Cold Email Breakdown Using Thrust + Drag
Today we’ll do a quick breakdown of a cold email to help you write better ones, whether for intent tests, customer interviews, sales — whatever.
The best way to break down a cold email is a slightly fuzzy metric I call THRUST vs. DRAG . Does each section push me forwards or pull me back? Emails with drag get deleted. Emails with thrust get answered.
Here’s one I got a few days ago:
Let's dive in.
Bad start. “How’s it going?” usually leads to my finger hovering over the delete key. You’ve got maybe 10 words to catch interest and create THRUST, and “How’s it going?” won’t do it.
Rating: DRAG 🛑 — delete likelihood 40%
Starting an email with “I’m” is another tough one — the goal is to have 80% of the words in the email focused on the person reading it, not the person writing it. I do get hooked a bit by the “20 min conversations” piece, as I love a good customer interview and think maybe this person knows that about me.
Unfortunately, “startup founders like you” nullifies most of the good. It’s painfully vague and makes it clear he doesn’t know who I am. Stay away from “[vague thing] like you.”
Rating: SOME THRUST 💨, MORE DRAG 🛑 — delete likelihood 75% due to “startup founders like you”
”Donate $20” is what I call Fake Thrust. It seems like a good idea from the sender’s perspective — what monster wouldn't want to give $20 to charity? Aren't I, as the sender, being so thoughtful giving money to charity for a harmless 20 min chat?
But the logistics create a ton of drag. As the reader, I now need to decide on a charity and convey it to this person, which likely creates more interactions with them. It opens a bunch of loops, which creates cognitive overhead, which creates drag. Further, putting a clear dollar amount on my time can backfire. I charge $400+/hr for consulting — 20 bucks for 20 minutes is well below my stated rate.
Next, there's a second bit of Fake Thrust. “I'd be happy to answer any growth questions.” What the heck do I do with that? I need to think up questions they might know the answer to? I don't know who they are?
Rating: DRAG DRAG DRAG 🛑 — delete likelihood 100%
It’s unlikely anyone gets this far, but this bit creates a ton of drag, too. I don’t want to figure out a time that works for me — remove friction by providing times or a Calendly link.
OK!
Rule number 1 of startups (life) is never be critical without providing an alternative. So, here’s how I’d treat this cold email:
If we take the goal on its face, Daniel is trying to find “20 minute conversations with founders to hear about the problems they face.”
He might have a problem in mind but isn’t trying to anchor it. Let’s assume that. But, asking for something vague will produce lukewarm responses — and no one is responding to a cold email unless they read it and think, “OH, HELL YES!” for some reason.
So, how to do this? How do you stay vague in the ask (so as not to anchor), but specific enough to create a "hell yes" level of interest?
Be specific to the person you’re emailing. This requires some research, but dramatically increases response rates (like 50x or more).
Provide real value that can be decided on.
Remove scheduling friction / cognitive overhead.
I took a quick shot, trying to create thrust in each section:
Hey Brian,
You’ve worked with hundreds of early stage startups at Tacklebox and must know the early problems they face as well as anyone.
< THRUST - this person knows who I am (or at least has spent 5 seconds Googling) and gave me a slightly veiled compliment. This buys them another sentence.>
I’ve got a hypothesis around a problem I think your founders face. I don’t want to anchor it, but would love to run a 20-min interview with you to chat.
< THRUST - this person can help my founders, which helps me, and the phrase “don’t want to anchor” shows he knows how to run an interview >
I run a growth agency (Note: It’s true, he does — I Googled him) and would be happy to chat for 10 minutes after the interview about your growth stack — I can usually find low-hanging fruit in a very short call.
< THRUST - would love a quick growth stack audit>
Here’s my Calendly.
< THRUST - easy to grab time>
Pretty good. I think I'd answer that. Reading through, I think it can be tightened. Final version:
“Hey Brian,
You probably know the problems early-stage entrepreneurs face better than anyone. (Tacklebox, Idea to Startup, etc.)
I’ve got a hypothesis around a problem your founders face — I don’t want to anchor it, but I think you’d be able to validate/disprove it in a 20-min chat.
Separately, I run a growth agency (WES) and would be happy to tack 10 min onto our chat to give you a quick growth audit — that’s usually enough time for me to find low-hanging fruit.
Here’s my Calendly”
This takes an extra 2 minutes per email (to find the specific first sentence), but it'll increase your hit rate dramatically. And, we’d rather spend time making sure we speak with the right people then spray and pray and end up speaking with the wrong ones (or no one).
Use Thrust and Drag to evaluate your cold messages.