
Ask HN: Anyone have success using cold e-mails for B2B sales? - shafqat
Obviously it depends on the price point, product, target customer etc etc, but I was interested in hearing from startups here that sell software online to business/enterprise customers.<p>Has cold e-mailing worked at all? Cold-calling? Of course, nothing is as good as a qualified, warm lead, but is it worth spending time on e-mail as a means to getting a meeting?
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mixmax
I ran a company some years ago where development of our product was delayed,
so our investor got anxious. My co-founder knew a guy that ran a one-person
telemarketing shop and suggested we give it a try.

His task seemed insurmountable: Cold-call people in the advertising industry,
where people constantly call with new products, and get them to buy ads on a
non-existing new network with an unproven hardware technology that he couldn't
show to the potential customers because it hadn't been produced yet. All he
had was a few powerpoint slides.

Within a month he had contracts for a few months paychecks, and our investor
was reassured.

So the morale of the story is "Yes, coldcaling definitely works, but it's a
pretty difficult artform". Me or my co-founder would never have been able to
pull it off. It's about trust and building a personal relationship.

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shafqat
Great story - are you able to share details or contact info about your
telemarketing star? Would love to hear more (shafqat at newscred dot com).

~~~
mixmax
I haven't talked to him for two years or so, but I'm sure he would love the
business.

Unfortunately he only speaks Danish, which probably makes him less valuable to
you :-(

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SwellJoe
I haven't been doing cold email...but it's pretty close. I have Google alerts
setup for the names of our Open Source products. When a hosting provider is
using Webmin, and advertises that fact, I send them an email offering to set
them up as a Virtualmin reseller, and listing a few of the benefits they'd get
from offering Virtualmin GPL, with the option to upgrade at any time to
Virtualmin Professional. I've only done this four times, so far (still
refining the reseller experience, so moving slowly), but it's been very
effective. At least a 50% success rate (and I wouldn't rule out the other two
signing on later, as neither was negative on the idea...just hesitant to
change or commit to anything).

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markessien
The smaller your niche, the more receptive your potential customers are going
to be to your emails.

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p47
I worked once in company (adv agency) for which it was common tactic. But
market was ready for such practice (low availability of service, and large
audience of potential clients).

It depends on Your product. If it's innovative give them chance to know You. I
agree with prakash be short, and show them in short why it may become useful.
I would add that You will hear "no" plenty of time. Don't discourage. Customer
don't pay attention, they have enough their problems.

best

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Major_Grooves
Not a start-up, but still a B2B database (then later internet) company. We
were an "early adopter" of email marketing when we started. It used to be
fantastic - there wasn't much spam in them early days so people were quite
receptive to the emails and we would make lots of money from them. Hey - they
were free to send and they make you lots of money - what can go wrong with
that?

Well, unfortunately that formula is a bit addictive and it gets to the point
where if sales are low, the top management start demanding to know how many
thousands of emails we have sent that week. What they don't realise is that
the days of just email marketing your way to success is over - email marketing
is now spamming and people hate it.

Nevertheless, send 10,000 emails and we might make one sale which is still
worth a few thousand so how can we resist?!

What isn't appreciated is that this strategy is overall damaging the company.
People now associate us with "those people that send spam". It was only
relatively recently that we moved to a proper email marketing service with an
opt-out option and as a result I managed to get us removed from a significant
email filter black list (which, ironically, we subscribe to).

Anyway, do I have any useful advice? Check the legality re: data retention
etc. I'm not actually 100% on the rules but I do think they differ between the
US and Europe for example, which I think might depend on where you are based,
rather than where you are sending to.

Email marketing /should/ be opt-in, not opt-out. However, I guess giving your
business card must be considered opting in as I always seem to start getting
more marketing emails after a conference. It's ok though as they all do it
properly and have an opt-out link in the email...

Just sending marketing is a bit of a fail imho. Nobody thinks to themselves
"ooh I can sign up here to receive marketing material!" Have an interesting
newsletter talking about your industry, or publish white papers and thought
leadership articles. Be subtle and demonstrate your expertise. That is much
more powerful than some email saying "buy this!"

Good example: <http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx>

If you do just want to talk to someone about a specific product, do as the
poster below says, keep it short and specific. In that sense make it personal
too.

HTH.

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prakash
If there are companies you feel you have to reach out and don't know anyone
that can introduce you, call or email.

Keep it short, reference why your product would be useful, ask who you should
get in touch with for a call/meeting.

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donniefitz2
I tried it on a small scale and it totally failed for me. Actual cold calls,
if targeted correctly, can work and did drum up some good leads, but it's
tedious.

