How to get an email reply from the busy and famous.
In the past six months or so I have had Brad Feld, David Heinemeier Hansson, Joel Gascoigne, Dan Martell, Martin Bryant and Eric Ries speak at my event series VIP VoIP, where we connect global stars from the tech community with local ecosystems via VoIP.
The question I get asked at every event is
“How do you get these people to say ‘yes’ to doing this event?”
But, as David Heineimeier Hansson said during his talk…..
“This was fucking easy to say yes to. It was 60 minutes of my time sat at my desk”
So perhaps the more pertinent question is:
How did I get these people to reply to my email in the first place?
I have no relationship with any of my guests, (prior to the event) and all of them received a cold email from me as our first point of contact.
So what’s my secret?
I don’t have one.
In fact, anyone can get a reply by following one simple but extremely important rule.
Contact people how they wish to be contacted.
Nearly all of my guests express what the best way is to contact them, it really is as straight-forward as that.
(Hint: It is often short and to the point)
Recently, I reached out to Paul Graham, Founder of Y Combinator to ask him to be a guest.
Go over to Paul’s site and you will find the following:
Before emailing…
Is yours a Frequently Asked Question?
Unfortunately I now get so much mail that I can’t promise to respond to every one. I know this seems obnoxious, but I notice I have mails in my inbox that are two years old. I’m probably never going to respond to them, and I may as well admit it.
I respond faster to emails that are short. Two-liners I often reply to immediately. Long emails I leave in my inbox to deal with later, and never do.
So, How do you get a reply from Paul Graham?
Contact him how he likes to be contacted, in this case, a two-line email.
Although unfortunately Paul declined my request, he got back to me almost immediately, undoubtably because I followed his instructions as to the best way to interact with him.
When you want someone to do something for you, you have to figure out the best way to ask them, the same applies with email, the good thing is, most people spell it out for you, all you have to do is listen.
This is so straight-forward, that I really should not even be taking the time to point out something that is common sense, but the reality is, that the majority of emails/requests that people receive still don’t follow these guidelines as people don’t take the time to discover, read or act on them, and therefore, understandably, don’t get a response.
Get your email replied to by showing you have taken the time to respect their wishes, then they will take the time to respond to yours.
My preferred method of contact is Twitter, you can find me at @neilswmurray
