Podcast

What Startups Can Learn from a $1.7B Co. Chief Information Officer (ft. Karthik Chakkarapani, Zuora)

Karthik Chakkarapani (guest) · The Neon Show Free Intermediate India

This one flips the script: a CIO who actually receives startup outreach explains what makes him respond versus delete. Hearing directly from the buyer's side of the inbox is a fast way to check whether your own targeting and offer would survive contact with a real decision-maker.

  • A large share of the vendors this CIO evaluates were found through outbound that got the targeting right.
  • Specific, relevant framing beats a broad we-help-companies-like-yours pitch every time.
  • Buyers can tell within seconds whether an email was actually written for them or blasted to a list.
Open on buzzsprout.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. What's a good response rate for cold email, and how do I know if mine is broken?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. Video · About 25 minutes How to Get Your First Customers (Startup School) Gustaf Alstromer
  4. An Indian founder story where the early demand test was manual, cold emails and direct outreach to find the first customers... Prime Venture Partners Podcast Podcast · ~50 min How Khadim Batti Built Whatfix Into a Global SaaS Leader Prime Venture Partners
  5. Braun's four-sentence formula (proof you did your homework, the specific problem you think they have, a sliver of social proof,... Josh Braun Article · 8 min read How To Get A 35% Cold Email Response Rate Without Selling Your Soul Josh Braun
  6. Steli Efti built his sales career on the belief that unanswered outreach is a maybe, and a maybe is what kills deals. This... Close Article The Winning Cold Email Follow-up Plan for Sales Teams Steli Efti
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