Cold emailing is just as bad for you and the recipient. Even if you have the perfect list, the attempt to sell in a cold email is rarely going to be effective. You're better off curating the list to the top prospects, find a mutual connection on LinkedIn or even just cold-invite them on LinkedIn,. Worst case scenario, send a 'permission pass' email where you simply gauge interest and let them know you won't be emailing them again if there's no interest. Keep it very short, non-commercial with just solid information/links to web, and an easy to reply yes/no answer.

Cold emailing can be productive. It works in a number of ways for sales, marketing, joint ventures, pr and more. Just don't expect it to close any deals immediately from it.

The critical points to improve your emails:
1. Who you are targeting - your ideal client (title, firm, revenue size, location, etc.) the more time you spend getting this right the better performance.
2. The volume - how many people are in your sweet spot.
3. The cadence - how often you keep contacting them. Don't expect 1 email to do much. 3-4 follow up emails is ideal.
4. The messaging - If it is all about you than you should look at writing emails about them and their needs first.

I have seen cold emails average 10% response rate - people saying yes, no or go to hell. Up to 40% for great messaging, spot on contacts and the right cadence.

As for "conversion" there are many factors that will impact you. If your product is brand new with no social proof than your responses will be much lower than an established firm.

Best of luck.

Yes, it's definitely a numbers game.

It's also an attempt to take a shortcut, and those usually don't work very well. The fact that your buddy has luck with it can be down to all kinds of things, hard to say why it works for him and not for you.

But here's what I would do, IF I'd try cold emailing:

Use it as a way to start a conversation, not as an attempt to get a sale. I'd never ever buy something from someone who tries to sell me something before he even asks me if I'm interested.

Because if he doesn't ask about MY interest, the logical conclusion is that the sale is only in HIS interest, and then the door closes. In other words: cold emailing with an offer is an instant and massive trust-breaker.

Imagine you meet a nice girl... do you walk up to her and tell her to kiss you? Of course not. You'd get kicked in the face. But if you have a chat, hang out with her, go to the movies, spend time and have fun... it might just turn out she digs you. Customer relationships are no different.

So focus on opening a conversation and building the relationship.

To answer your questions:

1. Cold email is a game of numbers however you should know your limits. You know why you didn't convert? Because maybe all of your emails got delivered into SPAM folder. Nobody saw them. You can't send 400 emails just like that. If you want more hands-on advice just send me your cold email and I'll give you feedback on it. I do it on YouTube as well :)

2. I can tell you my stats. 80 emails delivered, 14 replies, 10 positive, 8 discovery calls, 6 proposals, 3 clients - all that in 14 days from the day I send emails. And each client is worth around 5 figures.

Cold email does work. But most people don't know how to write them and what are the logistical steps around it.

If you need advice let me know.

Jan

Just consider these statistics: The average cold email response rate is 1%, which means for every 100 people you email, you are getting through to one person (and probably bothering the other 99).
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath