Hooray! I got a D!

By Scott Sambucci | October 10, 2013

Last night, I sent out an cold “InMail” yesterday to a “D” contact and got a reply. My first reply from a D. We’re setting up a time next week to talk. (Reminder: “Ds” are cold contacts – people I’ve never met before – in my classification system for customer development contacts.) 

Sidenote: That’s the second reply to an InMail (out of three) this week. The first reply was from a “C” contact. with whom I’ve yet coordinate a time . He and I played some phone tag this week. The third is also to a “C” contact, from whom I haven’t heard back yet.

How did I find this person?

I was on the LinkedIn profile for a person I’d met previously at a conference (the other “C” contact in InMailed yesterday). After sending that “C” contact an InMail, I looked at the “People Similar to ___” box on LinkedIn and saw this person’s profile. It was a good match in terms of job title and role, so I crafted an InMail to ask her help:

Hi ___ – I saw that we’re both know ____ at ____, and in reading your profile, I thought you’d be a good person to ask about a research project I’ve been asked to do for a mortgage tech startup.

Specifically, I need to learn a few key points in the underwriting process and thought you’d be a really good person to ask. We’re trying to get some visibility about consumer expectations once a loan reaches the underwriting stage.

Do you have 15-20 minutes over the next two weeks? I can’t offer much except good karma and a Starbucks next time we’re in the same place. 🙂

Many thanks for reading this far – I’d really appreciate a few minutes of your time and expertise!

-Scott Sambucci
(415) 596 0804

Other factors that influenced why I chose to send this contact a blind request

• The person had 500+ connections, indicating an active use of LinkedIn.
• The person had deep experience in the industry – several companies and roles in this area I care about for this project.
• The contact’s photo was a very happy photo – one that indicated to me that they’d be friendly.
• We had a contact in common that I could reference in my InMail. (LinkedIn will suggest this, and other tips, when crafting InMails.)