Turning Cold Outreach into a $1M Closed Deal

Challenge
Breaking into new accounts through cold outreach is always an uphill battle—especially at the enterprise level When I wanted to break into a $1B finserv company in the Minneapolis area, I needed to not just make contact, but build enough trust to turn a cold lead into a long-term customer by aligning myself to their areas of need.

Approach
I started with carefully crafted cold emails, focused on relevance and clear value, not just volume. I paid special attention to common connections, as the Salesforce ecosystem is a small world.

Once initial interest was sparked, I nurtured the relationship through on-site visits to learn more about their experience with Salesforce across various teams—which also allowed us to build rapport, uncover deeper needs, and demonstrate our experience in the Salesforce platform.

Result
The relationship culminated in a $1M deal—originating entirely from cold outreach—and our work on-site established relationships that built a strong foundation for future account expansion (learn more about how these workshops grew accounts 10x in this success story).

Reflection
Cold outreach isn’t dead—it just needs to feel like a real human trying to have a conversation and ultimately equate to real business value. Problem solving, patience, and persistence transforms cold contact into a transformational client, or at the very least, a valuable connection.