Introductory Email: Best Practices And Templates

In this article we would like to share with you the best practices that we learned in using the tool ourselves and the lessons we took out of them. The structure is that we will talk about the general ways how can you use this application for cold prospecting, the Do’s and Don’ts in cold outreach and then we will share couple of templates to share examples what works and how to do it warm and nice.

While cold prospecting can bring lots more leads and really good leads, there are some tactics one has to implement. We also appreciate and understand that this method is not for everyone, as most people in life science are shy and not talkative much. And this is clear why because life science presumes the work with tubes and experiments and less with people, and those who combine both hard tech and people’s skills are not that often, or not, depends whom you take. 

So how can you use this application? The application is indeed designed specially for cold outreach and gives you a good overview of all available prospects among labs in your specified topic or in a certain region if you go topic agnostically. As one of our customers pointed it is good to get the understanding what groups are studying in a specific location, where you can read it as a book and make your own statistics what do you see the most often. 

To do it the most efficiently we don't want you to focus on 1-2 labs, but instead have a look on a total distribution of those which fit your topic or criteria and let you make your conclusions yourself, we can only guide you. Whenever you take the whole dataset to work with it, make sure to set your goals first, what do you want to achieve, do you indeed want to talk to each and everyone or have a look on most important ones, and since you have your App with you forever you can come back to the rest at any time. 

So starting with a dataset. Depending whether you produced it screening literature or by a core topic, there can be two approaches further to work with. If you produced it by a core topic, there is nothing else you can do further, besides checking publications of those labs to better understand context. If you went by literature then you can additionally to have a look how big is the difference between the searched topic and that what the lab actually does. And the reason here is clear because we don't know whether that publication was produced indeed by lab or it just contributed a part of the experiment. Nobody knows, besides the lab itself and its group leader, or a corresponding author on that publication if it differs. 

So what can you do here? Of course, you can dive into it and shoot couple of emails to someone who are already on your radar being a good fit or you can go systematically one by one till the dataset finishes. Depends on your style whatever you prefer. Most people will go for a few shoots, some will persist and work out everyone. Once you identified your labs that fit both by literature and by their dedicated research you can start your outreach. And now the most interesting starts! Who will be your next customer or a collaboration partner? In fact, probably you don't care, but if you do, it creates you data that will shape your company. Because your customers are your biggest gold and their demands, needs and next interactions will shape your company identity or vice versa it is your company who will bring the shape to the market.

Now let’s come to the Do’s and Don’ts in the cold outreach. As in any practice, there are things that are worth to do and there are those that better not to do. Let’s start with those that are better not to do. 

Definitely it is not a good idea to contact all people in front of you with a content which directly promotes your product. While we understand it can be very eager to send someone marketing material, this is definitely not a good start if you want to build a long term relationship. Maintaining a friendly atmosphere is always better than going bluntly through bullied sales pitch. So how do you do it right? Remember the keyword here “building relationship”. Whether you go fast or slow the ultimate goal is to get to know each lab in your topic, what it does and how can you be of help to their research. While we agree one has no time to spare dinners and lunches with each of them, you need a brief to have a contact and to find it with each lab. 

So what’s then if you can't send marketing material? How else to use it? We are definitely not a CRM and have no plans to be one. The right contact people for you in each lab may differ, in one lab it’s a lab manager, in the other lab it is a postdoc. And those people change over time, this is clear. Because people are recruited and fired or change jobs. What’s the value then? Direct outreach to a lab website, the one that saves you lots of time by searching that lab which is in 25th department of a 10th institute. Yes, such cases also happen, and often are in the university clinics. 

What do you send then? The best way is to send the introductory email to your target people in each lab and introduce yourself who you are and what is your business to them. With no html templates and bright and flashy colors. This is not a newsletter campaign. You want to genuinely help to each of the labs to do richer research by adding your product to their lab. At the end sales is about bringing value into the hands of others, where those others use your product and produce new data in the lab. So how do you still do it efficiently and personalised that it speaks to each lab you contact and that people will be interested to respond or at least will remember you. 

Here we have 2 pieces of advice. First, send email and second, have a brief call with them. Normally there is a third option - pay a visit, but as COVID time had shown the decisions are faster taken through a remote communication. This was the case also earlier, but the pandemic just revealed even more of the power of digital. And if people are interested, they are interested. And if you come and visit and talk, and meet and nothing happens, depends on your offering and pricing, this can be either a dead end having just chatty and welcome people or a prime to a future sale, but not immediately. So given this application that we developed is digital, let’s do it digitally and forget personal visits for now. 

So what do you write in that short and brief email that is both personal and efficient to write, since apparently you don't want to spend the whole day sending only 25 emails. Yes, we know. Because it is hard to personalise without reading 20 abstracts to each of the labs, we are also scientists and know this process. But the good news are that leveraging technology and certain framework you can do it nicely and fast. 

On the high pitch, your message will contain the following: who you are, how did you find them, whom you searched for and what do you have for them. Asking to spare 10 min to share their thoughts on your product can be a good idea. Sounds easy, right? Yet, most companies hate cold prospecting and complain on low conversion rates. This is clear why because they are not professional salesmen or marketeers. Like it or not it’s just an opinion, or observation produced on the background of comparison with the other industries. 

So what do we write there? Below we share a couple of examples of a good writing with personalised variables and warm inquiring tone yet not too salesly in sound. 

“Hey {first_name}, 

Saw your lab studies (topic). We are a small team on the coast of (country) developed a new tool how to address the (need). Do you mind to connect to see whether we can be of fit? 

Thanks. Name”

Whether it sounds too familiar for you, this email is essentially to say hello to the lab and introduce yourself. Some people will click on your website or will google you to see who is this new acquaintance of us. Keeping it short and precise is enough to get people interested. Long emails with cartoons of products may not be as productive as less obvious introductory email.

Going beyond personalisation {first_name}, {last_name}, one can use a {Dynamic Placeholder} to make as personal as one can. Having a compact format one can always review websites or literature context to identify best-fit points between offered product and the target lab. Here is another template:

“Hey {first_name},

Your lab popped up in my search and I gotta say – I really dig what you guys are working on! Actually, what you’re working on at {PI last name} really reminds me of what we did for {your-similar-work-for-other-clients}. We’re always {your-unique-pitch-or-solution}.

We have several papers released with our products and I think you will find them interesting and enjoy.

Would you like a copy?”

Regards, Name”

Here is a good video example how to personalise and do it in a sequence, spending least amount of time possible https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/josh-braun_are-you-over-personalizing-cold-emails-activity-6713765640844517376-X7VF/ Enjoy the watch.

Another example of a perfect template that opens most of the hearts https://www.indiehackers.com/post/a-cold-email-that-worked-e4d512ae90 Study how it is structured, the guy appreciates and don't demands anything, again appreciating that the other party builds something awesome.

Lastly, don't forget to keep contact with your new relationships and remind them about yourself every couple of months. Doing it consistently is better than doing it with a big push fast, but if it is the last thing to do, one needs to have many bets to get some of them successful.