Welcome to Outbound Wizards. Issue 22.
Is this thing on? How's everybody doing?
So things are moving pretty quickly in the AI land. It's crazy how good AI has become at coding.
Just yesterday, I had Claude Fable 5 cook up a Python script and I hooked it up to my twins' baby monitor. Now it's delivering really high-quality alerts (no false positives) to my Telegram in case the twins are unattended for even a second or they're in a dangerous position. |
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It costs like $40 to make and then costs like a dollar a day to run, so not bad at all.
I have so many product and feature ideas right now that the hard task is just keeping focused and making sure that the product is nice and reliable. |
When building becomes easier, you have to be super careful about what to build.
Anyway, back to LinkedIn automation news.
In this issue: |
Milestones: Key metrics on our path to 10,000 users (currently at 5562, slight downturn)
LinkedIn Message Roast: We find the worst performing Linkedin Messages from real SalesRobot users and show you how we'd save the campaign (after making fun of them of course lol)
Outbound Wizard of the Week: I talk to Mohan from Spring Drive on why "is this a good email?" is the wrong question and "is this a competitive email?" is the right one, introducing his Balance Theory framework for writing outbound that differentiates in crowded inboxes.
We talk about a B2B retail campaign that booked 28 meetings in month one by waterfalling AI conditional logic through three product-category layers then wrangling messy scraped data like "coffee beans — Ecuadorian special" into clean personalized lines.
Mohan shares his journey from frustrated BDR sending 0.2% reply-rate sequences to late-night Clay sessions as a self-described "not a techie guy," predicting an AI adoption dip where companies will get terrible results chasing speed over strategy before the space matures toward personalized funnels, not personalized first lines.
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Milestones |
MRR: $83,020 (flat 🙁) |
Where we stand: |
[GOOD NEWS] Sales demos done (from 14 Jul 2026 - 29 Jul 2026): 14 (demo numbers continue to be low, but average revenue per demo has gone up massively)
[GOOD NEWS] Free Trials Started (from 14 Jul 2026 - 29 Jul 2026): 182 (averaging ~12 signups per day, up)
[GOOD NEWS] New subscription revenue: $2000 in new + upgrade revenue from 32 users (significant increase)
[BAD NEWS] Downgraded subscription revenue: $2100 in downgrades and churn since I sent the last newsletter
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LinkedIn Message Roast |
Now, let’s dive into the LinkedIn message a SalesRobot user sent to 134 people on LinkedIn and got a whopping 4.41% response rate |
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The Message Copy (some parts [REDACTED] to hide the identity of the user): |
Performance Overview |
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Step 1: Like Their Most Recent Post |
Timing: Initial action |
Action: Engage with prospect's latest LinkedIn post |
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Step 2: View Profile |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 1] |
Action: View the prospect's LinkedIn profile |
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Step 3: Follow Profile Before Connecting |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 2] |
Action: Follow the prospect's profile |
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Step 4: Send Connection Request |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 3] |
Message: [Standard connection request - no custom message shown] |
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Step 5: First Message (ROI Question) |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 4] |
Message: |
Hi [firstName], thanks for connecting. |
Quick question. If your board asked tomorrow what the ROI on training spend is, could you answer with specific KPIs beyond completion rates? |
Result: 4.29% response rate (3/70) |
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Step 6: Follow-up Message (Client Results) |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 5] |
Message: |
[REDACTED] saw a 46% lift in sales performance after tying training directly to business KPIs. |
[REDACTED] replaced disconnected systems with skills heatmaps mapped to outcomes. |
Happy to share how. |
Result: 0.00% response rate (0/67) |
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Step 7: Follow-up Message (Mobile-First + Compliance Angle) |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 6] |
Message: |
Branch staff and field teams rarely touch the LMS because it's desktop-first. But [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] mandates don't care where someone works. |
Mobile-first with offline support hits 95% completion rates. |
Result: 0.00% response rate (0/67) |
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Step 8: Final Message (Soft Close) |
Timing: [Set days/hours after Step 7] |
Message: |
Not trying to pitch, [firstName]. Just seeing if connecting training to actual business outcomes is a priority right now. |
3 minutes to see if it's relevant? |
Result: 0.00% response rate (0/67) |
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I know we've roasted something similar before, but this was so bad it deserved a rewrite. |
"Quick question. If your board asked tomorrow what the ROI on training spend is, could you answer with specific KPIs beyond completion rates?"
(Starting with a "gotcha" question designed to make them feel inadequate! Nobody likes feeling stumped by a stranger's pop quiz!)
"[REDACTED] replaced disconnected systems with skills heatmaps mapped to outcomes."
