MBA2304 Must Read: The Cold Email Manifesto by Alex Berman & Robert Indries

Summary

The $100 MBA Show: Episode MBA2304 – Must Read: The Cold Email Manifesto by Alex Berman & Robert Indries

Release Date: May 8, 2023
Host: Omar Zenhom

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Introduction

In episode MBA2304, Omar Zenhom delves into the influential book "The Cold Email Manifesto" by Alex Berman and Robert Indries. Recognized as a must-read for entrepreneurs seeking to enhance their client acquisition strategies, this episode unpacks the book's core principles, actionable strategies, and the transformative impact of effective cold emailing on business growth.

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Challenging Assumptions About Cold Emailing

[01:34] Omar Zenhom:
"I just challenged myself to ask the question, what are some things that I do not like doing that I avoid doing."

Omar begins by reflecting on his initial hesitations towards cold emailing, perceiving it as potentially aggressive, pushy, or spammy. Recognizing these self-imposed barriers, he sought to understand the true value and methodology behind cold emailing by immersing himself in the manifesto.

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The Power and Mindset of Cold Emailing

[02:26] Omar Zenhom:
"In business, you always need to try to have a competitive advantage, and one of the ways you can have a competitive advantage is to do things people are not willing to do."

The episode emphasizes that cold emailing, when executed correctly, offers a significant competitive edge. The book underscores the importance of adopting the right mindset—viewing cold emailing not as a nuisance but as a relationship-building tool essential for business sustainability.

Omar highlights historical perspectives, such as his father's success in selling latex gloves through cold calls in the 1980s, illustrating that cold outreach has long been a staple in effective business strategies.

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Strategic Pre-Work and Lead Generation

[04:57] Omar Zenhom:
"Who you're sending this email to is more important than the actual content of the email."

A critical insight from the book is the preparation phase before drafting any cold email. This involves:

1. Identifying the Right Audience: Pinpointing individuals or businesses that genuinely need your product or service.
2. Building a Qualified Lead List: Conducting thorough research to curate a list of potential clients who are most likely to benefit from your offerings.
3. Engagement Prior to Outreach: Leveraging platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to follow, interact, and build rapport with potential leads, ensuring that when the email arrives, it is not entirely unsolicited.

This strategic approach ensures higher response rates and minimizes the perception of cold emails being intrusive or irrelevant.

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Crafting the Perfect Cold Email

[06:43] Omar Zenhom:
"Cold emailing is not a sales exercise; it's a relationship-building exercise."

The book outlines the anatomy of an effective cold email, emphasizing:

• Personalization: Tailoring the message to address the specific needs and circumstances of the recipient.
• Clarity and Conciseness: Communicating the value proposition succinctly without overwhelming the reader.
• Call to Action: Encouraging a dialogue rather than pushing for an immediate sale, fostering a natural progression towards a business relationship.

Omar critiques common mistakes, such as attempting to close a deal immediately, which often leads to rejection. Instead, the focus should be on initiating conversations that pave the way for future engagement.

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Scaling Cold Email Strategies

[07:47] Omar Zenhom:
"Cold emailing is a scalable way to get new clients."

Scaling cold emailing involves building a dedicated team that can manage and execute outreach systematically. Key strategies include:

• Standardizing the Process: Developing templates and workflows that maintain consistency while allowing for personalization.
• Training Team Members: Ensuring that each member understands the core principles and methodologies to uphold the quality of outreach.
• Automating Where Possible: Utilizing tools to streamline tasks like email sending and follow-ups without sacrificing the personal touch.

This approach transforms cold emailing from a one-on-one effort into a robust system capable of driving substantial business growth.

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Practical Applications and Personal Insights

[08:15] Omar Zenhom:
"My perspective of cold emailing completely changed."

Post-reading, Omar shares how his understanding and implementation of cold emailing have evolved. Even if one chooses not to adopt cold emailing fully, many of the book's strategies can enhance existing practices:

• Improved Email Crafting: Enhancing the effectiveness of outreach emails by incorporating relationship-focused elements.
• Strengthened Partnerships: Utilizing principles to nurture relationships with existing partners, thereby amplifying collaborative efforts.
• Enhanced Sales Strategies: Integrating cold emailing techniques to fortify overall sales approaches, ensuring a more comprehensive and strategic client acquisition process.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

Omar strongly recommends "The Cold Email Manifesto" to entrepreneurs aiming to refine their client acquisition tactics. Whether one decides to adopt cold emailing wholly or selectively integrate its strategies, the book offers valuable insights that can lead to business growth and improved sales strategies.

