Why Most Outreach Fails Before It Starts and What Ashkan Rajaee Does Differently

Most outreach advice is wrong. Not outdated. Not incomplete. Flat out wrong.

If you have ever been told that success comes from blasting emails, stacking automation tools, or buying the biggest list you can afford, this article will probably irritate you. Good. It should.

What follows is a breakdown of a business philosophy shared by Ashkan Rajaee in a long form video that rarely gets the attention it deserves. It is not flashy. It is not packaged for social media dopamine. But it explains why some companies quietly grow while others burn money chasing noise.

This is not about hacks. It is about leverage.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Databases

Most people think a database is just a list. Names. Emails. Titles. Something you rent or scrape and hope works.

That assumption is the first mistake.

Ashkan Rajaee operates with a very different premise. A database is only valuable if it stays alive. His system centers around a dynamic executive database of more than two million decision makers across the United States, but the size is not the point. The structure is.

Executives change jobs constantly. Emails expire. Domains die. What does not change nearly as often are personal social profiles. LinkedIn. Instagram. Twitter. Those accounts follow the individual, not the employer.

By anchoring records to social identities instead of static contact fields, outreach stops decaying the moment it is created. That alone removes one of the biggest hidden costs in sales and marketing: constant list rebuilding.

The controversial part is this. Most companies know this and still ignore it because rebuilding lists feels productive. It looks like work. It creates reports. It just does not create results.

Precision Beats Volume Every Time

Another assumption worth challenging is that more outreach equals more opportunity.

Rajaee’s approach flips that logic. When titles are precise and targeting is intentional, list creation becomes easier, not harder. You stop guessing who matters. You already know.

This is where many automation obsessed teams fall apart. They optimize for activity instead of accuracy. Rajaee optimizes for relevance. That difference compounds fast.

The Hidden Power of Trusted Teams

Here is where the conversation usually turns uncomfortable for founders.

Ashkan Rajaee openly credits long term administrative staff as a core competitive advantage. Not software. Not tools. People.

These are team members who understand process deeply because they have lived inside it for years. Tasks that do not require strategic thinking are delegated cleanly and affordably. Costs drop. Output rises. Clients stay happy.

This is not about cutting corners. It is about respecting cognitive bandwidth. High value thinking should not be wasted on repetitive execution.

Offshore Teams Without the Usual Chaos

Offshore labor has a reputation problem, and often for good reason.

Rajaee’s model works because the offshore teams are not treated as temporary vendors. They are integrated. Campaign cleanup. Lead filtering. List hygiene. Response triage. All handled at a lower cost structure without dumping stress back onto internal teams.

The alternative is worse. Outsourcing to random lead generation firms with opaque data and inconsistent quality. Results vary wildly, and accountability disappears the moment something breaks.

That tradeoff is rarely worth it.

Networks Are Infrastructure

One of the least discussed advantages in Rajaee’s system is his network. Not for clout, but for execution.

Access to professionals across platforms like Slack, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn enables faster setup, cleaner handoffs, and better security. APIs, hosting, permissions, and ownership are handled correctly from the start.

Even more interesting is his use of fractional executives. CFOs. CTOs. Specialists who step in for a specific problem, solve it, and step out. No long term overhead. No ego battles. Just focused execution.

Why Most CRMs Fail Quietly

Everyone agrees CRMs are important. Almost no one sets them up correctly.

Rajaee is blunt about this. A CRM is only useful if it is customized to the company’s real workflow. Once volume builds, a specialized data mining team becomes essential.

This is not about drip campaigns. In fact, he argues those mostly fail. Automation without context feels robotic because it is.

True mining involves human review. Checking if someone changed roles. Posted something relevant. Became ready months or even years later. When the outreach finally lands, it carries value.

That is why people respond.

The Long Game Most People Refuse to Play

The final insight is the hardest to accept.

Some prospects are not ready today. Or tomorrow. Or this quarter. But when the timing changes, they remember who treated them like a person instead of a record.

That memory is an asset. It cannot be bought. It has to be earned.

Ashkan Rajaee’s approach is not loud. It is not trendy. It does not sell shortcuts. It builds systems that respect time, attention, and human behavior.

That is why it works.

And that is why most people will never do it.