Elric Legloire

Outbound Kitchen

Here’s how I can help you:

- SDR hiring and onboarding process optimization: find the right candidates and minimize mis-hires.

- Outbound optimization: 
    - Conduct a thorough audit to give you a clear view of your outbound performance.
    - Develop a strategy that includes ICP, buyer personas, and messaging (cold calls, emails, social selling) plus streamline operations (systems, analytics, and data) to boost efficiency and drive impactful results.

If you want to learn more, feel free to email me at bonjour@elriclegloire.com or DM me.

Chef AKA Fractional Outbound Leader

Welcome to the World of Outbound! The go-to newsletter to scale outbound, and turn it into your #1 growth engine.

Writer - Newsletter

Outbound Kitchen Podcast

Host

Amplemarket

Get a Demo: See the power of Amplemarket in action today! 👇
https://partners.amplemarket.com/elric-legloire

Advisor

SDR Leaders of EMEA

Ambassador

Pavilion

Pavilion is an exclusive membership for growth operators dedicated to providing support, assistance, education, and career growth to our Members.

I am part of a new Associate program for non-executives that aims to grow, educate and network within the Revenue Operations profession.

Associate, Pavilion

Welcome to the Jungle France

GTM: Outbound

callypso

GTM - Outbound

Agorapulse

Outbound & Inbound, for the NA, EMEA, and France region.

Global SDR Manager

CastorDoc

#1 BDR
Data industry
Total Funding $26m - Agoranov and Blossom Capital

Founding Team - GTM - Outbound

Chili Piper

- My teams generated $4m+ in pipeline and $800k+ net new ARR
- Join the company as an SDR, got promoted 4 times in 1.5 year
- Help grew and hired the global SDR team from 5 SDRs to 35 SDRs
- Promoted 13 SDRs from my teams (AE, CSM, and Team lead roles)

As SDR Manager, Enterprise:
- Took an underperforming team: 35% (May 2022) to a team that exceeds quota 111% (October 2022) and made improvements based on data.
- 1 of my SDR was averaging 40% quota attainment before I join the team, in November he was averaging 140%.

Responsibilities:
- Manage, develop, and hire a team of 4 global outbound SDRs (Land and expand model)
- Drive a high-performance, high-accountability culture to achieve and exceed sales development goals
- Identify and make recommendations for improvement in the areas of process, efficiency, and productivity

Enterprise SDR Manager, Global (laid off November 2022 due to company-wide reduction)

From Team lead, Sr. Team lead to SDR Manager, Mid Market - EMEA
- Grew the team from 3 to 10 SDRs and 1 team lead
- Average of 91% quota attainment
- Manage, develop, and hire a team of 10 EMEA outbound SDRs, and 1 team lead

SDR Manager, EMEA

Sr. SDR Team Lead, EMEA

EMEA SDR Team Lead

- #1 SDR in pipeline creation on the North American market (out of 12 SDRs)
- Promoted to Team Lead within 8 months

Sales Development Representative (SDR), Mid-Market, North America

Outbound GTM strategy for B2B SaaS companies | SDR leader | Follow me + 🔔 for prospecting, productivity, and sales career tips for SDRs

Now: I run Outbound Kitchen, the community for GTM Leaders & Outbound reps. We are launching a private community. We also host a podcast, newsletter, and we run online events for outbound practitioners. You can find it all at https://outboundkitchen.substack.com/

Before starting Outbound Kitchen: I spent my career in outbound sales and grew from SDR to Head of SDR. As a GTM Leader, my work helped companies like Chili Piper, Globalization Partners, Castordoc, Talkpush, and Agorapulse drive $20m+ in outbound pipeline. I've done a bunch of consulting and advising in the past, but 99% of my time right now is spent building Outbound Kitchen: a B2B community business.

SDR Manager

I help SDRs perform to their full potential and crush their quotas by mastering the mindset, habits, and skills needed to perform at the highest level.

Ramp just crossed $1B ARR.

Here's the outbound tech stack behind Ramp's growth, broken down by function ⬇️

1) Signals

Spot accounts showing intent, engagement, or inbound buying activity.

6sense
Qualified
Vector 👻
Rox - engagement signals / insights

2) Data + Enrichment

Enrich contacts, build context, and prioritize accounts worth outreach.

