Why Cold Email Volume Doesn't Fix Poor Lists

Oh… just back off with the “send more” cold outreach advice! It’s exhausting. You know… you can destroy a team’s pipeline with this nonsense. And please, please, stop telling sellers that more volume is always the answer. “1,000 emails a day.” Sure… straight to spam. “Buy a massive list and blast it.” Uh-huh… enjoy your bounce rate. “Just keep sending, it’s a numbers game.” Right… until your domain gets blacklisted. I’ve sent over 100 million cold emails in my career — and here’s the truth: Only a handful truly crushed it. And every one of those winners was sent to a small, targeted list… …at the right time, with the right message. Most of the people posting “just send more” aren’t even running outbound. They’re marketers. Or “thought leaders.” They don’t actually live with the consequences of the bad advice they’re romanticizing. Their hype convinces companies that outbound is just brute force — and that if you’re not cranking ridiculous daily volume, you’re not productive. Reality check: Yes, there are days you send a lot. But most winning days are a mix of: • Building the right list • Personalizing your message • Protecting deliverability • Following up at the right time You know… actual outbound work. So please, before you post the next “volume solves everything” fairy tale — Check if you’ve actually done the work yourself. And maybe, just maybe, stop making sellers feel like they’re underperforming… when they’re actually doing the job the right way.

If your cold email strategy is “send more,” you’ve already lost. I see it all the time: “Let’s blast 50,000 contacts this month.” Cool. And how many of those actually reply? Probably none. Because if your list is garbage, all you’re doing is scaling failure... You don’t need more volume. You need more signal. Let me break this down. Most people build lists like this: → Filter by job title → Choose a country → Pick an industry → Export a CSV and call it “targeted outreach” Then they wonder why their domain is cooked & replies are dead. Here’s what we do instead with A-Leads: ✅ Buying intent We only send to companies showing real interest. Bombora signals are baked into the platform. ✅ Trigger events We look for funding, job changes, tech installs, and hiring spikes. If there’s no movement, there’s no momentum. ✅ Deliverability built-in We match sender → recipient ESP (Gmail-to-Gmail, Outlook-to-Outlook). Inbox placement is part of the strategy, not an afterthought. ✅ Verified, enriched, real-time contacts We don’t pay for catch-alls. We don’t waste time cleaning outdated lists. ✅ Export in 1 click Sheets → Segment → Reply Takes minutes. Smaller lists. Higher intent. Actual replies. Actual meetings. Actual deals closed. Cold email isn’t dead. But "spray-and-pray" should be buried six feet deep.

Cold email fails when your inputs are broken. Not the tool. Not the channel. Your process. Here’s what you need to audit: 1. List quality → Are you targeting based on pain, not job title? → Are they qualified to even buy your offer? → Have you excluded dead ICPs? 2. Deliverability → Domain age 6+ months? → SPF, DKIM, DMARC in place? → Sending <30 emails/day per inbox? 3. Offer → “More leads” is not a compelling outcome. → What’s your real value prop? → Can you guarantee something clear? 4. Copy → 70 words or less. → 5th grade reading level. → No fluff, no intros, 1 CTA. Most campaigns flop because 1 of these 4 is off. Fix the right variable, then scale. Follow me Ben Rasmussen for more content like this.

Most people blame cold outreach. But it’s their bad message or list that kills results. I hear “cold outreach doesn’t work for me” all the time. But here’s what that really means: → The message didn’t land → Emails went to spam → The list was weak → The wrong people got picked → Gave up too soon → Couldn’t get all these right at the same time That’s the whole story. No secret sauce. No magic trick. People want cold outreach to be rocket science. Some want it to be a push-button fix. Both are wrong. Cold outreach is a simple game: - Do the boring things right - Repeat them until they work - Don’t quit early Most give up before they ever get good at the basics. I’ve seen this over and over. The people who win are the ones who stick with it, fix what’s broken, and keep going. If your cold outreach is failing, check your fundamentals first. The offer, the list, the timing, the message, and your patience. When you get those right, results follow. Thoughts ? #Coldoutreach #Linkedin