can't find something more specific, I'm just going by what they see on their website. If I can't see anything there, here's the good news, I move on. Because the reason you're sending the e-mail is not that that's the next person on your list. The reason is you notice something. So not noticing anything, then, you know, you've got to move on to the next one, maybe pass on that one for now and come back to it later. Yeah. You really want to. In my default one that I used for so many years is look, I noticed you've been public, so I write a lot of white papers for my life. I notice he got quite a few white papers on your website and I've looked through some of them impressive. And I would say, are you doing those internally or are you working with an outside writer? And if you are working with a writer, if you do hire outside writers, what would it take for me to be considered? Yeah, yeah. So but if let's say I'm not noticing any of that, I found that it's easier to sell my services to someone who's already doing that kind of work than to someone who doesn't have any. So the approach I would never take is, you know, I notice he don't have any white papers on your website. You know, you really should. I can do that for you. That's an uphill battle. 

[00:37:03] Sara Conde Hmm. I had I'm selfishly picking this question because I want that answer myself. 

[00:37:11] Ed Gandia OK. 

[00:37:11] Sara Conde This is a question from Rod. And he's asking, does your method can your maffia methodology be applied to LinkedIn messages? I'm personally thinking of I'm not going to add an InMail. Yeah, yeah, 

[00:37:25] Ed Gandia yeah, yeah, I'm in. So the answer is it could, but I urge you not to. I urge you to do a little bit of research and I can share a couple of ideas with you, because this question usually comes up. You find e-mail addresses. It's much more powerful and effective to go straight to that person's inbox than it is through LinkedIn for a couple of reasons. One is a lot of people don't have their LinkedIn tied to their business or main e-mail account. Right. So they have to go into a Gmail or something like that. So they're not going to check it all the time. Secondly, it's become really crowded there. And a lot of the messages people are getting, even through InMail are recruiters. You know, people soliciting. It's completely irrelevant mass messages. So they're ignoring it. So it becomes kind of a trashy place like this, really bad part of town. You don't want to go, you know, and you avoid it. So what you want is you want to go where their eyeballs are living, where they're at, and you want to go to their inbox. 

[00:38:28] Ed Gandia Now, let me just kind of preempt the question. Well, gosh, how do I find their e-mail address? Well, there's a lot of different ways. I've shared my 2 favorites with you. I always start with, by the way, I always start with LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn will at least give me the name of the person and the correct spelling and everything and the organization, of course, and their title. So at least I have that. And then from there, the next place I go to is Google. I want to know if Google has somehow indexed their e-mail address somewhere. By index, meaning like Google, you know, it's always crawling websites, grabbing information and storing it and indexing it. I want to know if that e-mail address is published somewhere on a page. Somewhere on a document. Gosh, you know, if I even come across this all the time with some individual did a presentation at a conference. In the PowerPoint deck was uploaded to the conference's website for attendees to download. And Google will even index the content of that PowerPoint at the last slide or say questions. E-mail me at Susan@ABCCompany.com so it will be there. So Google is a great tool in what I use. I use the advanced search features, so I'll put it like the person's name. And then I'll say they also find an instance of Susan Smith with @ABCCo.com. I want to see if, like her name appears where there's an e-mail address also on that page. Or sometimes up by doing that, I'll find the company's e-mail convention. So I know it's ABC company, but I don't know what their e-mail convention is. Meaning, how emails are typically done, so I'll find that there's an Ed, I don't know, EdMartin@ABCCompany.com. Maybe if the whole name together or a first name_last name or first name.last name or whatever it is. One time know the convention, I can guess will have it. Susan Smith, I mean, it's going to be Susan_Smith, and Kodak that I. 

[00:40:35] Sara Conde That's pretty clever. 

[00:40:37] Ed Gandia Yeah. And you know what? When that fails, there's other services. Probably my favorite after that is it used to be called Jigsaw, Salesforce.com/bottom is now Data.com/Connect. And it's a great service, but it's a crowd-sourced database of millions and millions of names and contact information. And because it's crowdsourced, there's a built-in reward system in there to keep the information accurate. I would say that 70% or more, the time when I don't find it via Google, I will find it in data.com/connect. 

[00:41:11] Sara Conde Great. We had Karen, do we have time for a few more questions? 

[00:41:16] Ed Gandia Oh, yes. 

[00:41:17] Sara Conde OK, great. We had Karen ask, for the About Me page. What do you recommend for independent consultants that are looking to start their first project so they don't have any testimonials or past clients to point to? But, you know, it's kind of that chicken and egg know, she wants to get her first client and to build her credentials, but so she can't link to credentials. That's hard to get a client until you can have credentials. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot with our independent consultants. 

