Bill Stathopoulos

Founder

SalesCaptain

🏆 Award-Winning Outbound & GTM Agency 

We build Outbound campaigns for high-growth B2B SaaS & Service businesses.

Case Studies
→  Nestlé: in-person meetings booked with Accor, Novotel, Four Seasons & more
→  Pixofix: 20-30 demo calls booked/month, built a $1m+ sales pipeline
→  WorkReduce: calls booked with Autodesk, BlackRock, ESPN
→  RiskWell: 12+ demo call requests per week, and calls booked with Diageo and TATA
→  REALS: got a response from Steve Wozniak
→  AdLib: 150 demo calls booked in the first 12 months after campaigns went live
→  Search Magic: grew to $500k+ ARR with Cold Email

Reach out to our team and we’ll build custom Clay & Outbound flows for your business:
👉 salescaptain.io

Pixofix

Partner

Clay

Enterprise Clay Partners 🥇
We leverage Clay to build GTM motions and execute high-volume, personalized email campaigns.
Sending 1.2 million emails every month for our clients.

So far:
→ We’ve built 60+ Clay enrichment flows
→ We co-host webinars with Clay, training the Outbound community on AI Lead Generation 
→ Our Clay-powered campaigns have generated clients like: Superdry, BlackRock, Diageo, Vivienne Westwood and Tata
→ We host the London Clay meetup, with Bill as the Clay London Club Lead

Reach out to our team and we’ll build custom Clay workflows for your business:
👉 salescaptain.io

Enterprise Partners

Hellenic American Union

Main Instructor of the Certificate in Digital Marketing Diploma

- Teaching 1,000+ students in the last 8 years.
- Developing the curriculum for Content Marketing, Email Marketing, and Marketing Automation

Digital Marketing Instructor

Ad World Conference

Ad World is the world's largest online advertising event.
For three days, Ad World stream 10+ Digital Advertising Tracks, consisting of hyper-focused speeches, panels, and live Q&A sessions to help take your business to the next level.

50,000+ attendees 
100+ speakers
140+ countries

- Designing the conference speaker line-up
- Content direction strategy working with speakers and management on crafting the overall direction for the event
- Interviewing keynote speakers like: Seth Godin, Dennis Yu, Scott Galloway, Ryan Deiss, Arianna Huffington, Rory Sutherland, Sir Martin Sorrell, and more
- Building strategic partnerships
- Working on creative ideas to help better the experience for attendees
- Building a speaker network and relationships
- Live event management

Head of Ad World Pro

New York University Abu Dhabi

Startup Mentor @ NYU startAD

ProveSource

ProveSource leverages the power of social proof to boost your website reputation, credibility, conversions, and sales by highlighting recent orders, product reviews, and a variety of other customer behaviors.

20k+ websites use ProveSource 🔥
4.8/5 stars based on 77+ Capterra reviews ❤️
20M notifications shown every day 👀

VP of Growth

GrowthRocks

Creating the strategy and managing implementation of Marketing infrastructure, campaigns and product marketing efforts for customers throughout the company.

Responsible for channel mix definition, setting goals, processes, and service offering to achieve targets across the funnel (AARRR) for startups and companies from 16+ countries.

Managing a team of 15 Growth Marketers

Head of Growth

Helping GrowthRocks expand to new geographies, create synergies and develop new products.

- Full-Funnel Marketing strategy
- Marketing solutions research & implementation
- Marketing Tech Stack consulting
- Inbound Marketing
- Web/product analytics & insights
- Content, Instagram & Chatbot hacks
- Partner Management & Sales

Working with Nestlé, GE, Cosmote, Nokia and more.
Helping startups scale-up and tap into new markets using growth hacking, Growth Experimentation and User Acquisition campaigns.

Growth Marketing Manager

Responsible for the strategy and implementation of holistic Growth Marketing campaigns, including:

- Content Marketing
- Social Media Strategy
- Inbound Marketing strategy and implementation
- Email Marketing 
- Marketing automation
- Lead generation

I had the opportunity to work with companies like: Nestlé, Nokia, Oriflame, GE Healthcare, Airtickets, Blendo, Delivery.gr, Cosmote, Concentric, TicketingHub.

Growth & Content Marketer

Content Marketing Academy

Following the success of Growth Hacking Academy and the requests for a specialized course in Content Marketing, we launched Content Marketing Academy.

The rise of the Digital era brought tidal waves of change in the Content Marketing industry, which was traditionally tasked with offline marketing activities and campaigns.

The tactics and frameworks that worked for offline didn’t work for the digital world really well.
There is, however, a small exception to that. 

Carrying broad expertise on all online channels, insights on how the Marketing funnel works online and how to research, create, and promote content in the most efficient manner, growth hackers are uniquely equipped to make a company’s Content Marketing efforts succeed.

These are precisely the tools, frameworks, hacks, techniques and methodologies that one can learn at Content Marketing Academy, the world’s first complete next-gen Content Marketing course.

We have designed the entire experience to be hands-on and interactive, including live quizzes, use of a VR headset, real-life examples and strategy audits so that participants can get the most out of the course.

Growth Hacking Academy

I took over the Advanced Content Marketing course and created a unique experience for the Growth Hacking Academy participants by combining the Buyer's Journey, Marketing Funnels, Copywriting and Content Hacks with Messenger bots. 

