Most people track the wrong metrics. Health scores. Open rates. Dashboards that look reassuring. None of that actually tells you if your cold email is working. There’s only one deliverability question that matters: Where did the email land? • Primary inbox • Promotions • Spam That’s it. That’s the game. How I Actually Judge Deliverability I don’t guess. I test inbox placement. The simplest way to do this is by sending emails to seed accounts and checking where they land. Here’s how to read the results: Inbox (Primary) You’re good. This is where replies come from. Promotions Not ideal. Usually a copy issue. Spam System problem. Infrastructure, domains, or sending behavior needs fixing. If you don’t know where your emails are landing, you’re flying blind. Here's the real takeaway 👇 Instantly lets you run daily automated inbox placement tests with one click. It shows you exactly where your emails are landing - inbox, promotions, or spam. No guessing. No false confidence. It’s free, takes under a minute to set up, and gives you more signal than most “health scores” ever will. Once you track placement, deliverability becomes obvious, not mysterious. If you want the step-by-step setup for inbox placement testing, comment “Placement”, and I’ll send it over.

If I had to rebuild everything tomorrow, these two tools would definitely make the cut. Most of the leverage comes from tool decisions made early - especially CRM and outbound. Once those two are right, everything else compounds. When they’re wrong, teams spend months duct-taping workflows together. After testing dozens of platforms over the years, only two tools have survived every scale phase we’ve gone through. 1) CRM: GoHighLevel GoHighLevel works because it reduces surface area. Instead of juggling: • Scheduling • Forms • Funnels • Automations • Client reporting …it centralizes everything in one environment. Fewer handoffs. Fewer failures. Easier scaling across teams and clients. This is why most serious agencies eventually converge on GHL - not because it’s flashy, but because it’s stable under pressure. 2) Cold Email: Instantly Outbound lives or dies by deliverability and iteration speed. Instantly wins here because: • It’s built for multi-inbox scaling • Warmup is native, not bolted on • Personalization workflows are practical • Product velocity is miles ahead of competitors Most tools try to look innovative. Instantly actually ships. You don’t need more tools. You need fewer tools that don’t break when volume increases. That’s the difference between systems that look good in demos and systems that survive real usage. Comment “Stack” if you want to see a full list of the tools I use to run my companies.