# When cold email dies, sell in person

- Category: distribution
- Author: Doru (https://indie.md/people/doru-bota/)
- Source: https://indie.md/events/indie-tm-10-timisoara-june-2026/
- Canonical URL: https://indie.md/advice/go-in-person-when-cold-email-dies/

Cold email is the default first channel because it scales from a laptop, but it assumes your buyer lives in their inbox and trusts a stranger's link. For a local, high-trust, offline buyer like a dentist, that assumption is wrong, and Doru found it out the direct way: the cold campaign produced nothing, walking into small clinics and pitching the owner produced customers. The uncomfortable truth for builders is that the channel has to match the buyer, not your preference for staying behind a screen. Early on, the least scalable channel is often the only one that converts, because in-person presence carries the trust a cold email cannot manufacture. Do the unscalable thing until you have proof and a reference list, then worry about scaling it.