February 2, 2018

Referring strangers

In response to yesterday’s message (i.e., “Why should Alice care?”), long-time reader John Tseng wrote in with a hyper-specific target market and a head-turning reason why Alice would want to talk to him (shared with permission, slightly edited for clarity):

Hi Jonathan, This is awesome! I’ve been churning over this kind of stuff for the past year, and I’ve always came up with ESP-required messaging, but now that I’ve decided to focus on machine learning for sports betting, it’s helped make this stuff a lot easier to come up with. It’s a nice plus that I enjoy the work more. =D Here’s the referral you could send for me: Hey Alice! FYI - My friend John creates machine learning algorithms for sports betting. We were just chatting and he mentioned that he helped Scotty McKeever win $100k at a recent betting tournament. Would you like an intro? I’m going to update my profile now. =) —John

If we assume that Alice is in John’s hyper-specific target market (i.e., sports betting tipsters), she’s probably going to know who Scotty McKeever is and she’ll presumably be impressed with the results.

In fact, I’d be willing to wager that if you know someone in the sports betting space, you are wondering right now if you should intro them to John.

And you don’t even know John!

Why would you consider introducing a friend to a complete stranger who you heard about on some maniac’s mailing list?

Because John’s value proposition is crystal clear and his bold claim is easily verifiable.

And talk about memorable! I mean c’mon... “Machine Learning for Sports Betting”? You couldn’t forget that if you tried. If you meet a sports betting person at a party a year from now, you’re going to remember this message.

I would love for your network to be able to give you equally strong, memorable referrals. As a reminder, here’s the “Referral I WANT to Write” template from yesterday:

“Hey $name1! FYI - My friend $name2 does $thing for $industry. We were just chatting and s/he mentioned that s/he helped $industryLeader $hugeWin. Would you like an intro?”

Get creative and hit reply!

Yours,

—J

P.S. Friends don’t let friends bill hourly. Gift options available at checkout-> http://hourlybillingisnuts.com