想平步青云 从发一封冷邮件开始

Arlay

冷邮件：在这个互联网社交年代，学会发COLD EMAIL是个事业、爱情、生活成功的必备技能。 COLD EMAIL（冷邮件）的意思就是，你拿到了一个刚刚在线上或者线下认识的人的邮箱，然后要发邮件给Ta，以此来认识Ta、请教Ta、或是请求Ta的帮助

CEOs are thirsty for insight from the front lines. And yet those of us on those front lines – whether we are customers or employees – are often hesitant to reach out to senior leaders who are only an email away.

第一手信息是每一个CEO所渴望的东西。然而不管是员工还是客户，把握着第一手信息的我们却总是犹豫，连给高层人物发冷邮件都不敢尝试。

I saw this the other day in a friend who works for Salesforce. My friend is a mid-level manager, and he’s very observant and bright. He has a ton of insight and perspective about Salesforce and Marc Benioff, the founder and CEO of Salesforce, would be better off knowing. And, while I don’t know Benioff, I’ll bet with confidence that he craves this information, because he could use it to make better decisions. That’s what I found by working with Bill George – the former CEO of Medtronic and now a professor at Harvard Business School – on True North. In interview after interview, we found that CEOs wanted a better picture of what their employees and customers wanted. CEOs repeatedly told us how unexpectedly isolating they found the job. But when I asked my friend whether he would email Benioff, he demurred, not wanting to ruffle any feathers in the hierarchy.

我有一个在Salesforce工作的朋友就是如此。他是个公司中层，人很睿智，而且有敏锐的观察力。对于Salesforce和其创始人及CEO马克·贝尼奥夫，他有太多的洞悉以及远见卓识。虽说我并不了解贝尼奥夫，但我打赌他一定是渴望这类可贵资源的，因为这能使他在做决定时有更完善的考虑。之所以这么说，是因为我在同比尔·乔治共事时有所相关发现（比尔·乔治，美敦力公司CEO，现任哈佛商学院教授，著有True North一书并开设相关课程）。通过一次又一次的采访，每一个CEO都希望从雇员和顾客眼中了解他们真正的需求。他们反复提到，CEO这个职业带给他们的受孤立感是意想不到的。当我问及朋友是否会给CEO发邮件提建议时，他拒绝了，因为他不想惹任何同事生气。

I don’t understand my friend’s reluctance. The whole way I accidentally became an author in the first place was by sending a cold email to Bill after he spoke with our business school, and briefly shook his hand afterward. I also cold emailed G.E.’s dynamo Chief Marketing Officer and senior vice president Beth Comstock after my last book, Little Bets, came out, and she got right back to me with a mailing address to send it to. Eventually, she invited me to sit on a small Innovation Advisory board for G.E. Beth is a force of nature, and has become a friend.And although I’ve never spoken with Jeff Bezos, I have emailed him twice — it’s a poorly kept secret in publishing that if you are an author and have a real problem with Amazon, that’s the “nuclear option.” In my experience, your problem will soon be addressed.

其实我真的无法理解朋友的这种行为。因为我有鲜活的例子，就因为我在比尔·乔治同我们商学院对话后给他发了封冷邮件，我就奇妙地成了采访人，同他见面并简短的握手了。同上，在我的新书《小小的一赌》出版后，我又电邮了通用电气公司的首席营销官，兼高级副总裁的康贝斯，然后他便立马回复了一个邮箱地址让我抄送邮件。结果是，她邀我加入了通用公司的一个小型创新顾问委员会，自然而然地，我们也成了朋友。杰夫·贝索斯虽然是我从来没有对话过的人物，但我也给他发过两回邮件——在出版业有个潜规则就是，如果你是一个作家，又跟亚马逊有瓜葛，这是一个玉石俱焚的做法。不过以我的经验看来，这么做你的问题就会很快解决。

I may be an outlier, but I’m not alone. Blair Taylor is now chief community officer at Starbucks after a cold email the former head of the Los Angeles Urban League sent to CEO Howard Schultz. It led to a phone conversation and ultimately, a job offer.Best-selling author and Wharton Professor Adam Grant frequently responds to cold emails, so long as they are relevant and written in a spirit of giving, not taking — the topic of his research.

我可能是个局外人，但和我一样试着给上司发邮件的大有人在。在洛杉矶联盟的前任高层给星巴克的首席执行官舒尔茨·霍华德发了个邮件后，布莱尔·泰勒就接到了一次电话访谈，而后就顺利拿到了一份工作，成为了星巴克的行政高官。作为畅销书作家以及沃顿商学院教授的亚当·格兰特，他也是常常回复这一类电子邮件，尽管他调查的重点就是与写作相关的非索取建议性信息。

And Craig Good, a Pixar employee for decades who started at the company as a security guard and left as a legendary employee and member of the technical team, recalls what happened when he sent Steve Jobs an unsolicited email. When Good was working at Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar’s predecessor, he was in an in-house security and janitorial team, which he thought worked much better than external guard services (where he had also had previous experiences). So as Pixar was building their new headquarters in Emeryville, “I emailed Steve laying out my case that security should be in-house, as in ‘us,’ not contracted as in ‘them’. I Cc’d Tom Carlisle, who was in charge of the project. Steve’s reply was simply, ‘I agree 100%.’ A week or so later I saw Tom in the lunch room and asked what happens next. He said, ‘My experience is that when Steve gives an answer like that no further discussion is necessary.’ Pixar Safety & Security became an in-house operation before the company moved to Emeryville.”

