4 rules for a top-tier cold email

I can't overstate the importance of sending cold emails, whether for your job hunt, business development or general networking

Here's one I sent to the Mixpanel founders when we were starting TopHire. Note that in this screenshot, I've cut out the first part of my email because it sounds lame now that I re-read it.

I've sent countless such emails to founders and execs. If the email is well written and the request is reasonable, high chance the average recipient would want to help.

The 4 cold email rules

There are several reasons why someone would want to send a cold email. Maybe you are job hunting, raising funds or want career advice.

No matter what the context is, it's critical that in your cold email you abide by the 4 cold email rules.

1) Respect their time: No typos. No Grammar issues.
2) Personalize your outreach: Make it clear why you are reaching out to this specific person
3) Do your homework: Show deep understanding of the business/background
4) Demonstrate Value: Show that you're serious and can bring something to the table

The above 4 points are written in a specific order. The bare minimum you'll need to stick to, are rules 1 and 2. And abiding by rules 3 and 4 is what will make it a top-tier cold email.

Bad Cold Email

Pretty Good Cold Email

The first cold email is bad because it looks lazily written. You could swap the words "TopHire" and "Siddharth" with any other company in the world and it would still make sense. But merely making sense is a low bar. It firstly doesn't pass Rule No.2: Outreach should be personalized & specifically targetted. It actually doesn't even pass Rule No.1: Respect their time, because the message has typos in it. Typos tell me the person didn't think I was worthwhile enough for them to spend an extra 10 seconds to ensure they send an error-free message.

Whereas the second email speaks about how they checked out our notion page and my email which I listed hidden in some tab. All of this was obscure info which the candidate managed to find.

The email also shows some personality and therefore it was in my self-interest to fast-track this person to an interview because I figured they'd be a potentially valuable addition to our team.

What does a top tier job hunt cold email look like?
The top tier cold emails I've seen include deep research and thinking. i.e Rule No.4: Demonstrate Value:

Spend a day doing a teardown of the company's product. Create a structured document outlining areas for improvement, along with specific recommendations for enhancements you’d make. Go beyond vague suggestions. Include wireframes, prototypes, or snippets illustrating your ideas in action. Show how you’d prioritize these changes and explain your reasoning.

Maybe even put together a separate document highlighting key product decisions you've made in the past. Detail your thought process and the impact it drove. Emphasize instances where your direct actions influenced key business metrics.

Unless your suggestions go completely off track or are plain weird, this level of preparation will definitely intrigue them enough to land you an interview. Very few candidates go to this length, so those who do stand out immediately.

If your role is technical, you could put together a loom video walking the viewer through what you've built so far, the architecture of it, the various trade offs you've kept in mind, large problems you face and how you solved it. See this.

What you see below is my suggestion to someone else that was looking for a marketing role at a good company.

This level of effort isn't practical for every job application of course. But you do have to 3) Do your homework & 4) Demonstrate Value to get into your dream company.

What does a top tier business development cold email look like?

The most common BD pitches have a format similar to this:

1) Explain Offering
2) Talk about success stories
3) Ask for time for a call

Instead see how Marshall David, who Sameer and I have now partnered up with for SapienHire closed one of his first enterprise clients back in 2020.

The same rules apply for follow up emails too

Bad followups follow a predictable pattern: sending a barrage of messages that essentially just ask "hey, any updates?" in slightly different ways.

Good followups break the above pattern by demonstrating value at every touchpoint.

In a biz dev follow up email for example, you'd share a link to relevant case studies of customers that are most similar to your prospect's organization.

Or during job searches, you'd follow up on your own original email with a "I took a test sales demo (sorry I wasted their time) with your team and put together a doc with my 3 top ideas to improve your demo to closure conversion rate". It shows initiative and drive. Traits which hiring managers love.

The idea is that even in follow up emails, you'd continue to follow all 4 rules.

No matter what the context is, a top tier cold email (or a follow up email) ticks all 4 of the rules.

The effort required might seem overwhelming, but it's precisely this willingess to do what no one else would do that sets a good cold emailer apart.

Additional Reading:
1) https://x.com/fin465/status/1876038438698520743