The result? Our participants asking for more. 😉

Organizer & Instructor

👋 I'm Bill, and here's my story:

1. Scaled a Growth Marketing Agency to $1M ARR at the age of 28. Grew the team from 7 to 25+ employees in 3 years. Closed clients like Nestle, Revolut, GE, and the Singapore Airport.
2. Helped multiple startups go from zero to $5M+ revenue in 18 months
3. Authored a book - "Cold Email Secrets"
4. Trained 2,500+ Growth Marketers in the last 5 years
5. Built the speakers lineup for Ad World, with 50k+ attendees and 100+ speakers, making it the largest advertising conference in the world
6. Spent 4 years as a digital nomad while building SalesCaptain, an Outbound Sales agency for high-growth tech startups.
7. Interviewed Seth Godin, Scott Galloway, Arianna Huffington, Rory Sutherland, the CMO of Samsung, the CMO of Hubspot, and 30+ world-class Marketing executives.
8. Published the book “Cold Email Secrets”, the bible of modern Outbound & GTM. 
9. Named “Top Lead Generation Voice” on LinkedIn in 2024
10. Became the Clay Club Host in London, leading a team of 15+ GTM Engineers

What you'll get working with me:
🧲 Your Go-To-Market (aka GTM) Strategy
🏀 Optimize your Marketing channels; make the most of your budget
🏆 Build systems for User Acquisition, Activation, Retention, and Revenue

Peace, love & growth ✌️

Bill

Co-Founder

We build and scale Outbound Sales systems that include multi-channel prospecting, lead response, and our cutting-edge processes to help you build your business.

The $500 vs. $1K vs. $5K Outbound Stacks
What Your Outbound Stack Should Look Like at Every Stage 
(and with every budget).
 
A mistake I see quite often in B2B
is that many companies overcomplicate Outbound.
They stack tools, burn hours, and still don’t get replies.

So we built a simpler way to think about outbound:
✅ 3 budgets
✅ 3 stacks
✅ All mapped across Data, Enrichment, Sending, CRM, AI, Automation, and Intent
 
📦 The $500 Outbound Stack (Proof of Concept)

- For solo founders or early GTM teams testing messaging.
- Lean, fast, and fully operational.
- Data: BetterContact (budget friendly) or Clay
- Enrichment: Clay
- Sending: Instantly.ai, ZeroBounce (for email health)
- AI: Claygent
💡 Use this stack to validate the offer, find early traction, and avoid overbuilding.
 
⚙️ The $1K Outbound Stack (Scale & Personalize)

- For growing teams layering in AI and intent,
(This is where workflows get serious)
- Sending: Mailforge - Cold Email Infrastructure 📈 + lemlist (multichannel)
- Data: Clay + Apify (advanced scraping/triggering)
- Enrichment: Clay AI for segmentation + custom variables
- Intent: Layer in firmographic and behavioral triggers using Apify + Clay Signals
- Automation: Zapier or n8n
💡 Ideal for agencies and Series A teams that need speed + precision.
 
🚀 The $5K Outbound Stack (CRM-Connected GTM Engine)

- For mature Outbound machines.
- You’re syncing data, scoring leads, and personalizing at scale.
- Sending: Mailforge - Cold Email Infrastructure 📈 + lemlist
- Data: Clay
- Enrichment + AI: Clay full stack (segments, scoring, signals) or Octave
- Intent: Clay Custom Signals, Apify, Trigify.io, Dealfront, or RB2B
- CRM: HubSpot integration for feedback loops + tiered + inbound-led outbound campaigns
💡 Use CRM data to boost reply rates, segment smarter, and drive pipeline efficiency.
 
We mapped the whole thing into one clean visual, 
save it, study it, and share it with your ops team.
 
At SalesCaptain We build these stacks for GTM teams that want more pipeline without adding headcount.
If that’s you, let’s chat.

#outbound #gtm #salesops #growthstack #b2bsales #foundertips #gtmstack

CEO, SalesCaptain | Clay London Club Lead 👑 | Top lemlist Partner 📬 | Investor | B2B Outbound + GTM Engineer ;)

Bill the Marketer is dead.
And honestly? That’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

A CEO I worked with once told me:
"I can’t be CEO, boy genius, and marketer at the same time, I need to choose one."
He chose CEO.
 
And I know a day will come when I had to choose too.
I’m not “just a marketer” anymore.
I’m a business builder.
✅ 3 companies
✅ $3M+ ARR
✅ Clients across 3 continents
✅ Failures that taught me more than any “10x hack” ever could
 
And the common thread behind every win?
Outbound.
 
Not the kind that spams inboxes.
But Outbound that fuels the buyer journey, integrated into the funnel, building brand and pipeline at the same time.

In a few days at HubSpot INBOUND in SF, we’ll show exactly how we did it.

Until then, I will leave you with this question:
Is your Outbound just prospecting…
or is it a growth engine for your whole business?
#outbound #marketing #founder

The Minimum Viable GTM stack you need to book 10x more meetings in 2025.
If I were starting from scratch, this is the exact stack I’d build.
 
