Why cold email is not a numbers game

Last week, a founder messaged me... "I've sent 200 cold emails to VCs. Zero responses. What am I doing wrong?" I felt the pain. Because here's what nobody tells you about cold emailing VCs... Your response rate isn't 1%. It's 0.001%. Even with solid traction. Even with growing MRR. Even with a killer pitch deck. Why? Let me share what I learned after 4+ years of helping founders with fundraising. VCs get 500+ cold emails per week. Your perfectly crafted email? It's competing with 499 others. And most partners don't even check their inbox – their associates do. But here's the real kicker... The founders getting funded aren't playing the cold email lottery. They're using a completely different playbook. Instead of spraying emails everywhere, do this... 1. Find 3 competitors who recently raised 2. Look up their investors on LinkedIn 3. Identify mutual connections 4. Ask for warm intros through those connections Don't pitch. Help first. Share a market insight their portfolio company could use. Point out a hiring opportunity for their team. Send a competitive analysis they'd find valuable. Build the relationship before you need it. When you DO send that email (warm or cold), structure it like this... Line 1: Traction metric that makes them lean in Line 2: Why this matters NOW (market timing) Line 3: Who else is interested (create FOMO) Example: "We hit $50K MRR in 6 months. With AI regulations coming in Q3, we're positioned to capture the compliance market. Currently in discussions with [Notable Angel]." Most VCs won't invest if they've already backed your competitor. So stop pitching to investors who funded your competition. You're just giving them free market intelligence. Instead, find VCs who... -Missed out on your competitors' rounds -Have portfolio companies that could benefit from your solution -Just raised a new fund (they NEED to deploy capital) Remember, Fundraising isn't about sending more emails. It's about sending the RIGHT emails to the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time. What's your biggest fundraising challenge right now? --- Hi, I am Nidhi Kaushal, founder and CEO of Team Flexbox. We offer end-to-end fundraising support to founders at all stages from pre-seed to IPO. If you're struggling with investor outreach, sometimes you just need fresh eyes on your approach. Check the link in my bio or DM me to book a 1:1 call. Let's get you investor-ready!

Cold Email Is a Currency, and Most Don’t Realize It Yet. Every cold email you send has a real cost—your time, effort, and reputation. Yet, many treat it like an unlimited free resource. Here’s the reality: 1. Attention is scarce. Decision-makers receive hundreds of emails daily. If yours isn’t relevant or valuable, it’s ignored. 2. Cold Email Reputation = Credit Score. If you send low-quality, irrelevant emails, your reputation drops. Poor engagement affects deliverability, domain health, and future response rates—just like a bad credit score limits borrowing power. 3. Quality beats quantity. Sending 1,000 emails with a 0.5% response rate isn’t as effective as sending 100 well-targeted emails with a 10% response rate. 4. Every email is an investment. Well-crafted cold emails lead to pipeline and revenue. Generic outreach leads to spam folders. There are three components to getting your cold emails right—right to the inbox: 1. Audience → Relevant Audience Over Large Audience 2. Content → Precisely Accurate Content Over Vague, Generic Content 3. Infrastructure Setup → Cold emails to cold prospects are very different from transactional emails sent to a subscribed audience. They require a completely different setup and best practices to ensure they reach the inbox. For example:  You can’t be blasting 1,000 emails a day from a single mailbox and expect inbox placement. You need to get strategic with content, build purpose behind the outreach, and keep the volume per mailbox per day under 50, but not more than 100. Cold email is a currency that must be spent wisely. If cold email were money, would you spray it in the street, or would you hand it over to the right person with purpose?

When was the last time you actually responded to a cold pitch? Think about it. What made you open that message? What convinced you to reply? Chances are, you already knew who was reaching out. Or at least heard of them before. Here's what some B2B teams get wrong about outreach today: They treat it as a numbers game, while buyers treat it as a trust game. Your prospects get dozens of "quick chat" requests every week. And they ignore most of them because they can't tell one pitch from another. But they do pay attention to people who: → Share valuable insights consistently → Build authority in their space → Show genuine interest in solving problems That's why the most effective outreach today starts long before the first message. The winning approach? Create → Nurture → Activate 1. Build awareness through your personal brand. Share insights, collaborate with other experts, and let your expertise speak louder than your pitch. 2. Amplify your presence. Strategic ads, targeted content, meaningful collaborations. Keep showing up where your buyers are. 3. Only then reach out to those who already know your value. The ones who've been taking mental notes of your content. The ones who've seen you walk the talk. Is it slower than mass outreach? Yes. Does it work better? Also yes. Because trust isn't built in a cold message. It's earned through consistency. What's your take? Have you noticed your response rate changing based on how familiar you are with the sender?

I analyzed 1,000+ cold emails. Here's what actually works: Forget gurus and "secret formulas." The best cold email messaging comes from understanding your buyers and practicing relentlessly. 5 key elements of high-performing cold emails: 1. Personalization that shows you've done your homework • Reference a recent company announcement or LinkedIn post • Mention a specific challenge in their industry 2. Clear value proposition in the first 2 sentences • What specific problem can you solve? • Quantify the potential impact (e.g., "10% revenue boost in 30 days") 3. Social proof tailored to their situation • Name-drop similar companies you've helped • Share a relevant case study snippet 4. Clear, low-friction call-to-action • Avoid asking for call or demo in the first email • Offer a valuable resource (no strings attached) 5. Brevity and scannable format • 3-5 short paragraphs max • Use bullet points for easy reading The real "secret"? Continuous testing and improvement. No AI or guru can replace hands-on experience with your specific audience. #ColdEmailing #InsideSales #B2BSales #SaaSales