Clay - enrichment + workflows
Waterfall.io - enrichment “waterfall” (best source wins)
Actively AI - account prioritization / scoring

3) Data Stack (Warehouse + Pipelines + Modeling + Activation)

Centralize GTM truth, keep it fresh, model it, then activate it.

Snowflake - warehouse (source of truth)
Airflow - orchestration
Fivetran - ELT pipelines
dbt Labs - modeling (clean metrics + segments)
Hightouch - activation (push audiences/fields into GTM tools)

4) RevOps Core (System of record + routing + automation)
 
Route leads, automate handoffs, and keep CRM + lifecycle accurate.

Salesforce - CRM (system of record)
HubSpot - MAP (marketing + lifecycle signals)
LeanData - routing + attribution + handoffs
Workato - integrations + automations across tools
Atrium - RevOps / metrics layer

5) Execution (SDR workbench)

Run sequences, dial fast, and book meetings with clean handoffs.

Outreach - sequencing / cadences
Orum 🥇 - dialer (call volume + speed)
Chili Piper - scheduling + fast handoffs
Sendoso - gifting

6) Coaching + Enablement

Capture what works and arm reps with repeatable playbooks.

Guru + Highspot - content, playbooks, battlecards
Gong - call recording + insights
Momentum.io - AI workflow automation from calls → CRM / Slack

--
The takeaway?

Ramp didn't scale to $1B by buying more seats.

They built a data infrastructure that powers better productivity.

Most teams skip step 3 (the data stack) and wonder why their outbound is inconsistent.

You can't fix outbound with better cold email copy. You fix it with better systems. 

-- 

📌 Want the full breakdown? 

I spent 20+ hours reverse-engineering Ramp's outbound strategy (plus 6 other companies).

Click "Visit my website" to get my 7 outbound breakdowns.

I build outbound systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound is a function, not prospecting

CEO: "We told the team to start doing outbound."

90 days later: nothing.

Most leaders think outbound is simple:

Hire 2 junior SDRs
Buy 1-2 tools
Hand them a phone
Let them figure out
Watch pipeline flow

That's the 1%. The tip of the iceberg.

The 99% no one talks about?

ICP building. Tech stack. A/B testing. Buying triggers. Persona research. Account scoring. Multi-threading. Email deliverability. Data infrastructure. Messaging strategy. Rep training. Continuous iteration.

Skip it, and here's what happens:

Budget burns.
SDRs dial into the void.
Pipeline stays flat.
The board asks questions you can't answer.


Most outbound programs die in the first 90 days.
Not because outbound doesn't work.
Because leadership treats it like a light switch.

Top teams don't do that.
They treat outbound as a company-wide strategic initiative.
Not a side project for junior reps.

Your job as GTM leader:

Make the path obvious.
Remove every piece of friction.

📌 Want to see how the top teams actually do it?

I broke down the outbound systems from Snowflake, Rippling, and Ramp. 7 breakdowns. Free.

Click "Visit My Website."

My go-to outbound resources that actually make a difference:

Not the obvious ones. The ones showing me problems I didn't know existed.

𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗜 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆:

Snowflake, Ramp, Rippling, Owner, Pigment, Gorgias, ClickUp

I study these companies obsessively. Ramp built $1B ARR with outbound. Snowflake gets 60% of revenue from SDRs. Owner.com hits $72K ARR per BDR. 

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 & 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸:

• Revenue Leadership podcast/newsletter (Kyle Norton) 
• 20Sales with Harry Stebbings (20VC) 
• SaaStr.ai & Jason M. Lemkin
• Stage 2 Capital & Mark Roberge - Data-driven sales strategies
• Outbound Squad with Jason Bay
• The GTMnow podcast/newsletter
• Winning by Design - Systems thinking that changed my approach
• Lavender blog  

𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗜 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱:

• Cannonball GTM (Jordan & Doug) 
• Prospecting from the Trenches (Florin Tatulea) 

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴:

• Outbounding (Skip Miller)
• Gap Selling (Keenan)
• Busting Silos (Travis Henry + Hillary Carpio) - How Snowflake did it
• The SaaS Sales Method for SDRs (Jacco & Dan Smith) - Modern SDR playbook

𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗜 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘆:

• 🦾Eric Nowoslawski Nowoslawski (Clay Workflows)
• Elijah Awoke (Clay Workflows)

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗜 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻:

• Pavilion 
• SDR Leaders of USA & EMEA 
• Clay Cafe  

Why these resources?