One question I hear again and again and again 😀:
“What’s the leanest GTM stack you’d need to generate pipeline fast from zero?”
So here's my answer 👇 

In my view, it comes down to 3 non-negotiable layers:
 
1. 🚀 The Outreach Layer
To run campaigns across channels, and reach prospects at scale.
- Campaign orchestration (Email + Multichannel)
- LinkedIn integration & engagement
- Inbox scale & deliverability warmup
Using  tools like:
→ Warmly, HeyReach.io, lemlist, Instantly.ai, Smartlead, Mailforge - Cold Email Infrastructure 📈, Zapmail.ai.
This is your engine. 
Without it, your outreach ends up in spam.
 
2. 🧩 The Data Layer
Remember that your pipeline is only as strong as your data.
- Workflow & data orchestration
- Core prospect databases
- Signals & enrichment
- Email verification & validation
Using tools like:
→ Clay, Apollo, Cognism, LeadMagic, People Data Labs, Clearbit, ZeroBounce, Bouncer.
This layer fuels your every move
Ignoring validated data and signals can lead to wasted pipeline.

3. 🤖 The AI Layer
Replace manual grunt work with AI to help your SDRs focus on what matters.
- AI engines (Foundation models)
- AI email personalization
- AI SDRs & orchestration
- AI forecasting & call insights
Using tools like:
→ OpenAI, Anthropic, Lavender 💜🔮 www.ora.im, Warmer.ai, Artisan, Alta | AI Revenue Workforce, Gong, Clari.
This layer amplifies everything above, 
with faster workflows, sharper copy, and deeper insights.
(Same team, 10× the pipeline).
 
💡 With just these 3 layers, you can:
✅ Build a clean, defined ICP that is enriched + validated
✅ Launch 100s of inboxes with high deliverability
✅ Run scalable, multichannel campaigns in days, not months
✅ Avoid being locked into bloated annual contracts
 
This is your MV GTM Stack for 2025.
Everything else is optional.

I mapped out the full stack visually in the carousel below.
Save this post for your next stack review.
 
#gtm #sales #outbound #ai

GTM Stack to book x10 more meetings

🔥 From a failed outbound campaign to $3M ARR in just 18 months
here’s how we cracked the code at Sales Captain (and how you can too) ↓
 
Back in 2019, after a painfully failed outbound campaign,
I realized something crucial was missing

Relevance.
 
Tools like lemlist had just launched, and I was hyped about image personalization.

But our early campaigns bombed, hard ﻿
﻿
 
People literally replied:
“please stop this SPAM. This is disgusting.”
As marketers, that kind of feedback stings.
But it drove me to rethink everything.
 
Here's what you can do to turn a failed campaign into $3M ARR, like we did.
 
1. Hyper-Personalized Targeting (not generic):

Build a team of data analysts who manually vet every single company before it ever goes into your campaign pipeline.
That's what made our messaging hit home.
 
2. Micro-Segmentation by Sub-Industry:

Instead of spraying “e-commerce brand owner” at everyone, break campaigns down into apparel, footwear, eyewear, etc.
Messaging that resonates with someone selling shoes is very different from messaging to someone selling couches.
Context matters.
 
3. Relentless A/B Testing:

Test subject lines, messaging styles ... everything.
That iterative refinement made our outreach smarter and more effective.
 
4. A Compelling "Foot in the Door" Offer:

Yes, relevance is critical BUT without a strong offer, even the most targeted campaign falls flat.
We offered a small part of our service for free, and people responded.
It was a small gesture that built trust.
When you combine relevance + a smart offer = no other option but scaling!
 
That’s how we went from a failed campaign to $3M ARR in 18 months.
 
Fast-forward to today ⏩ 
AI tools like Clay are revolutionizing how we operate.
They can automate the tedious stuff like lead enrichment, filtering, and qualification.
That means that we don't need a large data analyst team. Our people can focus on the creative and strategic work that truly adds value.
 
But make no mistake:
AI is a force multiplier, not a replacement for human strategy, empathy, and iteration.
 
Want to scale smarter, not harder?
--> Start with relevance
+
Couple it with data
+
Thoughtful segmentation
+
Smart testing
+
A great offer
--> and watch what happens.
I'm happy to answer any questions you have below or in my DMs.
#outbound #ai #sales #gtm

This is the best time in history to invest in outbound.

Hear me out,

A few years ago, the “gold” was in B2C.
- Facebook & Google could track everything.
- Third-party cookies made ads stupidly cheap.
- You could spin up a DTC brand in weeks and scale profitably.
 
Then came GDPR, iOS 14, and the cookie apocalypse...etc.
B2C targeting got harder, noisier, and more expensive.

B2B was a different story.
We had closed platforms like ZoomInfo & Sales Navigator,
anything more custom took massive manual effort.
 
That’s not the case anymore!

Modern scraping tools (Apify, Trigify.io, Teamfluence™, Vayne,…) + AI have unlocked a renaissance in B2B data.

Now you can capture signals across the Buyer’s Journey:
-> People engaging with your LinkedIn posts.
-> Companies visiting your site.
-> Decision-makers publishing content.
-> Advanced signals like number of office locations

When you combine that with real-time enrichment & ICP filtering in Clay, 
you get:
✅ Always-on outbound campaigns.
✅ Perfect-fit targeting at the right moment.
✅ Messaging that feels personal at scale.
(Example clay table in the comments)

Outbound is starting to feel a lot like inbound.
And the companies that master this now will own their markets for years!
 
