I Tried Alex Hormozi's $100M Cold Outreach Strategy In 2026
A public replication test showing which parts of the famous playbook survive today's inboxes.
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Is cold outbound dead now that AI floods every inbox? What still works?
Cold outbound is not dead, but the mass-blast version of it is: average reply rates fell from around 8.5 percent in 2019 to under 4 percent as AI-generated volume flooded inboxes and providers tightened filters. What still works is the opposite of the flood: tight lists, real buying signals, human-sounding messages under 100 words, and warm paths (intros, community, content) running alongside cold. Top senders still see 15 percent plus reply rates, the average has collapsed, the ceiling has not.
Go deeper
19 resources.
This New Lead Magnet 5X Our Cold Email Reply Rate
A working example of the give-value-first pattern that beats pitch-first outreach now.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →The Modern Go-To-Market Playbook: Chris Walker (Part 1)
The demand-side critique of outbound-first thinking every founder should hear once.
Open warmly.ai →Outbound Squad Podcast
400+ episodes of working outbound tactics, the ongoing answer to 'what still works'.
Open outboundsquad.com →Outbound Squad (Apple Podcasts)
Subscribe link for the same feed on Apple, easy to sample the recent AI episodes.
Listen on Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com →30 Minutes to President's Club (Apple Podcasts)
The most tactical sales podcast running, constantly pressure-testing what works post-AI.
Listen on Apple Podcasts podcasts.apple.com →RV207: Chris Walker's LinkedIn Playbook
How founder content creates the warm surface area that makes cold outreach land.
Open creators.spotify.com →State of Cold Email (backed by data & results)
An annual data snapshot of what reply rates and tactics look like right now.
Open mailshake.com →Outbound Isn't Dead. AI Just Radically Changed How It Works.
The definitive rebuttal to the doom narrative, with examples of what modern outbound looks like.
Open saastr.com →Does cold email even work any more? Here's what the data says
Millions of real emails analyzed to answer this exact question with data, not vibes.
Open gong.io →Future of Cold Email: AI, Personalization & Automation Trends Shaping 2026-2027
Where the biggest sending platform thinks the channel goes next.
Open instantly.ai →What are B2B Cold Email Response Rates? (Study)
Large-sample benchmarks, including the surprising finding that founders reply most.
Open belkins.io →Cold Email Response Rates: B2B Benchmarks
Platform-scale benchmark data to calibrate whether your campaign is broken or normal.
Open instantly.ai →2025 Guide to Warm Introductions: Mixing Old Strategies with New Tech
The warm-intro motion that increasingly carries the pipeline cold email used to.
Open commsor.com →The Warm Intro Gap Report
1,305 GTM leaders on why outbound alone no longer hits targets.
Open commsor.com →Why Cold Outreach Is Failing in 2025 (And What to Do Instead)
The steel-manned pessimist case, worth reading before you commit a quarter to outbound.
Open medium.com →Death to Cold Outreach? The Honest Take
A balanced verdict separating dead tactics from the durable core of the channel.
Open getboomerang.ai →Steal the cold email campaign that gets 15%+ replies
Existence proof that great campaigns still massively outperform, with the actual copy.
Open tactics.30mpc.com →Interest-Based CTAs Beat Meeting Requests: 304K Email Study
A single high-leverage finding: softening your CTA measurably lifts replies.
Open growleads.io →More in Sales Prospecting
- Why use AI to find and qualify leads (Clay, Apollo + AI workflows)? 20 →
- How do founders personalize cold outreach at scale without being creepy? 20 →
- What does an AI-assisted founder-led sales motion look like end to end? 19 →
- How do I define my ICP and build my first lead list with AI? 19 →
- Should I buy an AI SDR, or keep prospecting human? 16 →
- How do I use buying signals (job changes, funding, hiring) to time my outreach? 18 →
- How do I keep my cold email out of spam in the AI era? 19 →
- What does a lean outbound stack look like for a bootstrapped founder? 18 →
- How do I prospect on LinkedIn with AI without getting banned or being spammy? 19 →
- How do I get accurate emails and phone numbers? Enrichment and verification explained. 18 →
- How do I use AI for call prep, meeting notes, follow-ups, and my CRM so no lead slips? 21 →
- How should Indian founders prospect global customers, and use WhatsApp for selling in India? 18 →
Also in Starting Up
The same ground, over in Get your first customers, our Starting Up track.
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