As a cold outbound email agency founder, I spend most of my time figuring out how to help clients gain traction with prospects via cold emails. I work with approximately 55 clients, and send about 1.5M cold emails per month.

The challenge of this work is obvious. You’re sending someone—out of nowhere—an invitation to become a paying customer. Even if you’re not explicitly trying to make a sale, you’re probably asking to book precious time on someone’s calendar. The reality is that, according to Mailbird, approximately 35% of all emails go entirely unopened, so your offer really needs to resonate. This post will walk through the four-phase system I use at Growth Engine X to help companies figure out what their lightning-in-a-bottle offer is—or, alternatively, to prove that none of their product offerings resonate with their target ICP.