Smirnov Consulting Group ran LinkedIn, warm email and cold email campaigns for an IT company in Germany. In 35 days the company signed 5 new contracts worth about EUR 1,250,000, from 712 replies and 34 booked sales calls. Their average project was worth EUR 250,000.
Their own SDR had booked 2 calls in 3 months
The company came to us after trying SDRs and agencies with no success. Their outreach used outdated methods and never reached decision-makers at any real scale.
One of their SDRs had booked 2 calls in 3 months, and those leads were not even qualified.
We rebuilt the website and the offer before the first message
In order:
- Created a new video sales letter (VSL) for their website.
- Rewrote the copy on their website and their other digital assets.
- Built a new outbound strategy and added 2 new angles to their existing offers.
- Built lists of ideal clients only, with Sales Navigator, Apollo and UpLead.
- Optimized 3 LinkedIn accounts for outreach.
- Set up 3 email accounts for warm emails and 15 separate email accounts for cold email.
- Wrote the sequences: 6 steps for LinkedIn plus warm email, 5 steps for cold email.
- Put an inbox manager on the replies.
- Connected everything to their CRM.
- Worked with their sales team on closing, because booking a sales call and closing a sale are two different jobs.
Three LinkedIn accounts and 18 email accounts carried the campaign
A warm email is an email sent after a LinkedIn first touch, so the prospect has already seen a name and a face. Cold email ran as its own campaign from separate accounts.
| Channel | Accounts | Sequence length |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn plus warm email | 3 LinkedIn accounts, 3 email accounts | 6 steps |
| Cold email | 15 email accounts | 5 steps |
Every reply went to one inbox manager, a person rather than an autoresponder, who read each one and booked the interested prospects into the calendar.
712 replies turned into 5 signed contracts
| Stage | Number |
|---|---|
| Replies | 712 |
| Interested in a call | 59 |
| Sales calls booked | 34 |
| Showed up | 28 |
| Contracts signed in 35 days | 5, about EUR 1,250,000 |
Two more potential projects were still in the pipeline when we reported.
Look at the second row. Of 712 replies, 59 wanted a call. That ratio is normal. Hundreds of replies become dozens of conversations, and dozens of conversations become a handful of contracts. 28 of the 34 booked calls took place.
What it means for an IT company that already tried SDRs
The gap between 2 calls in 3 months and 34 booked calls came from setup around the people: a website with a video, two new offer angles, lists of ideal clients only, 21 sending accounts, and a person reading every reply. One SDR working alone rarely has any of that.
The conditions matter. A build like this takes about 15 days from signed contract before the first campaign goes out. It pays off when one project is worth tens or hundreds of thousands, as it was here at EUR 250,000 on average. And it needs someone on your side who can run a sales call well. Five contracts from 28 meetings happened partly because we worked on closing with their team.
If nobody on your team is free to take calls within about a week of a booking, fix that before you add volume.
Our software development page shows how we run this
- Our approach for software development companies
- More client results on the case studies page
- What a program costs: pricing