in the section about email). Here was a lesson learned in the value of a) not assuming anything, and b) experimenting: On a Friday afternoon, I sent two mass emails from Salesforce.com: 100 of the “classic sales” emails to Fortune 5000 executives, and 100 of the “short and sweet” emails to the same kind of list. Out of 200 emails I sent, the next morning when I checked email, I had 10 responses sitting in my inbox! Again, these were from C-level and VP-level executives at large companies—just the people with whom I wanted to talk. Response rate for the “sales-y” email: 0%. Response rate for the “short and sweet” email: 10%! (10 responses out of the 100 short and sweet emails.) And at least five of the emails I received from the short and sweet campaign were positive, referring me to other people in the organization as the best person for a conversation about sales force automation. Breakthrough #2: Mass emailing C-level Fortune 5000 executives, with specific kinds of emails, can generate 9%+ response rates. Those high response rates (7-9% or more) from high-level executives have held true year after year, even with my current clients in 2011, seven years later. A 500% Increase In Results In the next month, April 2003, I increased my results by 500% and generated 11 highly qualified sales opportunities that continued on in live sales cycles. (And this increase in opportunities did later lead to an equal increase in revenue.) The tipping point of the Cold Calling 2.0 process was born: sending mass emails to high level executives to ask for referrals to the best person in their organization for a first conversation.