("Skills heatmaps mapped to outcomes" - buzzword bingo winner!)
"Happy to share how."
(They didn't respond to message 1, but sure, they're dying to hear "how"!)
"plus the weekend recovery emails suck."
(Going from technical jargon to "suck" is the tonal equivalent of wearing a tuxedo with flip flops!)
"Branch staff and field teams rarely touch the LMS because it's desktop-first."
(Assuming they have branch staff, field teams, AND a desktop-first LMS - triple assumption!)
"Mobile-first with offline support hits 95% completion rates."
(Another suspiciously specific percentage floating in the void!)
"Not trying to pitch, [firstName]."
(Says the person who's been pitching for 3 straight messages!)
"Just seeing if connecting training to actual business outcomes is a priority right now."
(The classic "I'm not pitching" while literally pitching!)
"3 minutes to see if it's relevant?"
(Downgraded from longer asks to "3 minutes" - desperation escalating!)
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This is what they should have done instead: |
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Step 1 - Connection Request (No stalking, actual message): |
Hi [firstName], |
I noticed [companyName] recently [specificTrainingInitiative] - measuring L&D impact at scale is tricky. |
I help [industry] companies tie training to business outcomes and would value connecting. |
Best, |
[fullName] |
Step 2 - Message (After acceptance, no gotcha questions): |
Thanks for connecting, [firstName]! |
I saw [companyName] is [specificObservation] - scaling training across [X] employees usually creates a measurement gap. |
We helped [similarCompany] (also [industry]) connect their training completion to actual sales performance. Result: they identified that reps who completed the advanced module closed 46% more deals. |
The insight let them make training mandatory for underperformers and saw revenue jump within a quarter. |
Would a 15-minute call make sense to show you how they set up the tracking? |
Best, |
[fullName] |
L&D Analytics Specialist |
[company] |
Step 3 - Follow-up (New angle, only if no response): |
Hi [firstName], |
Different angle - does [companyName] have field teams or frontline staff who struggle to complete training? |
I ask because [industry] companies often have 40-50% completion rates for desk workers but under 20% for field staff (they can't access desktop LMS platforms). |
We helped [similarCompany] get their field completion rates from 22% to 95% by moving to mobile-first with offline access. |
Given [complianceRequirement] requirements in [industry], that completion gap can be a real risk. |
Want me to share how they solved it? |
Best, |
[fullName] |
Step 4 - Final attempt (Free value): |
Hi [firstName], |
Last message - I put together a quick benchmark for [industry] companies: |
Training metrics that actually predict business impact: |
- Completion rate (vanity metric - everyone tracks this) |
- Time-to-competency (better) |
- Post-training performance delta (best) |
- Skill-to-outcome correlation (gold standard) |
Most companies stop at completion rates and miss the real ROI story. |
Want the full framework? Shows exactly which metrics to track for [specificGoal]. |
Best, |
[fullName] |
[phone] |
Template variables by observable signals: |
New L&D leadership - "hired new CLO" = fresh evaluation Compliance industry - Healthcare, finance = mandatory training Field workforce - Retail, logistics = mobile completion challenges Rapid hiring - "scaling to 500+" = onboarding at scale Recent training investment - "launched new LMS" = measuring ROI
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GTM Engineer of the Week: Mohan Muthoo from Spring Drive, a leading UK-based B2B GTM Engineering agency |
1. What kind of clients do you work with? |
Mohan founded Spring Drive, a B2B GTM engineering agency based in the UK, working with companies across Europe and North America. |
Focus: B2B SaaS companies. He's run campaigns across many other industries before narrowing, which he credits with giving him a more diverse understanding of outbound. |
"We fill your pipeline with sales meetings so you can close deals and scale revenue." |
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2. What is the most creative campaign you have run? |
B2B Retail Product Distribution Campaign (28 meetings in month one):
Client sold a food-related product and needed European/US retail stores and outlets to distribute it. Challenge: target companies don't sell the exact product, but sell in a related category (kitchen, homeware).
The Clay Build: Multiple AI conditional logic rows waterfalling through three layers:
(1) Does the company sell the exact product?
(2) A related product?
(3) Products in the same category?
Strategic research identified the main categories these retailers use, then waterfalled through each.
Scraped product data came back messy ("mug set 28% off!" or "coffee beans-Ecuadorian special.")
Can't put that in an email. Built specific prompts to clean and reformat: turned "coffee beans — Ecuadorian special" into "I saw that you sell these really special Ecuadorian coffee beans."
"The campaign wasn't creative so much as it was really hard because of how finicky the data comes out and how much we had to wrangle it."
