Denis Acia

Co-Founder at SaasFluence | B2B Influencer Marketing for SaaS Brands

I’m Denis, Co-Founder of SaasFluence

We’re an influencer marketing agency helping B2B tech brands drive demand and visibility by partnering with LinkedIn influencers.

Currently — with over 200 influencers, we manage influencer marketing programs for B2B sales tech companies like Maildoso, Icypeas, Saleshandy, Fowla, and others.

Why We Started SaasFluence

Before SaasFluence, I ran an outbound agency, Applus Leads. Through that experience, we worked with some incredible B2B tech brands — companies with fantastic products and real value to offer. But despite outbound efforts (cold calls and cold emails), they weren’t getting the traction they deserved.

A big reason?

Their LinkedIn presence and engagement were minimal. Most had only a few hundred page followers and very little visibility in the market.

That lack of recognition made it hard to convert cold leads. Without social proof or brand mentions, prospects were hesitant to engage — especially in the highly competitive sales tech space.
What they really needed was a new approach — one that would:

1. Build credibility
2. Earn trust
3. And drive demand by establishing them as trusted solutions in the market.

That’s where SaasFluence comes in.

Our mission;
To help B2B tech brands leverage influencer marketing to drive demand, increase sales, and grow.

How We Can Help

☑ If you’re a B2B tech founder or business leader with an influencer marketing budget of at least $10K/month,
 ☑ And you don’t have the time to run campaigns or manage influencer partnerships,
We’ll handle it for you.

We’ve launched thousands of LinkedIn-sponsored campaigns, and our clients are seeing exceptional ROI.

If you’re curious, DM me and I’ll share a few of our client case studies so you can learn more about our systems and results.

Or, visit our website to explore further:
 👉 www.saasfluence.co

Lead Generation Partner - Outbound

I am so tired of seeing 20-year-olds giving me life advice on this app.

I scroll my feed and I see people who haven't really done any work yet telling us how we should run our companies.

Why is everyone trying so hard to be a teacher before they have even been a student?

I don't want to hear your philosophy or your 'mindset' tips that you found in a book. I want to see what you did with your own two hands.

Show me the scars from a mistake you made last month. Tell me about the client you lost or the project that blew up in your face because you messed up. 

That is the only way I can believe that what you are saying is something I can use in my life too.

We have enough people on LinkedIn talking about how things should be. We need more people showing how things are.

I would rather follow a person who is failing and being honest about it than a "thought leader" who has never done any work.

Do you want to see more advice or more stories from trenches?

Hlib Storchak

AE @ <oneaway> | We help busy sales teams generate top of the funnel leads with Clay

GTM and RevOps aren’t buzzwords.
They’re how modern teams scale revenue with predictability.

If you’re a founder, revenue leader, or operator, you’ve probably felt it:

Your people aren’t the problem.
The systems they’re forced to run on are.

→ SDRs stuck in manual prospecting instead of closing gaps
→ RevOps buried in spreadsheets instead of enabling clarity
→ Sales teams running outdated playbooks from 2019
→ Leadership frustrated by pipeline that feels random, not repeatable

That’s where we come in.

I’m Hlib - GTM lead at Strongest Group.

We don’t position ourselves as “just another agency.”
We operate as your growth partner.

What that means: we embed with your team and help across the full revenue stack:

→ GTM strategy & positioning - so your offer lands with the right audience
→ Clay-powered outbound workflows - predictable pipeline built on real signals, not lists
→ RevOps infrastructure - systems that create visibility, alignment, and speed
→ Sales enablement + plays - processes your team can run tomorrow
→ Creative campaigns - that cut through noise and set you apart

Because here’s the truth:

Scaling revenue isn’t about duct-taping another tool or running “one-off campaigns.”
It’s about building a GTM + RevOps engine that compounds every quarter.

The results?
We’ve helped early-stage startups, agencies, and growth-stage SaaS unlock:

• Predictable top-of-funnel growth
• Faster, cleaner sales cycles
• Higher productivity across every revenue function
• GTM engines that don’t break when you scale

If you’re serious about growth, you don’t need another vendor.
You need a partner who can help design, build, and operate systems that last.

📌 DM me “Growth” and I’ll show you the exact frameworks we’re using to generate 5–15 qualified opportunities/week...

While laying GTM + RevOps foundations your team can rely on long after.

Chief Executive Officer

Hlib S.

The email structure most people skip because it looks too easy.

