Why it works
People have a natural tendency to trust things they recognize or have encountered before. Referencing a shared connection or a common interest makes you feel like an insider rather than a stranger.
Example
I saw you were also connected with Sarah Smith, who mentioned you focus on similar initiatives.
An illustration of the mechanism, not a template. Copied verbatim it stops being persuasion and starts being the pattern everyone else is already sending.
Is your sequence pulling this one?
Paste it in and find out which levers are working, which are missing, and which single zero is capping the whole message.