They show me problems I'm not seeing. 
Constraints I haven't considered. 
Systems I haven't built yet.

--

What would you add to this list? 

Drop your favorite outbound resource in the comments. I'm always looking for new perspectives.

P.S. Relaunching my podcast in 2026. I miss the deeper conversations. Time to bring them back.

BTW, if you know any good freelance podcast producers, I'm hiring! 👨‍🍳

The best book on cold calling:

Cold Calling Sucks.

Every outbound rep needs this.

Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski pulled data from 300M+ calls (thanks, Gong) to make every tip bulletproof. They packed it with data-backed tips, 100+ talk tracks, and examples you can steal today. 

I read this book twice. Here are my top 13 takeaways for outbound teams: ⬇️

--

Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow me, Elric Legloire for tips on scaling outbound.

Book Summary: Cold Calling Sucks

Scaling outbound from 0 to 2,300 meetings.

I sat down with Matthew Roberts, Head of Sales Dev at Mosaic.tech (Acquired by HiBob), who built an outbound machine from scratch.

Here are the 5 biggest takeaways from our convo.

Podcast link in the comments.

From 0 to 2300 Meetings: Building Outbound

The timing problem in outbound is solved.

lemlist just launched Signals, and they're building one of the most complete outbound platforms for small teams.

Here's why this matters:

Most outbound feels like spam because the timing is wrong.

Prospects don't hate being reached out to. They hate being interrupted when they're not thinking about the problem.

But when timing is perfect?

Outbound feels like help.

That's what intent signals make possible.

---

Here's what Signals does:

It tracks buying intent across your accounts automatically.

Right now it detects 3 signals:
→ Website visits
→ Hiring activity
→ LinkedIn engagement

(Adding 4 more soon.)

Here's what makes it different:

Most teams cobble together 3-4 platforms. Intent provider, enrichment, outreach platform, CRM.

Expensive. Complex. Hard to maintain.

lemlist put it in one:
→ 450M lead database + enrichment
→ Signal tracking + alerts
→ Multi-channel outreach
→ Deliverability built-in

One platform. No integrations to break.

---

The buying window is tiny. Maybe 2-3 weeks.

Signals automates the tracking and alerts you when intent appears.

So you reach out when prospects are thinking about the problem.

I believe intent-based outbound is the new standard.

And lemlist just made it accessible for small teams.

---

📌 Want the full playbook?

lemlist and Salescraft created a guide to the top 95 outbound signals (+ templates).

Comment "SIGNALS" and I'll send it to you.

Brand partnership • I build outbound systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound is a function, not prospecting

Oliver got a cold email claiming "2.5h of research."

But it showed 0 actual research.

This is the trust gap destroying outbound in 2025.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺:

When the tactic is "trick you with fake effort then reveal it's a joke," you've already lost. Funny outbound can work. But lying about effort when you did ZERO actual work? That's just spray and pray with extra steps.

I get a 10+ emails a week claiming research. 0 show actual proof.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀:

Every fake research claim trains prospects to ignore ALL outreach, even the good ones.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

Stop telling. Start showing.

"We can research 100 accounts in 30 minutes!"

OK. So what? Show me.

Here's what that email to Oliver should have looked like using the Chef Sample Framework:

---

"Oliver, saw Rep.ai works with Sybill. 

So you're already probably targeting GTM leaders at Fathom and Fireflies.ai.

Here's what we found for Fathom:
- VP Sales just posted about scaling challenges
- They're hiring 3 SDRs this quarter
- Recent G2 reviews mention lack of call recording integration

This is what your reps would see automatically for each account. 
So they spend more time prospecting and less time researching.

Interested to see how it works?"

---

That's showing, not telling.

In 2025, AI makes real personalization possible at scale:
1. Scrape company website → find their customers
2. Identify lookalike accounts in their ICP
3. Pull real-time insights for each account (thanks to their tool)
4. Generate the proof directly in the message

The tech exists. Use it.

Stop claiming research you didn't do.
Start showing the value you actually deliver.

One real insight beats 100 fake personalization attempts.

Master your samples before you scale your outreach. 👨‍🍳

Follow me 👨‍🍳 Elric Legloire, the Outbound Chef, for daily outbound recipes.

I've read 30+ sales leadership books in 5 years.

Most should have been blog posts.

Save yourself the time and just read these 9.

