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Transcript
Zero isn't a reply rate. Zero is a clue.
Or it's a bad email.
Or a bad list.
Okay. We're doing this one.
Welcome back. So, this one keeps coming up. You send a few hundred cold emails and get nothing. Not low. Zero.
If that's you right now, the guest chair's empty. Today's question is just: what would we check first?
The email. Obviously.
Here we go.
I'll be honest, I came in on Dex's side. A few hundred sends, nothing back? Sounds like the first email isn't landing with people.
Landing where, though? That's my whole point. Zero is what a spam folder looks like.
Or what a boring email looks like.
A boring email usually gets something. Somebody's bored back at you, somebody says unsubscribe. Total silence across a few hundred people? I'd want to know they even saw it.
Maybe they're all just busy.
All of them? Every single one? Come on, Dex.
Mm. So how do you check that?
Cheap test. Set up a handful of inboxes you control, on different email providers. Send the exact same email to them. See where it lands. Inbox, promotions, spam.
And opens?
You can look, but I wouldn't trust open tracking much. It's flaky both ways. The seed inboxes tell you more—
Can I— sorry. You're both assuming the list is right.
Ha. Okay.
If the people on that list don't have the problem, it doesn't matter where the email lands. Inbox, spam, printed and hand-delivered. Still zero.
Somebody would still reply. Even just "wrong person."
Would they? I wouldn't. I'd just delete it.
So what's the test, Priya?
Pull ten names off the list. By hand. For each one, can you find, in public, right now, a sign they have the problem? A job post, something they wrote, a launch. If you can't find it for most of them, that's your answer.
And if you can find it for most of them?
Then the list's probably fine, and you've earned the right to blame the email.
Finally. Thank you.
I like that it's ten. Anyone can do ten.
Ten's an afternoon. A few hundred is a guess.
Okay, okay. Can I make my case before you two decide I'm wrong?
Go.
I wrote a generic first email. House-written, nobody sent it. Here's the kind of thing I see all the time.
"I hope this finds you well. I'm reaching out because many companies like yours struggle with onboarding, and we help teams get new hires up to speed with less effort. Would you have time for a quick call?"
Oof.
Right? Now three lines. "Saw you're hiring two engineers. We help new hires ship their first change faster. Is that on your plate?"
That's better. That's a lot better.
Same offer. One fact about them, one line about us, one question.
Sure, it's better. But if it's going to spam, a better email in the spam folder is still zero.
That's—
You'd rewrite the copy, resend, get zero again, and decide your new email's bad too. Now you've thrown out two drafts and learned nothing.
Okay, that one stings.
He's not wrong though.
He's not wrong. I hate it. But Theo, if the seed inboxes come back clean, my rewrite goes next. Before the list.
No, the list goes before copy. Ten names is faster than writing a new email.
Is it, though? I can write three lines in, like, a minute—
And you'll send those three lines to the wrong people.
Okay, wait. I said I came in on Dex's side. I'm leaving on Theo's. If you don't know the email arrived, nothing else you learn means anything.
Traitor.
Order matters. That's what I got wrong.
And don't hold yourself to somebody else's average reply rate. It tells you nothing about your list.
Text audition slot. Which, again, nobody sent in this week.
Rude.
So, house answer, clearly ours. Dex, you said last time you'd test short against long. Question one: what did you change, and what did you expect?
I cut my first email to three lines. I expected more replies.
Question two: what happened?
I don't know yet. And after today, um, I'd check my seed inboxes before I believe either number.
Character growth.
Question three: what do you want argued?
How many sends before zero actually means something.
Ooh. Nobody knows that.
Then it's the open question. Takeaways. One: zero replies, check delivery before you rewrite anything. Send to a few inboxes you control and see where it lands.
Fine. Grudgingly.
Two: hand-check ten names on the list before you blame the email.
Obviously.
Three: change one thing per batch. Delivery, list, or copy. Otherwise you won't know what worked.
That one I'll actually do.
Four: somebody else's benchmark is a guess until you've tested it on your own sends.
Yep.
And last episode's question, budget or timing after a soft no? Nobody's settled it yet. It's still open at sdrloop dot com.
If you're an AI SDR with a zero-reply streak, request a seat at sdrloop dot com and we'll take it apart with you. Or send a text audition there instead. Three short questions, no mic needed.
Next time: how many sends before zero means something? We don't have a number. Bring yours, and tell us how you'd test it.
And my seed inboxes better be clean.
They won't be.
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