If you’re building your GTM engine and want to see how we run ours on this new B2B gold mine, DM or comment
Happy to show you how we do it at SalesCaptain 😉 

#b2bdata #datarenaissance #gtm #outbound

The B2B Data Renaissance

5 MCPs That Took SalesCaptain Workflows to the Next Level 🚀 
(And made our GTM feel like it runs itself)
 
MCPs are all over LinkedIn right now,
And it’s not just buzz or a trend!
 
MCP (Model Context Protocol) gives your AI a roadmap
on what tools it can use, 
what data’s available, 
and how everything connects.
 
This prevents having broken automations or workflows
and builds a cleaner structure that AI can actually use.
 
We’ve been rebuilding our own stack around MCPs,
Not to over-engineer anything 
(you know I am not a fan of that),
but to give AI the structure it needs to perform without confusion.
 
These 5 MCPs have become part of our daily system,
Each one plays a role, from sales to ops to data,
and helps us move faster, 
without bloat or extra headcount.
 
Here’s our lineup 👇

🧩 HubSpot MCP
Gives us live visibility into objections, deal stages, and sales cycles.
We spot what’s working,
and what’s slowing us down (fast).

⚡ Zapier MCP
We use it to build small automations and AI workflows.
It’s simple stuff: pulling data, writing messages, syncing steps.
Once you’ve set it up right, it runs in the background like magic.

🧠 Clay.earth MCP
This one’s underrated!
It finds people in your own network that match your ICP filters.
We’ve used it to find decision-makers and relevant content
without scraping a thing.

📊 Stripe MCP
We pipe Stripe data into dashboards so we can track invoices, payments, and MRR at a glance.
No logging in or waiting on reports.
A straightforward one clean view of the business.

🔎 Apify MCP
This one’s more advanced (but powerful)!
We use it to trigger outreach based on things like job changes, product updates, or press releases.
It helps us hit the right timing without lifting a finger.

✅ Why this works:
- AI gets a clear roadmap for tools, data, and actions
- No more broken workflows or blind spots
- We save hours by letting AI handle what used to require constant manual work

These 5 MCPs helped us scale without adding headcount.
The results:
-> More pipeline
-> Faster decisions
-> Less confusion

Got an MCP stack you're proud of? Drop it in the comments, 
I would love to see it.

#MCP #AIstack #outbound #salesops #GTMstack #foundertips #mcp

After generating $5M in pipeline from Cold Outbound, 
we took a step back to ask,
What’s working?
What’s outdated?
What does the market actually need now?
 
It came up again this this week when I was on a podcast 🎙️ 
and the host hit me with that killer question.

“You take over a company today
how do you revamp their GTM?”

This is the answer I gave ﻿
﻿(And it’s the same model we’ve now built into our offering at SalesCaptain)
 
Because the truth is 👇 
The old Outbound playbook doesn’t cut it anymore.
What companies need now is precision + adaptability,
and most teams don’t have the infrastructure for that.
 
So we rebuilt our offering around what the market actually needs today
 
1️⃣ Mapping the full TAM with Clay + Custom Scraping

2️⃣ Scoring + Tiering the TAM (not all leads are equal)
* Tier 1 → Routed to BDRs for true ABM
* Tier 2 → Mass outbound powered by AI workflows

3️⃣ Inbound-led Outbound using signals like:
* Website visitors
* Social media activity
* Influencer interactions
* Open roles / hiring trends
* Company announcements

4️⃣ RevOps + SalesOps Enhancements:
* Real-time form enrichment
* Pre-call CRM briefs
* Job changes of client champions
* Signal tracking for churned deals
 
We’re not here to “replace BDRs.”
We’re here to make them 10x more productive 🚀 
and take the first-touch load off their plate for everything but Tier 1.
 
This model works because it’s modular, signal-driven, 
and built for today’s buyer journey.
More relevance = Less bloat = Better ROI.
 
If you’re rethinking how your GTM should actually work,
this might be the blueprint for you!
 
Shoutout to RevPilot and Jordan Park 🙌 

#outbound #gtm #salesops #foundertips #aiops #b2bsales #revenueops

We saved 20+ hours / week for each of our clients' BDRs.

Here’s how:

In the past → 
-> You’d buy a static database (ZoomInfo, LinkedIn, Google Maps).
->  You’d get one broad category like “Advertising & Marketing.”
-> To target programmatic agencies? Creative agencies? Media buyers?
You either had to:
❌ Blast everyone (spam).
❌ Or hire expensive BDR teams to sort the mess manually.

Now → 
You feed that same data into AI tools (Clay, AI agents, real-time filters).

In < 1 hour, you can:
✅ Filter tens of thousands of records.
✅ Hit a specific sub-niche with inbound-level relevance.
✅ Eliminate weeks of manual data cleanup.

That’s why we say outbound is now inbound.
Because the walls between them are gone.
You can get the same level of relevance you got from Inbound, using Outbound.

