Michel Lieben 🧠

Founder / CEO @ ColdIQ | Scale Outbound with AI & Tech 👉 coldiq.com

I’m (Michel) the Founder & CEO at ColdIQ, a sales prospecting agency (+ we compare the latest sales tech, too!).

We worked with 100+ B2B organizations (including SaaS & Agencies!) and are using Clay, Prospeo, FullEnrich, Instantly, Lemlist, Ocean.io - alongside other great sales tools - to run outbound campaigns that flood 🌊 our (and our clients’) inboxes with interested prospects.


We can help you:

• If you’re a B2B business leader who doesn’t have the time to handle your prospecting engine or to hire and manage salespeople… You can outsource your lead gen to us, and we’ll transparently show you the exact way we run your campaigns. (We’ll provide SOPs, too… if it works so well that you want to build your in-house team).


• If you’re a sales leader or an outbound agency owner: We’ll help you set up the exact systems & tools we use to run automated ‘trigger-based’ campaigns that convert like crazy. 


• And… if you simply want to improve your B2B sales automation skills or learn to run these campaigns yourself, we’ll teach you by building a campaign from scratch together with you —from ‘idea’ to ‘running campaign’ (we’ve done it more than 50 times already, and the rumour says people ❤️ed it).


We've launched hundreds of campaigns, so you don't have to.


Thus - if you: 
- are a B2B service/solution provider making > $50k/month
- provide solutions with Lifetime Value > $10k
- want to shortcut your outbound success


We can help.

Send a DM, and I'll share more details.

Alternatively, reach out to michel[at]coldiq.com 
or via the website 👉 coldiq.com 


__________



And if you're looking to build your top-of-funnel tool stack... 
Check our curated lists of the best outbound tools here 👇

👉 coldiq.com/tools 👈
👉 coldiq.com/ai-sales-tools 👈

Performance-based B2B lead generation 💥 | coldiq.com
→ We help you scale your prospecting activities by implementing outbound sales systems in your business. We take care of sourcing leads, researching your ICP, crafting the sales messages, automating sending and ensuring the high deliverability of messages. We let you focus on what brings money into the business: closing deals.

I turn 31 today. My business made $557,000 last month. But before that, I failed 7 businesses in a row:

Here’s what I tried building... 
and why I'm convinced each 'fail' got me closer to a 'win'


1. I started a clothing brand with my friend Thibault Selderslagh.

👎 We barely managed to sell 15 t-shirts. We had to order minimum 400. So we ended up with 385 t-shirts... now collecting dust somewhere.

👍 But, I learned how to create websites during this process.

↳ ... a skill I used to create the V1 of my website ColdIQ.


2. I co-founded a raffle lottery in the UK 🇬🇧

👎 I invested 40,000€ of my personal savings. We only managed to sell £1,000 worth of lottery tickets.

👍 But, I learned to run ads while desperately trying to sell these tickets.

↳ ... a skill we now use to book 50+ monthly meetings via ads. And that we offer as a service to clients (with some closing > $1M as a result!)


3. I tried to become an Instagram influencer.

👎 I found a hack that grew my account to 29,000 followers. Then it stopped working, and I've lost followers ever since. I never made a dime from the platform, nor did I get offered any free brand product.

👍 But, I learned about social media & algorithms.

↳ ... a skill that got me to be a LinkedIn influencer instead (😆). But more seriously, this led to 15,000,000+ impressions & 1,000+ inbound meetings for my company.

(And we now offer it as a service too... send a DM!)


4. I ran a sports betting affiliate website.

👎 I grew it to $6,000/mo, until it dropped to 0 overnight because of regulation changes in Belgium 🇧🇪

👍 But, I learned a lot about monetizing affiliate brand deals.

↳ ... a skill that allows us to generate > 5-figure per month in passive affiliate revenue.


5 & 6. I started an MMA Betting blog AND a Crypto blog.

👎 None of them made a single $1.

👍 But, I learned SEO & Copywriting

↳ ... skills that are responsible for driving 100s of thousands of visits to ColdIQ's website.


7. I launched a Facebook Ads agency

👎 I booked 15 meetings, and didn't manage to close a single client.

👍 But, I learned cold email in the process.

↳ ... a skill that turned into a service we currently deliver for 70+ clients, amounting to > $500K in MRR.


Takeaway?
You win, or you learn.

And each failure turns into a lesson that lets you try again... better.

So keep pushing!

P.S: What's the worst business idea you've tried... and what did you learn from it? 👀

Failing 7 businesses before growing one

How I would find my first 10 clients if I had to restart from 0:

It's how I've hit > $6.5M+ ARR in 3 years 👇

1. I'd find a ‘free’ way to get my brand out there.

In the beginning: 

You have lots of time.
You have little money.

So you want to start with a time-consuming channel that doesn’t require much funds.

This could be:
→ Writing blog articles.
→ Creating LinkedIn posts.
→ Recording YouTube videos.
→ Being active in niche communities.

I tried them all.
The one that worked best for me was LinkedIn.

It’s what I recommend to all my friends in B2B to get started.


