I used this cold email to level-up my CSM career (#3)
How one cold email got me an amazing job at a company harder to get into than Harvard (Templates... yes, I got them recepitssss)
Hey :) Fun weekend? Happy Sunday too btw! I'm about to make pancakes, so I thought I'd write about something sweeter than syrup....
Cold emails.
Let’s get into the good stuff this week:
How I used G2 / RepVue to decide the companies I wanted to apply to
The email I used to land the job - Director of CS replied back, and said - “holy shit, this is the best message I’ve ever received in my career.”
Behind the scenes movie of the week
Now, I’m not here to preach.
I’ll just reveal everything.
I’ll save you the drawn out sob story, but March - April 2022, I was pretty fucking lost.
I was battling COVID long haul symptoms (it kicked my assssssss), and felt like my career was going down the drain. Some people have the midas touch, and everything they touch turns to gold.
While I thought I had the Rishav touch: all I did was work on something for a few months and then watch it slowly fall apart.
I Facetimed a good friend of mine, and I’m on the phone complaining more than a suburban Karen whose order was wrong at Starbucks.
Anyways, he slaps some sense into me and just says… “dude, you gotta get some balance in your life. I was once in your shoes. Here’s what I’m doing now. Want to come work at my company?”
(Btw, this amazing friend is like a brother to me. A subscriber. He’s reading this - you know who you are. Thanks homie. Forever grateful for you)
Now, you think this is where the story ends. The happily ever after…. nah, far from it.
The company ghosted me LOL
”So Rishav, how’d you get this job? I’m sorta confused”
That conversation pushed me to get suuuper strategic with my CSM job search.
I had the realization that if I wanted to design a dope life, I should put some time into designing a dope career
So I didn’t want to work any CSM job - I’d want to work a CSM job where:
I had some prior knowledge or expertise in the subject matter or product that my future employer sells. That was sales and project management for me. I considered becoming a CSM at a company like Zoom, but I hadn't had much interaction with CIOs or companies looking to improve their audio and visual efforts. It’s important, but I wanted to onboard as quickly as possible.
The product is at the top in their category. If the product was bad, I didn't want to answer support tickets all day. I wanted to build strategic plans with my customers instead.
Recession proof. That meant industries like ed-tech, and HR badges were out of the equation because they were nice to have’s not need to haves. I wanted to go into an industry that were revenue generators.
“So, what’d you do now?”
I used G2 / RepVue to decide the companies I wanted to apply to.
First, I went into Google and typed “G2 Top Software”
G2 is like Yelp for software products. People review the software products they’ve bought.
I clicked on that link, and then selected “View List”
After that, I saw a list of categories that I could select to refine my list. My purpose was to find a top rated product within Sales and Project Management. Even though, Amplitude Analytics was on that list - it was outside of the categories I want to be involved with.
You can do the same with the categories that you’re interested in the most. Ex: HR, Security, Design. etc
I went into Repvue to add a second layer of filters. Repvue is a crowdsourced ratings platform. Sales reps at these companies rate, and share their salary data, whether or not they hit quota, and the tools that the company provides for others to see.
I made an account, plugged in my current salary, and any other information that it asks, and the whole platform is unlocked.
This information gave me a glimpse into the revenue-generating culture of the company, even though I wasn't joining as an Account Executive.
I could infer answers to questions like: Were customers buying the product? Are the sellers happy? Are people making a ton of money? Are people given access to the most up-to date software tools? All of these questions are important for CSMs for as well.
Afterwards, I refined my list to companies such as Salesloft, Gong, Monday.com, and Smartsheet.
The rankings then shifted after my initial round of interviews.
This is where I kept reminding myself that I’m interviewing the company as well.
“So when does the cold email come in?”
Now.
I had admired Salesloft from a far. But I didn’t have any connections.
Once I submitted my application, I cold emailed the Director of Customer of Success.
Let me show you the email, and then I’ll break it down:
Here’s the response:
Let’s breaaaak it down:
Research: I could have sent a message to a current CSM, but I wanted to go straight to someone who could have an effect on the hiring decision. I typed in the name of the company. Then I narrowed down the list by clicking "People" and typing "Customer Success" as a keyword. Since executive titles vary from company to company, I needed a keyword that would show me all the profiles that included that phrase.
I found the Director after that. The next step was to write the email. I began to think of a Subject Line that would make people want to open this message. I looked at the profile and saw that someone named Adam had recommended the person.
Subject Line: I thought that if Adam's name was in the subject line and the Director knew Adam, the Director would open the email. I also used "Customer Success" and "Salesloft" as keywords. The Director hears these two words every day.
Line 1: “Hope you’re doing well” takes up space. Instead, I started the email with “I got the impression you….” My thought process was that this would catch their attention immediately.
[Name] - I got the impression that your time as a Senior Account Executive at Career Builder, where you met with clients via phone and on-site to uncover opportunities in their recruitment workflow and provide relevant solutions, sharpened your understanding of your clients' financial and business outcomes.
Line 2: I learned this Chris Voss - FBI Hostage Negotiator. It’s a “no-orientated” question. It's a fancy way of saying that the question is meant to get someone to say "no," but it actually helps you.
Example: Are you against going to the movies? Is now a bad time to talk?
“Would you be opposed to discussing if my skillset would be a good fit for the Salesloft CSM team?”
Line 3: Compliment, and tie back the name I brought up in the subject line
Given Salesloft's success as well as the success you've had in your CS career, I'd say what you're teaching and empowering your CSM team to do is nothing short of world-class. I mean... what [blank] said about you is pretty amazing!
Line 4: Yes, the email is personalized. However, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing. So I created a video, and dropped some hints about my background. A teaser of more things to come…
Here's a quick video I made for you introducing my background in having worked at LinkedIn, my prior account management experience working with mid to late stage SaaS companies, as well as some tactics I'd bring to the table to increase the NDR within my book of business.
Line 5: I included a personalized video that talked about what I would bring to the business and what my plan was for the next 30-60-90 days.
This newsletter is already beefy so I’ll save this piece for another day.
Line 6: I wanted to include a call to action that would continue the conversation.
I've applied for the CSM role, but I'm a big believer in going the extra mile! Thoughts? Thanks - RK
And thankfully, the next day, we got this….
Oh, one more thing, if you're interested: here's why I chose to reply the way I did.
You know how you can tell when someone’s vibes with their texts? And you answer in a way that fits the tone?
I was aiming for that, even though I didn't know who the Director was... I don't know if I did it right, but I didn't want to sound like a robot, so I went for a more casual approach to keep the vibes going.
Maybe I gave this too much thought, maybe not... But this was me after the first message from the director:
Anyways, the recruiter calls me.
We set up the interviews, and I got the job.
And this is the start of SaaS CS Journey. Now, any Customer Success professional will tell you - there’s a ton of fluff out there.
It’s all generic advice about “putting the customer first” - whatever that means.
All I wanted was a place to turn that would humanize my struggles and my newfound understandings. I didn't want to be isolated while learning this new stuff.
Feel free to model this exact script, or whatever else you were inspired by from this week’s newsletter.
My aim is to keep my learnings real, relevant, and relatable.
Also check this out:
Diggin’ the vibe of NLCS thus far? I’m in pursuit of trying to create the content I wish I had.
The content coming in will be more focused on CSM, but you can expect similar vibes and levels of transparency.
Au Revoir - Until next time my friend
RK