When someone tells me, “Cold email is dead”, what they actually mean is, “I wasn’t competent enough to make it work.” The real issue is: - Most people testing cold email have no idea what they’re doing - They don’t know how to write - They don’t know how to warm up - They don’t know how to target - And they quit after one bad try What separates winners from losers in outbound is what they do after it doesn’t work the first time. Losers quit and blame the channel. Winners retest, refine, and reinvent their approach — until it performs. Because here’s the hard truth: Cold email is no longer plug-and-play. You can’t just: - Buy a list - Paste a template - Hit send…and expect meetings to roll in. Here are 4 steps to write a good cold email: 1. Start with buyer psychology Most people start with: “What should I say?” Wrong question. Start with: What is this person going through right now? What would make them stop scrolling, open this email, and feel like it was written just for them? Every message should reflect a real signal ie something you’ve observed about the company, role, team, or market that justifies your interruption. 2. Build custom targeting If your “list” is just a CSV with job titles and company names, you’re already behind. Great outbound starts before the email is written. It starts with intentional list building. → Are these companies in a buying window? → Have they shown a signal of pain? → Can you infer friction from hiring trends, funding, tech stack, or org shifts? That’s how winners build a list. Precision > Volume. 3. Match relevance to pain Personalization is not just saying “Hey {{first_name}}, saw you went to [school].” What you need is relevance — context that proves you understand a pain the buyer might be experiencing right now. For example: “Noticed you just rolled out HubSpot and are hiring a RevOps lead. That shift often breaks lead routing. We’ve helped a similar team boost SQLs by 32% in 30 days — want me to walk you through it?” 4. Test methodically, not emotionally This is where most reps fail. They send 50 emails. Don’t get replies. And decide, “Cold email doesn’t work.” That’s like going to the gym for two weeks, not seeing abs, and blaming the dumbbells. You need to treat cold email like a product launch. - Test copy frameworks (pain > proof > CTA, insight > tease > question) - Test value props by segment - Test CTAs (soft asks vs. direct) - Monitor deliverability, not just reply rates Winners analyze and iterate. Losers panic and pivot to LinkedIn DMs with the same broken messaging. ——— When people say cold email is dead, what they really mean is: They gave up too early. Cold email still works but it’s no longer a one-size-fits-all growth hack. It’s a channel that requires craft, context, and commitment. The bar is higher now. But the ROI is still massive if you’re willing to do the work.

The biggest myth in cold email is that you need more leads. Truth is, you're probably burning through perfectly good prospects with broken systems. Most agencies are operating with: • Zero visibility into deliverability issues • No pre-send quality checks • Limited testing capabilities (A/B at best) • Manual reply management across 10+ inboxes • Guesswork instead of data Each blind spot costs you meetings. Each missed optimization loses revenue. Each manual process steals hours from selling. I've seen agencies sending 50,000 emails monthly with 0.5% reply rates, convinced they need "better leads." Meanwhile, their emails are landing in spam. Their authentication is broken. Their sequences score 40/100 on basic deliverability checks. Bad systems = Bad deliverability Bad deliverability = Invisible emails Invisible emails = Zero pipeline Instead of buying more data, fix your foundation first. This is why smart agencies are switching to platforms that tell them BEFORE they hit send. And this is where Saleshandy changes everything: ☑︎ Sequence Score that flags issues before you burn domains ☑︎ A-Z testing (26 variants) to find what actually works ☑︎ Built-in 700M+ lead database at no extra cost ☑︎ Unlimited clients without per-seat pricing ☑︎ AI-powered warmup that actually maintains reputation Stop sending emails into the void. Start knowing your score before you send. Over to you: Are you still guessing why your emails aren't getting replies?

Is Sales Still a Numbers Game? Hell No. If you're still teaching your sales team that "more calls = more revenue", you're not just outdated, you're hurting your pipeline. Let me break it to you: Sales isn’t a numbers game anymore. It’s a precision game. 100 cold calls a day won’t save you if your pitch sucks. 200 emails a day won’t convert if you’re sending cookie-cutter garbage. Buyers are smarter. They've read the same sales books you have. They’ve heard "just following up one last time..." 147 times this week. And let’s be honest, in IT services, where contracts are complex, solutions are custom, and relationships drive deals... You think a volume game is going to cut it? Wrong. What actually moves the needle now? - Targeted outreach. - Deep industry insight. - Trust-based engagement. - Relevance over repetition. Every. Damn. Time. I’d rather have 5 laser-focused convos a week than 50 blind dials to random leads. It’s 2025. AI is writing emails. Automation is setting meetings. But closing still takes strategy. And most reps don’t have one. #Sales #ITServices #AccountExecutive #SalesStrategy #B2B #TechSales #ModernSelling

Sales is no(longer)t a numbers game. We can’t out-compete automation and merge tags and AI when it comes to generating messages. There’s an app (actually, thousands) for that. Technologies allow us to mass produce pseudo-personalized messages at an overwhelming scale, and there’s a low barrier to entry. That’s why we’re all getting so many repetitive and just-this-side-of-relevant cold pitches in our inboxes. If numbers aren’t queen anymore, what is? In terms of breaking through the noise, WHAT YOU SAY and WHO YOU SAY IT TO Is more important than how many times you say it. A lot of people want to stick their sales process in the microwave and ding! Take it out two minutes later, full of warm leads. Quick and convenient? Sure. Often ineffective and expensive, especially for small business owners? Yep. Sales is a customisation and personalisation, thoughtfulness and intention game now.