Work Case study
Outbound built on a reason to reach out
At a legal tech company, cold outreach to a broad list converted far worse than warm outreach to people met at events or already known. So outbound was rebuilt around buying signals, with a workflow that finds them every hour.
- IndustryLegal tech
- MotionOutbound
- SignalsFunding, hiring
What converted
- People met in person at events
- People with an existing relationship
- Companies with something new going on
Warm will always beat cold. The fix was to give cold outreach a better reason to reach out.
- New funding signals checked
- Hourly
- Qualified accounts a day
- ~20
- Segments, in priority order
- 3
- Steps from signal to outreach, automated
- 7
01 / Starting point
Volume without a reason
Broad lists and generic sequences produced few sales conversations. Sending more would not change that.
Broad cold outreach
- Big lists, no reason to reach out now
- The same company could land in two campaigns
- Hours of manual research per account
Signal led outreach
- A fresh event at the company, like a funding round
- One campaign per company, never two
- Research done by the workflow, not by hand
02 / The rebuild
Outbound built on signals, not volume
Three segments, in priority order, with suppression so no company ever received two different campaigns.
- Segment 1
Recently raised
A funding announcement is a reason to talk this month.
- Segment 2
Hiring fast
Headcount growing more than 10 percent, so the team is changing.
- Segment 3
Everyone else
A catch all, sent only after the stronger signals were covered.
03 / The method
From who to target to what the CRM knows
Four pieces had to work together before a single email went out.
- ICP mapping
Fit first, then the person
Every account was qualified on company fit before anyone looked for contacts. Then the workflow found the people who own the problem, researched the account and scored fit. Accounts that failed the fit check never reached a sequence.
- Triggers
A reason to reach out this month
Funding announcements came first, then teams growing headcount more than 10 percent, then relevant company changes. Existing relationships counted as a signal too.
- Sending universe
Smaller, ranked and never doubled
Instead of one broad list, the universe was split into three non overlapping segments, strongest signal first. Suppression meant no company ever received two different campaigns. The catch all segment went out only after the signal segments were covered.
- CRM setup
Checked before every send
Before outreach was queued, each account was checked against the CRM, so open deals, current customers and existing conversations were never cold emailed.
04 / The workflow
Research that runs every hour
A workflow that treats each funding announcement as the start of prospecting, so nobody researches accounts by hand.
- Funding announced
- Company qualified
- Right people found
- Account researched
- Fit scored
- CRM checked
- Outreach queued
Built with standard tools: an automation platform, research and enrichment, the CRM and a sending tool.
05 / What carries over
How we build outbound now
The same approach sits behind every Outbound Launch.
- First
Find the signal
Pick the events that make your buyers ready to talk, from funding to hiring to a new location.
- Then
Automate the research
A workflow finds, qualifies and checks each account against your CRM before anyone writes a word.
- Always
Read every reply
What lands gets more volume. What does not gets cut.
Find the reason to reach out first. Then build the system that finds it every hour.
Sending more and booking less?
First Motion builds outbound around real buying signals, live in 14 days.