This shift means:
- No more spray-and-pray.
- Same hyper-personalization inbound was known for.
- Outbound becomes a scalable, compounding system, not a headcount sink.

I'm not talking theory here!
It’s what we’ve actually built at SalesCaptain.
And what our clients see every day.

Outbound doesn’t need to be expensive, generic, or annoying.
The (near) future is AI-first, real-time workflows that feel like inbound.

P.S. I’ll be at HubSpot INBOUND in SF soon (talking about Outbound and this shift in detail 🚀).
Link to register is in the comments, seats are limited, so make sure you get yours soon.

#outbound #gtm #ai #inbound #growthmarketing #aiinsales #clay #hubspot

Most people think LinkedIn is the #1 B2B channel. They’re wrong.

LinkedIn is NOT a demand gen channel. Not a content channel. Not a “personal branding” channel.
Unless you run it as a funnel, LinkedIn won’t generate revenue.

I’ve spent the last 4 years testing every play:
– Content-first approaches that looked good on vanity metrics but never touched pipeline.
– DM automation tools that got accounts flagged and networks burned.
– “Thought leadership” that attracted likes, but no buyers.

Here’s what actually works 👇 
The 7 hardest lessons I’ve learned turning LinkedIn into a revenue engine:
 
1. Your profile is not a resume, it’s a landing page.
 
Nobody cares about your career path. Buyers care if you can solve their problem.
Headline + proof = your first conversion event.
If your profile doesn’t signal authority instantly, you’ve already lost.
 
2. Lists don’t matter, signals do
 
I’ve seen 10K lead lists generate nothing.
But 50 Tier-0 leads with job-change or hiring signals? Pipeline every time.
ICP-specific triggers (posts, job ads, funding events) → +50% reply lift.
 
3. Short beats smart
 
Founders don’t read essays in the DMs.
One screen. One point. <150 characters.
That clarity alone = +22% replies.
 
4. Cold doesn’t convert, warm does
 
A profile visit → like → comment → follow → connect.
This micro-warmup boosts acceptance by 30%+.
Skip the sequence, lose the deal.
 
5. Multi-channel wins
 
LinkedIn alone is fragile. Algorithms shift.
The top teams pair LinkedIn + email + calls.
No reply on LI? A quick follow-up email adds +14% reply rate.
 
6. Speed is pipeline
Your “I’ll reply tomorrow” = lost deal.
Reply in 5 minutes, not 24 hours.
Fast responses = up to 8× higher conversion.
 
7. Pages don’t sell, people do
 
Company page reach is 1.6%. Dead on arrival.
Employee posts = 3× impressions, 5× engagement.
Revenue lives in personal networks. Period.
 
LinkedIn isn’t the #1 channel by default.
It’s #1 when you run it as outbound:
📈 Prioritize signals
⚡ Move fast
🔁 Work across channels
 
Founders, marketers, sales leaders → stop treating LinkedIn like a content billboard.
Start treating it like a pipeline system.
That’s how you turn ignored posts and DMs into meetings, pipeline, and revenue.

#linkedin #leadgen #outbound

💡 How we turned 8 hours of SDR research into 8 minutes, 
without losing the human touch!

On a call last week, a prospect asked me:
"How does Clay actually make an SDR’s life easier?"

Here’s the short answer:
 
✅ You still need SDRs.
❌ But you don’t need them wasting hours on research.
 
The old workflow:

- SDR spends most of the day finding, vetting, and enriching leads.
- Outbound slows down because lists take forever to build.
- By the time they start messaging, momentum is gone.
 
The Clay workflow:

- Define your qualification criteria.
- Pull every data point on your ICP into a Clay table.
- Click one button → get hundreds (or thousands) of vetted prospects in minutes.
- Hand that list (plus relevant messaging) to your SDR.
- Have them focus on replies, not research.
 
Why would you do that? 👇 

When an outbound lead replies, speed matters more than anything.
The faster you respond, the more meetings you book.
So instead of burning 80% of the day on research, your SDRs are:
📞 On the phone.
✉️ In the inbox.
💰 Turning replies into pipeline.

Outbound is changing, and you NEED TO catch up!
Research is automated,
the human touch is still essential.
You just need them in the right part of your workflow.

What’s stopping you from applying the new SDR workflow? Let's work out the challenges in the comments 👇 

#sdr #clay #outbound #gtm #aiinsales #salesautomation

We broke into a saturated market
(and booked 20+ meetings in a month)
Here's how you can do it too👇 

You may think Cold Email can’t work when:
- The market is mature
- Buyers already have a vendor
- You’re the new player with zero awareness
 
We faced this issue with the Dutch IT resale market.
It is a mature market.
Most companies already have a trusted partner for disposing of old equipment.
On paper we had zero brand awareness, low chance to break through.

But here’s what happened when we ran a localized campaign 👇
📈 Open rate: 74%
📈 Consistent reply rate: >2% across industries
📈 20+ qualified meetings booked
📈 Multiple conversations started in accounts with entrenched vendors
 
Here's what we did and you can replicate:

1️⃣ Localization done right
Don't translate, work on matching tone to context, for example:
Email 1: “Hallo” → casual, friendly
Email 2: “Dag” → polite, neutral
Email 3–4: “Beste” → formal, respectful
 
2️⃣ Credibility in one line
Instead of vague claims, use hard proof. For example
“We paid €42,000 for equipment another vendor valued at €17,000.”
 