Software you can use:
- Design: Canva or Figma
- Content Ideation: Taplio or Scripe 


2. I'd direct this ‘visibility’ to a short landing page.

Your brand efforts will gather interest.

Interested visitors will check your site or your social profiles.
You want them to understand asap how you help.

The most effective way I found to do so, is to record a 5-min video sales letter, breaking down your offering.

Some people won’t buy straight away.

For them, I’d suggest creating a lead magnet to grab their email addresses
… and nurture them with valuable content over the long term.

For the ones that didn’t provide their emails, you can use visitor identification software to de-anonymize them (in the US).


Software you can use:
- VSL Hosting: Wistia
- Landing Page: Webflow or Framer
- Visitor Identification: Midbound or Instantly.ai


3. I'd reach out to warm ‘high-fit’ leads.

Many prospects will engage with your content but won’t try to schedule a call

Still, they might be interested.

In this case, I’d suggest reaching out to every prospect who’d make an ideal client but hasn’t messaged you yet.

I recommend writing your first 25-50 messages by hand, before trying to automate.

This could look like:
“Hey {{name}}, seems my post on {{topic}} resonated with you. Are you working on {{potential initiatives}}? Happy to swap notes if that’s helpful.

Whatever you write… the magic of manual notes is that it forces you to re-read & improve your messaging every time.

This allows you to uncover patterns…
Which will be invaluable once you scale your sending.


Software you can use:
- Email Outreach: Instantly.ai
- LinkedIn Outreach: Expandi
- Multichannel Outreach: lemlist
- Email Finding: Wiza, Prospeo.io, LeadMagic or FullEnrich.


4. I'd repeat the above steps for 3 months straight before considering giving up. 

This 100% works.
It sounds simple, but it’s challenging to keep working hard when things are uncertain.

Working hard is difficult on its own.
But working hard, when doubting that there’s a point, is even harder.

To make it work, you must somehow convince your brain that you’re not doing this for nothing. Even when you get 0 results in the first weeks, or months.

Repeat these steps enough times.
And you’ll inevitably improve.

Improve enough…
And soon enough, you’ll reap the rewards of your hard labour.

Good luck ✌️

P.S: Who's starting something new in 2026? 👇

Claude can now build advanced n8n workflows from a single prompt.

Just use this Claude project setup, and it will handle 90% of the work 👇

This completely changed how we build automations at our $6.5M ARR agency…

Here’s precisely how we run this:

1. Write a basic prompt describing your workflow. 

Claude (Sonnet 4.5) will read it, break it down & output an n8n JSON file that can be imported.

2. Claude takes care of the complex implementation.

That is:
- Filed mappings + expressions
- Data flow between nodes
- Trigger configurations
- Conditional branches
- Sticky notes for docs
- Error handling

Beware: there are usually a few small items to debug, and it won’t add your API keys for you. But everything else is handled.

Now, what’s included in the system:

1️⃣ Full Claude Project Setup

The system infrastructure that transforms Claude into an n8n workflow builder. 
(Just need to copy paste & you’re ready to go!)


2️⃣ Over 70 n8n Documentation Pages

The official n8n GitHub documentation from which we extracted syntax, capabilities & node references. 

That’s how Claude knows how to build functioning workflows.


3️⃣ Templates & Frameworks

Templates + Frameworks you can copy-paste for use cases like lead routing and social listening.


4️⃣ Real-life Examples 

Our actual prompts vs. the workflows Claude ended up building.
(So you can see what worked well, and what did not).


5️⃣ SOPs to always stay updated with the latest Docs

Step-by-step guide to pull and compile n8n documentation every time there’s a new feature.
(Which is every week in AI world)


Once again, this is democratising complex workflow buildouts.

Starting from scratch or piecing together documentation used to take a lot of time.

“How to build n8n workflows?” has always been a bigger challenge than “what n8n workflow shall I build?”

This flips the questioning on its head.

Spend most of your time thinking about which automation moves the needle for your business. Not how you'll build it.

...and leverage Claude to get 90% of the way there.

If you want to get the entire system, including the documentation package & guide to set it up yourself, comment “PROMPT”, “n8n” or “CLAUDE” and I’ll DM it to you!


P.S: Kenny Damian is our n8n 🐐 at ColdIQ, and the man behind the agentic workflows we build for our > $10M ARR clients. If you want to get access to these value drops before everyone else… you NEED to follow him!

Silicon Valley is the hub of GTM unicorns.

But have you seen what’s going on in Europe?

Giants are being built in countries with just 11M inhabitants 🇸🇪 🇧🇪

And it’s happening all over the continent.

Here are some of my favourite EU success stories:

1. Odoo 🇧🇪

Founded by Fabien Pinckaers, Odoo quitely grew to 40M€ MRR and is now valued at well above $5B.

They did that by breaking all the rules:

→ A generous Freemium model.
→ Kept it open source & community-powered.
→ Built 100s of apps, instead of just ONE block.

All the while: 

- his board was trying to get him fired.
- spending 7 years near bankruptcy.
- losing 16M€ from overnight

Today, it’s 6500+ employees & 750M€ in revenue in 2025.

