#147 · Generating 7 real leads for AI agency services in 2hrs of work
Cold calling car detailers works because they’re often on‑site and hard to reach by email, but DMing with a Loom video is usually more effective—it’s asynchronous, respects their time, and avoids gatekeepers. Test both for 4‑6 weeks and double down on what works.
Cold calling isn't effective because it's asynchronous, requires you to be available when the prospect is, and you have to get past gatekeepers. A better approach is to send Loom videos that prospects can watch on their own time, letting you follow up repeatedly without scheduling conflicts.
Cold calling is a very direct way to reach people, but it's inefficient—you might spend only about 15 minutes of an hour on actual calls, with pickup rates around 3-6%. This means you often waste time on dialing, voicemails, and unanswered calls. I've made over 10,000 cold calls in my career and realized I could achieve the same outreach using Loom videos: record a video, send it, and it lands at the top of their inbox with no dial time, plus you can automate follow-ups. Loom saves time, lets you show visuals, and avoids the spam fatigue of phone calls. So instead of cold calling, just send Loom videos.
Cold calling is inefficient: you spend only about 40% of your time on actual talking (10% dialing, 10% waiting for connection, 20% dealing with gatekeepers) and often never reach the decision maker. Cold email guarantees you’re speaking to the decision maker and lets you automate follow‑ups to stay top of inbox. I equate the effort of cold calling to sending cold Loom videos—Looms add video but the core effort is similar; you can skip the call time and send Looms directly via email for better pound‑for‑pound results. Cold calling does build a killer mindset, but for pure productivity cold email wins.
The Loom video approach was terrible for me. My other approach was sending a lead magnet (a Google doc). To reconcile scale with customization, there are two approaches: low volume, high customization—sending a personalized Loom video that solves a problem, delivers value, and builds a warm connection to maybe 10‑30 people a day; and high volume, low result—blasting a generic “do you mind if I send you a Loom video?” to a million people and only recording when they reply. The latter is overdone and saturated; it’s not effective anymore.