Just got back from NYC and catching up on all the things 🌆 so let’s jump right into this week.
🤝 Why You’re Not Hearing Back (And What to Do About It)
A client asked me this week:
“I’ve messaged folks at all three companies but haven’t heard back. Has anyone else noticed a lower response rate lately?”
Here’s what I told him (and how you should think about your own response rates):
🔊1/ Volume First
First, stop worrying about response rates until you hit 10 messages per week.
If you’re not at that volume, you’re not testing enough to get meaningful data. You need more “experiments” e.g. emails and DMs before you can draw conclusions.
The first step is always volume. Aim for 5 messages minimum. Ideally, get to 10 per week.
Once you have volume, then you can focus on the next step:
👨🎤 2/ Personalization
There are tons of ways to use AI to help: Clay workflows, Claude, ChatGPT for research. I’ve talked about these tools before.
But even if you skip all that, do this one thing:
Use a ChatGPT prompt that checks whether your message feels personalized or like a generic cold email. Run every message through it before hitting send.
👉 Here’s the prompt I’d use:
I’m sharing a cold email I wrote to ask someone for an informational chat. Your job is to evaluate how personalized, thoughtful, and low-pressure the message feels.
Step 1 – Rate the message on a scale of 1–10 for personalization.
Step 2 – Analyze it across these 5 factors:
1. Relevance (Why this person?)
2. Curiosity over asks (Not just fishing for jobs)
3. Tone and human warmth
4. Effort signal
5. Clarity of purpose
Step 3 – Suggest 2 specific edits to improve personalization or tone. Optionally, rewrite the message with those edits applied.
Here’s the message:
📍 Last Thing: A Tactical Fix To Connect More
My client was trying to personalize within LinkedIn’s 300 character limit for connection requests. That’s tough.
✍️ Try this instead:
Send the connection request WITHOUT a note. Once you’re connected, send a longer, more personalized message where you have room to show you’ve done your homework.
You don’t need to do this with every single person. Mix it up in your workflow. I typically save the connection + longer message approach for 3 to 5 people per day where I can really make a meaningful connection.
Remember: Volume first, then personalization. And don’t overthink response rates until you have enough data to actually learn from.