I’m especially proud of this one, as a fellow Belgian 🇧🇪!


2. Lovable 🇸🇪

Founded by Anton Osika & Fabian Hedin… it’s the loudest success story of the year.

Lovable hit $200M ARR last week, one year after hitting $1M ARR.

At ColdIQ, we use it to build free tools for lead generation purposes.

Testing out prototypes required technical people. 
Most of our team is able to spin off a ‘free email finder’ or a ‘custom client dashboard’ in a day.


3. lemlist 🇫🇷

The French success story that should be studied by everyone in GTM.

Founded by Guillaume Moubeche, now led by Charles Tenot.

It includes lemlist, Taplio & now Claap under one umbrella.

Some things to takeaway:

- A 300K+ combined followers, employee-wide LinkedIn content strategy.
- Unseen build-in-public transparency by their Founder & the entire team.
- Bold acquisitions (i.e: Taplio, Claap) so their app ecosystem covers every GTM function.

At ColdIQ, they're our #1 choice for all our multichannel prospecting campaigns!


4. n8n 🇩🇪

They’ve been a staple in automation teams for some time…

But with the rise of AI agents… they became a category of one.

More modulable than their competitors, more powerful, less expensive… it’s an essential component of modern AI + GTM tech stacks.

It’s saving our team hours of work everyday!


Other GTM success stories across Europe:

🇨🇿 Apify
🇫🇷 Aircall
🇫🇷 arcads AI
🇫🇷 Argil
🇫🇷 Dust
🇫🇷 FullEnrich
🇫🇷 Hyperline
🇫🇷 Prospeo.io
🇬🇧 Attio
🇬🇧 ElevenLabs
🇬🇧 Synthesia
🇲🇰 HeyReach.io
🇪🇸 Genesy
🇪🇪 Pipedrive
🇦🇹 Storyblok
🇳🇱 Expandi
🇳🇱 Framer

… and the list goes on!

P.S: What EU SaaS is on your radar at the moment?

Most companies bet their entire LinkedIn strategy on the Founder.

We get the whole team involved:

Last month, this allowed us to sign 14 new deals, totalling ~$70,000 in MRR for our agency. Plus, another 16 customers won for our educational program.

It’s a win-win.

For the team:
→ They grow their brand, a precious asset they own… and that will benefit them whatever they decide to pursue.

For us:
→ They send visitors to our site and generate qualified leads every single day.

Everyone shares around their domain of expertise: 

- Ivan talks about ABM, LinkedIn Ads & Funnels.
- Millie shares tips on Founder-Led branding.
- Monika shares her best cold email rewrites.
- Kenny shares his latest n8n workflows.

… and the combined posting volume makes it challenging not to come across ColdIQ on your LinkedIn feed.

2026 will be the year of Employee-led branding.

Don’t miss this shift.

I just crossed 60,000 followers. LinkedIn got us to $6.5M+ ARR.

Here's every tool I used to grow my following:

1. Content Ideation

→ Taplio (go.coldiq.com/taplio)

I use their in-app feed to find outlier LinkedIn posts in my niche.

You can input keywords such as: "ai sales", "outbound" or "GTM" and then filter for posts that:

- include the above 'searched' keywords
- were posted within a month ago
- had 300 likes or more

I then reverse-engineer the structure, hook & CTAs of these high-performing posts to improve my own.

→ Scripe

Also great for content ideation. 

It lets you aggregate posts by author, which is another helpful way to find 'viral publications' or 'outliers' on a given topic.


2. Copywriting

→ Grammarly

As a non-native English speaker, I make lots of spelling mistakes. 

I use Grammarly's extension to correct my writing in real-time.

Doesn't sound too crazy, but this could be the most helpful application in my LinkedIn tech stack.

→ Claude

I use Claude to generate hook variations, repurpose past content & brainstorm new angles.


3. Visuals & Design

→ Figma / Adobe

My LinkedIn strategy relies a lot on visuals.

When made well, they multiply the reach of your publications up to 10X.

Our designers use either Figma or Adobe's suite to design our carousels & infographics.


→ Canva

My first-ever carousels published on here were made on Canva.

It is the most beginner-friendly app to create social media visuals.


4. Video Creation

→ OpusClip

I use Opus's AI features to automatically create short-form videos from my long-form content.

The output isn't as great as that of a professional editor...
But it's cost-effective.

And multiple AI-edited videos got me 50,000+ views on LinkedIn (while only taking me 2 minutes to generate).

→ Screen Studio

Screen Studio is my favourite Mac Screen recording app.

It's great to make video walkthroughs or tutorials because it automatically zooms/focuses on the parts of the screen you're actively working on.

It makes video outputs look much more fancy than they'd be otherwise.

→ Ezgif

I use Ezgif to create .GIF files out of my short audioless video content.

If you're planning to publish a < 15-second audio-less video on LinkedIn...

I'd recommend speeding it up and converting it into a GIF file.

I'm not 100% sure why, but it outperforms in terms of reach & engagement.