[09:23] Omar Zenhom:
"The Cold Email Manifesto is really good information. It's a really good perspective on how to sell and differentiate yourself from other businesses."

By challenging existing beliefs and encouraging strategic outreach, the manifesto empowers business owners to explore new avenues for client engagement and revenue generation.

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Final Thoughts

Embracing the lessons from "The Cold Email Manifesto" equips entrepreneurs with the tools to effectively reach and engage their target audiences. Omar Zenhom's insightful breakdown underscores the importance of strategic planning, personalized communication, and scalable systems in mastering the art of cold emailing, ultimately fostering sustainable business growth.

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Learn More:
For additional resources and to delve deeper into effective business strategies, visit The $100 MBA Show.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

With HubSpot's suite of AI powered tools, you can get more done way faster, speed up your lead generation and create attention grabbing, lead driving, quota crushing campaigns in an instant. Get started [e-mail] AI Ryan Reynolds here.

From Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless Way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Omar Zenhom]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] hey welcome to the $100 MBA Show.

Helping you get better so your business gets better every single day with 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today's episode is a must read episode on our Must Read Episodes. I share with you a book that I have read that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its insights, its takeaways and why you should read it too. Today's must read is the Cold Email Manifesto by Alex Berman and Robert Endries. The reason why I decided to read this book is because I like to.

Just challenged myself to ask the question what are some things that I do not like doing that I avoid doing.

In my business and what are the costs of not doing them? What are some things I'm missing out.

On by not doing these actions? One of those actions are cold emailing. I have my perceptions about it.

I think maybe it's a little bit.

Aggressive or pushy or maybe even a little spammy. I ask myself why do I think that maybe I don't fully understand what cold emailing is, its benefits and how.

It can help my business. So I picked up this book to find out and I'm really glad I did because I learned a ton that I can implement right away in my business and I want to share with you what those things are in today's episode. In business you always need to try to have a competitive advantage and one of the ways you can have a competitive advantage is to do things people are not willing to do, people maybe avoid doing. And cold emailing is one of those.

So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

I want to start today's lesson by just saying we all have assumptions when.

It comes to cold emailing. Maybe it's annoying, maybe it's aggressive, maybe.

Again, it's spammy, not aligned with your brand, whatever it might be. But for the next few minutes, I.

Want you just to suspend your assumptions for a moment.

Just stop worrying about what you currently think about it and have an open mind. And that's how my mindset was as I started to read this book. The book starts out by talking about the mindset you have to have before.

You enter this world of cold emailing. Your perception of cold emailing is most.

Likely not the perception of everybody else. And he highlights this by mentioning that.

You know, this is not something new in business. This is traditionally how business was done. People used to do door to door sales. People used to do cold email sales.

He shares a story where his father was selling latex gloves in the 80s. Now there was a big, big need for latex gloves in the 80s because regulation was put in place in the 80s in the states for doctors and anybody who's in the medical field to use latex gloves to be more hygienic.

When they're operating on patients, they mandated it.

So everybody had to use latex gloves. So when his father would cold call dentists, doctors, podiatrists, whatever they might be.

He was approaching people that needed his product. So he was actually doing them a favor by making them aware that, hey.

I have something you need. This is how you can get it.

All of a sudden this doesn't sound.

Like it's so annoying.

It doesn't sound so spammy.

And I'm actually really appreciative that he started out with that example because a big part of the strategy that is shared in this book is preparing your.

Cold emails for the right audience, gathering the right leads, understanding who you're speaking.

To so that your response rate is quite high so it's not seen as.

Useless information or an email that's annoying.

The other thing that he touches on in the beginning of the book is the power of cold emailing.

If you're able to do this right.

You can basically never go hungry, right? You can basically sell anything you want, anytime you want. If you can nail this strategy. This is very powerful as a concept.

As a business owner.

It's like, hey, I can sell my products and services at will whenever I want to.

Maybe it's not a bad idea to.

Think about learning a little Bit about cold emailing. In chapters four and five he starts to go into the strategy of cold emailing. How to do this right. And I really liked these chapters in particular cause he talked about what's called the pre work and, and lead generation.

They really stress in the book that hey, who you're sending this email to is more important than the actual content of the email.

A lot of people think that the art of cold emailing is writing great copy that is irresistible and grabs people's attention.