I've been sending this for a bunch of our clients lately. 
It's stupidly simple.

Here it is:

{{first_name}} - if we {{offer something valuable for free or big discount}} for {{company_name}} to {{achieve result}} - would you be interested?

{{Signature}}

P.S. {{Social proof or context}}

That's the whole email.
Looks too basic, right? 

Most people see this and think "there has to be more to it"

There isn't. 
And it works really well.

Here's why I think it hits:

☑ It's short. 

Like actually short. Takes 10 seconds to read. 
No one's skimming past because it's already done.

☑ It's not about you. 

Most cold emails are "we do this, we help with that,
We work with companies like yours" 

Me me me. 
This one flips it. 

It's about what they get. 
Not what you do.

☑ The offer carries the weight.

 If you're offering something genuinely valuable,
You don't need fancy copy to make it sound good. 

A free audit. 
A free build. 
A big discount. 

Something that makes them go "wait, really?" 

That's the hook. 
Not clever wordplay.

☑ The P.S. adds proof without making a big deal about it. 

One line. 
A quick result. 
Done.

We've tested a lot of different structures. 

Long emails. 
Short ones.
Storytelling. 
Questions. 
All kinds of stuff.

This one keeps performing. 
Across different clients. 
Different industries. 

It just works.

Shoutout to Christian Plascencia for sharing this template originally. 
Credit where it's due.

The point isn't that this is some magic formula. 
The point is that simple works.

When everyone's overcomplicating their emails,
The straightforward one stands out.

Try it. 
Let me know what happens.

What's the simplest email that's ever worked for you?

Building GTM Systems for Scalable B2B Companies | DM me “Grow” to Learn More

They would've been our second-highest-paying client.
But we said no.

A few months ago, a company reached out. 
Super eager to start. 
Ready to pay well.

We declined because we knew we couldn't match their expectations. 

The results they wanted, in the timeline they wanted,
For the market they were in.

It wasn't going to work. 
We could feel it.
So we passed.

Sounds crazy, right? 
Turning down good money.

But I've learned this lesson the hard way.

Early in my career, I took clients I shouldn't have.

The money was good. 
The project seemed fine. 
I ignored the gut feeling.

What happened?
Both sides ended up frustrated. 

I was frustrated working with them. 
They were frustrated with the results.

Nobody won. 
The money wasn't worth it.

Now I look for red flags early.

1) Unrealistic expectations.

If someone treats outbound like "we fix this or we die," that's a red flag.

It's a process. 
A calculated experiment. 
It takes iteration, patience, testing.

If they need a miracle by next month, we're not the right fit.

2) Bad vibes.

Hard to explain. 
But you know when something feels off.

The way they talk. 
The way they treat the process. 
The energy in the calls.

Gut feeling is real. 
I trust it now.

What a good fit looks like:
→ Positive attitude 
→ Realistic expectations 
→ Understands that results take time 
→ Patient with the process 
→ Collaborative, not just dumping tasks on us

The best clients don't just hire us and disappear. 

They work with us. 
They give feedback. 
They're part of the process.

That's when the best results happen.

How I say no:
I don't just decline and disappear.

I try to understand what they actually need. 
Then I refer them to someone who might be a better fit.

Maybe a different agency. 
Maybe a freelancer. 
Maybe a different approach entirely.

Just because we're not right for them doesn't mean no one is.

The lesson:
Revenue feels good in the moment. 
Bad-fit clients feel terrible for months.

One painful project taught me more than ten good ones.
Now I'd rather say no to money than say yes to frustration.

Fit matters more than revenue.
Every time.

What's your process for deciding which clients to take?

Life is a marathon. 
But it's lived in sprints.

I think about this a lot.

The "hustle 24/7" crowd says never stop. 
The "work-life balance" crowd says slow down.
I don't fully agree with either.

Here's what actually works for me:
I run my life in quarterly sprints.

Every two months, I pick one big goal. 
One thing I want to achieve. 
Then I block out everything else and focus.

Not five goals. 
Not ten priorities. 
One.

For that period, it gets my best energy. 
Everything else is maintenance mode.

Why bi-monthly?
I tested different timeframes.

Monthly is too short. 
By the time you build momentum, it's over.

Three months is too long. 
You lose urgency. 
Things drag.

Two months is the sweet spot:
Long enough to do something real.
Short enough to stay focused.

What happens between sprints?

