Cold messages to people in my field, do they work?

I want to talk to people in a new field but I hate cold messages. It has been weighing on me all week. Some people reply with short answers. How do you phrase the request?

Follow up with a thank-you and a short update. One of my chats led to a referral a month later.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.