Most cold emails flop. Zoe Hartsfield explains why—& how to fix it before you hit send.

It's about like, right person, right message, right time. And you won't always know 100% what that is. But I think if people thought about sending to the wrong person the wrong message at the wrong time as like a bigger risk to their company, we'd actually send fewer spammy emails. Because, like, you have to think about your deliverability. You have to think about like your reputation with that potential buyer. And nobody's going to have perfect data 100% of the time. Somebody could have just left their job last week and you don't know, like, things will happen. But I think if you are trying to scale too fast, if you're trying to send out spray and pray, catch, catch whatever you can in like one bulk message, you actually risk a lot more than if you do take the time and try. And like Will mentioned, like, when you have something relevant to say to that person. So I believe in sending cold email. Like, I don't think you're a bother. I don't think you're an inconvenience. I was an SDR for 18 months. But I do think that, like, thinking about it in terms of when should you not send it is probably like the reframe of like, when should I actually be saying, no, I'm not going to send these emails yet, it's not the right time or they're not the right person. And getting more specific and getting more targeted.