I slow down. 
Travel. 
Rest.

Actually, I'm in Budapest this weekend. 
Just walking around. 
No agenda. 
No calls.

That's actually part of the system.

You can't sprint forever. 
The rest is what makes the next sprint possible.

What happens when I ignore this?

I've tried pushing through without breaks.
It doesn't end well.

The work gets unfocused. 
Quality drops. 
Health starts to slip.

I'm not sharper when I grind nonstop. 
I'm worse.

The balance I've found:
Weekdays: Deep focus on the sprint goal.
Weekends: Family and friends. 

They know I work hard. 
They also know weekends are theirs.

That separation matters. 
Without it, everything blurs together and nothing gets your best.

The advice I'd give (that I still struggle with myself):
Don't feel bad for resting.
Don't feel guilty for pausing.

The marathon is long. 
If you sprint nonstop, you'll burn out before the finish line.

Rest isn't the opposite of progress. 
It's part of it.

Sprint hard. 
Rest fully. 
Repeat.

That's the blueprint.

What's your approach to balancing focus and rest?

Networking sounds cringe. 
But it's the reason I'm 5x further than I'd be alone.

I get why people hate the word.

It brings up images of awkward events. 
Forced handshakes. 
People collecting business cards they'll never look at.

That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about being open to meeting new people. 
That's it.

No "what can I get from this person" 
Just genuine curiosity.

Here's what I've learned:

You never know which conversation becomes a partnership.
Some of my best collaborations started from random chats. 

A DM. 
A coffee. 
A "hey, we should talk sometime"

Nothing forced. 
Just two people figuring out if there's a way to work together.

Sometimes there isn't. 
That's fine.

But sometimes there is. 
And those are the ones that change everything.

I think in combinations now.
When I meet someone new, I'm not thinking "what can they do for me?"
I'm thinking "what could we build together?" or "who else should they know?"

It's like collecting puzzle pieces. 
You don't always know how they fit yet. 
But you keep collecting.

Then one day, two pieces click. 
And something happens that neither of you could've done alone.

The difference between grinding alone vs meeting people:

When I was doing everything solo, progress was slow. 
Every step was hard. 
Every win took forever.

Once I started meeting more people, things accelerated. 

Ideas got sharper. 
Opportunities showed up. 
Partnerships formed.

5x faster progress. 
Not exaggerating.

Not because I worked less. 
But because the right people multiply your effort.

My approach:
→ Stay open to meeting new people 
→ No forced relationships 
→ Be genuinely curious about what they're building 
→ Think about combinations, not transactions 
→ Follow up with people you vibe with

That's it. 
No complicated strategy.

The reality:
Some conversations go nowhere. 
That's fine.

Some turn into friendships. 
Great.

Some turn into partnerships that change your trajectory. 
That's the magic.

You just never know which one it'll be. 
So you stay open.

If you're grinding alone right now, try meeting more people. 

Not for immediate results. 
For the long game.

The compounding effect of relationships is unmatched.
Who's someone you met that ended up changing your path?

Building a SaaS list has always been a nightmare. 
Here's what finally worked:

The problem is simple.
Most SaaS companies don't call themselves SaaS companies.

Go on LinkedIn. 
Try to find them. 
Good luck.

The closest industry filter is "Software Development".
But that includes agencies, dev shops, consultancies,
And random tech companies.

Not what you need.

You can try keywords. 
Tech stack filters. 
Employee count.

Still messy. 
Still not accurate. 
Still hours wasted cleaning bad data.

This has bugged me for a while. 
A lot of our clients sell to SaaS companies. 
We need accurate lists.

Then Stuart from SaasyDB reached out.

Another database? Sure, I'll try it.
And honestly? It's good.

The coverage is solid. 
US, UK, other big markets. 
The data is clean. 

And these are actual SaaS companies. 

Not "maybe SaaS" 
Not "kinda looks like SaaS"
Real SaaS.

How I use it:
→ Pull a list from SaasyDB 
→ Bring it into Clay 
→ Enrich with more data
 → Build the campaign

So we have a clean list to start with.

Who this helps:
If you sell to SaaS companies, this saves time.
If SaaS isn't your target, probably not for you.

But for us? It's been super useful.

Stuart reached out, I tried it, it worked. 
That's it.

Link in comments if you want to check it out.

What do you use to build SaaS lists? 
Curious what's working for others.

I don't write a single word until I answer these 5 questions.

