Most cold outbound doesn't fail because of your list. It fails because half the list was never worth mailing.
Everyone blames the tool or the copy when outbound flatlines, but for me the real problem was almost always the list, specifically that half of it was people I had no genuine reason to contact.
When I first started doing outbound properly I thought more volume was the answer. Send more, book more. What actually happened was replies stayed flat, the domain reputation took a beating, and the whole thing felt like shouting into a void.
What changed things for me was cutting hard before sending anything.
Enrich every lead first, then score the one signal actually worth opening on. A new role, a hiring spree, funding, some real recent change.
Strong signal, they get a first line built around that specific thing.
No real signal, they don't get emailed at all.
Here's the bit most people skip. Most bought lists are over half people there was nothing genuine to say to, and mailing them anyway feels free because you already paid for the list. But it's pure downside, it tanks your deliverability and trains the inbox providers to bin you. Cutting that half is counterintuitive but it's what makes the other half actually land.
Doing it this way has done about a 7% reply rate for me across a couple thousand leads, cold. Normal is a sad 1-2%.
Wrote up the full signal scoring and how I filter here: https://app.notion.com/p/38b9a78dea79818d920dc88a7465a7a4
Curious if this resonates with anyone else. Do you cut your lists down hard before sending, or send to everyone you've got? Happy to answer any questions too.