The only sales leadership books worth your time:

1. The Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge

If you read this book, you'll learn a proven, scalable approach to growing revenue and building a winning sales team using Roberge's unique engineering-based formula he used to scale HubSpot to $100m.

2. Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again by Christopher Croner and Richard Abraham

This book will teach you a scientifically proven method to identify the rare salespeople who have the inner drive to succeed in sales, focusing on the 3 key characteristics of top performers that can't be taught.

3. The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

Read this book to master the simple but difficult habit of staying curious longer and giving advice more slowly to become more coach-like as a manager, using 7 essential coaching questions.

4. The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon

This book authentically shares how to transform an underperforming sales team into a high-powered selling engine, giving step-by-step insights on hiring, developing salespeople, creating a structured sales approach and implementing measurable criteria.

5. Cracking the Sales Management Code by Jason Jordan

If you read this book, you'll gain greater control over sales performance by learning which metrics are worth tracking and how to improve how you measure and manage sales using Jordan's 5 key processes.

6. Radical Candor by Kim Scott

This book will help you build strong, trusting relationships with your team and tell people clearly when their work isn't good enough without beating around the bush or demoralizing them.


7. The Connector Manager by Jaime Roca and Sari Wilde

Read this book to learn how to become a connector manager who builds exceptional teams by prioritizing relationships, fostering collaboration, and connecting employees to the people and resources they need to succeed.

8. Sales Manager Survival Guide by David Brock

This book is the most comprehensive guide on sales management, giving you detailed instructions rather than just tips on everything from hiring and training to coaching, firing, and managing your manager.

9. Managing Up by Mary Abbajay

Here’s a good one if you’ve got a difficult boss or a micromanager. If you read this book, you'll master the essential skill of "managing up" - effectively managing your relationship with your boss by understanding their style, communicating effectively, and aligning your goals.

--

Each book solves a specific problem you're probably facing right now.

Follow me Elric Legloire for daily tips to scale outbound.

Most outbound leaders focus on optimizing their tech stack.

Wrong lever.

Your biggest ROI? Hiring A-players.

I see this pattern constantly: Leaders spend weeks testing new sales engagement platforms, tweaking sequences, and analyzing email open rates.

Meanwhile, they spend 2 hours on hiring decisions that will impact their team for the next 18 months.

The data backs this up:

Mark Roberge, former CRO at HubSpot: "World Class sales hiring is the biggest driver of sales success. If you could be world class at one discipline, it should be hiring."

John McMahon, former CRO at BMC: "If you hire C-players and do everything else perfectly, you'll lose. If you hire A players and do everything else average, you'll win."

Yet most leaders treat hiring as an HR function. They outsource it to talent acquisition and only show up for final interviews.

That's the mistake.

The strategic shift: Take extreme ownership of your hiring process.

You should be defining the role, the behaviors you need, and participating in every stage. Not delegating it.

Here's a framework I've started using with my teams:
- What are their long-term goals?
- Are they taking daily steps toward those goals?
- Do they have a passion for learning?

This helps you understand what actually motivates each person. Because not everyone is motivated by money alone.

Your tech stack won't save a weak team.

But A-players will save a weak process.

If you want the full breakdown on building high-performing SDR teams, I wrote about it here: https://lnkd.in/eZwe8M8n

I spent the year studying top outbound teams, working with customers from early-stage to $50M ARR, and talking to GTM leaders about what's actually working. Here are 8 things I learned about outbound in 2025:

1. Outbound isn't dead, it's just harder

SDR headcount grew +20K globally. But conversion rates dropped from 1% to
0.1%. The playbook changed. Most teams didn't adapt.

2. Top teams do 100 things well, not one thing great

Snowflake, Ramp, ClickUp, they invest across the board: talent, productivity (data, AI), and enablement. No silver bullet.

3. AI multiplies output, if you build systems

Snowflake 15x'd reply rates with AI. But they iterated 140+ times on prompts. Systems, not seats.

4. Productivity is the new competitive advantage

Owner.com BDRs book 40 meetings/month. Industry average? 10. The difference: systems that maximize prospecting, not preparing.

5. Most GTM leaders invest in the wrong layer

Everyone focuses on coaching. Not enough invest in systems, AI workflows, data infrastructure, tech stack automation.

6. Validate outbound before you scale it

Early-stage companies skip this. They hire 5 SDRs before proving the
motion works. Validate first. Scale second.

