By Fernando Berrocal

‍

Cold outreach is a process wherein a business connects with potential customers to promote its goods and/or services.  Although there is a huge pool of possible “leads” when it comes to this type of outreach, it’s more difficult to succeed–especially when compared with warm outreach, where a previous connection to the potential customer exists (often developed through networking or events). 

‍

‍

To be clear, however, not every business can benefit from cold outreach–and that's alright. In this post, we will go over how to enhance your startup through cold outreach and other related techniques. There are methods that can help reduce the amount of friction founders, co-founders, and startup teams encounter when engaging in this form of business development. In the best-case scenario, these workarounds can eventually help your business thrive beyond your wildest expectations.

‍

Cold outreach can be quite a rollercoaster, whether you're calling or emailing potential clients using the business-to-consumer (B2C) approach. Keep in mind that nobody likes to be disturbed. When reaching out, a startup could catastrophize about how the other person is responding, worrying that they are angering them. While this is occasionally the case, most of the time some people are just very occupied and prefer to be reached at a later time. This occurs frequently when it comes to business-to-business (B2B) contact.  B2B means that a transaction is conducted between businesses, such as a relationship between a wholesaler and retailer.

‍

‍

Remember: this is an unpredictable process that varies from one instant to the next. In the span of one sentence, you may go from being verbally attacked to closing a significant client contract. Many firms are discouraged by this instability–which is understandable. As humans, we are not built to seek out greater suffering than what we are already experiencing, resulting in negative reinforcement of the activity. This may subsequently generate a reluctance to conducting follow-up cold outreach activities (to generate favorable answers). In light of this, several business owners are confused about the ideal number of follow-ups that would provide results while preventing you from getting cut off by an angry potential customer. 

‍

So, what constitutes appropriate follow-up? How frequently can you extend out without getting in the way? And how frequently can you check in?

‍

According to sales industry statistics, following up with a lead 8–10 times is the most successful cold outreach strategy because that is when most deals get completed. Following that, you should regard them as a dead lead. Despite these results, business owners conduct three follow-ups on average. The advice and behavior of corporations differ from one another depending on their core businesses. How can your startup overcome this and accomplish its main objectives? If you can't handle the tension that comes with it, outsourcing this procedure will remove the mental impediments. We shall discuss some approaches to doing this in the following paragraphs.

‍

‍

• Hire someone to handle this specific job. 

‍

You can either recruit a full-time employee or a business contractor to entirely remove the discomfort associated with thinking about how to do your cold outreach. When hiring someone for this position, make sure they are capable, can work under pressure, and are very communicative individuals. Ask one of them to make calls to arrange meetings for you with potential clients. By doing this, you only interact with clients who are interested in discussing your services.

‍

• Pursue email marketing.

‍

By automating online marketing campaigns with email marketing, you can easily detach yourself from the situation–and delegate the choice of how frequently to follow up to someone else. Depending on the clients you have, you can automate all ten of the follow-up emails that are advised to be sent. This method can spare you distress, and provide the opportunity to step back from the situation.  This way, your feelings won't influence your choice regarding the frequency of outreach. A typical example of an automated email schedule can be the following case: Sending the first email on day one, the second on day three, and the third on day five (or day six). The fourth email before the second week will then follow (between days 11 to 14 from the first email sent). The subsequent emails - going from email five, email six, and so on up to email ten - should be sent one week apart from one another, until the initiative concludes at email number ten.

‍

In hindsight, all of these techniques mentioned above can help you create a sense of urgency at the beginning–and a sense of scarcity towards the end of the email campaign. Do not rely on overly emotional, copy-and-paste emails.  Despite your intentions to increase the feeling of scarcity toward the conclusion of the marketing campaign, this will not help.  Wish potential clients well, and tell them exactly where to reach you–it should be enough!  Most importantly, never forget to be courteous and kind.  Remember: not every business should use cold outreach, and that's perfectly okay. These workarounds can let your business expand without putting you through stressful direct conflict with your potential clients.

‍

Ready to bring your startup to the next level? Apply to MassLight’s next batch. MassLight supplies capital and a dedicated tech team. We take equity in return. Have questions? Refer to our FAQ page.

‍