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Here's what I learned after sending 1.5 million cold emails:
When you send your emails is more important than what you send.
You can have the best pitch in the world.
It's worthless if you send it at the wrong time.
Sales becomes easy, when you target prospects that are looking for you and stay on top of mind of those who aren't yet.
Like magic, you will appear in their inbox when they need you the most.
As a result, you will talk to better (future) clients that respect you, won't ghost you, and that pay you more.
Unfortunately, most don't know how to filter for purchase intent and don't send enough emails to stay on top of mind.
Most reach out to a handful of prospects only and try to convince them
They get stuck because:
- They don't want to spam and 'burn' their leads
- They want to minimize rejections
- They don't understand why timing is crucial
Today, we'll explore an actionable plan to reach your dream clients at the right time.
Step 1: Filter leads for purchase intent
You will only get replies to your emails if a prospect has a current demand for your service.
Let's say you sell an SEO service - You help companies to rank better on Google.
If a company desperately needs to hire more employees, they won't respond to your pitch, it's just bad timing.
So how do you find customers looking to improve their SEO?
Well, someone learning about the topic might install Google Analytics.
We can filter for purchase intent through technographics
Tools like BuiltWith keep a database of millions of websites and their tech stack.
You can create a filter and find thousands of websites that installed Google Analytics in the past 30 days.
Then, to get emails of their decision makers, use a tool like Anymailfinder.
Step 2: Focus on a high-volume approach
The #1 outreach problem of B2B businesses is not sending enough volume.
Most contact less than 1000 prospects a month either because they don't want to spam or they don't know how to send that much.
As a result, their results are inconsistent like in a casino.
Having helped 300+ businesses with cold outreach, I noticed you need to reach at least 5000 businesses a month for 30+ sales calls.
Alex Hormozi once said that less than 3% in your market are in need of your help at a given time.
By focusing on a high-volume approach, you remove luck from the equation with virtually no downside
Here are 3 reason why this approach has no downside:
- Your biggest problem is that not enough people know that you exist
- People forget that you ever contacted them within 30-60 days
- You need multiple touchpoints anyways (According to a B2B study, 8 touchpoints are needed on average)
- There's always gonna be 100+ businesses that are currently looking for you
Now, that you know why this approach serves you without downsides, let's explore how:
- Use large databases like Apollo/Snov/Zoominfo to pull 10k+ emails
- Setup 50+ company email accounts to land in the inbox at scale. You can use Mailscale(.)ai to automate this process and save 80% of costs
- Use an email sender like Instantly/Smartlead that allows you add unlimited email accounts
Step 3: Implement a follow up strategy
The money is in the follow up.
The famous sales quote is particularly important with cold outreach.
Forget the idea of you sending one email and someone becoming a client.
Most will read your email and find it interesting, but are currently just too busy.
Not following up with them to stay on top of mind will cost you fortunes.
To combat this, create a cadence of emails (3-7 days delay each).
Here's an example:
- Email 1: Initial cold email
- Email 2: Quick followup aka "Did you see my email"
- Email 3: Case study with results
- Email 4: Valuable resource (video, pdf, tutorial)
- Email 5: Quick followup aka "Is this a better time?"
- Email 6: More value
There's no perfect answer on how long your sequence should be.
You're not 'bothering' prospects if you send them valuable insights and tips
If you have valuable content and expertise, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't 'bother' prospects for 6+ months with tips.
Will some be pissed at the amount of emails?
Maybe 1 of 100 who wouldn't become a client anyways and they can unsubscribe/stop the emails with a reply anyways.
TL;DR
- Importance of timing: When you send is more important than what you send
- To filter leads for purchase intent, use technographics
- #1 outreach problem of B2B businesses is not sending enough
- Focus on a high-volume approach to remove luck from the equation
- To stay top of mind, implement a long, value-based follow up strategy
- You can't 'bother' prospects if you share immense value