7. Outbound creates timing in competitive markets

Outbound manufactures timing. If competitors aren't doing it, that's your
advantage.

8. Most companies don't know what outbound is
Real outbound isn't "SDRs sending emails." It's cross-functional: SDRs prospect, AEs close outbound deals, CSMs proactively upsell.

The teams winning in 2026 won't chase tactics. They'll build systems.

What's your biggest outbound challenge heading into 2026?

Follow me Elric Legloire for daily outbound tips.

Your outbound isn't broken because "cold doesn't work anymore."

It's broken because you're running it on faulty beliefs.

I've audited 20+ outbound motions in the past year. 
The teams struggling the hardest all believe at least 3 of these:

1. "We tried everything. Outbound doesn't work anymore."

No, you sent 1,000 emails through 2 interns with zero prioritization. That's not "trying everything", that's throwing spaghetti at a wall and blaming the kitchen when nothing sticks.

2. "It's a numbers game. Send more emails, get more results."

More activity on broken outbound = multiplying by zero. 10,000 emails × 0% conversion is still zero. Outbound is a quality AND volume game. You need both.

3. "We should see results in the first few weeks."

You're measuring the wrong thing. Early results = reply rate and positive engagement, not closed deals. If you're expecting pipeline in Week 2, you don't understand the motion.

4. "Tool-first. Process never."

You gave reps Apollo, Outreach, and CRM access. Zero playbooks. Zero methodology. Zero frameworks. Then wondered why they "aren't performing." The tool doesn't fix a broken system.

5. "Hire junior SDRs to figure it out before we commit."

This is backwards. You nail the motion first with 1-2 strong reps, then scale. Hiring juniors to "test" outbound guarantees failure. Then you blame the channel instead of your strategy (and execution).

6. "Outbound is just cold outreach."

Wrong. Outbound is also re-engaging past opportunities, closing outbound deals (which require different AE training), working accounts across the full lifecycle. If your AEs can't close manufactured timing, your "outbound problem" isn't top-of-funnel.

7. "I don't reply to cold outreach, so buyers must hate it."

You're not the buyer. I just saw Nooks post SDRs booking 200+ meetings in Q3 via cold calling. If it "doesn't work" for you, the issue isn't the channel—it's your execution, data quality, and prioritization.

📌 Most leaders would rather blame the channel than fix their approach.

If you're ready to fix it, I built a breakdown of what the top 7 outbound teams actually do differently.

Click "visit my website" to grab them.

I got too busy. My podcast stopped. Now I'm fixing that.

For 9 months, Outbound Kitchen sat there. Silent. I was focused on client work and the newsletter. The podcast, the thing I actually love doing, had to wait.

Now I'm back. And I'm doing it differently.

Two changes:

First: new formats. I'm done with just conversations. I want to show real workflows. AI workflows. Live sessions with Q&A. Stuff you can actually use, not just two people talking for an hour.

Second: I'm not doing the admin anymore.
Last time, I was the host AND the admin. Recording episodes, then spending hours on show notes, titles, guest coordination, YouTube optimization, publishing...
 
So, I'm looking for a freelance podcast VA/producer.

Not an editor (my wife does that). 
Not an agency (I want to work with a real person).

Someone who can own the stuff I hate: show notes, SEO titles, timestamps, YouTube optimization, distribution, guest prep, performance tracking.

Why this matters:
I want to spend my time on content, getting better guests, and improving the show, not on admin work. Having someone to help with this means I can focus on making the content better, not just keeping it alive.

I already have 7 episodes recorded and ready. Real work from day one.

Weekly episodes. 30-60 min. YouTube-first. Fully async via Slack. AI/tools provided. Start per-episode, retainer if it works.

You:
- You've done this before. 
- You know what makes someone click play. 
- B2B/GTM experience is a bonus, not required.

Know someone good? Tag them before someone else does.

Are you that someone? 
DM me:
- A podcast you think does it well
- Your rate

We shipped a lot in 2025.

Below are the 13 resources (frameworks, and guides) you shared most, saved most, and told me had the biggest impact on your outbound systems.

