I replied to a cold email, I raised my hand and said I was interested, and offered to answer their qualifying questions on email so we wouldn't have to waste each other's time and I didn't have to hop on a call. And you know what they sent back? A link to their about page, and then they never followed up again. Ever. And this is the same company that's probably blasting tens of thousands of emails a day looking for more leads. "We need more leads, we need more leads, we need more leads."
So, here's the backstory. I've been digging into Reddit lately—like how it works and whether it's a real channel for content, authority, audience, maybe even ads—and I think there's a lot of potential there. And then, lo and behold, I get an email. Probably AI-generated, probably triggered by some signal I put out onto the internet somewhere. Either way, smart move or just really, really good timing. Either way, it doesn't matter. And the email says, "Hey, if you're exploring Reddit, we're an agency that does Reddit. Reply if you're interested."
Now, most emails don't get through my filters, and the ones that do, I usually don't reply to. But this one was dead on. It was the right timing, exact right relevance. So, I replied and I said, "Yeah, this is actually something I've been interested in based on what you sent. I'd love to learn more, but my calendar is slammed. So, before we schedule a call, I just want to make sure it's a fit. I'm happy to answer any qualifying questions that you've got or shoot you a video, whatever you need, so we can figure out if this makes sense before we book in time."
Think about that. What did I just do? I just replied to a cold email, I said I'm interested, I have intent, I'm willing to qualify myself. I basically invited them to pull me forward in their sales process. The hard part—the part they spent thousands of emails trying to make happen—I did for them, right? And what did I get back? One reply and a link to their about page. That is it.
I go look at the about page and, you know, it's really light. Very light, actually. I'm like, okay, so you're an agency that specializes in Reddit. Cool. But what do you actually sell? How does it work? Is there any range of pricing? There are no case studies, no testimonials, nothing that gives me more than what I already had basically, right? So, I sat there and I was like, "Huh." Then I get distracted, I went back to my inbox, and let it go. I figured they'll follow up. They never did. They never followed up. I raised my hand, I told them I was interested, I told them I was willing to get qualified, and they just let that deal sit there and die.
This is a lesson for every single company that says, "I need more leads." If I had a dollar for every company that said they need more leads and then had no idea what to do when those leads actually showed up—like no system to respond fast, no accountability, no plan on how many times to follow up, no plan for which channels to follow up on, nothing—I would be a very, very wealthy man. Because most companies that say they want more leads aren't prepared to do what's necessary when the engine actually kicks in.
By the way, I break stuff like this down further and put frameworks and stuff to it in my weekly newsletter. If you're interested, you can sign up for free at raiseemail.com.
Right, so here's what makes this even crazier. This still happens in a world of automation and AI. Like, all the tech that was supposed to eliminate this exact problem—it was supposed to make follow-up easier, make the systems for responding faster and more effective—mostly, it hasn't. Because the accountability for the humans behind these systems still isn't there. So, you've got companies insisting on generating more leads without the systems, or the accountability, or the culture to actually follow up on them. And it's wasteful. It is so wasteful, and it's frustrating because generating leads from cold traffic is one of the hardest things that you can do. And then the lead comes in the door, gets ignored, or gets a lazy "here's our about us" reply, and that is it.
You send out thousands of emails to make this happen, and what you're really saying is, "We don't want leads—that requires work. We just want layups. We just want to take orders. We want to send so many emails that we never actually have to sell properly." Like, if we spray this at 40 million people, enough of them will just self-qualify and walk themselves through our process all on their own. But if it requires us replying, and following up, and calling, and figuring out how to ask five or ten questions on an email instead of a phone call, like, nah, that's too heavy of a lift.
And here's the thing: I've never met a company that admits they do this. Every company I watch says, "We would never do that." Okay. And then you call their number on their website and there's no live person, or no way to get a call back, or you reply to their email and it goes into a black hole, right?
So, this is just a reminder. Maybe you do have a lead generation problem—like, that part may be real. But solving it without a speed-to-lead system, without accountability, without a culture of being thorough on the leads that come in the door, you're just wasting your time and money solving that problem. You're doing the hardest part of the whole thing—generating the lead—and then leaking it all out of the bottom of the bucket because there's a gaping hole down there that you never patched. So, patch the hole before you pour in more water.
And hey, I fully expect I'm going to get slammed the second I hit publish on this by a million Reddit agencies, but who knows? Maybe one of them actually has a process good enough to sell me. Hope it helps. Adios.