Every time. 
No exceptions.

Skipping even one usually means worse results. 
So I don't skip.

1. Who are we targeting?
Not "B2B companies" or "marketing people"

Specific. 
Who exactly?

→ What titles? 
→ What company size?
 → What industry? 
→ What stage?
If you can't describe your ICP in one detailed sentence,
You're not ready to write.

2. How are we finding them?
Targeting only matters if the data is good.

→ What sources are we using? 
→ What signals or triggers? 
→ How are we validating the list?

"We scraped LinkedIn" isn't a strategy. 
"Companies that hired their first SDR in the last 60 days" is.

3. What's the offer?
This is where most emails fail.

→ What value are we leading with? 
→ Is it specific enough? 
→ Would I respond to this if I received it?

If the offer isn't a 10/10, the email won't work. 
No matter how good the copy is.

4. Which channels?

Email alone? 
LinkedIn? 
Cold calling? 
All three?

→ What makes sense for this ICP? 
→ Where do they actually pay attention? 
→ How do the channels work together?

The channel should match the audience. 
Not just what's easiest for us.

5. What's the goal?
Not every email is asking for a meeting.

→ Are we going for a meeting? 
→ A signup? 
→ A referral? 
→ Just a reply to start the conversation?

The goal shapes the CTA. 
If you're not clear on what you want, they won't be either.

Why this matters:
When a campaign underperforms, 
I go back to these five.

Usually, we skipped one. 
Or answered one too vaguely.

→ Targeting was too broad 
→ Data wasn't validated 
→ Offer was weak 
→ Wrong channel for the audience 
→ Unclear goal

Fix the question you skipped. 
Results usually follow.

The simple version:
Who. How. What. Where. Why.

Answer all five before you write a single word.
What's your pre-writing checklist?

The "menu" framework changed how I sell.

I learned this from a sales mentor last year. 

Simple idea. 
Huge difference.

Here's how it works:
Instead of one offer, you give prospects options to choose from.
Like a menu at a restaurant.

You have a core service. 
Then you can add things on top. 
Or remove things to bring the price down.

Sounds basic. 
But most people don't do this.

They show up with one offer. 
One price. 
Take it or leave it.

That works for maybe 3% of the market. 
The people ready to buy right now.

What about the other 97%?

The ones who are interested but not sure. 
The ones who like it but the price feels high. 
The ones who want something slightly different.

One offer loses them. 
A menu keeps the conversation going.

How I use it:
I mostly use this on calls. 
Especially after a discovery where I know what they need.

Example:
I offer multi-channel outbound. Cold email + LinkedIn.

Prospect says: "Can you do inbox management too?"
Me: "Yes, that's an add-on. Would you also be interested in cold calling?"
Prospect: "Actually, yes"

Started with mid-tier. 
Ended with a bigger deal.

Or the opposite happens:
I offer multi-channel + warm calling.

Prospect says: "Love it, but the price is too high"
Me: "No problem. What if we remove warm calling and just focus on email and LinkedIn?"

They get a discount. 
They're happy. 
They sign.

Same conversation. 
Different outcome. 

Because there were options.

Why this works:
People like choices. They don't like "yes or no"

When you give them a menu, they stop thinking "should I buy?" 
And start thinking "which option fits me?"

That's a completely different conversation.

The simple structure:
→ Core offer (the base) 
→ Add-ons (things you can include for more) 
→ Downgrade path (things you can remove for less)

You're being flexible.
And flexible closes more deals.

The lesson:
If you're showing up with one offer and one price,
You're leaving money on the table.

Build a menu. 
Let them choose.
Works way better than take it or leave it.

How do you structure your offers?

One insight from a cold call changed our entire campaign. 
Here's what happened:

We were running outbound for an ecom client. 
Targeting a mix of titles. 

Results were okay. 
Not great. 
Just okay.

Then our team started calling.

After a few days, they noticed something:

CMOs were different. 
More engaged. 
Better conversations. 
Actually interested in talking.

Other titles? 
Polite but distant. 
Going through the motions.

We shifted the whole campaign to focus on CMOs.

Same offer. 
Same product. 
Just different target.

Results changed completely.
We figured that out in days. 

With email only, it would've taken weeks of testing. 
Maybe we'd never find it.

That's when it clicked for me.

Cold callers aren't just a booking channel. 
They're a feedback machine.

