How a Single Email Turned Words into $5480
"Words open doors."
"You can make anything by writing."
"The art of selling begins with the art of communication."
Frankly, I never believed in these lines and thought people used them to sell writing courses on Twitter.
I never believed them. But that changed in August 2022 when I emailed a prospective client and won a project worth $5k. Neither I nor the client knew each other before.
Here's what happened.
In August 2022, I stumbled upon a listing on remoteok.com for a web prototype builder. The requirement was to understand their needs, design a web interface, and build a front-end prototype.
Since 2011, I've analysed requirements, written user stories, designed user interfaces, and engineered them into existence. I thought this shouldn't be hard.
So, I wrote this email showcasing our previous works and a few screenshots of our "process". It helped me get to the interview and finally win the project.
Here is the original email.
Hello,
My name is Magesh Ravi, a software-engineer solopreneur from India with more than a decade of experience designing and building greenfield software projects. I saw your listing on remoteok.com (with the identifier THRIFTY). I'm interested in this project and wish to offer my services.
My firm's name is Webinative Technologies. I work alongside a team of independent contractors. I have designed Figma mockups, created interactive prototypes using HTML, CSS & JS, and developed fully functional web applications using Django and other technologies.
Work samples
Sample 1 - Testa
Testa is an online assessment platform for school students in Singapore.
Please see the UI design for the parent dashboard with charts driven by data (performance analytics).
Frontend built using VueJS and ChartJS.
Dashboard with Charts - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4w0KZ72ZV_k.
Responsive layouts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98HgfTPY1I.
Why include it here? To demonstrate we can develop responsive frontends and present data-driven visualisations on web pages.
Duration: 3 weeks for design and development
Sample 2 - TyreFinder
TyreFinder (codename) reimagines responsive websites for heavy-vehicle tyre manufacturers.
Read more about it here - https://www.webinative.com/blog/tyrefinder-build-in-public-ui-design/.
Demo of the interactive prototype - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqqozwjAH7E.
Why include it here? To demonstrate we understand highly complex underlying data and quickly develop interactive prototypes with mock static data.
Duration: 4 weeks for analysis, design and prototype development.
Sample 3 - Singalong
Singalong (codename) is a multilingual lyrics app for Indian church-goers who cannot read their native language. Currently in development.
User stories (as presented by the client)
Screen capture - Mock UI
https://youtube.com/shorts/cprqo7Z1-EI
Why include it here? To demonstrate we understand user stories and translate them into design/code as envisioned.
Duration: 3 weeks for design and interactive mockup.
The Context
You are building a tool/platform to set, track and achieve the NDC goals. The first step is to identify, track and display the energy efficiencies of new and upcoming buildings (similar to the energy ratings for houses in Europe).
The Workflow
Please find below - our usual software development workflow.
- We start with the style guide/design system and screen designs.
- We build a component library based on the style guide. This step helps document the frontend components and maintain consistency throughout the app.
- The backend developer (or team) drafts a solution design and models the database schema based on the screens (UI design).
- We determine if the application must be a monolith or API + SPA depending on the use cases.
- We write development stories (tickets) and supporting documentation before we begin development sprints.
- We then prioritise tickets into sprints. Every dev story is reviewed and beta-tested thoroughly.
- We integrate Sentry into our apps to LIVE application monitoring.
Please find below - screenshots for each step in our workflow.
Style guide / Design system
Component Library
Documentation / Dev stories
Sprints
I am happy to provide references after the interview process. Thanks for understanding.
I look forward to your response. Have a nice day.
Cheers,
Magesh Ravi.
Business Owner
Webinative Technologies
That incident changed my perception of writing (specifically for sales). It's not the best email ever written, but it worked. I became a believer and a practitioner.
I take notes, journal, blog, summarise, pitch – something or the other as frequently as possible.
To this day, I occasionally write cold emails to prospective clients with varying degrees of success.
Nevertheless, I continue to write. You should, too.