5. Content Planning

→ Notion

My central content hub.
It's where I collect ideas, draft them, and prepare my posts.

Notion also serves as my content calendar.


That's the entire stack I used to go from 0 to 60,000+ followers.

It's also the tech stack I plan to get past 100,000.

What tools did I miss?

Let me know 👇

P.S: If you want to grow your account, sell a B2B product, but don't have time to post... send a DM. 
We'll do it for you ✌️

From 0 to 60,000+ LinkedIn followers

We’re about to hit $7m ARR. Here’s the GTM workflow that signed us 70+ high-ticket clients: 

Step-by-step breakdown ↓

1. Our team publishes 250+ LinkedIn posts every month.

- We use Taplio to identify posts that outperformed.
- We study the hooks, formats & visuals of these outlier LinkedIn posts.
- We solve our prospects' pain points in our content pieces.

↳ This works so well, I want to do more. Hopefully reaching 500+ monthly posts across the ColdIQ team.


2. We spend $10,000+ a month promoting our most effective publications via LinkedIn Ads.

- We study what posts generate qualified meetings.
- We analyze which ICP books from the posts.
- We boost said post in front of said ICP.


3. We identify anonymous visitors & reach out likers/commenters who didn't schedule a call.

- On ColdIQ’s site: Instantly.ai & Midbound de-anonymise our visitors.
- On LinkedIn: Clay captures our social activity.


4. We route all our warm leads to Clay.


5. We use LLMs to Tier, Segment & Score prospects.

- Claygent automates research at scale on our inbound leads.
- OpenAI prompts segment out leads.
- We contact warm leads via LinkedIn, Email & the phone.


6. We enrich the contact information of our filtered leads.

- We use Prospeo.io, LeadMagic, Wiza to find emails adresses.
- We use Prospeo.io, FullEnrich to look up phone numbers.


7. We send DMs, emails & call ‘warm' prospects.

- We make our outreach concise & valuable.
- We use lemlist for multi-channel outreach
- We use Instantly.ai for email outreach.

- Expandi is another great option for LinkedIn outreach.


8. This workflow booked us 1,500+ meetings in 2025 & closed > $3M ARR already.

- It helped us grow to > 35 FTEs
- It helped us reach > $6.5M in yearly revenue.
- It helped our clients close $500K+ in revenue at > 3-10X ROI


P.S: Anything you’d improve in the workflow below to get us to $10M ARR?

I tested way too many AI Sales tools.

Here are the categories I’m closely watching in 2026:

1/ Workflow Builders

Why?

↳ They help you build advanced, multi-step, automated prospecting workflows.

Example use-case: Running a signal-based Clay campaign that scores leads, segments them into several tiers, adds an AI-personalized first line… and pushes contacts to your favourite sequencer. For 1,000+ leads. On autopilot.

Examples include:

→ Relevance AI
→ Outbond
→ Clay
→ n8n


2/ MCPs

Why?

↳ They enable AI agents to take actions by connecting to your tools. Without you needing to manually open them.

Example use-case: Connecting Claude MCP to Google Calendar so that it… 

[1] checks how many sales calls you have today
[2] researches each prospect
[3] provides relevant talking points for the qualified ones…
[4] cancels meetings with unqualified leads. 

All that, without opening your calendar app.

You can prompt via tools such as:
→ Cursor
→ Claude
→ VS Code
→ Mistral AI

And connect to your apps using:
→ Docker, Inc
→ Pipedream
→ Composio


3/ All-in-One Sales Platforms

Why?

↳ They consolidate every essential cold outreach feature within one platform.

Example use-case: Warming up domains, building a lead list, monitoring relevant signals, enriching contact data & automating email outreach (Instantly.ai) or multi-channel outreach (lemlist) without any other prospecting tool. In essence, running your entire prospecting campaign in one place.

Examples include:

→ Instantly.ai
→ Expandi
→ Artisan
→ lemlist


4/ Sourcing Agents

Why?

↳ They source data autonomously, given a set of prompts.

Example use-case: Sourcing a list of Sales Leaders, based in SF, in VC-based startups that have > 5X’d revenue 2 years in a row within the last 3 years… by simply telling Exa, in plain English, that this is the list you’re trying to build.

Examples:

→ Relevance AI
→ Outbond
→ Claygent
→ Tavily
→ Apify
→ Exa


5/ Conversation Intelligence

Why?

↳ They record meetings & extract relevant insights from your business conversations.

Example use-case: Reviewing your latest 100 sales calls via Attention’s agent to figure out the most frequent objections your sales team gets from prospects.

Examples:

→ Momentum.io
→ Fireflies.ai
→ Attention


6/ Signal Platforms

Why?

↳ They monitor intent signals to help you uncover prospects in buying mode.

Example use-case: Monitoring previous product buyers (champions) in Common Room, to pitch your solution when they move to a new company (that doesn’t use your product yet!)

Examples:

→ Common Room
→ TheirStack
→ Outbond
→ Clay


7/ AI SDRs

Why?

↳ They automate your prospecting entirely.

