
Ask HN: Does cold outreach actually work? - amorphous
I&#x27;d like to shift my development focus on a particular business domain. I have the technical skills but have never work in that industry. I would like to talk to insiders to figure out how I could help them.<p>My idea is to cold email people and ask for their time. So far I haven&#x27;t had any success with this.<p>Has anyone tried this before?
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patio11
Cold outreach is a lot like caching: the millions of people who have
successfully implemented it, written down their process, and documented their
results are not all lying. This doesn't necessarily imply that "put a cache in
front of it" will always work.

You say you haven't had any success. Draw out your funnel and dig into where,
specifically, you are failing.

Do you have a raw volume problem? Which of the following is most
representative of how many emails you send per day: 50? 10? 3? If you have a
raw volume problem, is it because you cannot identify people to email fast
enough, cannot identify contact information fast enough, or cannot force
yourself to push the send button fast enough?

Do you have a response rate problem? Is your response rate much, much lower
than, say, 10~20%? If you have a response rate problem, is it because your
subject lines are bad? Is it because your _offer_ is bad? Do you have an
attractive offer? (There are ways to position "talk to insiders to figure out
how I could help them" that are attractive to the insider and ways that are
less attractive. What is in it for your counterparty?)

Do you routinely transition conversations into a successfully scheduled
conversation? Does that conversation typically go reasonably well or not go
well? Do you have a specific next step in mind after that conversation? Do you
have high uptake to that next step?

~~~
amorphous
I surely have a raw volume problem because "cannot force yourself to push the
send button fast enough". The main reason is I'm not sure I have an attractive
offer as I'm asking strangers for help without really offering anything. And
that feels weird.

> There are ways to position "talk to insiders to figure out how I could help
> them" that are attractive to the insider and ways that are less attractive.

Could you tell more about those attractive ways? I struggle with that.

~~~
sfink
> I'm not sure I have an attractive offer as I'm asking strangers for help
> without really offering anything.

Uh, fix your attitude first. You have technical skills that you feel may apply
to their area. You have time, interest, and inclination to figure out how to
make that work. You want to tailor a solution to their company's specific
problem, or at least the problems you uncover in anyone who will discuss them
with you. (This is as opposed to selling some one-size-fits-all type of thing,
or telling them what they need.)

All of that has value, and that's the value you're offering. Prove it by doing
what research you can on their company's problem, and lead with that. Sure,
you don't know that what you're thinking actually makes sense and would be of
use to them. And given that you're an outsider, it honestly probably won't.
But having the conversation you're trying to have is a way to make it make
sense.

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ian0
As much as I hate to say it, linkedin is extremely valuable for this.

When we were getting our business off the ground I wrote connection request
messages to the C level guys in large companies we were hoping to work with. I
was honest and said that id like to talk with them just to see if what we were
thinking of doing was something they would be interested in.

A lot of them responded (especially ones from start-up backgrounds) and the
resulting discussions were extremely positive. Even where we didn't end up
working with them we learned a lot. But most of them are our clients/partners
now.

Its amazing how many people are just happy to help. Im my experience the
lowest & highest levels of the companies are the easiest to approach.

If you would like to connect with people but they are not in your network a
good idea is to connect to headhunters or people who post a lot in that
industry. It shouldn't take many to build up a network of 2nd level contacts
you can send a connection request message to directly.

~~~
amorphous
That's interesting. The general opinion seems to be that sending LinkedIn
messages doesn't work well, but connection requests might work. Thanks for
sharing

~~~
JSeymourATL
InMails have a notoriously low open rate.

But once you've got an individuals profile details; it's relatively straight
forward to reach them via a work address.

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DoreenMichele
_I would like to talk to insiders to figure out how I could help them._

When you contact people, ask for an informational interview. This is described
in the book _What color is your parachute?_

If possible, don't cold call. Find ways to establish some contacts. Find
events to attend or other means to start making social connections. It will go
vastly better if you can say "So and so gave me your name." or "We met at X
event. I was wondering if I could have a few minutes if your time to learn a
little more about X."

