Often times our members receive messages that lack basic information about the sender, his intentions or what he wants from them. Take this message for example:

hi, i’m looking for a business partner can you help me?

As you can see pretty much every rule of how business communication should be conducted has been broken.

What exactly went wrong?

• The sender didn’t pay attention to the formal quality of his message: his complete message is made up of one sentence and he didn’t worry much about correct uppercase and lowercase writing.
• He didn’t introduce himself.
• He didn’t write how he found the recipient or why he’s writing him.
• He didn’t make clear what exactly he is looking for. A “business partner” is a very general term.
• He didn’t sign off.

Obviously, if the sender doesn’t speak English well enough, then some of the points above should be ignored but introducing yourself, letting the recipient know why you contacted him and what exactly you want from him is independent of language and culture and should always be paid attention to.
Here is one way how you could write the above message:

Dear Mohammad,

My name is Ahmad Rasoul and I’m working in the sales department of Jamaal & Sons Ltd., a contractor for the Algerian government.
I ran across your profile while searching for business partners that are offering import/export services from and to the U.A.E.. In your profile I see that you are seeking business partners in the MENA region that are interested in importing goods from the U.A.E..
I’m looking for a partner in that field and I’m kindly requesting you to send me a brochure that explains your business and also contains details on the terms & modalities.

Kind Regards
Ahmad Rasoul

Always make sure you you address someone in the same professional manor as you would want to be addressed. Keep in mind that you want to get into business with that person and, as always, first impression is last impression.