Example use-case: Letting Valley write your outreach, qualify your leads, monitor replies & answer on your behalf.

Examples:

→ Artisan
→ Valley

P.S: What AI Sales software category are you betting on in 2026?

AI Sales Categories for 2026

LinkedIn got me past $6M ARR. But Jake Trinder, the mastermind behind Instantly.ai & Clay's channels, argues YouTube is better.

His proof? He grew multiple channels from 0 to > 7-figure revenue from YouTube.

So we did a side-by-side comparison 👇

1. Core Focus

→ LinkedIn: Booking meetings by publishing relevant snackable content.

→ YouTube: Building trust & booking meetings via in-depth educational videos.


2. Key Rules to Win

LinkedIn: 

A. Find outlier/viral/proven publications using tools like Taplio.
B. Consistent high-quality posts relevant to your ICP.
C. Frequent engagement actions with your audience.
D. Optimized profile (banner, title, featured section).

YouTube:

A. Nail combination of thumbnail + title before recording.
B. Focus on quality. YouTube = "Winner takes all"
C. Deep research on titles, thumbnails & trends.


3. Posting Time & Frequency

→ LinkedIn: 3 to 7 posts per week. Same posting time every day.

→ YouTube: 1 video per week. Posting when audience is most online.


4. Top Software

→ LinkedIn:

- Content Ideation + Analytics: Taplio
- Visuals: Figma, Canva, OpusClip
- Writing: Claude, Grammarly

→ YouTube:

- Content Ideation: 1of10, Viewstats, vidIQ
- Production: Adobe Premiere Suite
- Recording: Tella, OBS Studio


5. Expected Reach

→ LinkedIn:

- Audience = B2B focused (i.e: sales, marketing, HR & tech buyers).
- Prospects browse the feed to educate or entertain themselves.
- Over 310,000,000 monthly active users.

→ YouTube:

- Audience = Broad, top-of-funnel (creators, entrepreneurs, founders).
- Audience is actively searching for the content you're creating.
- Over 2,500,000,000 monthly active users.


6. Engagement Expectation

→ LinkedIn: 

- Decent conversion rate. 'Easy' to produce content scale.
- You can reach out to post engagers (DMs).
- Leads are nurtured daily.

→ YouTube:

- High conversion rate from long-form content.
- Audience can binge-watch channels.
- Can't contact viewers directly.


7. Challenges

→ LinkedIn:

- Can take weeks/months before generating any leads.
- Staying consistent is hard.

→ YouTube:

- Lots of upfront work to get 1 good video out.
- Consequent investment in studio setup.
- Talking to a camera can feel weird.


If you had to pick one platform to scale your business, which would you choose?

P.S.: If you need help with YouTube, reach out to Jake. He's the best at growing B2B brands on there. If you need help on LinkedIn, send me a DM :)

The best B2B data is the one your competition doesn't have:

...and you can find it for less than $50/month ↓

Thus, if you want to extract data...

→ Via a marketplace of thousands of pre-built scraping workflows: Apify (go.coldiq.com/apify)

→ Through AI agents researching the web on your behalf: Apify, Clay, Relevance AI, Exa, Outbond.

→ Without exiting LinkedIn: Prospeo.io, lemlist, Expandi.

→ On dedicated pages: Instant Data Scraper, ZenRows.

→ By crawling search engines: Firecrawl, Perplexity.

...there's a tailor-made solution!

What's your go-to software for data scraping?

Data Scraping Software (2025)

How I get > 30% replies via LinkedIn DMs

By doing the opposite of the 100+ weekly pitches I get:

CONTEXT

I sent 5M+ outbound messages for my $6.5M+ ARR Agency.

Nowadays...

Answering DMs costs me more time than running campaigns.

I'm the CEO at a 33-person company.
(I can't imagine how much outreach execs in big orgs get)

That said, I know most execs check their inbox.
And many reply.

Here's how I decide whether I'll respond or not...

And how I changed my own outreach because of this ↓


✅  DMs offering free work

Some DMs offered a free landing page rewrite or samples of already-made work.

I ran prospecting campaigns and pitched free custom lead lists.
(These were getting me more positive replies than I could handle)

My recommendation: Imagine your prospect is an existing client. What's the first thing you'll do for them? Do it already and send it over!


✅ DMs asking to be referred

Let's say you:
1. Send a message based on a current initiative of ColdIQ
2. Searched who is in charge of this initiative.
↳ I'll gladly refer you to said person

PS: You can automate this 'play' via Clay by combining intent signals & retrieving a leader/manager in a specific department.


❌ DMs asking for time on the 1st touchpoint

Meetings are my personal hell.
I'm fighting every day to eliminate as many of them as possible.

If you're "just asking 15 min of my time" to pick my brain, I won't answer.


✅ DMs from ‘known’ people

An unfair truth in cold outreach: $WHO sends a message matters even more than WHAT the message is.

If you're a well-known executive, I'll most likely reply.

I saw this firsthand as I grew my LinkedIn to 60K+ followers...

The exact same message would perform better, without changing anything.

