As a CEO of a small business, I am inundated with over a few dozen cold outreach attempts daily. This isn’t just my experience right?
My day often starts with a barrage of cold calls, many of which are from spammers. LinkedIn has become a hub for BDRs sending long-winded pitches, and my Gmail inboxes, both primary and office, are overflowing with sales-driven emails. It’s overwhelming and frankly, quite irritating.
I once experimented with gated com, which asked cold emailers to donate a few bucks to my chosen charity for a response. Sadly, very few took this step, showing a lack of seriousness. Downside of using app was that even my known contacts were getting these automated messages.
Now, I’m exploring several options to manage this situation better:
- Creating extensive filters in Gmail to automatically direct such emails to spam (especially using spam words like “book with me”, “just following up”, “wanted to reach out to you”, etc)
- Considering sanebox, which smartly categorizes emails and identifies cold outreach emails.
- Looking into marketplaces like fozzie io and leaderpro, where individuals would compensate for my time. I’m thinking of setting a rate, say $200 for a 30-minute slot, and directing all cold outreach to these platforms. So alteast these spammers pay for my time at the very least and i could then take them serious (b2b meetings are $1000 upwards, so why not i get my share lol)
- Still left with cold calls and linkedin though
Thoughts or strategies on managing this menace?
So I’m a commercial real estate broker and 80% of my business is from cold calls. I punch in every digit of the person’s number and I’ve spent at least a few minutes reviewing their portfolio before calling and have data and pictures of their properties on my screen when they answer their phone. If someone answers the call I don’t immediately plunge into a monologue about who I am what I do blah blah blah.
So, that being said, what do you think would convince YOU that a caller could actually provide value to you? What, if anything, would make you consider working with this salesperson?
Edit: love the idea of paying to earn your time.
For me trying to “build rapport” is a big no. If you are aware that I am looking for a realtor, go straight to the point. Do you already have found one? Yes / No. Move on.
man, if you are using auto dialer and dialing like wolf street, i would loathe the second i hear you on call. That being said, if you were to invite me for lunch, or send me gifts/gift cards or even pay for my time or to my fav charity, i do feel more obligated to get back to you. by the way, seeing this strategy by big companies now, paying for your time. seen some friends doing it on fozzie io, leaderpro and pitchfire
As a salesperson, for a highly lucrative prospect I’m not opposed to the idea of fees to book a C suite meeting…. But it seems like you’re more concerned with flattery and gifts. I’m all for spam filters as well, but even if every sales person sent you a gift card after they sent you an email if you don’t see any value or reason to learn more about our service…. You still won’t book the meeting. I focus specifically on SMB and I know owners are exhausted but as soon as they see I know a little bit about them they at least hear me out. But appreciate your post and I can see how exhausting it could be.