再来说克雷格·古德，他为皮克斯工作了数十年，从一个保安做到了皮克斯的传奇员工，也成为了技术队伍的一员，他永远忘不了那次自己主动给乔布斯发邮件的经历。当时他在所在的卢卡斯影视公司，也就是皮克斯的前身，做室内安保与管理工作，因为他从事过外部安保的工作，并认为前者远远优于后者。所以当皮克斯在埃默里维尔建新的总部时，“我给乔布斯发了邮件，说明了我认为安保在内不应在外的观点，并同时复制发给了当时的项目负责人汤姆·卡莱尔。乔布斯的回答很简单，‘我百分百赞成’。大概一周后，我在午餐室遇到了汤姆，并问他下一步会怎么办。他说‘据我的经验，史蒂夫定下的事情都是不刊之论。’”于是在皮克斯搬到埃默里维尔前，其安保部门就移至室内了。

Of course, not every cold email is so wildly successful. I’ve emailed Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and yes, Marc Benioff, and didn’t hear back. I guessed at their email addresses, so maybe I got them wrong. Or maybe they just had nothing to say in reply. Oh well. No skin off my back. It was worth the try.I learned about the benefits (and associated failures) of cold emailing when I worked as an Associate for Summit Partners, the venture capital firm. Each day we typically cold called or cold emailed dozens of CEOs, since Summit got access to growth equity deals by contacting people directly. I learned a few rules of thumb that I still use today:

当然，不是什么冷邮件都能这么成功的。我给马克·扎克伯格，拉里·佩奇，当然，还有马克·贝内奥夫，都发过邮件，但都是石沉大海。我想可能我是把他们的邮箱地址弄错了吧，也可能就是他们不知道如何回复。那又怎样，我又没掉二两肉，这总是一件值得尝试的事情啊。我从风险资本公司高峰会伙伴的任职经历得出发冷邮件的好处及弊端，每一天我们都在给各个CEO打冷电话，发冷邮件，因为公司公平的决策都来自基层员工和CEO们的直接沟通。我着实学到了一些东西，并用到了现在：

Expect a 50-90% failure rate the first time you cold-email someone – i.e., no response. If you don’t get a reply, don’t worry – it’s hardly as bad as calling someone cold and having them hang up on you.

第一次发冷邮件就做好50%-90%失败的准备吧——比如，没有回复。如果你受到冷遇，不要担心，这和电话冷遇，直接挂断比起来真还是极好的。

It’s not hard to guess or find an email address. Email addresses are usually firstname.lastname@company.com or, if it’s an entrepreneur, firstname@company.com. You can always call the main phone number and say you’re trying to email something to the CEO, and they will usually give the address.

猜出或是寻找电邮地址不是什么难事。地址往往是firstname.lastname@company.com，如果是公司邮箱，就可能是firstname@company.com.。你也可以拨叫主机并说你想给首席执行官发邮件，他们一般都会给你邮箱地址。

You are politely persistent if you email once every two days, but probably should give up after 3 or 4 tries if there’s been no reply.

你要有足够的耐心，可以试着两天发一回邮件，不过若是如法炮制三四次仍无回应，那就放弃吧。

For busy execs, the weekends are by far the best time to try to get a note to them since they typically have more time to read something on a computer screen, rather than a device. And a surprising number of executives do read all their email – especially the personal notes.

对于忙碌的高管们来说，周末可能是他们阅读邮件的最好时机，因为他们终于有了更多在电脑屏幕上阅读的时间，而不是在电子设备上。阅读电邮的高管人数是惊人的，他们会全部读完，特别是私人信件。

Keep your message short and to the point. Brevity increases the chances it will actually get read – and relevance increases the chances of a reply.

保证邮件的简洁和聚焦重点。简洁的邮件更有可能被阅读——而高相关度则会提高被回复的可能。

Does this sound awkward or icky to you? Ask yourself why. You have a great deal of insight and wisdom that the senior leaders of the world would really like to know. A concise email to the right person can open up new possibilities for learning and growth – for both of you.

这听起来是不是很尴尬或是令人生厌？问自己为什么会这么想。若你有一个强大的洞察力和智慧，世界上的高级领导人就真的很想知道你的想法。一封写给对的高管的对的邮件，会解锁新的成长与学习的机会，不论对你还是对于那个公司。

Too many people are afraid to write. Do it some time and see what happens. Just ask: What’s the worst thing that can happen? And: What’s the best thing?

有太多的人不敢下笔，所以要多写几次，看看会怎样。问问自己：写这邮件顶多能闹哪样呢？然后问：会不会因此有好事降临？