How many cold emails to send before giving up...?
Hi all,
For those of you who've had success networking through cold emails, generally how many emails do you send to an individual before giving up on him/her ever getting back to you?
On M&I, Brian advises you to follow up 5-10 times after an initial cold email if you dont get an immediate response, but imo that seems a little excessive? After all, you're trying to impress and get these people to like you, not annoy them to no end...
That being said, am I just not persistent enough? I sent a couple of initial cold emails to people, but only got a few responses (I'd say 10-15% success rate). A lot of them went unanswered. Should I follow up, or just cut my losses and move onto the next person?
Any advice? If someone doesnt respond to you the first time, what makes it more likely that they'll respond to you the second time?
Thanks all!
From the other side of the cold-email wall, I would say focus on brevity and content, not frequency. When I get a cold-email 98% of the time I delete (the positive being that if you send me another one, I probably won't notice that it's the second time or the tenth). If for some reason something catches my eye or I am having a particularly good day, I will take a couple seconds to read it. 99% of the time it gives me no reason to contact the person again (which probably has something to do with the 98% delete rate.) So be brief (almost always read on a blackberry) and give me a reason to contact you in the first or second sentence (note: wanting a job in finance probably won't cut it.)
Hope this perspective helps somewhat? Other people may have different opinions.
TopDGO couldn't give you better advice by keeping it brief. Brian on M&I also stresses the blackberry benchmark.
I wouldn't send more than 2. Anymore and I believe you risk being a nuisance. So cut your losses, but do keep track, and move on! 15-20% hit rate is very good. Continue plugging away. I succeeded in receiving an offer through this method (roughly 100 cold emails led to one offer).
Good Luck!
are these cold-emails to alumni, or are they literally cold (people with no relation to you whatsoever)?
10% success rate is pretty damn good. I've done the cold email routine and sent out close to 100 getting maybe 4 quality responses. Keep at it but 10 follow ups would annoy the hell out of me to answer your question.
You just have to be very strategic and find SOME way to relate.
I had a very high success rate with alum.
I echo what Muzach said. I had a pretty high success rate as well. It wouldn't hurt to say something in your emails along the lines of "I understand that you are a '98 (or whatever year they graduated) Wharton grad and did x activity in college, and I would just like to speak with you further about your experiences and how you got into banking" something like that. you can check them on linkedin or your alumni database might have some details of what they did in school. I don't think this is terribly stalkerish as they put their info out there on the web and it shows to them that you've done your research.
I have a related question, so I am going to put it here instead of making a separate thread. I'd like to contact people in ER division at BBs. But info I can get on people just seems to indicate their general occupation in Banking (not sure which division). So would contacting people across different divisions help at all, or is it completely useless.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Muzach has it down.
It may be because I go to a (very) small LAC but I have a pretty good response rate to the emails that I send out. This is probably due to the size of my school thus resulting in them not getting too many emails from people such as myself looking for a job this summer.
The most important thing is that I relate to them in a big way because most of the ones I send out are alums via our alumni directory that had participated in one of the two sports I play but many are just a sports team in general. I feel that this is a good way to relate to them in some sort of basic way. I figure that former frat members etc. would work the same if you have them at your school???
What I have noticed works great is when one person gives me a few people to contact and once I then name drop that initial person they almost always get back to me and are more than willing to talk regardless of their position.
Good luck.
Thanks all. When you guys say you have "good response rates" b/c you find some way to relate -- what is "good"? 25%? 50%
I thought 10-15% was on the low side but it seems that everyone thinks its actually okay. Makes me feel a bit better haha
I agree. Increase your hit rate by highlighting the connection in the first sentence. "I got your name from [First & Last Name], a mutual friend, and he told me you would be a great contact about [banking / hedge fund position, etc]. I know you're busy, but would you be able to spare 5-10 minutes discussing blah with me?"
Do not include your resume...keep it short and sweet and maybe include another paragraph on your background.
How Many Times Can I Cold-Email a Contact Before it's Harassment? (Originally Posted: 11/14/2013)
Title pretty much says it.
I've been trying to contact/network with this person who is an alumni of my school. Sent him four emails already- I know he's read three of them, because I installed yesware on my gmail.