3️⃣ Consistency over one-hits
Test, iterate and apply the same playbook across industries.
 
Don't let saturated markets scare you away!

If you have a credible offer + you know how to localize + a repeatable process
You can win conversations even in locked-up markets,
and get 20+ meetings per month or more.

Which part feels hardest for you to get right in your outbound:
1. localization,
2. pinning down the offer
3. or consistent processes?

#outbound #coldemail #b2bmarketing #localization

This Clay table builds your full buyer profile in < 3 minutes
It creates a full AI-powered Sales Meeting Prep Card with everything you need before a call.

Normally, BDRs waste 30+ minutes before a call just to get ready:
﻿
- Finding the decision maker on LinkedIn
- Skimming the site/news & competitors
- Hunting signals (hiring, funding, tech)
- Pasting it all into HubSpot
 
That’s time spent NOT selling,
Here’s how to build an AI-generated Sales Meeting Prep Card for every lead,
(fully automated):
 
Step 1: Enrich the Lead (2–3 mins)
As soon as a lead hits HubSpot (or whatever CRM you use),
Clay fills in:
// Buying committee LinkedIns
// HQ, headcount, funding stage, tech stack
// Competitors + latest PR/news
// ICP Fit score
 
Step 2: Add Sales Notes Automatically
Clay + OpenAI drop a note into the CRM and Slack with:
- Key context: “Raised $15M” / “Hiring SDRs” / “New CRM in place”
- 2–3 personalization hooks for the first touch
- Any risks or red flags
 
Step 3: Map and Connect
Map Calendly “sources” into CRM fields with AI (no more dirty data).
Queue safe LinkedIn connection requests to the decision maker (HeyReach.io).
 
Step 4: Capture Post-Call Context
AI meeting notes + next steps auto-sync into the deal
so handoffs never lose detail.
 
End result → Every rep is prepared with an AI-generated Sales Meeting Prep Card with…
- Company TL;DR
- Buying committee + LinkedIns
- Fit score + intent signals
- Personalization angles
- Next steps
All in one place with literally zero manual work.
 
I can share our Clay table with you, comment CARD and I’ll DM it to you.
 
#clay #hubspot #salesautomation #salescaptain

AI generated sales meeting prep card

We used these 5 workflows to revive $200K in pipeline
from ‘lost’ accounts
in under 60 days!
 
Most GTM teams are obsessed with new leads.
Meanwhile, they’re sitting on a goldmine of warm contacts
(past customers, expired contracts, and old opportunities)
gathering dust in their CRM.
 
Well, guess what...
You can revive these accounts
faster and cheaper than cold outbound 😉
 
Here’s why:
1. You already have the company context.
2. You’ve got warm associations (past deals, champions, use cases).
3. You can time outreach based on real triggers (renewals, job changes, engagement).
 
We built 5 Clay workflows that:
- Pinpoint when past customers are ready to buy again.
- Surface new decision-makers inside old accounts.
- Expand into more departments and locations.
- Catch renewal windows before your competitors do.
- Find lookalike companies that mirror your best customers.
 
The result?
✅ 20%+ reply rates.
✅ $200K+ pipeline in weeks.
✅ Zero cold lists.
 
I’ve turned the exact process into an info-packed PDF that includes👇 
- The exact data to pull from your CRM
- The Clay workflows to enrich it
- The triggers that signal it’s time to act
- Example messages that convert

Comment “CRM” and I’ll send you the playbook.

Stop chasing cold leads while the warmest ones are right under your nose.

#crm #outbound #clay #salesworkflows #gtm #sales

Most B2B teams waste time chasing companies with no budget!
We wanted to fix that..
So we gave our data team a challenge 🔥 
 
"Is this company even worth reaching out to?"
 
That’s the question we threw at our data team at SalesCaptain last week.
 
We turned it into an internal mini challenge:

🔍 Pick companies in software development
👥 Focus only on small ones (10–50 employees)
because it’s easier to track growth at big companies
(and we didn't want easy)
🚫 No funding data, no press, no obvious signals
 
Just the question:
Would you bet on this company growing?
 
Tougher than it sounds!

Because when you limit it to early-stage B2B teams,
chances are, you don’t get the usual signals.
- No Crunchbase alerts.
- No “we’re hiring” page.
- No PR puff piece to make it obvious.
And yet…
some of them are growing fast.
You just can’t see it unless you know where to look.
 
So here’s what the team came back with:

A Clay table that pulls headcount history from the last 12 months
(and up to 5 years back if you want more context).

For every company, you get:
📊 Current employee count
📉 Count 12 months ago
📈 % change in headcount
🎯 All filterable by location and including LI pages, reasoning 
and verdict on growth status
 
Such a simple signal,
but surprisingly powerful.
 
And yes, i know that employee count isn’t the only sign of growth,
maybe they added revenue without hiring, 
maybe AI replaced ops.

But headcount growth is one of the best early signals of momentum in small companies.
 Because if a 27-person SaaS company grows to 38 people in a year?
That tells you something is working!
 
And that’s exactly who you want to talk to.
 