Pro tip: If you sell B2B products, build your brand on LinkedIn.


❌ Generic templated outreach

The only way to make impersonal, generic outreach work is to send at a massive volume (millions of messages).

LinkedIn doesn't allow such volume.

So you'd be better off doing this by email.
Or better yet... not at all.


✅ DMs sharing valuable insights

Jihad explained this better than I could under one of my posts:

"
The best "free work" isn't actually work → it's insights.

I send technical audits of prospects' platforms.
→ 5-minute analysis
→ 3 specific optimization opportunities 
→ No strings attached

Example: "Your checkout flow has a 23% drop-off at payment verification. Here's why + 2 quick fixes."

- Takes me 10 minutes.
- Shows immediate value.
- Demonstrates expertise without asking for anything.

The key: Make it so valuable they'd typically pay for it.

Generic "free consultation" = everyone does this.
Specific actionable insight = rare.
"

Solving prospects' issues before they pay you a dime is the fastest way to gain their trust.


🔘 Videos or Voice Notes

I listen to voice notes or watch videos.

It annoys people.
But if they're well done, they'll grab attention.

What's a DM you receive you could NOT ignore?

Share it 👇

30% LinkedIn DMs

AI agents are replacing human employees.

Funny enough, they operate in very similar ways:

The smartest agents don’t work alone.
They work in teams.

Some behave like assistants.
Others as managers.

And as with any sort of team, there are different ways to structure their collaboration.

To illustrate this:
We can look at how 3 multi-agent setups would handle the same task…

For example: Scheduling a quarter business review with an important client.


1️⃣ Hierarchical setup

A manager agent assigning tasks to its agent team members.

1. The manager receives a task = Schedule a business review.

2. It tells a subordinate agent to check potential times to meet with the clients.

3. Another agent checks product usage from the client. "Has usage recently dropped? Is engagement still strong?"

4. A 3rd agent drafts an email based on client availability & product usage: 

"Hey Achilles, it's been a while - wanted to ensure you're using the product to the fullest. How about a quick chat next week, Wednesday?”

5. The manager reviews everything and sends the email.


2️⃣ 'Human-in-the-Loop' 

A smart assistant tapping your shoulder when needed.

1. The agent drafts the business review email and finds some available times.

2. But… it sees the client gave negative feedback 2 weeks ago.

3. Before sending the email, it asks you: “Do you want to review the email before I send it?"

4. You make small tweaks, and you send it.


3️⃣ 'Sequential' setup

Like a factory or an assembly line where each person does one task and hands it off to the next.

1. 1st Agent asks: "Is a quarterly business review due?" based on the client's last meeting time.

2. 2nd Agent pulls client's usage data.

3. 3rd Agent drafts a short email.

4. 4th Agent sends the email to book the meeting.


So, when should you use which?

As a rule of thumb:

- Hierarchical setups work well for complex, multi-step tasks.

- Human-in-the-loop setups are recommended for high-stakes, sensitive tasks.

- Sequential setups for ordered workflows with clear dependencies.


P.S: What's one process in your team that would run better...
with some smart agents working behind the scenes? 👇

Jake Stone

UpSmith

Head of Strategic Accounts / 1st Sales Hire

Tethr

Director, Sales Development / Enablement / Enterprise AE

Senior Manager, Sales Development

Fast Radius

• Planned to scale SDR Team from 4 to 15 after 19 team members were promoted
• Spearheaded vendor selection of, and implemented Vidyard, Drift, and LI Nav
• Overhauled quota and commission systems (3xed Opportunities Generated)
• Wrote all Outreach sequences to drive high quality email and social selling automation
• Built Career Pathing for the Sales Development Org.
• Achieved 151% to overall quota and 221% to opportunities generated goal - directly resulting in $4.13 million in pipeline generation and 20 CW deals to date, totaling $1.04K in Overall LTV

•Built the Enterprise SDR Function from the ground up
•Achieved 132% to overall quota and 195% to Opportunities Generated Goal - Directly resulting in $12.84 Million in Pipeline Generation and 8 CW Deals to date totaling $1.89K in LTV
•Handpicked team of 5 highly qualitative, strategic, and adaptive SDRs from Core Function to be pioneers in their new role
•Created multiple industry and target persona specific Outreach sequences for this new function
•Created entire foundational structure of the Enterprise SDR Function including Talk Track, Sourcing Strategy, AE-SDR Relational Framework, Career Pathing, Hiring and Ramp Framework, etc

Enterprise SDR Manager

•Hired and Managed a team of 8 SDRs focused on selling multiple manufacturing technologies Including Additive, CNC, Cast Urethane, and IM
•Team achieved 138% to overall quota and 175% to Opportunities Generated goal- Directly resulting in $1.13 Million in Pipeline Generation and 13 CW Deals to date totaling $112K in value and $248K in LTV to date
•Created and implemented multiple processes and organizational structures such as Opening Frameworks, Closing Frameworks, Case Study Cheatsheet, etc
•Created a culture of empowerment, work ethic, and professional development, using transparent and empathetic leadership
•Used Gong, Outreach, SF, ZoomInfo, and Dialpad as Sales Tech Stack

