Most people doing cold outreach want one thing above all: to optimize their copy. Test a thousand variations, change a word here, improve a phrase there. Daniel's experience shows: the contact list matters far more than the copy.
If your list contains bad contacts, meaning people who don't match your ideal customer profile at all, then even the best message in the world won't get you anywhere. You simply won't make progress.
Spend most of your time on pre-qualification: which contacts and companies actually fit you? Only after that comes a good, personalized, relevant message. The order matters: the list comes before the messaging, not the other way around.