Advanced Client

Founder

Instantly.ai

Certified Expert

StratumFive Ltd

Global Client Relations Manager

Global Client Relations Team Leader

Hi, I’m Tom — CEO & Co-founder of AdvancedClient.io

We’re a full-service GTM Studio that builds outbound systems designed to generate qualified pipeline across every relevant channel — email, cold calling, paid ads, LinkedIn, and content.

We’ve partnered with 40+ B2B companies — from consultancies and tech firms to manufacturers — to architect multichannel outbound programs using tools like Clay, Instantly, Findymail, Hypertide, and Trigify.

We typically work with:

- B2B companies doing $100k+ in monthly revenue
- Offers with $10k+ LTV and high consideration
- Founders or GTM teams who want a reliable outbound engine without hiring a team of SDRs

Why clients work with us:

1. They’re too focused on product or delivery to execute outbound properly

2. They’ve tried outbound but never got past low reply rates or spam filters

3. They’re overwhelmed by tools and want a proven system, not another experiment

4. They want to scale pipeline without bloated headcount

What we do:
- Define your ICP, segment your TAM, and structure your offer for cold traffic
- Build inbox-safe cold email infrastructure that guarantees high deliverability
- Source and enrich high-quality leads using AI and advanced workflows
- Craft messaging for email, LinkedIn, and calling — optimized for replies
- Launch and manage multichannel outbound (email, calling, paid, social)
- Handle reply management, follow-ups, and booking — we own results
- Provide content advisory to align thought leadership with GTM execution

If you're serious about pipeline growth and want outbound that performs like your best rep — across every channel — let's talk.

📥 DM me
🌐 advancedclient.io
📧 tom@advancedclient.io

I saw Salesloft fire their entire SDR team, I laughed.

(Especially reading everyones panicked comments) 

Private equity owns them.

And when PE owns you, decisions aren’t about setting trends… they’re about optics and short-term margins.

How does an SDR-focused tool fire its SDR team?

 Insane.

And here’s my prediction: they’ll quietly rehire in Q1 when they realise the PR damage costs more than the salaries.

Same story with the AI SDR hype.

- It’s not solving the problem.
- It’s automating the problem.
- And the results are worse because there’s no human operating behind it.

(I've still not seen anyone say good things about an AI-SDR...) 

So where’s the role actually going?

The Future SDR Playbook: 

- Vetted like elite athletes – not warm bodies with headsets.
- On the phone, not behind dashboards – mastering tonality, pacing, confidence, objection handling.
- Armed with signal-led data – no more spray-and-pray lists, but real intent and buying triggers.
- Enabled with modern workflows – dialers, enrichment, sequencing, AI assist… all working for the rep, not instead of them.
- Measured by conversations, not activity – connect rates fixed, time wasted eliminated, SDRs judged on the quality of market impact. (And when conversation rate is low - tooling, telephony & data is fixed quickly)

The companies that win won’t fire their SDRs or replace them with bots.

They’ll build SDR strike forces - lean, skilled, tech-enabled reps who break into markets with precision and consistency.

That’s the future. And it looks nothing like what Salesloft just did.

Tom Grainger

More Pipeline W/O Scaling Headcount Using AI GTM Workflows | Founder @ advancedclient.io

I put together a 29-page guide on how to turn buying signals into same-day sales conversations.

Outbound is broken for most companies.

Not because reps are bad.

But because the system around them hasn’t evolved.

Last month, we helped clients across SaaS, services, and tech:

 → 1,100% increase in booked calls
 → Millions added to pipeline
 → Meetings ranging from scale-ups to FTSE 100 / Fortune 500 giants

We documented the exact system in a free PDF — The AI-Powered Outbound Playbook (29 pages).

Inside, you’ll find:

- The 5-stage build for AI-assisted outbound
- How to book 15+ qualified calls every month
- Clay enrichment flows that deliver verified phone numbers
- Our “intent waterfall” setup with Vector, RB2B, and Trigify.io
- Cold call talk tracks, openers, and voicemail frameworks
- SDR-ready workflows routed to Orum 🥇, Aircall, Slack, and Salesforce / HubSpot
- Compliance, local presence, and no-show prevention
- Full templates and a launch checklist

It’s the same playbook we’ve tested across SaaS, infra tech, and high-ACV services - and it works whether you’re chasing Fortune 500s or mid-market buyers.