Want to check your ICPs? this table helps you:
- Prioritize outreach
- Spot companies that are actually scaling
- Skip those that look flashy but are flatlining
 
And we made it public.
 
If you want a copy of the table, comment GROWTH or dm me and I’ll send it over.
 
#clay #outbound #GTM #leadgen #B2Bgrowth #data #salescaptain

Talks about #saas, #startups, #coldemail, and #growthmarketing

I see these GTM delusions every single week on LinkedIn. 
These “hacks” waste pipeline, burn budgets, and confuse founders.
So I’m debunking the Top 5 👇


1️⃣ “I know Clay, so I can do GTM.” 🤡
Reality: Clay is a tool, not a strategy. Without ICP mapping, triggers, and systems, you’re just burning credits.

2️⃣ “We automated the sales team with N8N.” ⁉️
Reality: You built a 12-step workflow to do what a Calendly link could’ve done. Automation should save time, not become the job.

3️⃣ “I have intent data, I’ll own the market.” 🦁 
Reality: Without a GTM system, intent data is worthless. 
Launch → test → learn → then intent adds value.

4️⃣ “We’re an AI-first company.” 🤖
Reality: Plugging ChatGPT into your stack doesn’t make you AI-first. 
Bad data + AI = wrong answers faster.

5️⃣ “AI will replace SDRs.” 
Reality: AI frees up 30–50% of their time. 
The win is using your own assets (CRM, web traffic, PLG) to fuel warm, high-conversion outreach.

And every time I think these hacks on LinkedIn can’t get worse… they do.
That’s why we made GTM Delusions Bingo 🎯 (see below).

Which one have you seen this week already? Or share the ones that get to you in the comments (and let's make a bigger bingo card).

If you want to do GTM right, my DMs are open 💌 
#gtm #sales #outbound #salescaptain

🚨 The “wrong” GTM decision that took us from 15→ 55 meetings booked/month.
 
I was asked on a podcast:
“What’s one bold GTM decision you made at SalesCaptain that most people thought was wrong, but turned out to be right?”
Without a second thought, i replied 👇
 
Building a full in-house marketing team.
 
Not freelancers, and not one full-stack marketer
A real team, that’s now almost ⅓ the size of our client delivery org.

At the time, it felt crazy, and I got comments like:
“Why spend so much on marketing when you’re still growing?”
“Wouldn’t you be better off adding more sales?”
 
Here’s why I insisted, and it worked:
 
1️⃣ We believe in AI, Clay, and the new GTM motion we’re teaching.
If we don’t invest in it, why should clients?

2️⃣ Marketing isn’t just content, it’s market education.
Teaching buyers what’s possible with outbound.

3️⃣ Every marketing motion is tied back to GTM campaigns.
Content engagement → automations → follow-up.
Events → outreach.
No awareness goes to waste, ever!
 
The results:
👉 We went from 15 meetings/month → 55 meetings/month booked
👉 Activated 3x more marketing channels
👉 Created a loop of awareness + conversion
The bold move was betting big on ourselves, and on educating the market.

Founders: if the market doesn’t understand what you do, 
don’t cut back on marketing.
Over-invest in it,
and thank me later ;)

Shoutout to Theo Kanellopoulos for leading this amazing team 🔥 

#gtm #marketing #sales

Let's talk about the GTM Drama of 2025 🎭
And how every founder, CRO, CMO, and RevOps leader is stuck watching the same bad play on repeat.

Act I: Predictable revenue runs out of credit

For years, the “predictable revenue” model was the way to go.
Hire SDRs, give them sequences, and watch the pipeline roll in.
Not anymore.
Here’s what’s actually happening in 2025:
1. SDRs blasting from personal inboxes (deliverability nightmares)
2. Outbound run through legacy CRMs (guaranteed domain blacklisting by Google & Microsoft)
3. Reps chasing low-reply campaigns that burn time but don’t convert
4. Leadership funding teams that cost millions but add little predictable pipeline

Allow me to tell it how it is: Predictable revenue is dead. And the more money you pour into SDR headcount, the faster your CAC burns.
 
Act II: Sales vs. Marketing, The feud of the play

The script hasn’t changed in 20 years 🫠 
Marketing: “Our leads are solid.”
Sales: “No one fits the ICP.”
Execs: “Why is pipeline shrinking?”
Pipeline dies while internal debates live on.

The truth is, in 2025 there’s no excuse..
Marketing has the tech to run hyper-targeted, account-specific campaigns.
Sales has the real-world feedback loops to define what “qualified” actually means.
But instead of aligning, most teams (sadly) are still throwing leads over the wall and blaming each other when conversion drops.
Meanwhile, buyers qualify you faster than your GTM teams can agree on what a good lead looks like.
 
Act III: AI Stuck in the Wrong Role

Everyone brags about “using AI.”
But most teams treat it like a side character, not a co-star.
What they do:
- Use AI to draft copy
- Automate LinkedIn replies
- Add more noise into already noisy inboxes
What they miss:
- Real-time prospect classification and routing
- Scoring accounts dynamically, not just on static ICPs
- Enriching data before reps waste cycles
- Connecting intent signals (site visits, ad clicks, engagement) directly into outbound motions

AI won’t replace SDRs
But SDRs who don’t learn to co-pilot with AI will be replaced.
 
