Killing the Cold Email

The email in my LinkedIn inbox is titled: Re: Killing the Cold Call. The opening line reads, “I hate cold calling as much as you do.”

Know this: There is no difference between a cold call and a cold email. You still don’t know the person you are contacting. That person still isn’t waiting for you to communicate with them. And you still have to ask for some commitment to engage with them.

There is a reason this person hates cold calling: Her approach is terrible (even though she probably didn’t choose this approach herself). There is a reason that we delete emails like this one.

First, the person sending this to me made no attempt to personalize the email. She sent me a form letter that she copied and pasted. There was nothing here that even hinted that she knows enough about me to create value. How again is this better than a cold call?

Second, had she Googled my name and the words “cold calling,” she might have discovered I wrote an eBook titled, How to Crush It, Kill It, and Master Cold Calling Now. I have a rather strong opinion about the value of using the telephone. I might be someone with an exceedingly low lead score or probability of buying her product.

Finally, had she clicked the contact box on my LinkedIn profile, she would have found my phone number. And if she really wanted my attention, she would have called.

It is strange how few salespeople call me. This one group that sells to speakers called me. They used a terrible, non-value-creating script, but at least they tried. InsideSales.com also called me (I like that they practice what they preach, even though I am a terrible prospect for them, and they should remove me from their list). Other than that, no one calls. Instead, they just send terrible emails, most of which Google recognizes as spam, the rest of which I delete.

You might want to think about getting good at using the phone. You will be a very small class of your own, and you’ll absolutely get more appointments faster than any of your competitors who are afraid of the phone.

Software isn’t killing the cold call. Lots of us are still wildly successful using it. The only thing dying is your sales (and maybe your business).

The silence you still hear is still the sound of your phone not ringing. And staring at your inbox isn’t going to win you new deals either. Stop looking for easier answers and do the work you need to do to succeed.