It’s about being creative…..

Lead Gen to cold prospects requires indirect and creative tactics to produce results. Few people read unsolicited emails, and those who do may be offended by the mere act of receiving one. So the messages probably can’t be an attempt to sell your company or service directly. That’s why we have developed tactics for cold outreach that utilitize unconventional techniques to get information that can lead to more conversations with your prospects than the typical spray and pray techniques espoused by many sources today.

If you google terms like “cold email outreach”, you’ll typically get advice about how to structure your emails with “know your customer” statements, and “what are their pain points”, and by listing “recent accomplishments” or providing “customized call to actions”. While these are all valid points, they are not based on the reality of doing cold outreach via email to prospects that we have not qualified yet.

If you’re an ITAD emailing the CIO, or IT Director, you have no idea what their role in ITAD decisions is until you’ve had a chance to do Q&A with them. So it can be presumptive to think that you know them or their pain points or a CTA that gets their attention.

And this goes to a fundamental point about cold outreach via email or phone that must be strongly reinforced; prospecting messages should never be about selling. They should be about qualifying the prospect. More on this to follow later.

Some AI provided examples to start

Here’s an example of what Claude Sonnet 4.5 replied with when I entered the following question:

“what are some creative examples of cold email techniques for technology services sales outreach?”

The “Trigger Event” Email

Reference recent company news:

• “Saw you just raised Series B / hired a new CTO / launched in EMEA”

Connect their news to your solution:
“Companies at this stage typically face [specific challenge]”

The “Mutual Connection” Hack

Even without a direct connection:

• “I noticed we’re both connected to [person] on LinkedIn”

The “Before/After” Framework

Lead with a specific transformation:

• Subject: “How [Similar Company] cut deployment time by 60%”

These ideas aren’t bad, but I think we’d all admit we’ve seen them before, or a variation.

I would suggest they’ll get ignored like any other direct approach to selling via your cold email outreach. I also suggest avoiding approaches that require any research at this phase, as that slows down the process for limited return.

I believe the most effective strategies for cold message sequences is based on either severe self-deprecation, or mistaken assumptions. Let’s get into that next.

Lead Gen hacks that are unconventional

There was one idea from Claude that I liked, but it needed some modification to fit my preferred model, so we’ll explore and expand on it.

1. The “Broken Record” Approach

Instead of pretending you’re reaching out for the first time, start with #3 :

Subject: “Email #3 (but who’s counting?)”

Body:

“I’ve sent you two emails. You haven’t responded. That’s either because:

A) You’re not interested
B) Bad timing
C) My emails weren’t compelling enough.

If it’s C, let me try one more time…”

Then go on to state your value proposition and ask if you can get a few minutes with the prospect or his best co-worker to answer a few questions about what checks the boxes for end-of-life service providers.

Why is this effective?

This technique starts with misstating a fact, which people by nature are more likely to correct then ignore, thereby starting a conversation where you can ask more questions, or start your discovery process.

It’s also somewhat disarming to see someone ask the questions in the email in a self-deprecating way. People are more likely to want to help in such an example.

A sales principle called the “Curiosity Curve” explains more about reps who play “less informed” get prospects talking more.

In my career, we referred to this as the “Columbo” school of sales.

Columbo was a seemingly dim-witted private detective on 1970’s television that always outwitted the brainy criminals he investigated, often via extreme amounts questioning on seemingly inane facts.

Columbo did a great job of discovery.

Let’s reframe what we’re really trying to do with cold email outreach

The first goal is to find the qualified prospect.

Rule #1, do not attempt to sell.

In our case, we need to know who is the proper economic/technical buyer for ITAD services. This alone is a big win.

Please note this can often be 2–3 people.

For example, the IT Hardware Manager responsible has partial authority, while someone in purchasing cuts the PO’s and approves new vendors.

But in reality, the IT person is typically the acting authorized buyer, while procurement follows their lead.

The typical titles we should target include:

• Hardware Asset Manager (HAM)
• IT Asset Manager
• IT Manager or any other title, as long as they confirm they handle end of life assets and qualifying vendors that perform ITAD services for them.

