Cold emails that start warm business conversations
In this episode of the Tekpon SaaS Podcast, host Cristian Dina interviews Yurii Veremchuk, the CEO of Woodpecker, a leading cold email tool. Yruii shares the founding story of Woodpecker and provides insights into the world of cold emails and social selling.
Our guest begins by discussing the origins of the Woodpecker. Originally, he and his team created an app called 52 Challenges, but they faced difficulties reaching out to fitness coaches. They decided to automate their email outreach by developing code, inadvertently discovering a business need in the outreach and sales field. This led to the creation of Woodpecker in 2016, starting with a team of 8 members and growing to over 150 employees.
Woodpecker initially had angel investors and later went public in Poland. Yurii emphasizes the company’s strong focus on culture and understanding individual goals. However, their biggest challenge is optimizing resources and staying ahead of changes in the cold emailing industry.
Woodpecker’s main product is a tool that allows users to send cold emails at scale, helping them attract ideal customers without investing heavily in marketing. They have also expanded into social selling, offering additional features to connect with potential customers on social media platforms.
How to start social selling
Yurii then dives into the importance of social selling. He believes that people are more addicted to social media than reading emails, making it crucial to build trust and authority with prospects through social media interactions. He recommends using social media to initiate conversations and establish relationships before engaging in sales activities like cold calling and emailing. The discussion touches on the safety of LinkedIn extensions and tools. While some tools are in a gray area and could potentially get blocked, Yuriiassures listeners that Woodpecker has found a tool that integrates natively with LinkedIn without any risk.
Our guest offers advice for success in sales and entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of learning by doing and not overthinking. He encourages listeners to start and not quit, highlighting how successful individuals in their industries got their start by taking action. He also stresses the value of applying knowledge gained from reading and listening to podcasts. Yurii praises Cristian for starting the Tekpon SaaS Podcast and attending conferences for personal and professional growth.
Towards the end, Yurii reflects on Woodpecker’s journey, admitting that they did not anticipate the market’s potential at first and had to rewrite their tool for scaling. He also shares a personal experience where inconsistent prospecting led to pipeline issues as a sales rep. However, the company’s success gradually came from inbound leads, referrals, and investment in search engine optimization.
Yurii concludes by discussing Woodpecker’s vision to become an assistant that can handle tedious tasks and provide valuable data automatically. He acknowledges that AI already impacts the sales world, providing message and template suggestions and enabling automated workflows. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into cold emails, social selling, and entrepreneurship, offering actionable advice for those looking to excel in their sales careers.
