How do you prioritize cold emails/calls and what's your response rate?

November 26, 2018

I'm working on forcing myself to try to make more cold emails/calls to people I think I can collaborate with and have a bunch of questions:

Do you only do emails or do you do cold phone calls? Cold phone calls seem a bit more aggressive and I might be annoyed if I got one.
What's your typical response rate? I don't have much luck on my initial experiments.
What do you use to track your progress? Seems like it could be a job for a CRM but right now I'm just using a spreadsheet.

Kevin Burton

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Hey Kevin,

SaaS copywriter here with a few tips for you:
1. I don't think I've ever done a cold call. It's one thing to leave me an email that I can passively ignore. It's another for me to actively turn my phone on silent or throw it across the room.
I've done hundreds of cold emails. Nothing like proving to yourself how good you are getting a stranger's attention.
1. My response rates have been anywhere from 40-70% for different people such as HR professionals, CEOs, Marketing Managers, and more. The important thing is also not to give up after the first attempt.
Biggest.

Mistake.

Ever.
1. I've used different methods because I've sent emails from different providers over the years: Streak for Gmail, whiteboard (literally...a giant whiteboard) for smaller projects, Boomerang, etc. Look up "email tracking software" and you'll get a whole lot.
The most important thing in emails is not to ask for too much, however, I've pitched a wellness program to a CEO and was able to get a response within 12 hours and a scheduled phone call within a few days.

Too bad I realized I wasn't good on the phone then.

Hope this helps!

Let me know if you have other questions on linkedin or email. Cheers!
Veronika

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8 years ago
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  Thanks.. you mean the "biggest mistake ever" is not following up?
  
  So I think I'm trying to keep them short, with a simple ask, but it's tough.. still running some tests.
  
  Kevin Burton
  
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  8 years ago
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    Yes, exactly!
    
    Your subject line is the biggest thing to worry about right now.
    
    Make sure you're sounding like you're inquiring about something rather than asking so a subject line like:
    
    "best person?", "right person?", or "are you the person who does x?" would be the best types because they don't sound like your email will ask a lot.
    
    Hope that helps.
    
    Veronika
    
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    8 years ago
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Hey Kevin,

I run outbound lead gen for b2b saas founders.
1. Right now, we run outreach on social media. LinkedIn and Facebook. When someone connects with me, I follow up via LinkedIn messenger or Facebook messenger. Connection rates and reply rates are much higher than email so you can get feedback on your messaging faster.
2. Reply rates I'm seeing vary between 11% and 29%.
3. I use a combination of automation to manage outbound sequences and a lightweight CRM in Airtable.
If you want to learn (a lot) more about this strategy take a look at this article: https://convopanda.com/chat-prospect-free-training

Happy to follow up here too if you have any questions.
Harry Whelchel

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8 years ago
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