Let me share the secret to successful outbound - learned in 18 months at lemlist.
It’s not copywriting.
It’s not doing always more volume.
It’s better leads.
How do you do this?
Step 1: Build Your Total Addressable Market (TAM)
Start broad. Your goal here is to list companies that loosely match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
For example, at lemlist, our TAM could look like this: Companies with 50–500 employees. Located in Europe and the US. Selling B2B services or software
You can use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, or lemlist to source this data.
At this stage, don’t over-filter—cast a wide net.
Step 2: Score Your TAM
Not all companies in your TAM are equal.
The next step is to rank your prospects based on potential fit, creating a prioritization system.
For instance, you could assign scores out of 100 and group them into buckets:
Tier 1: 75+ points (high priority)
Tier 2: 50–75 points
Tier 3: Below 50
Requires Data + intelligence.
Examples from lemlist:
- Number of SDRs or sales team size
- Recent growth in SDR headcount
- CRM usage (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive)
- Intent signals: e.g., website visits or past downloads
Where can you find this data? It depends.
But most sales databases or your own marketing tools are a great starting point.
Step 3: Source Contacts & Details
Once you’ve prioritized your TAM, find the right people to reach out to.
But here’s the catch—this step depends on your budget.
For example:
- For Tier 1 accounts, we source 3 sales leadership profiles (e.g., Head of Sales, VP Sales).
- For Tier 2 accounts, we limit it to 2 contacts.
Next, you’ll need to gather accurate contact details—this could include emails, phone numbers, or both, depending on your outreach strategy.
To do this, you can either purchase credits from a data provider or use a “waterfall enrichment" combining multiple providers for higher find rate.
At lemlist, we’ve built one that's free to use, don't hesitate to try it out.
Step 4: Personalize Engagement
The goal here is to avoid generic pitches but tailor your outreach based on insights about each company.
You can use information from scoring or find more specific information.
For example, Alan uses AI to crawl public websites for HR communications from target accounts.
Their sales team gets AI-summarized insights to craft personalized outreach messages.
Key Takeaway
Outreach isn’t just about volume—it’s about quality.
This process takes time, creativity, and skills.
And while AI can help, it’s not yet at a level where it can handle all this complexity.
The underlying data isn’t easily accessible—and the type of data you need varies significantly from one industry to another, from one company to another.
This is why Growth Agencies like Scalability and ColdIQ thrive
Useful? Don't hesitate to like/comment 👇
Have something to add? Would love to hear from you 🙏
