Posting and answering posts on Craigslist are a part of everyday life now and I have had decent success getting people attention for both my company and personal life (not the missed connections, I’m married…). I’m talking about selling or buying anything. Anyway this was a document I was putting together internally for our sales efforts and thought it would be nice to share.

* Read the whole posting – A lot of times poster’s will put a note at the bottom of a post telling you a secret instruction so they know that you are not a spammer, ie favorite band in subject line or “symfony rocks” in subject line.

* Be personable and understand their needs not what you can help them with. You can get a lot from these postings. They don’t always need just development done, they need a reliable, no bullshit, professional that knows what they are doing and lets them know when they’re wrong.

* Don’t forget to update links.

- Link to the posting so we know which job they’re talking about.

- Link to your site or blog trying to highlight something for them

* Start posting with either Good morning or Good afternoon, the more personalized the better.

* Look for names and numbers. If you can address a posting with Hi Jim, you are going to get a much better response. The one word that every human loves the most is their own name. Use it at the end of the email if it makes sense. …I look forward to speaking with you Jim.

* If they say who the company is, research the company for a couple minutes and find some things in their about us section that indicate what they value, maybe a values section? Use their own words as they are triggers and can really connect when someone says, I am to make reliable companies profitable…”That’s funny we pride ourselves on reliability, this might be a great partnership, it’s like he read my mind”. Nope I just read your website or blog.

* End with a call to action. Communication in its simplest form is to do nothing but create an action. You determine with your words if and how they respond.

* Make sure that your contact information is clear as day.

Hope these help. Please feel free to let us know some of your tips or if this helps at all.

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