Hot take: I saw a pitch email get completely ignored at a startup meetup in Austin

The speaker shared a template that opened with a huge paragraph about their company history, and you could see people just stop paying attention. I switched to a three-line opener that leads with the client's problem instead, and my reply rate jumped. What's the shortest intro that's worked for you guys?

3 comments

3 Comments

patel.eric27d agoMost Upvoted

Totally. Saw a blog say "problem first, always.

diana_wright27d ago

Honestly, I have to disagree with shane170 on this one. My best results came from a four sentence intro that actually did include a tiny bit of my background. I said I'd fixed a specific tech issue for a company like theirs, named the company, then asked if they faced the same thing. That personal proof got way more replies than just stating a problem. It showed I wasn't just guessing.

shane17027d ago

My opener is literally two sentences. First one names their pain point, second says we fix it. I mean, I got a 40% reply rate last month just from that. People just don't care about your origin story until they know you get their problem.