Ask HN: Anyone have success using cold e-mails for B2B sales?

[shafqat]

Obviously it depends on the price point, product, target customer etc etc, but I was interested in hearing from startups here that sell software online to business/enterprise customers.

Has cold e-mailing worked at all? Cold-calling? Of course, nothing is as good as a qualified, warm lead, but is it worth spending time on e-mail as a means to getting a meeting?

[mixmax]

I ran a company some years ago where development of our product was delayed, so our investor got anxious. My co-founder knew a guy that ran a one-person telemarketing shop and suggested we give it a try.

His task seemed insurmountable: Cold-call people in the advertising industry, where people constantly call with new products, and get them to buy ads on a non-existing new network with an unproven hardware technology that he couldn't show to the potential customers because it hadn't been produced yet. All he had was a few powerpoint slides.

Within a month he had contracts for a few months paychecks, and our investor was reassured.

So the morale of the story is "Yes, coldcaling definitely works, but it's a pretty difficult artform". Me or my co-founder would never have been able to pull it off. It's about trust and building a personal relationship.

[shafqat → mixmax]

Great story - are you able to share details or contact info about your telemarketing star? Would love to hear more (shafqat at newscred dot com).

[mixmax → shafqat]

I haven't talked to him for two years or so, but I'm sure he would love the business.

Unfortunately he only speaks Danish, which probably makes him less valuable to you :-(

[SwellJoe]

I haven't been doing cold email...but it's pretty close. I have Google alerts setup for the names of our Open Source products. When a hosting provider is using Webmin, and advertises that fact, I send them an email offering to set them up as a Virtualmin reseller, and listing a few of the benefits they'd get from offering Virtualmin GPL, with the option to upgrade at any time to Virtualmin Professional. I've only done this four times, so far (still refining the reseller experience, so moving slowly), but it's been very effective. At least a 50% success rate (and I wouldn't rule out the other two signing on later, as neither was negative on the idea...just hesitant to change or commit to anything).

[markessien]

The smaller your niche, the more receptive your potential customers are going to be to your emails.

[p47]

I worked once in company (adv agency) for which it was common tactic. But market was ready for such practice (low availability of service, and large audience of potential clients).

It depends on Your product. If it's innovative give them chance to know You. I agree with prakash be short, and show them in short why it may become useful. I would add that You will hear "no" plenty of time. Don't discourage. Customer don't pay attention, they have enough their problems.

best

[Major_Grooves]

Not a start-up, but still a B2B database (then later internet) company. We were an "early adopter" of email marketing when we started. It used to be fantastic - there wasn't much spam in them early days so people were quite receptive to the emails and we would make lots of money from them. Hey - they were free to send and they make you lots of money - what can go wrong with that?

Well, unfortunately that formula is a bit addictive and it gets to the point where if sales are low, the top management start demanding to know how many thousands of emails we have sent that week. What they don't realise is that the days of just email marketing your way to success is over - email marketing is now spamming and people hate it.

Nevertheless, send 10,000 emails and we might make one sale which is still worth a few thousand so how can we resist?!

What isn't appreciated is that this strategy is overall damaging the company. People now associate us with "those people that send spam". It was only relatively recently that we moved to a proper email marketing service with an opt-out option and as a result I managed to get us removed from a significant email filter black list (which, ironically, we subscribe to).

Anyway, do I have any useful advice? Check the legality re: data retention etc. I'm not actually 100% on the rules but I do think they differ between the US and Europe for example, which I think might depend on where you are based, rather than where you are sending to.

Email marketing /should/ be opt-in, not opt-out. However, I guess giving your business card must be considered opting in as I always seem to start getting more marketing emails after a conference. It's ok though as they all do it properly and have an opt-out link in the email...

Just sending marketing is a bit of a fail imho. Nobody thinks to themselves "ooh I can sign up here to receive marketing material!" Have an interesting newsletter talking about your industry, or publish white papers and thought leadership articles. Be subtle and demonstrate your expertise. That is much more powerful than some email saying "buy this!"

Good example: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx

If you do just want to talk to someone about a specific product, do as the poster below says, keep it short and specific. In that sense make it personal too.

HTH.

[prakash]

If there are companies you feel you have to reach out and don't know anyone that can introduce you, call or email.

Keep it short, reference why your product would be useful, ask who you should get in touch with for a call/meeting.

[donniefitz2]

I tried it on a small scale and it totally failed for me. Actual cold calls, if targeted correctly, can work and did drum up some good leads, but it's tedious.