That is true. It's a part of the cold emailing strategy. But it's not the most important thing.

The most important thing is who you're.

Sending it to, that they're receptive to this message.

And in these chapters he talks about how to kind of create a potential.

Client list who would benefit the most from your product or service, who really needs it, who can really improve or benefit from it. And you make a list of all.

These people you can think of in every industry, all the different kind of companies, all the kind of consumers that might be a good fit. Then you do the legwork of seeking out these people, finding them, whether that's through LinkedIn, whether that's through Twitter, and starting to follow their work, maybe have some conversations, subtweets. And this is actually quite important because.

When you do send them an email, you get their email address and you send them an email.

You're not a stranger, so to speak. They've seen your name somewhere. They may have a conversation or two with you before offline or on social media. It's not completely cold.

And again, you're emailing somebody that actually.

Really needs what you have.

I find that this part of the book is so, so important and so.

Valuable because most of your work is done now that you're able to kind of have a semi relationship with them. They know who you are, they need what you have.

They're going to be a whole lot.

More receptive and open to having a conversation and learning more about what you can offer them. In chapter six, they go through the perfect cold email. What makes a great email and what are the parts of the email that.

You need to include? One of the things I like about.

This strategy is understanding that the cold.

Emailing part is not a sales exercise.

It'S a relationship building exercise. One of the steps in the process. You're not going to just close a.

Sale right off the email. Usually it leads to a phone call, a video call, some sort of conversation where they can learn more and then make a decision to Buy or not. I get so many cold emails where people are trying to just close a deal off the first email. Hey, buy my service.

Hey, check us out.

Here's a discount code.

All this weird stuff and it's like I don't even know if I want this.

I don't even know if you're good for my business.

I don't even understand what you're offering.

So the cold emailing is just your gateway to a conversation where you then.

Can educate the customer and see if.

You'Re a good fit for each other. But the book doesn't end there.

It talks about how to build a.

Team around you so that you can.

Start scaling this operation so you're not.

Doing one on one sales via cold email.

And this is the part that a lot of people forget. This is just the beginning.

Cold emailing is a scale scalable way.

To get new clients, but a lot of people feel like it's a not scalable solution because how many emails can you send? It's not at mass if you're doing these one on one emails, but you.

Can build a team around the system.

And start scaling out.

As long as they're following the same methodology. They also go into how to lead your team.

And also some fun and interesting other uses of cold emailing in your business. After reading this book, my perspective of.

Cold emailing completely changed.

I definitely have learned a ton about how to craft a great email and how to have a strategy about who I'm trying to contact to make sure that, hey, I can offer them my products and services. Even if you don't decide to do cold emailing. I'm using some of these strategies in.

The emails I'm sending my potential partners, people I already have relationships with, and strengthening my sales strategy with the element of crafting a great email. I'm a big believer of not throwing.

The baby out with the bathwater. So there's a ton you can apply with what you're already doing right now.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Omar Zenhom]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Guys and gals.

I do recommend that you check out.

The Cold Email Manifesto if you want to get better at just emailing in general and gaining clients in a strategic way via email. And what I ask you to do.

Is read the book and then make a decision. You don't have to do anything.

Read the book, make a decision. If there's some elements you want to.

Apply to in your business or you.

Don'T want to apply any of it at all and it'll strengthen your position.

Of not doing it.

But it's really good information. It's a really good perspective on how to to sell and differentiate yourself from other businesses that are not as high touch as emailing or one on one sales. And it also shows you the power.

Of cold emailing what you can actually.

Accomplish in your business using these strategies. It's okay to challenge your beliefs. It's okay to challenge what you're currently.

Doing in your business.

It's either going to help you see.

A new way or improve the way you're doing things, or it's going to help you get more clarity and affirm that you're making the right decision by not doing it. So it's a win win.

Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show.

If you love what you hear, hit.

Subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app. Just hit those triple dots in whatever app you use to listen to podcasts and hit follow. That way you get our next episode automatically and you get over 2,300 episodes in our back catalog. So go ahead and follow us. Right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you're feeling stuck in business, if you feel like you're not getting the.

Same traction as you used to, maybe.

It'S time to start doing different things.

Maybe you need a challenge. What you think is the right way.

To do something or the right way to gain customers or market or sell? Doing the same thing and expecting different results is a fast way to go crazy. Okay, don't do that.

Change things up. Try something new and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.