Use the break to catch up:

TOP 10 NEWSLETTERS

#10 - How Gorgias scaled to 80M+ ARR without cold calls
No SDRs until $60M+ ARR. Scaled with automated email, ads, and referrals.
→ https://lnkd.in/es3n47hz

#9 - How Pigment Scaled to $100M ARR with Outbound
They hired engineers and built custom outbound tools. Enterprise prospecting done right.
→ https://lnkd.in/e8jEtkDt

#8 - How HockeyStack went from 0 to $74M in pipeline in 8 months
The most recent "outbound from scratch" playbook.  
→ https://lnkd.in/eFuh-XET

#7 - How Owner.com Scaled Outbound to $40M+ ARR

Everyone says you can't run outbound below $50K ACV. Owner.com proves them wrong.
→ https://lnkd.in/eYEgSex2

#6 - 6 AI Prompts to Launch Outbound in 2025 (10x Faster)

→ https://lnkd.in/ekvwJtDW

#5 - Fix That Before You Scale Outbound

Most companies try to scale before fixing what's broken. Invest in systems first.
→ https://lnkd.in/eriizQYK

#4 - Guide: How to Build Outbound From Scratch in 2025

The complete playbook: ICP, messaging, tools, hiring, when to scale.
→ https://lnkd.in/eBtgGN6c

#3 - How Snowflake Scaled Outbound to $4B ARR

SDRs, Sales, and Marketing operating as one team. Best alignment I've ever studied.
→ https://lnkd.in/ebQwKw-N

#2 - 6 AI Prompts for Account Research & Cold Outreach (10x Faster)

→ https://lnkd.in/ecdDs-NC

#1 - How Ramp Scaled to $1B ARR With Outbound

Speed embedded in everything. 
Early on AI, constant experimentation, faster than anyone.
→ https://lnkd.in/eadRMVnS

---

TOP 3 PODCAST EPISODES

#3 - How to Build Strong Outbound Culture with Prospecting Days (with Ralph Barsi)

One systems that build outbound culture.
→ https://lnkd.in/efXbeWzU

#2 - 0 → 2,300 Meetings: Building an Outbound Machine (with Matthew Roberts)

How long it actually takes to build an outbound engine from 0.
→ https://lnkd.in/edbR5rEm

#1 - I Tested GPT-5 and Opus 4.1 for Account Research
Which AI models actually work for outbound.
→ https://lnkd.in/ec8HXwNY

---

WHAT'S COMING IN 2026

→ TAM vs SAM vs ICP (updated)
→ Dashboards and reporting for execs
→ How I use Clay as my outbound orchestration layer

"AI can't write good cold emails."

Snowflake: 0.5% → 7.5% reply rate. 15x. Using AI.

Here's what everyone's missing.

AI can write good messages. Most AI tools can't.

Most "AI-powered" outbound tools are just sales engagement platforms with a GPT wrapper. They pull a random fact about the prospect, a university, and drop it into a template.

That's not personalization. 
That's spray and pray with extra steps.

The real problem:
→ No context. The tool doesn't understand your ICP, your value prop, or what actually resonates.
→ No training. It's not learning from your replies, your wins, your losses.
→ No framework. Just "write an email about this person" with no structure for what makes outbound work.

And everyone has access to the same tools. 
Which means everyone sounds the same.

I've been studying top outbound teams for the past 12 months. 
Snowflake is one of them.

Travis Henry and Jeff Long built a system for their 200+ SDR team. 

And they open-sourced it (link below).

What makes their approach different:
They built their own solution. Not bought. Built. Trained on their context, their messaging, their data. That's the edge.

AI writes. Humans send.
This isn't fully automated. AI drafts messages for the reps. Reps review and send. Human in the loop, always.

Each part of the email gets its own prompt.
Subject line, first paragraph, PS, different jobs, different instructions. Most tools use one generic prompt for everything.

The system scores itself.
Low-quality output? It defaults to a proven template instead of sending garbage.

It's not plug-and-play.

Even Snowflake admits: enabling a large team is hard. This takes real investment.

Here's my takeaway:
The companies winning with AI outbound aren't buying tools. They're building systems.

Systems trained on their context.
Systems that improve over time.
Systems where AI supports reps, not replaces them.

Off-the-shelf tools give you what everyone else has.

The edge comes from owning the solution.

P.S. Snowflake's team open-sourced the whole workflow. Lessons from 147 failed iterations. 

Here's the Notion doc: https://lnkd.in/eyNAv54C

Ramp hit $1B ARR in 2025.

Scaled sales from 130 to 400+ reps in 2.5 years.

They are the fastest-growing SaaS out there.

