Cold outreach is dead? Bullshit 💩
I used to think that cold outreach is dead.
In the last 6 months, I've personally met 2 founders who bootstrapped their startups to 150K+ ARR (in 1 year) just by doing Cold Calls and Cold Emails.
Both of them are from Germany, building simple SaaS products without any advanced technology.
Just solving a real problem for their customers.
That’s it. No secret sauce. Just doing the same thing every day.
It's not about cold emails not working - it's about your niche, positioning, and go to market.
We struggled with selling Bluedot via cold emails. I sent probably 5K emails, did cold calls and nothing. It was frustrating, and it felt like no one needs our product.
Why?
Because we where not that type of product you can successfully sale trough cold emails.
There was no clear pain. No clear ICP. No budget for it.
For us it was hard to predict when someone needs to automate note taking.
That’s why we switched to more marketing and product-led sales
Every channel works - you just need to find what works for you.
Have a productive week 🚀
Do you maybe know if they used any automation tools?
I've started to cold email people, but it's a painfully slow process.
one guy from my story is using apollo.
he automates email search, outreach + linkedin automation
it's a very cheap tool for what it does
I use apollo to reach out to 100's of founders every week. I haven't paid a dime for anything on the software yet!
how do you validate emails to reduce bounce rate?
So true. For the past two days, I have used LinkedIn's Sales Navigator account, and have successfully reached out to and am having conversations with about a dozen decision makers.
Crazy to look back 48 hours from now, when I almost went ahead and built the product I thought they wanted- which I've now found out would have been in the wrong direction of their actual needs.
ahah, I love it!
keep on grinding !!!
There is a simple rule: solve a problem, and cold outreach or any other sales strategy is going to work.
If you have a true and valid product/market fit, it doesn't matter which strategy you follow, as long as you're committed to.
There are some strategies, working better for products and other strategies are working better for services and agency.
But all in all:
Cold calling is not dead!
true! there is no one-size fits all.
Yes, even I do Cold calling and Cold emails. I still feel that it is super powerful & relevant atleast for the next decade
Boom! Love it.
Cold Calls make you 10x better than other startups. Coz no one wants to do it.
Thoughts on asking for feedback as a way to warm up a new connections early on?
Like for example if you are selling to a content creator, they are usually known to nurture relationships so that they get more support.
You can
Start with a 'question about [name of] video'
Discuss your product/service idea and ask for their thoughts on a specific area.
it's a win win.
You either getting feedback from your target audience that you could use for copywriting or optimizing your offer.
OR
The conversation might turn into a future sale. You could mention how the service/product succeeded for someone else and appreciate them for their early feedback.
Do you use Twitter by the way? Would be great to connect on there
Absolutely! That's a great approach.
Warm up and add personalisation before doing sale.
Yes here is my twitter: https://twitter.com/rusras_
So what kind of products are best sold via cold outreach?
What kind of products are not suitable for cold outreach?
1st guy I'm talking about is building a software for local dentist practices.
It's a very niche product that doesn't have much competition.
For him cold calls work the best, but he is using an agency that is doing cold emails for him.
2d guy is building HR-tech in a very niche space. Deals are 5-20K annual.
----
Less suitable for cold outreach could be the product we are building: bluedothq.com
I see.
So it seems like cold outreach is more suitable for customers who are bigger and not doing business online.
It depends upon your social proofs and the value you could provide them in the initial..
And most probably the headline
as far as i can predict, if we somehow loose access to internet then you can say cold email and cold call approach is dead. while it's alive it can not die. period.
I have had pretty good success with cold dms on twitter. I think cold outreach will always be around on various platforms.
Nice! Keep on hustling!
Thanks, this really helps with morale.
That's a good insight.
I tried cold emailing my product design subscription agency https://www.pentaclay.com
I got a couple of responses out of 1000's email I sent. But not anyone converted, may be my writing wasn't good enough.
I find it very expensive if I hire a marketer.
For me X is working slowly.
I guess cold emails are 10x harder for agency business.
For SaaS it still works.
Hey, I'd be down to give you a free trial for this, I guarantee you it will improve your response rates. https://getsalemaker.com
It basically creates highly personalized videos for each of your leads. It has their name, goal and website in the thumbnail so it stands out way more.
It's interesting to hear about your experience with cold outreach and how it worked for some while not for others. Your observation about the importance of niche, positioning, and go-to-market strategy is spot on.
Indeed, cold outreach can be highly effective when you're offering a solution to a clear pain point and have a well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) in mind. It's about aligning your outreach with the needs and budget of your target audience.
In your case, the switch to more marketing and product-led sales seems like a smart move, especially if your product isn't something that typically resonates with cold email recipients. Marketing and product-led strategies can help build awareness and attract users who are actively seeking a solution like yours.
The key takeaway here is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to sales and outreach. It's essential to adapt your strategy to your specific product, market, and audience. Sometimes, what works for one startup may not work for another, and that's perfectly normal.
Thanks for sharing your insights, and I wish you a productive week as well! 🚀