10/08/2026
Our intern got 21% to reply.
This was 2022. Everybody on my team had a full plate, nobody had room for one more thing, so we brought in an NYU intern. Her name's Shivi.
The people she reached out to weren't new. A lot of them we'd tried to reach before... and they'd just stopped replying.
Instead of pitching them, she asked about their business.
She reached 642 people. 98% opened her email, 21% wrote back, and the replies were overwhelmingly positive.
When you're busy and the pipeline's thin, it's tempting to pitch harder or sit and wait on referrals. These folks answered once the conversation was about them.
A or B... would you rather send a better pitch, or ask a better question?