Their secret sauce? AI-powered go-to-market strategies.

I learned a lot from The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton and Nathan Follen, who leads Biz Systems Ops at Ramp.

They shared how Ramp uses AI to scale their go-to-market efforts.

Here are 11 ways they use AI for GTM and outbound: ⬇️

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11 AI Use Cases That Scale Outbound

Most outbound teams bought AI seats in 2025.

Most saw zero pipeline gains.

Here's why:

AI doesn't replace your team. It multiplies their output.
But only if you build workflows, not just add tools.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗗𝗥 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗱:

→ Bought ChatGPT or Claude seats
→ Told reps to "use AI for writing emails"
→ Added another tab to the stack

Result: More clicks. Same output. No leverage.

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𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁:

AI workflows that run in the background and push outputs directly into their CRM:

→ Data enrichment (signals pulled automatically)
→ Automated research (no manual lookup)
→ Message generation (trained on best performers)
→ Deal risk scoring (pattern detection at scale)

Snowflake 15x'd their reply rate using AI-generated outbound messages.

But it took 140+ iterations to get their prompts right.

One of my clients saw similar results: 
30-40 iterations just to dial in messaging for their ICP.

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:

Companies building AI workflows generate more pipeline with the same headcount.

Companies buying AI seats stay stuck scaling linearly.

AI needs training. If you're not willing to invest time building and iterating on workflows, you won't see results.

Which AI workflow should outbound teams build first: data enrichment, research, or message generation?

Follow me Elric Legloire for daily outbound tips.

Most outbound strategies skip straight to tactics.

They build sequences before they understand the market. 
They write messaging before they define the ICP.

Then they wonder why nothing works.

Here's the 7-step workflow I follow with every company to build advanced outbound strategy:

𝟭. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 (Drives everything else)
Understand your business model, product, positioning, current customers, and what's actually working.

𝟮. 𝗧𝗔𝗠 + 𝗜𝗖𝗣 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Who could buy vs who should buy first. This isn't firmographics, it's strategic prioritization.

𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀
Identify what signals actually matter for scoring, segmentation, and messaging.

𝟰. 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 (How to prioritize - Part 1)
Build 2 frameworks to rank accounts based on likelihood to buy and revenue potential.

𝟱. 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 + 𝗛𝗶𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 (How to prioritize - Part 2)
Layer intent signals on top of scoring to create your hit list, accounts showing active buying behavior.

𝟲. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴
Who to target at each account. 

𝟳. 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆
How to be relevant. Messaging by segment, persona, signal, and research.

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Most teams start at step 7 and skip steps 1-6.

That's why their outbound feels generic. Because it is.

You can't message your way out of bad targeting.
You can't A/B test your way out of broken fundamentals.

Do the strategic work first. Then tactics actually work.

Follow me Elric Legloire for daily outbound tips, and consider getting my 7 outbound breakdowns by clicking "visit my website".

While competitors burn millions on SDR teams, Gorgias automated their way to $80M+ ARR. 5 outbound lessons from the company that sends 1 million emails per quarter without hiring an army: 

1. Scale Cold Emails with AI

They ditched 200 static sequences for 10 AI-powered ones.
Generate 5,000+ unique emails daily for just 10 cents
+150% positive reply rates with dynamic personalization
400-500 line prompts that inject event data, tech stack, and conversation history

2. Treat Outbound Like a Product Team

Sales became a laboratory for unorthodox experiments.
CEO and VP Sales met weekly with complete latitude to reconfigure processes and create new motions based on data, not assumptions.

3. Automate First, Hire Humans Second

Unit economics favor machines over SDRs for SMB deals ($7,750).
Their automated system reaches thousands economically while human reps focus on high-value accounts and closing.

4. A Different Multi-Channel Approach

Email + ads + referrals outperformed their single-touch sequences.
90% ad match rates (up from 50%) contributed an extra $2M ARR from paid channels.

5. Map Every Account in Your Market

They mapped 2 million Shopify stores, identified 700k as true TAM.
Predictive analysis categorized prospects into 5 segments based on traffic, automatically scoring and routing leads by deal size potential.

RevOps infrastructure became their competitive advantage.

Data-driven systems scale without proportional headcount growth.

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I spent 20+ hours breaking down their full outbound playbook.

Want it?

- Like this post
- Comment “playbook”
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Need it faster? DM me “playbook” and you'll get playbook today.

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