Prospecting to developers with AI

Developers are hard to reach. At my last web dev job, I think I checked my email once or twice, max.

Their LinkedIn inboxes are filled with messages from recruiters and they value long blocks of uninterrupted time.

And they definitely don't want to "hop on a call" with you, at least not yet.

So what's the best way to get a developer's attention?

It's the same way you'd get anyone's attention:

Bring valuable information
Talk about something they're interested in

This can be a pretty hard task if you're not technical. But in the age of AI, everyone is somewhat technical.

How to write a message that developers will read

While there are an infinite number of ways to come up with a compelling message, we're going to keep it simple and use AI to help us. For this example, we'll assume you've already got a prospect to reach out to and a ChatGPT subscription.

Understand your prospect

Are they a front-end developer? A back-end developer? A full-stack developer? A data scientist? A machine learning engineer? A product manager? A designer?

Do they work at a startup? A big company? A small company? A non-profit? A government agency?

Or maybe they work in ecommerce, fintech, healthtech, edtech, or some other industry?

For this example, we're going to reach out to my old coworker and friend, Dalton Wignall. Dalton is a front-end developer at Opendorse, a sports marketing platform.

Find three recent feature releases or blog posts

Now that you know a little bit about your prospect, it's time to find a piece of content from your company that they might be interested in.

If you really know your product and the developer landscape, you might be able to do this without any AI assistance. But if you're not technical, AI can help you find the right content.

For Vercel, here are our three most recent blog posts:

We also ship Next.js so we can use the Next.js blog as well:

AI prompt

I'm an AE at Vercel and I'm trying to write a message to raise Dalton's interest in considering Vercel.

## prospect info
Dalton Wignall
Client Side Software Architect at Opendorse

## Vercel recent posts
For Vercel, here are our three most recent blog posts:

1. https://vercel.com/blog/introducing-conformance
2. https://vercel.com/blog/aws-reinvent-2023-iteration-velocity
3. https://vercel.com/blog/partial-prerendering-with-next-js-creating-a-new-default-rendering-model

We also ship Next.js so we can use the Next.js blog as well:

1. https://nextjs.org/blog/next-14
2. https://nextjs.org/blog/security-nextjs-server-components-actions

## task
Please write a message referencing the latest blog post that you think is most relevant for Dalton. Keep it short.

AI response

Subject: Elevate Opendorse with Vercel's Next.js Innovations

Hi Dalton,

I'm reaching out from Vercel to share something that could significantly enhance your client-side projects at Opendorse. Our latest post on "Partial Prerendering with Next.js" (https://vercel.com/blog/partial-prerendering-with-next-js-creating-a-new-default-rendering-model) introduces a game-changing rendering model that blends speed with dynamic capabilities.

I believe this could be a real asset for your work. If you're interested, let's discuss how it can fit into your projects. Looking forward to potentially collaborating!

Best,
[Your Name]
Account Executive, Vercel

Conclusion

Look, this isn't a perfect message. But it's a lot better than the "hop on a call" messages that most developers get. Dalton is going to respond to this message because it's to the point, it's relevant to his work, and it's not asking for a call.

All you've got to do is:

Keep a list of recent blog posts or feature releases
Keep this AI prompt handy
Ask ChatGPT for help with a rough draft
Tweak it and press send

AI can't close the deal for you though, at least not yet.

More AI resources

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