Cold messages to people in my field, do they work? (update)

I want to talk to people in a new field but I hate cold messages. Any experience at all would help. I want advice, not a job directly. What did you ask?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It saved me later.