如何發成功的郵件？

　　冷郵件：在這個互聯網社交年代，學會發COLD EMAIL是個事業、愛情、生活成功的必備技能。 COLD EMAIL(冷郵件)的意思就是，你拿到了一個剛剛在線上或者線下認識的人的郵箱，然后要發郵件給Ta，以此來認識Ta、請教Ta、或是請求Ta的幫助

　　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.

　　第一手信息是每一個CEO所渴望的東西。然而不管是員工還是客戶，把握著第一手信息的我們卻總是猶豫，連給高層人物發冷郵件都不敢嘗試。

　　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.

　　我有一個在Salesforce工作的朋友就是如此。他是個公司中層，人很睿智，而且有敏銳的觀察力。對于Salesforce和其創始人及CEO馬克·貝尼奧夫，他有太多的洞悉以及遠見卓識。雖說我并不了解貝尼奧夫，但我打賭他一定是渴望這類可貴資源的，因為這能使他在做決定時有更完善的考慮。之所以這么說，是因為我在同比爾·喬治共事時有所相關發現(比爾·喬治，美敦力公司CEO，現任哈佛商學院教授，著有True North一書并開設相關課程)。通過一次又一次的采訪，每一個CEO都希望從雇員和顧客眼中了解他們真正的需求。他們反復提到，CEO這個職業帶給他們的受孤立感是意想不到的。當我問及朋友是否會給CEO發郵件提建議時，他拒絕了，因為他不想惹任何同事生氣。

　　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.

　　其實我真的無法理解朋友的這種行為。因為我有鮮活的例子，就因為我在比爾·喬治同我們商學院對話后給他發了封冷郵件，我就奇妙地成了采訪人，同他見面并簡短的握手了。同上，在我的新書《小小的一賭》出版后，我又電郵了通用電氣公司的首席營銷官，兼高級副總裁的康貝斯，然后他便立馬回復了一個郵箱地址讓我抄送郵件。結果是，她邀我加入了通用公司的一個小型創新顧問委員會，自然而然地，我們也成了朋友。杰夫·貝索斯雖然是我從來沒有對話過的人物，但我也給他發過兩回郵件——在出版業有個潛規則就是，如果你是一個作家，又跟亞馬遜有瓜葛，這是一個玉石俱焚的做法。不過以我的經驗看來，這么做你的問題就會很快解決。

　　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.

　　我可能是個局外人，但和我一樣試著給上司發郵件的大有人在。在洛杉磯聯盟的前任高層給星巴克的首席執行官舒爾茨·霍華德發了個郵件后，布萊爾·泰勒就接到了一次電話訪談，而后就順利拿到了一份工作，成為了星巴克的行政高官。作為暢銷書作家以及沃頓商學院教授的亞當·格蘭特，他也是常常回復這一類電子郵件，盡管他調查的重點就是與寫作相關的非索取建議性信息。

　　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.”

　　再來說克雷格·古德，他為皮克斯工作了數十年，從一個保安做到了皮克斯的傳奇員工，也成為了技術隊伍的一員，他永遠忘不了那次自己主動給喬布斯發郵件的經歷。當時他在所在的盧卡斯影視公司，也就是皮克斯的前身，做室內安保與管理工作，因為他從事過外部安保的工作，并認為前者遠遠優于后者。所以當皮克斯在埃默里維爾建新的總部時，“我給喬布斯發了郵件，說明了我認為安保在內不應在外的觀點，并同時復制發給了當時的項目負責人湯姆·卡萊爾。喬布斯的回答很簡單，‘我百分百贊成’。大概一周后，我在午餐室遇到了湯姆，并問他下一步會怎么辦。他說‘據我的經驗，史蒂夫定下的事情都是不刊之論。’”于是在皮克斯搬到埃默里維爾前，其安保部門就移至室內了。

　　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:

　　當然，不是什么冷郵件都能這么成功的。我給馬克·扎克伯格，拉里·佩奇，當然，還有馬克·貝內奧夫，都發過郵件，但都是石沉大海。我想可能我是把他們的郵箱地址弄錯了吧，也可能就是他們不知道如何回復。那又怎樣，我又沒掉二兩肉，這總是一件值得嘗試的事情啊。我從風險資本公司高峰會伙伴的任職經歷得出發冷郵件的好處及弊端，每一天我們都在給各個CEO打冷電話，發冷郵件，因為公司公平的決策都來自基層員工和CEO們的直接溝通。我著實學到了一些東西，并用到了現在：

　　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.

　　第一次發冷郵件就做好50%-90%失敗的準備吧——比如，沒有回復。如果你受到冷遇，不要擔心，這和電話冷遇，直接掛斷比起來真還是極好的。

　　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.

　　猜出或是尋找電郵地址不是什么難事。地址往往是firstname.lastname@company.com，如果是公司郵箱，就可能是firstname@company.com.。你也可以撥叫主機并說你想給首席執行官發郵件，他們一般都會給你郵箱地址。

　　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.

　　你要有足夠的耐心，可以試著兩天發一回郵件，不過若是如法炮制三四次仍無回應，那就放棄吧。

　　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.

　　對于忙碌的高管們來說，周末可能是他們閱讀郵件的最好時機，因為他們終于有了更多在電腦屏幕上閱讀的時間，而不是在電子設備上。閱讀電郵的高管人數是驚人的，他們會全部讀完，特別是私人信件。

　　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.

　　保證郵件的簡潔和聚焦重點。簡潔的郵件更有可能被閱讀——而高相關度則會提高被回復的可能。

　　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.

　　這聽起來是不是很尷尬或是令人生厭?問自己為什么會這么想。若你有一個強大的洞察力和智慧，世界上的高級領導人就真的很想知道你的想法。一封寫給對的高管的對的郵件，會解鎖新的成長與學習的機會，不論對你還是對于那個公司。

　　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?

　　有太多的人不敢下筆，所以要多寫幾次，看看會怎樣。問問自己：寫這郵件頂多能鬧哪樣呢?然后問：會不會因此有好事降臨?

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