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Great post. I wanted to pass along the tool rapportive, which is a built-in email address validator for Gmail with social feeds. It's a killer free tool that no sales team should omit. Chrome web store link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rapportive/hihakjf...
Certainly agree, but depending upon your market it can be very difficult to... "Find companies that fit the bill" ...especially when you're more going for B2C or B2SmallerWebsites. Really for me that's the challenge that brings out the need for advertising and such - to even find these customers.
You could certainly use advertising to collect email addresses, and then call those people to figure out what they want. The reason I don't like that as much is it puts another layer of specialized skill between you and your prospects. You have to dump a bunch of money and time in to learning how to write correctly targeted ads that convert before you even know who you're trying to convert, or what they care about. That's a tough problem to get around for most people.
Am wondering if it is okay to cold email potential clients? Isnt that considered as spam?
There's always something 'wrong' about tech people wanting to meet face to face. What is the point of the telecommunication tech YOU created? Did you not do a good job? There's a better approach than what the blog outlines - imagine that you have infinite wealth and begin to build what you personally want. In most cases you will not be able to create the whole thing, but you can tackle a piece of the problem. Example…
The problem with the thought experiment is that it assumes infinite knowledge. It's very hard to imagine what things would actually be like if you had a trillion dollars and you wanted to build a flying car. You can definitely come up with things that you think are likely, but I've found that often times you know much less than you think, and the actual problems are MUCH less obvious than they seem.
It's kind of like a non-engineer imagining what problems he would run in to if he had to build the Golden Gate Bridge including design and construction. You can definitely foresee certain things, e.g. you need a lot of materials, pens and paper, but there's still a ton of uncertainty and real gritty problems that only come out when you're in the thick of things.
There's always something 'wrong' about tech people wanting to meet face to face. What is the point of the telecommunication tech YOU created? Did you not do a good job? There's a better approach than what the blog outlines - imagine that you have infinite wealth and begin to build what you personally want. In most cases you will not be able to create the whole thing, but you can tackle a piece of the problem. Example…
You can definitely talk over the phone. But real business seems to happen more quickly in person, even today. Email certainly doesn't cut it. The problem with the thought experiment is that it assumes infinite knowledge. It's very hard to imagine what things would actually be like if you had a trillion dollars and you wanted to build a flying car. You can definitely come up with things that you think are likely, but…
Cost and time tradeoff and also what you get for closing and how often you have to close a sale.
You can send out more emails than you can postal letters.
You can do more postal letters than you can phone calls.
You can do more phone calls than you can in person cold calls. All depends of course on the product you are selling and the situation.
In any case going for the low hanging fruit to start (say sending an email to the IT manager at a university) doesn't mean you can't send a postal letter or a phone call or try to setup a meeting in person. But it makes sense in many (not all, many) situations to start with the easiest thing you can do and work your way up.
Example: I just closed a deal with a guy who has a reality show and all it took was an email which he replied to because he was interested in what I was selling. That's only one example I've obviously done the other things as well.
Lastly, negotiating in person also has it's drawbacks. Personally I prefer to negotiate by email in most cases. Depending on the other party and your own skills an in person does't always work out the way you would like.
Just another perspective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can definitely talk over the phone. But real business seems to happen more quickly in person, even today. Email certainly doesn't cut it. The problem with the thought experiment is that it assumes infinite knowledge. It's very hard to imagine what things would actually be like if you had a trillion dollars and you wanted to build a flying car. You can definitely come up with things that you think are likely, but…
"But real business seems to happen more quickly in person, even today." Cost and time tradeoff and also what you get for closing and how often you have to close a sale. You can send out more emails than you can postal letters. You can do more postal letters than you can phone calls. You can do more phone calls than you can in person cold calls. All depends of course on the product you are selling and the situation. I…
I think email is helpful for starting conversations (via cold emails). But what I was trying to say is that at some point you need to actually start talking to people on the phone or in person. You can only learn so much from watching your Google Analytics graphs.
Appreciate the perspective, thanks for allowing me to clarify.
Am wondering if it is okay to cold email potential clients? Isnt that considered as spam?
Yes definitely. In general as long as you're not mass emailing 1000s of potential prospects, you target specific people that you think would be interested, you tailor each email individually to them, and you're respectful and up-front about what you're doing things work out fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes definitely. In general as long as you're not mass emailing 1000s of potential prospects, you target specific people that you think would be interested, you tailor each email individually to them, and you're respectful and up-front about what you're doing things work out fine.
Also be sure to abide by CAM SPAM Act. Must include links to unsubscribe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also be sure to abide by CAM SPAM Act. Must include links to unsubscribe.
heh... But links to unsubscribe makes no sense when you're not sending a regular newsletter. You're just emailing them once. Plus it removes the sense of any personalization.. "Click here to unsubscribe? But I thought you were sending me a personal email!"
Any unsolicited mail must have an unsubscribe link, even if you just email them once.
The most effective way to learn is to go out and find the people who should be using the product, and talk to them.