"A lot of our best campaigns have virtually no personalization, just well-thought-out offers and well-segmented lists. People lose the wood for the trees doing crazy Clay stuff without proper strategy. It looks amazing but doesn't get pipeline."
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3. How did you get into this space? |
BDR at a company he loved, managed a BDR team briefly, then became AE. "I spent a lot of time doing emails and cold calling. Most of my time, a lot of cold calling."
The Frustration: Long sequences, 0.2% reply rates, zero personalization at scale. "Here's what we offer. Do you want it? Ram that. We were all looking at this going: this isn't working anymore."
The Clay Discovery: Found Clay somehow (probably LinkedIn), over two years ago. "I'm not a techie guy at all. I look at a spreadsheet and I'm like: not for me."
Arturo from Clay got on calls and showed him how it worked. Once he crossed the learning curve: "I was shocked that every sales team in the world wasn't already on this."
The Hustle: "I remember late evenings and my Sundays and some Saturdays, I'm up at like [early] just sitting there in front of Clay being like: I've got to figure this out." End of 2023: Started doing it seriously. Things catapulted from there.
"There are tech guys who get into sales, and there are sales guys. I'm the second guy. I tell every GTM engineer: start by getting a sales job or spend most of your time learning sales, then layer the GTM engineering on top."
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4. Where do you see this whole space going? |
Balance Theory (His Core Framework):
"People ask 'is this a good email?' Wrong question. Ask: is this a competitive email? You're competing with other emails in the inbox from similar offers. Most spaces are crowded. You have to think about what your market looks like, what offers they're probably receiving, and what an actually differentiated strategy looks like."
The Dip: "So many companies are jumping on the AI bandwagon. They'll all get terrible results in the near term because they're doing everything faster and cheaper without spending time on strategy. The tech will be set up perfectly and the strategy will be terrible. We already see this—companies come to us saying 'we're using all the new tech but can't get results.'"
Personalized Funnels, Not Personalized Lines: "AI personalization based on LinkedIn profile data or blog mentions is dying out, if not dead already.
What's coming: personalized GTM strategies where each segment enters its own funnel with its own landing page, specific offer, customized everything. Personalization moves away from data points to personalized funnels as a whole."
AI Won't Solve Sales: "If there's some tool everyone can click two buttons and get winning messaging, everyone will do it, have similar messaging, therefore won't be differentiated, therefore won't work. It's a market economics thing, not a technical innovation thing. Implementing strategy will be 10X faster and cheaper. But the strategy itself still requires human thinking."
Adoption Lag: "The rate at which AI accelerates is not the same rate at which humans effectively adopt AI. It's the second thing that matters. If AI can do this at the top but 90% of your market is doing this at the bottom, you don't need to be at the top. You just need to be here."
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5. What advice would he have for somebody starting as a GTM Engineer today? |
Think competitively, not structurally: "Structured thinking (pain statement, social proof, CTA) is a good way to start. But as you get sophisticated, you have to think competitively. In certain contexts, you don't want a pain statement or social proof because your social proof is generic for the market given the competition."
The dead email test: "'Saw your LinkedIn post, it's great. We'll get you X in 30 days or your money back.” In a silo, great email: risk reversal, specificity, numbers. In the reality of today's market, terrible email. Four years ago it probably slammed. It's just not competitive anymore."
Study your competitor's inbox: "Make a fake LinkedIn profile with 'owner at some company, 11-50 employees.” Read what comes in every day. Then you know where the bar is and what you have to do to cross it."?
Or ask your colleagues: "If you reach out to marketing people and you have a marketing team, go ask: can we look in your inbox? See what's happening in the market for your kind of offer and ICP."
Get sales experience first: "Fundamental sales psychology and strategy leads to success. GTM engineering makes it work today. Anyone who wants to be a GTM engineer—start by getting a sales job. People come in the other way with no real understanding of sales, build cool stuff, it doesn't work."
Strategy before tools: "Most of the time it's that strategic part people don't spend enough time on. That's why they don't see great results. If you don't know why you're doing something in Clay, you might be wasting your time."
Hidden objections framework: Address objections the prospect hasn't voiced yet, inside the copy itself. "All these tactics accelerate powerful strategies, not the other way around. You've got to first have a differentiated strategy and all that work can accelerate that."
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Connect with Mohan: |
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Listen to the episode: |
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That’s it for Issue #22 of Outbound Wizards
If you found this helpful, share it with a friend. Got feedback? Shoot me a reply—I read every one of them. |
Thanks for following along.
Saurav G.
Founder, SalesRobot 2.0
Follow me on LI |
