#56: How To Load Top of Funnel With Sales Calls (Must Read)

#56: How To Load Top of Funnel With Sales Calls


Read Time: 4 min

🤝 Announcement

We now offer a self-service model that gives you lifetime access to our playbook. The same playbook that all of our clients scaled up on. The playbook has 8 folders with 30 modules, which include templates, videos, and all the software, and shows you step-by-step how to build a fully fleshed-out, repeatable sales process. If you’re a bootstrapped early-stage founder with little to no revenue and lean on economic resources, then this direction is a no-brainer. Here’s a video of me walking through the playbook.

Today, I will discuss how you should think about building your cold outbound top-of-funnel. This is one of the biggest requests I get every week, and for good reason. If you have no one to sell to or no one is walking in the store, the road ahead will be rough.

This issue will be super tactical. I want all the readers to understand something of paramount importance. Your primary goal should be to spend a huge chunk of your time generating leads daily.

Finding PMF and scaling to 1M in ARR begins and ends with consistent lead gen. You need tons of reps to test, understand, and iterate. The fastest way to market fit is through leads, reps, and revenue.



You can’t save souls in an empty church.

~ David Ogilvy


In this issue, I will discuss your cold email setup. There are other ways to generate TOFU, like writing content, LI outreach, and personal emails, but in my experience, cold email, if done correctly, will take you to the next level.

A couple of things to understand from the beginning.

1. Email is the fastest and most economical way to validate your market and generate consistent revenue. My partner and I have sent millions of cold emails, so our data set is deep. Don’t believe the BS you read on LI and other platforms telling you cold email is dead or open; response rates are plummeting; it’s nonsense. We have clients that book 15 discovery calls a week through cold email. If you know what you’re doing, you will crush it.
   

2. Your ceiling in cold outbound is based on the number of companies in your total addressable market (TAM). The more, the better. For example, your TAM is massive if your ICP is in the service industry.
   

3. LinkedIn is way more transactional, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have the scale that email does because you can only send 100 connection requests a week.
   

4. Never send cold emails from your primary email address. If you get blackballed, you’ll ruin your email.

Setting Up Your Cold Email

• Buy 3-6 similar URLs to your main website URL and set up a separate email account to prospect from. (.co .uk .io .ai // .net etc but avoid .xyz)

  1. 3 domains + 3 Google workspaces (or your preferred provider)
     Example: bizname.co // getbizname.com // try-bizname.com // usebizman.com

     • 3 emails per domain, 9 total email accounts

     • No alias emails; they all need to be unique.

• Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for all emails.

• Verify successful setup using mxtoolbox.com

• Use Instantly.ai warm-up feature.

• Set up custom tracking domain within Instantly.

• Start the email warmup process.

• It will take about 3-4 weeks to warm up your accounts fully.
  
  

The Correct Way To Structure Emails 

• Introduction

• Personalization

• Offer

• Call to action
  

Here’s an example.


“Hey {Name},

I’m reaching out because we work with seed-stage startup companies by helping them build their TOFU, validate PMF, and scale to 1 million in ARR. We’ve worked with over 350 founding teams, with 87% coming from YC.

Is validating PMF and scaling to 1 million in ARR on your radar?

Darren

• Your email should be no more than 3 sentences.

• Test different ICPs, subject lines, and email copy

• You should be sending out 1500-2000 emails a week to test. It’s

  contingent on your TAM.

• What comes back is how you start drilling down and understanding what’s resonating (ICPs, email copy, subject lines, etc.).

• Your subject lines should be 1-3 words. The less, the better. No emojis, parenthesis, brackets, or spammy stuff.
  
  Here are a few examples of subject lines in emails that will get opened.
  

  • Churn

  • Attrition

  • Burn out

  • Outdated

  • Archaic

  • Automate

  • Insights

  • Updates

  • Retention

  • Upsell

  • Pipeline opportunities

Email Sending Cadence

When using a new domain for sending cold emails, ramping up the campaigns in the following cadence while always leaving the warm-up feature active is important.

• Day 1 - 5 emails per day

• Day 5 - 10 emails per day

• Day 10 - 15 emails per day

• Day 15 - 20 emails per day

Email Drip Cadence

The cadence for your drip email campaign will consist of 4 emails dripped over 10 days. Day 1 = Email 1

• Day 3 = Email 2

• Day 7 = Email 3

• Day 14 = Email 4 (optional)

• Make sure you do not drip on the weekend.
  

This should get you up and running!

That’s it for today!

See you all next week.


Darren

P.S. If establishing PMF and scaling to $1M in ARR is on your radar, book a call with me here

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