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aaavl2821
It does work but not always. The busier the person, the less likely a cold
contact works. Warm intros are better. Sometimes cold emailing somebody who
can get you a warm intro can work

The best advice I've found is this post by Steve blank on getting meetings
with busy people: [https://steveblank.com/2013/08/12/how-to-get-meetings-
with-p...](https://steveblank.com/2013/08/12/how-to-get-meetings-with-people-
too-busy-to-see-you/amp/)

Basically offer people something in return for their time. Do your homework
and genuinely try to help people when you ask for their time. It may feel
inefficient or slow, but your hit rate is so much higher w this approach than
a shotgun approach that it's worth it

Not to say that shotgun approaches can't work, it just depends on your
audience. I used linked in searches combined with a tool called hunter.io that
guesses people's emails based on public info w reasonable accuracy, downloaded
the email addresses into excel and did a mail merge. The results were that
like 60-70% of the emails were wrong, and of those like 10% responded, and of
those maybe I got calls with half. So single digit hit rate. It took maybe a
half hour to get 100 emails sent, so a half hour or so got me 2-4 calls maybe

This effort was for physicians however, so for other groups your numbers will
likely be better. Many physicians aren't on linked in and don't have emails on
their websites, so your linked in searches won't be that efficient. They are
also extremely busy and inundated with annoying survey requests / marketing
materials. For this group cold calls actually were almost better

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sfink
This isn't helpful, but I've had a surprisingly high success rate with cold
outreach when I didn't have a need or expectation of a response. But then, I
also tend to email researchers (and generally not the ones involved in some
big breakthrough, just more niche ones that did something that I found
personally very interesting.) And researchers are generally pretty happy to
find out that anyone is interested in the topic they've poured their time and
energy into, especially if you're not just asking the obvious followup
questions. So I've mostly gone after soft targets.

I also have a habit of contacting higher-ups of the institutions I'm
associated with (my company, my kids' school, etc.). Usually with jokes.
Sometimes with complaints, in which I say things that I really shouldn't be
saying if I value my job, but a little honesty and reasonableness seem to go a
long way.

Quite a ways from what you're looking for, but the same rules probably apply:
if you have something to offer, even if it's only your rapt attention for a
topic of interest to them, then tell them up front in the first sentence or
two. No tricks. Be honest. Make it easy for them to decide to _not_ respond as
quickly as possible (rather than eg hinting at things or being ambiguous,
hoping they'll interpret things in the most favorable light.) Value their
time, and express that in how you write the email (but not by saying "I know
how important your time is" or whatever. That's bullshit. You value someone's
time by being efficient and not wasting it.)

If you're just asking for their time, you're doing it wrong. Why should they
give it to you? Tell them why they should care first, then put your ask after.

It's best if you really _do_ have something of value to them. Then your email
just needs to effectively and efficiently communicate that.

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tonyedgecombe
In my experience cold calls are always hard work, it's much easier if you can
find a common contact to make an introduction.

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matchmike1313
We got our first 5 customers with cold emailing. It is all a numbers game with
some A-B testing in my opinion. It can be very time consuming if you do not do
it right, but if you do, it can work great. Granted, any "cold" sales method
is going to bring in some un-qualified prospects but when you are just
starting that can be a plenty fine strategy. I would suggest trying a few
variations of the email, using a tool such as QuickMail (which allows you to
import lists and schedule and do A-B), and making sure to send during the
right times, for us that was Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for our prospects.
Also, I would consider using Upwork to find a contractor to help with this
process, we found a girl that collected lead emails for $4/hr. Hope this
helps.

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auganov
You want to minimize the effort it takes one to reply.

1\. An information-dense subject line 2\. Tell them a soft compliment 3\. A
sentence about yourself 4\. Say what you're up to 5\. A very very very simple
ask, don't make them think. Once they respond you can send a follow-up, at
this point pretty much everybody will feel obliged to respond.

My experience is only with cold emailing VCs, the reply rate was around 40%
(including cordial rejections). CTR was over 70% (had a link in there).

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JSeymourATL
> My idea is to cold email people and ask for their time.

Understand that emails are easy to ignore. The Old School phone call is still
a remarkable tool. They need to HEAR your voice. I'm a real guy, reaching out
on a professional networking basis. I promise to be brief. Your advice and
perspective would mean a lot.

Have some rock-solid questions ready. And be sure to ask if there's anyway you
could return the favor and help them?

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matt_the_bass
I find that tradeshows and conferences are good for this. Just be honest and
upfront with people what your intent is. And stay out of the way if one of
their customers show up.