If you want the PDF, CONNECT WITH ME then comment and like this post. (I'll prioritise reposts 🔁 ) 

(I’ll send it directly - just make sure we’re connected.)

The sales org of 2026 will look nothing like what you’re running today.

Right now? Most companies are still stuck in 2018.

They’ve got SDRs hammering phones, sending templated cold emails from their main domain (lol), and hiding behind “marketing-approved” messaging that sounds like it was written by ChatGPT v0.5.

Here’s what that looks like in reality:

 • Reps aren’t getting enough connects, so their confidence tanks.
 • When they do get someone on the phone, they freeze — they haven’t had enough real reps.
 • Cold emails go straight to spam because the main domain’s reputation is torched.
 • Leadership doesn’t have visibility, coaching is reactive, and morale is in the gutter.

Quota attainment? In the bin.

But here’s how it’s going to work by 2026 👇

→ Reps will be phone-first.

 Every call will be supported by an elite backend team — building signal-led lead lists, enriching valid numbers, ranking them by intent (TitanX style), and feeding reps high-confidence dials.

They’ll get live and post-call coaching daily.

They’ll have better data → more conversations → more confidence → more pipeline.

→ Cold email won’t sit with SDRs.

It’ll sit inside marketing - centralised, infrastructure-led, and quality-controlled.

Built on secondary domains, warmed up via Warmy.io - Email channel. Reliable. Infra from: Hypertide.io, spun with deliverable copy, and operated like a performance channel - not an afterthought.

Every positive reply will be routed straight to the phone team.

→ ABM outreach becomes the rep’s playground.

If a rep’s working a tight list, they’ll have tools like Lavender 💜🔮 www.ora.im at their fingertips.

Warm inboxes, hyper-personalized messages, natural DMs - no corporate BS.

Everything feels conversational and human again.

And here’s what that means 👇

Instead of 15 burnt-out SDRs chasing activity metrics…

You’ll have a handful of elite operators running optimized dials, handling real conversations, and converting at 3–5x the rate - backed by a marketing-driven outbound (and paid ads) engine.

Less headcount. Higher output. Cleaner data.

Outbound that finally compounds.

The best orgs will start fractional.

They’ll bring in partners who already have the infrastructure, training, and ramp-up systems in place - so they can prove the motion fast.

The backend gets built.
The reps get trained.
The motion gets validated.

Then, once they’re confident and the pipeline’s flowing, they’ll bring it internal with reps who already know how to run it.

That’s how smart orgs will move: speed first, ownership second.

The future isn’t “sales-led” or “marketing-led.”

It’s ops-led.

Where infrastructure, data, and enablement sit at the center - powering every rep and every channel.

That’s the 2026 sales org.

Phone-led. Data-fed. Marketing-integrated. Ops-powered.

RIP this. RIP that. How about you RIP some cold calls and generate pipeline instead of building Frankenstein n8n workflows that break when someone sneezes.

I'm English, from the North East, I live in Brighton, my co-founder Louis Young lives in Bristol and we run a GTM business that should do $300K+ this year (🤞). 

Since January I've spoken to hundreds of sales leaders and revenue drivers from companies across the world. 

I've had some good calls, some great calls and some awful calls.

That said... there has deffo been a few themes. 

1. People want automation but they don't know what to automate
2. AI is confusing the hell out of everyone 
3. Everyone is stressed about pipeline

Here are my thoughts. 

1. You should only consider automating a process when it works manually. I'm seeing too many people trying to automate broken processes and expecting a differen't result. If it didn't work with human oversight, care and attention - you can't automate it. 

This is a direct call out to AI SDR's...

2. AI is being used as a buzz word for everything (I am also guilty of this). Not everything needs AI or is using AI that is being sold as an AI feature. 

imo AI is an enabler, an addition, a multiplier of success. Give a monkey AI and you'll have a monkey with AI. Give a high IQ, determined operator AI and you'll enable them to multiple their success. 

Sales will always need a person in the chain (esp for companies with complex products and high ACV). 

Use AI to make your team better, smarter and faster - don't replace them. 