[00:41:44] Ed Gandia Know, I would say you got to leverage whatever background you do have. Right. So I'm assuming you're coming into this with some sort of experience and background and track record the first you got to leverage that. So even if it's only 8 years, you know, whatever it might be, use that and start there. And it won't be long before you now have clients as an independent that you can now add to your About Me page. And, you know, I like to use the analogy for that of your kid graduating from college. He's 22 years old. The only work experience he has in retail, working at the financial aid office. Maybe he did an internship somewhere, but it was only a summer. And if so, what does this kid have? He has very little, but. right? You've got all these companies going to college campuses recruiting. So what gives? Well, the answer is that their clients out there or my example, companies that don't need to see this 18-year track record. What they're looking for is is a set of intangibles. They know what to look for and they're willing to hire kids right out of school based on what they see. So it's the same thing here. You're looking for those kinds of clients initially. If they need to see a lot more than that. You know what? They're not right for you right now. They might be later, but right now they're not right for you. Right. You're looking for the ones who are willing to hire you with what you got today. 

[00:43:09] Sara Conde And just to be back, Gary had kind of an interesting question about we were talking about meaningful connections before and we've talked about LinkedIn. So this is kind of combining both of those Gary ask. Can we get a meaningful connection from LinkedIn page like maybe a hobby of there something maybe, you know, I know LinkedIn pages sometimes have charities that they're interested in that you might have worked with or, you know, they have the language is up there, things like that. 

[00:43:35] Ed Gandia You know, I would say be careful because it should it could come across as insincere. And the test I always like to run is if I were to get this, how would I react? You know, and I think most of us are pretty good judges of that. It feels phony and insincere. 

[00:43:52] Sara Conde Right. 

[00:43:52] Ed Gandia It feels like a gimmick. Don't do it. However, I have come across situations where let's say I did a lot of volunteer work in an organization where my wife and I were heavily involved with a certain group for a while. You know, I will use that. But, you know, I prefer to use it as a secondary part of the connection, not the first one. So I don't want to say, hey, I noticed you've been involved with St. Jude's Children's Hospital. You know, I don't know for 10 years. To me, it's like it should be the business thing first and then, you know, as a P.S. Hey, by the way, I happen to notice when I was learning more about you that you do this. That way it doesn't feel like you're using the whole personal thing is leverage. It can feel off. 

[00:44:41] Sara Conde Especially if it's with a charity or something that you're trying to leverage. It just feels icky. 

[00:44:47] Ed Gandia Yeah, yeah. 

[00:44:48] Sara Conde I hear you. I think that's a good test to think about what you would want to receive. So Kevin, asking a question about what are general suggestions for subject line. And I'm curious about this too, because I've heard, you know, it kind of makes that you're supposed to put the person's name in the subject line, that helps them open the e-mail. Like, what do you think about that or what suggestions you have for subject line? 

[00:45:13] Ed Gandia Yeah, it's a great question because the subject line rules for formula prospecting are not the same as they are in e-mail marketing. When I see e-mail marketing, I'm talking about like a newsletter or marketing campaign, very different. And so, OK, so if the rule is really this, this is a good litmus test. If you are composing an e-mail to a friend or an acquaintance or colleague, would you put their name in the subject line? Probably no, right? 

[00:45:41] Ed Gandia Do you like, let's say something like very regular, very boring and mundane, like, you know, don't forget we have this meeting tomorrow. What would the subject line be? Reminder about this meeting tomorrow? Right. So that's kind of the tone and the energy you need to put into these e-mails. Now, the nice thing is don't guess. When in doubt you need to go back to the template. It should always be something about the meaningful connection. And so then the question becomes, well, OK, well, what about it? You know, I think you need to kind of experiment, but I like to just be kind of blunt too. Because here's the thing, you don't have to the key words that you put in there and notice the examples I used. They're already there like they're doing OK, so going back to this, one White House member wants to spread the word. The focus of message, focus@will message. I mean, I don't have to do much more than that. This is so relevant to the prospect. In the middle of an inbox, it's just crowded with junk, right? Excellent work on this site and that's my site let's say. I read about it. Slate is the name of the company. And I say, I'm Meredith and I work for Slate. I mean, just there's really no gimmick here because it's so relevant, it just speaks for itself. 

[00:47:10] Sara Conde Right now, that makes sense. Do you have time for this? We just are getting so many questions. I just want to remind people any questions that we don't get to, we'll address later. And we do have this whole webinar recorded. You can download the cheat sheet and we'll be giving everyone a copy of the slide deck and the recording as well. Probably get that within a week at least. And OK, so let's move on. We have some time for a few words. OK, so, Richard, do you repeat the same prospect, a process for the same prospect just once, or do you move on to the next? What do you like? In other words, if you sent this, you know, for/to one guy, do you follow up with the same methodology several times or do you just try once? How many times do you swing? 