SDR Manager

CloudKitchens

• Managed a team of 6 SDRs and their day-to-day operations
• Led daily huddles to judge prior daily / weekly performance metrics as well as strategize how to increase virtual tour conversion rates, resulting in an increased conversion rate from 15% to 27%
• Took full ownership of all training responsibilities for SDRs as well as ramping Account Executives
• Provided a people focused and empowering environment within our team in regards to mentorship and coaching

Midwest Team Lead

• 2x President's Club Winner
•Closed multi-year full service ghost kitchen contracts with local and national restaurant brands totaling $2.14 million in ARR
• Skillfully secured position as number one Key Account Executive in region and third-ranked in the company despite selling in notoriously difficult market (next closest seller in region totaled $984K ARR)
• Helped stand up Inside Sales Function for CloudKitchens through early stage training and continued mentorship
• Entrusted with simultaneously managing clients in established base market while also single-handedly opening multiple new markets (Iowa City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis) across the Midwest to expand company's reach to smaller cities.

Senior Key Account Executive

Thryv

Thryv, previously known as DexYP, is a full-service and comprehensive CRM and AI Lead Generation software that specifically targets small to mid-size independent business owners. Thryv software uses a comprehensive digital and print media strategy revolving around the flagship CRM, Thryv, and its integrated AI lead generation software, Thryv Leads.

In addition to prior responsibilities listed under "SaaS Account Executive | New Business Only": 
• Provided expert industry recommendations and risk-mitigation solutions to small business owners throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in: closing the renewal of 32 clients; cultivating and on-boarding 17 new business clients; increasing the overall value of book of clients from $600,000 to $746,000 annually, or an increase of 29% overall despite volatile and uncertain market conditions that disproportionately affected small business owners, making them less-likely to invest in software

ACCOLADES: 
• First Rookie to achieve Bronze Level Rookie Award at Thryv in 2020, awarded due to outstanding performance and meeting strict requirements, including: three (3) Thryv CRM sales, one (1) Thryv Leads sale, overall $2,500 of revenue added monthly
• Only Rookie YTD to achieve Silver Level Rookie Award, awarded due to outstanding performance and meeting strict requirements, including: six (6) Thryv CRM sales, three (3) Thryv Leads sales, overall $5,000 of revenue added monthly
• Ranked 4th out of 676 sales employees for overall SaaS growth percentage
• Ranked 8th out of 676 sales employees for overall account growth
• Top 10% overall, and #1 of 56 Rookies at Thryv in terms of sales metrics
• First Rookie in 2020 to sell a comprehensive Thryv and Thryv Leads Package

SaaS Account Executive | Account Manager 

• Expertly provided CRM, Lead Generation, and business strategy solutions to local businesses generating $1.5 million in annual revenue within the Greater Chicago Area 
• Cultivated relationships and on-boarded new clients using the Challenger Method, resulting in four new business sales in two months post-training to create $20,500 in ARR
• Prospected new clients using a variety of strategic tactics, including: persistent cold-calling, email, various networking events, and social media utilization
• Recognized as the #1 New Business Only Sales Representative, and was the only New Business Only Sales Representative kept and promoted by Thryv despite the COVID-19 pandemic
• Met or exceeded quota both months, post-training and pre-promotion

SaaS Account Executive | New Business Only

Napa on Providence

Napa on Providence is an American-Contemporary upscale-dining restaurant in Charlotte, NC.

• After exceptional service performance, was promoted to shift manager of Napa on Providence -- a position which directly managed and oversaw a restaurant of 40 employees
• Planned, oversaw, and managed 3-5 night-shifts each week which each had 15-20 employees working
• Streamlined restaurant operations and communications to provide excellent service to customers which resulted in customer satisfaction and retention
• Deescalated occurrences with upset customers and mediated customer complaints to improve overall ambiance of restaurant and customer experience
• Personally sold $97,300 of wine over the courses of four months as the on-staff Sommelier by providing Sommelier knowledge and expert selling techniques

Shift Manager/Sommelier

• Provided expert service to enhance customer experience and restaurant ambiance as a bartender
• Consistently contributed vast knowledge of both Wine and Cocktail Development to enhance the overall quality of the bar program

Bartender/Cocktail Creator 

Dr. Jay Wrigley

Dr. Jay Wrigley is a naturopathic doctor, focusing on metabolic flexibility, specifically as it pertains to post-menopausal women.

• Crafted a comprehensive business plan that allowed the business to become more scalable and standardized long-term, allowing the business to move from a consultative business model to a program business model
• Created and personalized a website to grow an online presence for services offered, as well as any ancillary products created in conjunction
• Planned and managed all social media efforts: grew Twitter following by 385% or 20,000 followers; created and grew Instagram from 0 followers to 1,000 followers; increased Facebook engagement rate to 17% from the previous 8%
• Researched and explored all new avenues of business opportunities that arose in the industry of 
Functional and Integrative Health to proactively provide recommendations for market expansion; research led to partnerships with Navan and Green Compass Global, two health-focused CBD and hemp companies

Business Development Manager

LeftField/TripWire

LeftField, recently rebranded to TripWire, is a comprehensive Marketing and PR Firm serving companies selling regulated items, such as: CBD, e-Cigarettes, etc. Most notable client is Blu Cigarettes.

