December 27, 2025
Cold Calls, Hot Takes
Ask HN: Resources to get better at outbound sales?
HN to Michigan dev: Cold outreach is “dead”—go niche, get referrals, be human
TLDR: A Michigan founder asked how to do outbound sales and commenters said the old playbook is broken by spam and AI. The crowd pushed trust-first tactics—niche focus, referrals, partnerships, events—with a few book recs for closing, igniting a “cold email is dead” vs “get ultra-specific” debate.
On Hacker News, a Michigan custom software founder asked how to level up outbound sales—and the comments brought a blizzard of opinions. The crowd didn’t hand him playbooks; they threw cold water. Top voices declared cold outreach “dying or mostly dead,” blaming spammy automation and AI-scented “personalization” for flooding inboxes. The mood was clear: trust beats scale. Veterans urged extreme niching, referral programs, and old-school human moves—partnerships, warm introductions, conferences, even gasp door‑knocking.
A few did drop resources—Collin Stewart’s “The Terrifying Art of Finding Customers,” the free “Founding Sales,” and negotiation hit “Never Split the Difference”—but always with a warning label: learn to close, not to blast. One sage nailed the vibe with a builder’s metaphor: you’re not selling that you can swing a hammer, you’re selling that you’ll craft the right one. Others shouted “inbound marketing!” and “know your buyer,” urging empathy over sequences. The spiciest quip? If it’s in a playbook, it probably doesn’t work. It’s HN meets reality TV: less “growth hack,” more “be the trusted local.” The thread’s twist is almost wholesome—amid the AI noise, the hottest advice is painfully human: get specific, get seen, get introduced, and make friends, not mail merges. Hard truth: the list is dead; the handshake lives for now
Key Points
- •A small custom software company in Michigan seeks to improve outbound B2B sales.
- •The poster wants to move beyond cold emailing and LinkedIn messaging.
- •They plan to publish case studies as part of upcoming outreach.
- •They are requesting recommended courses, books, and frameworks.
- •Focus areas include consultative selling and building effective outreach pipelines.