The second goal, once you have the qualified prospects identified, is to get a meeting.

Only then should you worry at all about selling your company or services more then just providing your “elevator speech”.

In the first meeting with the prospect we will work to qualify them to confirm the facts about the prospect organization decision making process.

We will cover this more on the next segment in this series.

Creative ways to structure cold outreach

Until then, let’s review more creative ways to structure our emails to elicit a response, any response, so we can ask qualifying questions with our prospect.

Elicitation, what is it?

The Cambridge dictionary has the following definition for “Elicitation”.

Elicitation is the process of getting or producing something, especially information or a reaction.

Interestingly enough, elicitation techniques can get pretty advanced, and they sometimes are employed by those with criminal intent to gather information in nefarious ways.

Since there is nothing criminal about trying to find the qualified buyers of ITAD services within a business entity, using elicitation techniques for this goal is ok.

However, be aware that just the process of asking questions can make some people nervous.

If you notice someone getting suspicious, stop right there and ask them clearly if they are comfortable answering your questions.

The FBI even puts out guidebooks on this topic to help combat cyber criminals who use elicitation techniques in social engineering attacks. https://ucr.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/elicitation-brochure

More cold email strategies to identify qualified prospects

But we’re here to help you with ideas to get your lead gen staff fresh leads, not focus on hacking techniques.

Here’s some tips to boost your creative approach.

1. “Trojan Horse”

Give something valuable before asking for anything.

Subject: “Quick audit of your last IT Asset auction”

Body:

“I spent 15 minutes analyzing your last equipment auction. I found 3 potential optimization opportunities. No strings attached—here they are…”

1. Missing configuration information may have negatively impacted asset value
2. Missing or inaccurate grading information
3. Time to settlement requirements were not clearly defined

Why is this effective?

In this case, we are hoping the customer will reply to ask you questions about who you are and how you saw their offer.

Any reply is a big victory.

Obviously you didn’t get to look at the company’s last equipment auction. You don’t even know if they did an auction or collected offers by spreadsheet or anything.

However, you are guessing at common issues and are probably not far from reality on some of your assumptions.

If they reply immediately admit you were just guessing, give your one sentence elevator speech, and ask for permission to have a discussion about their current processes and who handles them.

2. “We’re doing a study”

Ask them to participate in an industry study.

Subject: “Please participate in our study of ITAD best practices”

Body:

“We’re reaching out to leading F1000 companies in our area for IT or Hardware Asset Managers to participate in a brief study about best practices in IT Asset Disposition.”

In return for a brief 15 minute Q&A they will receive a gift card to Outback Steakhouse.

Why is this effective?

You are basically offering a gift card for $75 (recommended you not be too cheap here) for a nice dinner in return for taking a discovery call with you.

You can ask the same questions you would in a regular first call and by documenting their answers you have completed the study.

If they ask when it’s being published you can say you’re not sure.

3. “We received an inquiry”

Subject: “Your recent inquiry: ITAD Services pickup”

Body:

“I’m hoping you can direct me to the right person to help.

I’m trying to reach the hardware asset manager at ACME Co., we had a call from someone last week asking about data destruction services ….”

Why is this effective?

The “We received an inquiry” approach is a more advanced sequence based on mistaken assumptions.

It needs a fine touch and a higher degree of acting skills by the rep, so we won’t include the additional details in this article.

But you can perhaps imagine for yourself how it would run from the example above.

Final Takeaways

We have a whole string of messages around some of these techniques at Circular Momentum.

Contact us to discuss your needs and we’ll be happy to share more tips.

The main takeaway should be to find indirect ways to qualify prospects via cold outreach.

Don’t try to sell them during this process.

Instead try to start a conversation about who makes the decisions and how the process works.

See our next part in the series Qualified Lead Development in the Lead Gen Process for how to handle the first meeting with the prospect.

Questions? Comments? War stories?

Drop a comment below or email us at pete@circmo.com. We read and respond to every single one.

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