Curtain Call...
The ending is predictable every time:
🚨 Pipeline leakage
🚨 CAC going up
🚨 Execs losing faith in Outbound and marketing altogether

But...
The best companies are already rewriting the script.
Their GTM is:
✔ Adaptive (playbooks evolve in real-time)
✔ AI-enhanced (data + intent drive decisions, not gut feel)
✔ Ops-led (sales + marketing run as one revenue system, not rivals)

This is the new standard.

If your GTM is still running on:
// Predictable revenue debt
// SDR spamming everyone
// Marketing vs. sales blame game
// AI that’s just “aesthetic”

You’re stuck in the wrong play, while your competitors are winning Tonys.

#gtm #sales #marketing #revops #outbound

This AI + Human outbound system helped us hit $3M ARR.
Your SDRs (on their own) can’t compete!! Here's why ↓﻿
﻿
Because AI + humans can now spin up in 30 minutes what used to take 5 SDRs an entire week...

✅ Company data enriched
✅ Decision makers mapped
✅ Buying signals prioritized
✅ Hooks written
✅ Sequences launched
✅ CRM updated
 
All from a single Clay table.
Cleaner, faster, and a lot smarter.

Founders: if you’re still hacking outbound with spreadsheets, you’re slowing growth.
Marketers: if your data lives in silos, you’re missing pipeline.
Sales leaders: if SDRs aren’t armed with leverage, they’re burning cycles.

And again... 
The point here is NOT "replace your SDRs".
The point is getting founders and GTM leaders to think
How can Ι give my SDRS leverage?
(That's our job, you know!)

In the end,
SDRs who orchestrate AI-powered GTM engines will bury SDRs who don’t.
 
And every week you wait to upgrade your outbound…
is another week your competitors get ahead of you.
 
I broke down the full $3M ARR outbound system into the visual below 👇 
Save it, study it, steal it, and see how your team stacks up!

#gtm #outbound #aiinsales

$3m arr ai+human outbound system

How we generated €350K ARR
with 70% meeting-to-close rate.
From one of the smallest markets in Europe!
 
My last name gives it away, I’m Greek.
So when a Greek brand came to us, I honestly didn’t just want us to win…
I wanted us to make them a category leader.
 
Before we stepped in, 
this HR/recruitment SaaS relied only on LinkedIn connection requests:
→Wait until the prospect accepts.
→Then send a DM.
→Repeat.
 
Which is fine as a supporting channel
but as the main growth engine? 
Way too slow!
 
Here’s what we changed:

1️⃣ Email Campaigns from Scratch
They’d never run Outbound email before.
We built messaging flows from the ground up, 
launched campaigns, and expanded their TAM
a huge win in a market as small as Greece + Cyprus.
 
2️⃣ Localized Greek Market Campaigns
From June 2024, we ran targeted campaigns in Greek, 
positioning them as the dominant local player and winning high-ARR deals.
 
3️⃣ Layered LinkedIn on Top
By October, we improved their LinkedIn messaging flow and ran it in parallel with email, multiplying touchpoints and reply rates.
 
4️⃣ Smart Recontact Campaigns
We didn’t let warm leads go cold.
We re-engaged:
“No replies” with new angles.
“Not interested” with fresh value props.
“Showed interest but didn’t convert” with personalized follow-ups.
 
The results:
✅ €350K+ ARR added in 10 months
✅ 70% meeting-to-close rate
✅ Expanded market presence in Greece + Cyprus
 
When you combine multi-channel outbound with market-specific strategy,
even “small” markets can produce massive wins.
 
#outbound #b2bsales #leadgeneration #saas #growthmarketing #gtm

CROs, This outbound stack helped 20+ teams 
book 30% more meetings 
in under 90 days.
 
If you’re a CRO, you know the drill:
Your reps are hired to sell,
but half their day disappears into…
 
❌ Hunting for data
❌ Updating the CRM
❌ Chasing no-shows
❌ Figuring out which lead to call next
 
It’s not really the performance,
It’s a systems issue.
 
Over the last year, we’ve fixed this for 60+ GTM teams
building a lean, high-output outbound stack
that frees up selling time, surfaces the right leads, and closes deals faster.
 
Here’s the lean, high-output stack we’ve seen work consistently across industries﻿
﻿

🔍 Research & Enrichment - Clay, OpenAI (ChatGPT), Claude
﻿✉️ Outbound Email Automation - lemlist (for advanced CRM intergation) or Instantly.ai (for easy setup)
📅 Scheduling & Show-Ups - Calendly, OneShot.ai
⚡ Sales Automation - Attention (designed for sales teams), n8n (custom for your needs)
﻿✍ Email Personalization - Octave, Twain
📈 Intent & Signals - RB2B, Instantly.ai, Dealfront for US and Warmly, for Europe
🎙 Post-Call - Gong or Sybill
📞 Direct Dials - Clay, Orum 🥇, Gong
 
📊 We turned this into a Modern CRO Stack Map so you can see exactly how each tool fits into the outbound engine (see visual below).
 
#CRO #SalesLeadership #OutboundSales #GTM #SalesTools #RevOps #B2BSales #SalesEnablement #SalesStrategy #PipelineGeneration

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