Account Executives targeting MongoDB learn why generic LinkedIn outreach fails and what works instead: show you've researched the role, explain your fit with specific achievements, and ask something easy like a 15-minute call. The speaker walks through a complete example message.
Outside of requests to pick my brain for 20 minutes, the most common note I get through email and LinkedIn are from AES that are interested in a job working at MongoDB. Today I want to break down what almost all this outreach looks like and how you can improve your job seeking outreach as you're thinking about landing your next opportunity. What I usually receive is a fairly generic note that says something like, hey, I'm interested in talking to you about the ae position at MongoDB. I want to apply, but before I do, wanted to get your insight on the role. Are you available to talk tomorrow or later this week? Now this outreach sounds to me like, hey, I might want to work at this company, but I really want you to teach me more about it, help me do my research about it so then I can decide if it's worth my time. The problem with this is you're putting the burden on on the hiring manager to go educate you rather than putting the burden on yourself to go learn more and then engaging them in a thoughtful way. Now, when I share this concept, people will get upset with me like, well, it should be more applicant friendly. The company tried to sell people to work for them and that's fine. I actually agree, right? Like as a hiring manager, I should be selling people to work at MongoDB. But the reality is the market is a little bit different right now, where there are hundreds of people reaching out as opportunities. If I were to go take 15, 20 minutes with all these hundreds of people, I wouldn't have any time to do my actual job. It'd be impossible to even evaluate that many people for a role. And so if you want to have the opportunity, you need to be able to stand out a little bit in this, this initial, this initial step. And if you think about it as a hiring manager for a sales role, looking at a prospective seller for my team, the way you do outreach to me gives me insight how you do outreach for prospects, the amount of research, the point of view you have, even the call to action. Help me understand your approach. And if it's a generic, not very thoughtful approach for me, what does that tell me about how you might approach customers if you were actually in the role? So please don't take this as candidate bashing or look how important we are as hiring managers. It's just a numbers game in reality, right? Like there are so many people trying to land jobs at top tech companies. This is a great opportunity for you to stand out and look different than the masses and improve your chances of getting the conversation. So what I recommend in your outreach is to share what you've learned about the company, share what you've learned about the actual role within the company, and then give me some insight into why you might be a good fit for the role. Like this is a sales job. Sell me a little bit, right? Like I want to make sure that I'm bringing the people that are able to sell. And if you can't sell yourself, you're gonna have a really hard time selling database software or whatever it is that you're looking to sell in the crazy tech world that we're in. And then finally going back to the burden concept, the CTA should be a low effort. Cta, make it really easy for me to help you because this is one of many messages that I'm getting in what is usually a fairly busy day. So what a good message might look like is, hey Ky, really excited about the market opportunity I'm seeing for MongoDB. It seems like the growth of AI is really accelerating your go to market now. Why this is impactful. Just a quick side note is MongoDB is benefiting hugely right now from the AI, the AI search. Because the way that we store data is really helpful and applicable to companies building in that space. So this tells me they've done some level of research. Then you might continue. It seems like Bongo puts a major emphasis on rep development. This stands out to me because Mongo fairly frequently shares how much we invest in enablement compared to other tech companies. So that shows me that you're again understanding not just the market for our company, but also our approach to rep development. Then you might continue. Combining this huge market opportunity with dedicated rep enablement is incredibly appealing. Then we're going to get a little bit into the sell yourself portion. I'd love to walk you through how I've led my team in pipeline generation and quota attainment the last two quarters to see if my skill sets that might be a good fit for your org. Now don't just like copy and paste this, like tell the things that you've done that are relevant to the role you're applying for. This would be relevant to me because I run an acquisition org. We're all about pipeline generation and then that quota tame a stack rank. I love that comparison. Help me understand how you do compare to your peers in a similar role so that that would catch my attention. So in the sell yourself part of this, find achievements that you've done that translate most closely to to the role that you're looking to move to to show the hiring manager that you're a safe bet. And then the low effort CTA might sound something like what's the best way to ensure my application is reviewed by a member of your team? And this is just understanding the process, right? If you're reaching out to a VP of Sales or a CRO, they're not usually the first step the interview process, right? And so understanding that the process is probably application being reviewed by recruiting, probably a screen conversation by a recruiter, followed up by talking to a frontline leader, and then maybe at that point talking to a VP or a CRO. But if you you have that lower effort cta, much more likely to get help, right? So when I get thoughtful outreach like this, and if the profile of the person is in line with what good looks like for a MongoDB candidate, every time I respond with hey, I've flagged your application, I've flagged your application to the team and recruiting will reach out to you and then they get a conversation and they often go into the interview process, right? So just a quick summary. When you're reaching out, remember you are one of many, especially for competitive tech company roles. Make sure that you're showing off what you learn by the company about the role, about the person you're reaching out to even, and then brag a little bit, sell yourself a little bit on the skills that you have and the results so you've had the tie to that role. And then make it really easy for that senior leader that has a lot of other responsibilities outside of this to help you get in the get into the conversation. I hope this is helpful as you are possibly thinking about applying for new roles and will help level up your outreach to hiring managers. If you found this video helpful, let me know I'm going the right direction by leaving a like on this video. Then if there are any questions or topics you want to make sure I cover in a future video, leave me a comment. I read all comments and I love recommendations that will help me help you sell more. Finally, don't forget to subscribe. 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