[00:47:58] Ed Gandia Yeah, what I do is I don't do too much follow up. The only time that I do more follow up is when this is a prospect that I would absolutely love to work with. Like I say, they are my hot list of 10 dream clients. But other than that, if it's kind of transactional, I'm just moving on. So here's what I do. I send the email. If I get 0 response, 2 weeks later, I go back to to see this makes sense. I go back to my Sent folder. I find the e-mail there. I open it. I head forward. But I send it back to that person, right? So essentially what's happening is now it's a forward the original e-mail is there. But now I can add new copy, new content at the top of it. Right. The temptation is to say, hey, I sent you this couple of weeks ago, was following up. Don't do that. Because what you're telling the prospect is why haven't you responded? You know, don't you have anything better to do than respond to me and you're going to lose respect. So instead, what I do is I include some new information. So I wrote to Susan 2 weeks ago. I go back to the Sent folder, find in my center, I click on forward. I put her e-mail address back in the "to" field and say, "hey, Susan, I meant to tell you, I've also worked with, you know, organizations in your sector, such as ABC and Acme." Something like that, so here, here's what typically happens when you draft these e-mails, where are you going to find if you want to just pack them full of information because you have so much to share. But what do they suggest? 125 words or less. So you're having to just take stuff out. And when you cut that out, don't throw it away. Some of that could be useful fodder for a politician. 

[00:49:48] Ed Gandia Let's say it was that all I could fit was this other credibility element. I really wanted to tell him about my work with this other company, but I didn't have room. So save that. And then on the follow up, say, oh, and by the way, I want to tell you, I've done a lot of work for this company, and I know that, you know, their partner of yours. Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you. What are you doing? You're doing 2 things. You're you're sharing more information that's relevant to her in your following up without saying I'm following up. She can read the rest of the e-mail and go, oh, yeah, hey, I forgot to respond to that. This is good in that many times will cause the prospect to respond. Now, if she doesn't respond that time around again, unless they're in my hotlist, I just move on. And I will, I'm not against trying this again in another month or two. Don't assume that your prospects are going to remember you contacted them before. They won't. People are so busy. I mean, even to date, they're going to forget. 

[00:50:50] Sara Conde Yeah, the stuff in here, I can I feel that way with my own e-mail, sometimes. I have one more question. OK, we'll do one more question. We're not going to get to all of them. So, again, we will follow up with that. So let's see. Here's kind of a simple question, which maybe a lot of folks were wondering. Richard asked, statistically what is the average response rate that you get from these emails? 

[00:51:18] Ed Gandia Great question. Don't you wish I could give you a number? All right. 

[00:51:23] Sara Conde I'll make one up. I'm just kidding. 

[00:51:25] Ed Gandia Mine is shoot for much higher today. But when I was doing this initially the first couple of years, I was shooting over the long haul to get it 5% or better response rate. Now, that might seem extremely low, but if you know anything about direct response, I mean, you get a 1% response rate. That's good. 5% I think is kind of a minimum. I just hate to give people a number because initially you might send 25 of that you think it's 0. And then of course, I showed you some examples where people were sending you 3 and they got 1, not just 1, that's just a response. Explain that with a client. You know, it varies out. There weeks when I'll send 10 out, I'll get 7 responses. So but then there'll be another one loss. And, you know, let's say 8 and I get 0. But I always kind of said 5% is my minimum. And here's what I will tell you. The more relevant it is, the more specific and narrow and niche you work in. In the more of a track record you have in relationships you can leverage because by the way, a meaningful connection can also be a person. Hey, you know, I'm Sara told me about you. And we're talking, as you suggest, that I reach out. Right. So that's really a fact. Those tend to get the highest response. 

[00:52:47] Sara Conde Yeah. So we find you. 

[00:52:49] Ed Gandia Yeah. So the more relationships there, the experience, track record, all those things, the higher the response rate. I mean, it could be crazy high like over 50%. 

[00:53:02] Sara Conde Well, I'm going to cut it off there because we can chat with you all afternoon, but we promise to stay within an hour or so. I want to do that. We're going to put a poll up on the screen. If you guys would like one of MBO's advisers to reach out to you or if you would like Ed to reach out to you, you can do that here. And that way we'll know and we'll certainly get in contact with you. I want to just thank everybody for attending today. Thank you Ed. This was really, really helpful. Just really great practical information that we can start applying right away. I really enjoyed it. And just remind everybody, we will be e-mailing out the presentation on the slide deck within a week. Thank you so much for attending. 

[00:53:47] Ed Gandia Hey, thanks, everyone.