• Spearheaded effort to create a digital-magazine to increase social palatability of CBD on the East Coast, starting with Charlotte, and cannabis long-term to address a gap in the marketplace that does not serve high-end, affluent CBD and cannabis users
• Strategically created partnerships with 14 restaurants, wineries, and suppliers that are geographically centric to the Charlotte area to provide complimentary exposure in the aforementioned digital magazine to bridge the gap in consumers' minds between high-end, quality, and unique restaurants/wineries to CBD/cannabis
• Generated $90,000 ARR by converting 3 of the 14 partnerships into clients of LeftField/TripWire to provide social media monitoring to ensure no federal legal regulations were breached

Account Executive

• Cultivated and on-boarded new clientele by completing market research, establishing clients' pain-points, and providing actionable solutions to increase social media presence and engagement
• Consistently completed market research for regulated industries to best provide developmental strategies and stay well-informed on regulations for all future creative endeavors
• Monitored all social media for Blu Cigarettes to ensure all legal regulatory standards were met, pertaining to recent federal guidelines on e-Cigarettes

Intern

Blt Steak

BLT is fine-dining steakhouse based out of NYC. The Charlotte location is privately-contracted by the Ritz Carlton to provide the Ritz Carlton with high quality in-dining experience for all meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Charlotte location generated $4.1 million in revenue annually throughout the duration of my management and direction.

All included duties below were added to my previous position outlined under Captain/Sommelier after being promoted due to exceptional performance and work-ethic:

• Managed and became an expert on a rolling beverage inventory of $95,000, consisting of: $65,000 of wine, $5,000 of beer, $25,000 of spirits
• Curated an eclectic and exceptional wine list by replacing over $40,000 of the aforementioned $65,000 with more sought-after and demographically-focused bottles to increase wine sales by 31% year-over-year (2017-2018)
• Utilizing the newly curated wine list, personally sold $815,000 of wine in a one-year period by expertly applying the consultative/challenger sales method, while still maintaining Wine Director duties
• Created the first fully CBD cocktail list in Charlotte, which subsequently led to an outstanding trend of upscale bars and restaurants incorporating CBD into their cocktail list within the Charlotte area
• Featured in the WCCB publication after being interviewed for the highly successful and influential CBD cocktail list created

Wine Director/Cocktail Creator

• Managed a restaurant of 40 employees for 12-of-21 shifts per week, streamlining communications and operations between front-of-house and back-of-house employees to provide exceptional service to guests
• Sold $1.35 million of wine over the course of two years by utilizing the consultative/challenger sales method to personally interact with and pair tailored bottles to each individual table throughout each shift
• Manually calculated and recorded payroll for front-of-house service staff using Microsoft Excel
• Recorded and confirmed nightly sales metrics to track performance, while also generating weekly summarized reports using Aloha POS

Captain/Sommelier

Jake here — builder of sales functions and processes, empathetic leader, and the person willing to do whatever it takes to drive growth, revenue, and ultimately impact to the companies at which I'm working.

I have a true passion for building, for learning, and for constantly iterating. I've found I add the most value to early teams and organizations due to my ability to create strategy, as well as apply and validate it through self-executing — operating as both a leader and an IC, dependent on organizational need. 

I'm a 5x sales function builder. I thrive in environments where I can quickly (yet deeply) triage the needs, and alleviate them with industry best practices and personal thought leadership, to create high-performing teams and processes that are primed to create demand and close it — all while doing the closing myself, as well.

Constant iteration. Prospect interaction. Process creation. Data-driven decision-making. Ruthless prioritization. Unwavering willingness to get my hands dirty and do the work. These are all traits required in small teams, and all of the reasons I am such a great fit for this style of work.

Prior to tech sales, I had a bit of a storied past. I started my Sales career at high-end restaurants. While that path may seem non-traditional (it is), it gave me invaluable perspective and experience as I transitioned my career into tech. As a restaurant GM and Wine Director, I learned how to connect with patrons, build lasting relationships, and create magical customer experiences  — all ultimately helping me hone my sales skills. Another added perk? I love talking about wine — and I love making recommendations. 
 
Outside of the office, I enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, hiking, and running ultra marathons. 
 
Skills: Challenger Sales Methodology, Gap Selling Methodology, Salesforce Admin, Tech Stack Vendor Management, ABM Creation, Sales Operations and Enablement, Pipeline and Opportunity Management, Cold Outbound, Sales Process Creation, Team Leadership, Event Strategy and Management, AI-Driven Prospecting

taplio

The Battle

Michel Lieben 🧠

Jake Stone

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMichel Lieben 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Michel Lieben 🧠

Jake Stone

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Michel Lieben 🧠's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMichel Lieben 🧠's LinkedIn Performance