Results at a glance

• 21 qualified appointments across three channels, 15 from calling, three each from LinkedIn and email

• 44 leads from a standing start, 23 carried into live pipeline

• Two customers onboarded within roughly two months of live outreach

The buying signal was sitting in plain sight.

This client sells recruitment software priced by the number of live roles a company is hiring for each month. That pricing model makes the ideal customer unusually easy to identify: by definition, the buyers are companies that are actively hiring right now.

The product and the packaging were both in good shape. What did not exist was any outbound engine putting it in front of those companies at the moment their hiring need was live. The first weeks went into infrastructure, domains, mailboxes, enrichment, calling data and CRM plumbing, before a single dial counted.

Where they were

• No outbound engine at all, no domains, mailboxes or prospect list live

• Targeting would have come from static firmographics rather than live hiring signals

• "Qualified" was loosely defined, so the decision-maker was not guaranteed on the call

• No per-channel attribution and no read on what actually converts

Three compounding systems.

• Hiring-intent list engine. Audience built off live hiring signals rather than static firmographics, enriched in Clay and Apollo and refreshed monthly, so still-hiring companies resurface and repeat hirers are flagged warm rather than discarded.

• Multi-channel outreach stack. Cold calling as the primary appointment engine, LinkedIn to build an engaged base, and email for scaled deliverability-safe volume. The engine placed 3,004 outreach touches in total.

• Decision-maker qualification. Mid-engagement both teams tightened the bar: a meeting counts only when the decision-maker attends. Every booking logged against the channel and signal behind it, so pipeline is attributable rather than anecdotal.

What changed

• Three channels live and running in parallel: cold calling, LinkedIn and email

• A compounding hiring-intent list of 1,953 unique contacts, refreshed monthly

• Qualification set to decision-maker attendance, now built into SDR training

• Every meeting attributed in the CRM to the channel and signal that produced it

What the quarter produced.

Read channel by channel the story is clear. Cold calling was the appointment engine, producing 38 of the 44 leads and 15 of the 21 meetings, and its ceiling is reach rather than pitch, since only 11.4% of dials connect with a person. LinkedIn was the strongest engagement surface at a 52% acceptance rate. Email established safe volume with reply conversion identified as the next lever. The list compounds, so month four starts from a warm pipeline of 23 rather than from zero.

The numbers

• 1,953 Unique contacts

• 44 Leads generated

• 21 Qualified meetings

• 23 Accounts in live pipeline

• 2 Customers onboarded

Engagement

• Client: Recruitment and hiring platform

• Industry: Recruitment / hiring technology

• Engagement: One quarter, roughly two months live

• Channels: Cold calling · LinkedIn · Email

• Stack: Clay · Apollo · Maildoso · Instantly · HeyReach · HubSpot

• Personas: Talent leadership · Hiring leadership · Founders

• Services: Plug-in SDR Team · Hiring-Intent Targeting · Appointment Setting

• Focus: SaaS & AI · Recruitment Tech · Multichannel