I often answer to cold outreach

Sometimes because I am interested and would love to jump on the opportunity and sometimes because I just want to reverse-engineer how others do it. Or if I see that I can definitely help an entrepreneur colleague.

Recently I received a proposal to integrate cryptocurrency payments into my product.

I knew beforehand that I wouldn’t do it due to many reasons, but mostly:

1. It will complicate my accounting.
2. My target customers don’t need to pay me with cryptocurrency.
3. I don’t have time for additional development.

I told them that. To my surprise, they ignored these problems and started to sell me their features.

They had indeed impressive features and a lot of automation. But how could I care if my core doubts and problems hadn’t been even addressed?

If instead:

1. They showed me that they could simplify accounting
2. And they have a decent KYC process.
3. And promised to help with integration so that it wouldn’t take any time.

Then I might have considered it. And yet my current potential customers don’t pay me in cryptocurrency.

It taught me a lesson. You cannot sell everything to anybody.

The features are great! But you must target your ideal customer profile even when reaching out and ideally trying to address their problems and concerns.