Sales & marketing · OpenAI
Sales emails written by AI: more sent, fewer replies
○ Didn't work
What happened
The team set up AI-written outreach and tripled the number of emails sent per person. Reply rates fell by more than half within six weeks. Several prospects replied only to ask us to stop. The emails were fluent and polite and all sounded the same, including the same opening line.
What it cost
Under €300 a month in usage. The cost was the prospects who will not open our next email.
What we fixed
We went back to fewer emails. The tool now drafts, a person rewrites the first two lines, and nothing goes out in bulk.
The lessonMore messages is not more conversations.
Reality numbers
- Team
- 11–50 people
- Monthly AI spend
- €100–1k
- Still running after 90 days
- rolled back