The exact system I used to generate $1,000,000 in sales pipeline through cold email—without buying lists, without sleazy tactics, and without a massive team.
The number flashed on my screen and I had to look twice to make sure I was reading it correctly.
$1,047,000.
That was the total value of meetings I'd booked through cold email in the past 12 months. One million dollars in pipeline. Generated entirely from cold outreach.
Two years earlier, I was unemployed, living on my sister's couch, and $23,000 in debt. My last job had ended when the startup ran out of money. My savings were gone. My confidence was shattered.
Today, I'm running a six-figure consulting business. I have a team of three. I work from anywhere. And it all started with a simple cold email system that I developed through trial, error, and relentless testing.
In this letter, I'm going to share that system with you. The exact formula I used to book $1M in meetings. No theory. No fluff. Just the step-by-step process that worked for me.
Let me take you back to where this all started. June 2021. I was 31 years old, living on my sister's pull-out couch in her one-bedroom apartment. I had $147 in my bank account and a mountain of credit card debt.
I'd spent the previous three years at a series of failed startups. Each one promised the world. Each one ended with layoffs and disappointment. My resume was a graveyard of dead companies.
I knew I needed to do something different. I couldn't keep betting my future on other people's startups. I needed to build something of my own.
The only problem: I had no product. No audience. No money to advertise. Just a couch, a laptop, and desperation.
That's when I stumbled onto cold email.
I'd heard about cold email before. Everyone said it didn't work anymore. "Spam filters are too good." "People are too jaded." "Regulations killed it."
But I had nothing to lose. So I tried it.
I spent a week crafting what I thought was the perfect email. I used a template I found online. I bought a list of 5,000 "decision-makers" from a data broker for $200. I set up a Mailchimp account and hit send.
The results were humiliating:
I wanted to quit. But I had no other options. So I decided to figure out what I'd done wrong.
For the next three months, I did nothing but study cold email. I read every book, every blog post, every case study I could find. I signed up for 47 different newsletters just to see how they wrote subject lines. I analyzed my own inbox, cataloging which emails I opened and why.
I also started reaching out to people who were clearly successful at cold email. Not the gurus selling courses. The actual practitioners. I found them on LinkedIn, saw their results, and sent them genuine, personalized messages asking for advice.
About 30% replied. Those conversations changed everything.
After 90 days of research and testing, I finally cracked the code. I developed a system that consistently generated replies, meetings, and deals. I call it the Million-Dollar Cold Email Formula.
Here it is:
Right Prospect + Deep Research + Specific Hook + Clear Ask + Persistent Follow-Up = Meetings
Let me break down each component:
This is where most people fail before they even start. They're emailing the wrong people.
I don't mean wrong in the sense of job title. I mean wrong in the sense of timing. The best prospect in the world won't buy if they don't have a need right now.
So I developed what I call "trigger-based prospecting." Instead of targeting by industry or title, I target by signal. I look for:
When you target based on triggers, you're not cold calling. You're warm calling people who just signaled they're likely to buy.
Here's the rule I live by: 15 minutes of research per prospect.
Not 2 minutes. Not 5 minutes. 15.
In those 15 minutes, I'm looking for:
This research is what transforms a cold email into a warm conversation. When you reference something specific about their business, they know you've done your homework. You stand out instantly.
The opening line of your email is everything. It needs to grab attention immediately by showing relevance.
Here's a formula that works: "I noticed [specific observation about their business] → [insight about that observation] → [connection to your solution]."
Example:
Notice what's NOT in that opening:
Just relevance, insight, and a clear connection to value.
The biggest mistake I see in cold emails? Ambiguous calls-to-action.
"Let me know if you're interested."
"Would love to connect."
"Happy to chat when you have time."
These are worthless. They put the burden on the prospect to figure out what you want and when.
Instead, use a specific, low-friction ask:
"Are you open to a 10-minute call next Tuesday or Wednesday?"
Specific. Time-bounded. Easy to say yes or no.
This is where the magic happens. Most people send one email. When they don't get a reply, they assume the prospect isn't interested.
This is catastrophically wrong.
My data shows that 68% of my positive replies came after the second, third, or fourth follow-up. Not the first email. The follow-ups.
Here's my 5-email sequence:
By now, you've probably spotted the flaw in my system.
15 minutes of research per prospect. 5 emails per sequence. If I'm targeting 50 prospects per week, that's 75 hours of work. Impossible for one person.
This is the scalability problem that has stumped sales teams forever. You can either do high-quality, personalized outreach to a few people, or low-quality, generic outreach to many. You can't do both.
At least, you couldn't. Not until recently.
Six months into my cold email journey, I discovered a tool that changed everything. It was called Suplex.
A fellow consultant mentioned it in a Slack channel. "It's like having a team of research assistants who never sleep," he said. "I send 200 personalized emails a day now. Used to send 20."
I was skeptical. I'd tried automation tools before. They all promised personalization but delivered generic templates.
But Suplex was different. Here's what it does:
AI Research
Suplex analyzes each prospect's digital footprint—LinkedIn, company website, news mentions, social media. It identifies trigger events, pain points, and conversation starters. In 30 seconds, it does research that takes me 15 minutes manually.
Personalized Email Generation
Then it writes emails based on that research. Not templates with merge fields. Real, contextual personalization that references specific details about each prospect. The emails sound like I spent 20 minutes crafting them.
Automated Follow-Up Sequences
Suplex manages my entire 5-email sequence automatically. I set it up once. It executes perfectly for every prospect.
LinkedIn Integration
Suplex also handles LinkedIn outreach, creating an omnichannel approach that increases response rates by 40%.
Local Data Storage
Unlike every other platform, Suplex stores my data on my machine. My prospect lists, my sequences, my performance data—all under my control. This matters more than I initially realized.
Since integrating Suplex into my system, my results have transformed:
I'm sending more emails than ever. Each one is more personalized than ever. And I'm working fewer hours than ever.
That's the power of combining the right strategy (the Million-Dollar Formula) with the right tool (Suplex).
I'm not selling a course. I'm not promising you'll make a million dollars. Results depend on your product, your market, your execution.
But I am telling you that this formula works. It worked for me when I was broke and desperate. It works for me now that I'm established and growing.
Here's how to implement it:
Step 1: Define your trigger signals. What events indicate a company is likely to need your solution?
Step 2: Build your research discipline. Spend 15 minutes understanding each prospect before reaching out.
Step 3: Craft your specific hooks. Use the formula: Observation → Insight → Connection.
Step 4: Create your 5-email follow-up sequence. Plan all five emails before you send the first one.
Step 5: Get Suplex to automate the research, personalization, and follow-up at scale.
That's it. No secret hacks. No magic bullets. Just disciplined execution of a proven formula, amplified by the right technology.
Join 2,000+ professionals using Suplex to scale their outreach. Your first 100 AI-powered emails are free.
Try Suplex Free →No credit card required. Set up in 5 minutes.
If Suplex doesn't help you book at least 5 qualified meetings in your first 30 days, we'll refund your money. That's how confident we are in this formula.
I want to be transparent: $1,047,000 was the total value of meetings booked, not revenue closed. My close rate is about 25%, so actual revenue generated was closer to $260,000. Still life-changing for someone who started on a couch, but I don't want to mislead you.
The point isn't the exact number. The point is that a disciplined cold email system, executed consistently, can transform your business. It transformed mine.
I store my entire prospect database in Suplex, which keeps everything local on my machine. If you're building a serious business, your prospect lists are valuable intellectual property. Don't hand them to cloud-based platforms that could get breached. Keep them under your control.