Here's what our callers tell us daily:
→ What objections keep coming up 
→ What prospects actually care about 
→ What language resonates 
→ What makes people tune out 
→ Who the real decision maker is

This isn't survey data. 
This isn't guessing from metrics.
It's straight from real conversations. 

Every single day.

How we use it:
We take that feedback and adjust everything. 

The copy. 
The targeting. 
The offer.

Sometimes small tweaks. 
Sometimes big pivots. 

Like switching our entire ICP based on a few phone calls.

What you miss without cold callers:
Email data tells you what happened. 

Reply rates dropped. 
Reply rates are low. 
Okay, but why?

You can't hear tone in an email. 
You can't catch hesitation. 
You can't ask "wait, what do you mean by that?"

Callers can. 
That's the difference.

The speed advantage:
With daily feedback from calls, 
We crack messaging and offers way faster.

What used to take weeks of A/B testing now takes days of listening.
The feedback loop shortens everything.

One more thing:

We can book meetings on day one of a new partnership.
Email needs warm-up. 
Sequences take time. 

Cold calling? 
Pick up the phone. 
Start conversations. 
Instant momentum.

Bottom line:
If you're running outbound without cold callers, 
You're flying with half the data you could have.

Shoutout to all of our SDRs. 
The insights they bring back make everyone better.

Do you have cold callers on your team? 
What's the best insight you've gotten from a call?

Hot take: human-to-human calls are becoming inefficient.

Sounds crazy. 
But hear me out.

We had a podcast recording with Frank Sondors 🥓. 
We got talking about where GTM is heading.

And Frank says something that stuck with me:

"We're getting to a phase where AI agents will talk to AI agents. 
Because two humans are just too slow."

I laughed. 
Sounds like sci-fi, right?

Then Frank told me something weird.

He's been getting outbound calls lately. 
Real calls. 
But something feels off.

He picks up. 
Slight delay. 
The tone is too smooth. 
Responses are a bit too clean.

Then it hits him:
That's not a human. 
That's an AI agent. 

Calling him. 
Doing outbound.

Here's the thing though:
Robocalling is still illegal in most of Europe and the US. 
Agentic calling isn't allowed.

But it's already happening.

And if AI agents are already calling humans...
How long before they just call each other?

Booking meetings. 
Qualifying leads. 
Handling objections. 
Negotiating terms.

No humans in the loop at all.

Sounds wild. 
But the pieces are already there.

Frank and I went deep on this one:

Where it's all going. 
What it means for sales. 
What changes. 
What stays human.

Full episode drops Wednesday.
Stay tuned.

If you ever experience high bounce rates, 
Here's how to can fix it:

Storytime:

Three campaigns I was preparing for a long time…
Were dead before they started.

Not because the copy was bad. 
Not because the targeting was wrong.
Because the emails bounced due to wrong data.

I spent hours on the angle. 

The research. 
The offer. 
Built the list.
Launched.

Then watched bounce rates go up to 6%
(Which is a killer in outbound)

Campaign stopped. 
Domain at risk. 
Work wasted.

This kept happening.
I started thinking. 

Maybe it's not my copy. 
Maybe it's the data.

I was right.

The tools I used looked fine. 
Popular names. 
Big databases.

But the emails were bad. 
Old. 
Not verified. 
Wrong half the time.

So I switched to Prospeo.
Things changed fast.
Bounce rates dropped under 1%. 

Every campaign. 
Every client.
Emails landing. 

Replies coming in. 
Sequences actually working.

Biggest change was for our ecom clients:
Ecom is hard. 
People move fast.
Data gets old quick.

With Prospeo, way more emails delivered. 

Same copy. 
Same targeting. 
Just better data.

What makes them different:

1) Emails are triple-verified. 
2) Re-checked every 7 days. 
3) 300M+ contacts. 

But accuracy matters more than size.
They also have a Chrome extension. 

Our sales team uses it daily. 
Find contact data from LinkedIn or any website. 
Just grab and go.

Their team also gets GTM. 
They listen. 
They build what outbound actually needs.

Here's the thing:

Best copy won't help if emails don't land. 
Best offer won't matter if it bounces.

Data quality is boring. 
But it's the base everything sits on.

Fix the data first. 
Everything else gets easier.

If bounces are killing your campaigns, try Prospeo
(Link in the comments)

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The Battle

Denis Acia

Hlib S.

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taplio

The Battle

Denis Acia

Hlib S.

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Engagements

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