Can I message him a 5th time about speaking over the phone about opportunities? Or is this bordering harassment? Advice? I really want to break in
I hope this is a troll post. If it is it has me during. If not I am speechless.
Why would it be a troll post? This is 100% real
What was the time period? Did you send an email each week?
I'd honestly reach back out in a few months. Move on (for now).
About 3.50
Safe to assume this is a troll post. But, for those who are still getting their networking feet wet, send an initial email and then a follow-up a few weeks later. If you do not receive a response at that point, focus on other alumni.
At this point It's recommend to go to the once a day method. If no response after a week, start shooting off an AM and a PM.
This should get his attention. If not, do whatever it takes to find his address and then stop by unannounced, preferably on a monday night right after he gets home from a long day of work (best to look in the window to make sure he's just sitting down to dinner). When you ring the doorbell he'll be so impressed you'll likely walk away with an offer on the spot!
Anything short of this is harassment.
Not that I'm supporting harassing someone with a slew of emails, but I've been in a similar position after receiving a referral to contact a 3-5 Bn macro fund manager. Sent my first email, which was unexpectedly read but ignored. Same goes for five other emails that I had sent on a weekly basis. I was about to give up after sending my seventh email, but was invited to a group meeting with the fund's CIO, which wound up being very confrontational but surprisingly resulted in an offer on the spot. So being persistent with your emails can be beneficial to a degree, but only if you have more legitimate grounds for contacting the person such as a referral or prior acquaintance.
Guys, I'm really not trying to troll I just want a job real bad
in particular, it's this guy that works at Allen & Co. I know these guys are very secretive, so im just wondering if its a matter of trying harder, or just dropping it
If you have the Yesware thing, check to see if he reads it multiple times. Chances are that he wants to respond to you if he keeps clicking on it (then maybe send him a follow up right as he reads it), otherwise, don't even bother and stop harassing people.
i know he's read all 4 of my emails, but i don't think he's looked at any one multiple times sounds like i should just give up at this point
lmfao. you should call him and say "I KNOW YOU READ MY EMAIL WHY HAVE YOU NOT RESPONDED"
Romney - Cold calling is a numbers game. My rule of thumb is to send no more than three emails, at least 2-3 weeks between each email. If your contact doesn't reach back after the third email, it's time to move on and find another person to contact. Don't get so hung up on waiting for a response that you let 10-15 other contacts go by the wayside.
Harassment or Having Some Balls? (Originally Posted: 04/10/2012)
So I've been reaching out to a bunch of people at firms with mostly cold emails and a few cold calls, and I'm thinking about really ramping up my cold-calling.
So what is the difference between harassment with phone calls and just being a go-getter? Depends on the person on the receiving end?
Look forward to your perspectives on this one, WSO. This is probably big for a bunch of people looking for last minute positions.
Best regards, BankingWaffle
If your calling a guy its fine, if its a girl than be a bit more careful
Huh, I've done better reaching out to chicks than dudes. But yeah, I mean if it's hard to reach someone, how many times do I try before I give up, times to call, space between calls, all that stuff?
I think they'll make it pretty clear after one call whether or not their interested
Be polite, direct and respectful and I don't think you'll see any issues. As long as you are respectful of those who you are calling I don't think you would be labeled as someone who is harassing them. Granted, some people will see it as an annoyance and probably just won't take or return your calls but unless you are calling them multiple times a day or week, or simply won't take the hint that they aren't interested, you aren't harassing them.
on the phone if u say things like "can i rub ur boobs to satisfy ur sex starvation on the job", "can i suck ur dick to get this job", it's harassment
How many times to email before quits (Originally Posted: 06/16/2011)
Hi I was wondering how many times should you email an alumni before you call it quits because they wont respond. I was thinking should i email them a week after if they dont get back to me and 2 weeks after that and then call it quits? What is the usual hit ratio for alumni?
you should call him
I'd say probably pretty low unless you can make some kind of personal connection (sports team, professor rec, etc.) I would say one email, one follow up and then you are done.
Thanks for the answer, thats what I figured. I'm try three emails max and then call it quits.
2
I always start with a phone call. If I don't get a response within a week, I send an email. Then I give them two weeks to respond to the email and send off one final email. If I don't hear after another two weeks, I just move on.
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