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I don't understand how cold emails can work. I get a handful of cold emails with offers ranging from website/app developer (I'm a SWE myself, and never indicat
by skwee357 2y ago
I don't understand how cold emails can work.
I get a handful of cold emails with offers ranging from website/app developer (I'm a SWE myself, and never indicated that I need a website/app) all the way to "link exchange" (I have a SWE blog) with completely irrelevant content. I remember the most absurd one was when I got an email starting "I really liked your article about underwater welding" which was a response to my article about SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. I mean, even GPT wouldn't hallucinate that hard.
So the majority of cold emails are pure garbage, and this logically leads to the realization that good cold emails are ones that are very personal and targeted. Writing personal and targeted emails take a lot of time, and my understanding that cold emails are a number's game, hence you can't really personalize (beyond addressing the recipient by their name, which even this many fail to do).
So how cold emailing still a thing?
- guappa 2y agoMy quess is that people need to justify their salary.
- liontwist 2y agoSales is primarily commission. There is no time to waste.
- guappa 2y agoYeah and capitalism works and private companies are very efficient -_-'
- liontwist 2y agoWhat incentive structure have you found that makes your sales organization more efficient? What metrics indicate to you they are wasting time on cold emails that don’t product results?
- guappa 2y agoIf they're doing that they're not targeting people who would actually buy what they sell.
- liontwist 2y agoHave you ever sold anything? It’s a very unique job because so much of it is rejection and there is almost a direct correlation between time and effort and outcome. The book “the millionaire next door” (terrible title) analyzes generational wealth in the Us. And they identify sales as a useful experience for youth to gain confidence in their careers, for this reason. The word you are looking for is lead generation. Knowing what customers are interested is a few stages of hard work down the pipeline.
- guappa 2y agoI doubt "building character through rejections" makes any business sense.
- elorant 2y agoCold emails are based on the premise that you have a large targeted list of B2B emails. You've scraped for example a whole category of from Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever. Then you cold email them. You aim for a conversion between 1% and 3%, and if you send thousands of emails it soon becomes very lucrative.
- FooBarWidget 2y agoMy hunch is that people like you and the HN crowd are the outliers. The majority of people don't actually hate cold emails or what we perceive as "spam". For example my wife and mother love advertisements for discount deals. They actively look for them, and object when I try to clean their computer/mailbox from that sort of stuff. The last time I said this on HN, I received sarcastic mocking replies, which just prove the point that it's the HN crowd that's "weird".
- skwee357 2y agoI actually think that you are correct. I employ ad blockers, mass delete cold emails, and intentionally do not click "sponsored" links (even if they happen to be the one I really need). And yet, I had to "teach" my wife to avoid clicking ad links, and install ad blocker on her computer. And I assume most "regular" people are like this. And "our" mentality, at least in my case, makes it hard to run a business as I see cold emails and ads as scam.
- handfuloflight 2y ago> and intentionally do not click "sponsored" links (even if they happen to be the one I really need). But why? You don't feel compelled at all to contribute towards the financial health of the free product you're consuming? With just a tap of your finger?
- handfuloflight 2y agoI don't mind cold emails as long as they are relevant. Bonus points if I am going to learn something new beyond the pitch.
- liontwist 2y agoI think these things always come down to marketing preference, rather than “just built different”. People here spend an exceptional amount of time reading PR for startups and technology products in the form of “tech news”.
- liontwist 2y agoI throw away all the spam in my (home) mailbox without opening it. Then one day I start worrying that my tree is a little unkempt and I get a letter about a tree trimming service. Suddenly I’m at least willing to give it a read. Cold emails aren’t trying to persuade people who aren’t interested, they are trying to catch people at a time where they need that thing. Recruiters want to find people having a bad week at works Also when you run a business you often care less about spending money and more about solving problems and saving time. So a sales contact offering a solution is saving you the hassle of finding a vendor.
- billyp-rva 2y agoIf there were clearly better alternatives, then cold emailing wouldn't be a thing. Marketing is hard.