3. The age of spam canon pipeline is well and truly over - show me anyone who is having success targeting enterprise accounts with automated email and I'll show you a liar. 

We need to go back to our roots without being nostalgic. What does that mean? 

To me: 

- Humans on the phone 
- Proper systems + enablement 
- AI researching accounts (good use of AI)
- AI agent's updating CRMs, calls notes, follow up emails
- Remove humans from tedious draining work
- In the trenches training, consulting and QA. 
- Best in class tech stack. 

aight that's it. 

P.S. pic is me yday looking a wee bit grumpy (I wasn't) touching grass after a week of back to back calls and project deadlines. Shout out to the hometown brand Barbour for the best jackets on earth.

I once spent months building a fully automated outbound machine.

It tanked.

On paper it was everything a “scalable sales engine” should be:

 → 100k+ automated emails a month
 → fancy sequences
 → dashboards that looked impressive

But the reality?

Our CRM was full of junk.
Meetings went nowhere.
Pipeline was busy but never closed.

So I did the opposite.

1-1 outreach.
Elite reps.
Prep, enriched data, real conversations.

The results weren’t even close.

The “unscalable” version worked.

 The “scalable” one burned money.

That’s when I realised: outbound doesn’t have a scale problem.

 It has a quality problem.

The answer isn’t more.

 It’s better.

• Better reps (tonality, pacing, confidence)
• Better data (dynamic, enriched, filtered)
• Better enablement (prep flows, scripts, objection handling)
• Better tooling (signal-led lists, dialers, inbox managers)

Not more emails.
Not more bots.

Elite pipeline generation isn’t about blasting at scale.

It’s a craft.

You train for it. You earn it. You compound it over time.

And ironically, that’s what makes it scale.

Because I’ve seen 2 elite reps, properly enabled, outperform 10 SDRs blasting templated slop.

Every single time.

That’s why I don’t build scalable outbound engines anymore.

I build effective ones.

I lost 3 deals last week.

One we walked away from — not a good fit.
One was killed by budget.
One pivoted last minute while contracts were out for renewal.

It stings. And it always seems to happen in clusters.
 
But here’s the thing: I don’t care.

Why? Because pipeline solves everything.

If your pipeline is healthy, you can take the hits.

If it’s not… even one lost deal can knock you sideways.

So how do we keep it full?

1. Content – We publish high-quality posts on LinkedIn that educate, build authority, and funnel the right people into sales conversations. Mix in lead magnets, and you’ve got a consistent flow of warm opportunities.

2. Calling – We don’t just wait for inbound. We pick up the phone. Hundreds of conversations every month. Direct, fast, effective.

Both feed into the same machine: steady pipeline → steady growth.

And as much as people overcomplicate it…

sales is still a numbers game.

Everyone wants a scalable sales engine.

Nobody wants to build an effective one.

More automation.
More volume.
Fewer humans.

But here is what I see time and time again: 

→ The most effective outbound strategy is almost always the least scalable one.

We’ve tested both ends of the spectrum:

- 100k+ automated emails a month
- 1-1 outreach by elite reps with bespoke prep, enriched data, and real conversations

Guess which one wins?

Not even close.

The 'scalable' version fills your CRM with junk.

The “unscalable” version fills your pipeline with qualified buyers.

Here’s the truth you are avoiding:

- You don’t have a scale problem.
- You have a quality problem.

And the answer isn’t “more.”

It’s better.

 • Better reps (tonality, pacing, confidence)
 • Better data (dynamic, enriched, filtered)
 • Better enablement (prep flows, call scripts, objection handling)
 • Better tooling (Good dialers, signal-led lists, inbox managers)

Not more emails.
Not more bots.

The most dangerous mindset in outbound today is the belief that your results will improve if you just scale it harder.

They won’t.

There’s nothing scalable about elite pipeline generation.

It’s a craft.

You train for it.
You earn it.
You compound it over time.

But ironically, that’s what makes it scale.

Because 2 elite reps, properly enabled, will outperform 10 SDRs left to blast templated slop.

Every single time.

Outbound isn’t about doing it at scale.

It’s about doing it right.

And the faster teams figure that out, the less money they’ll burn chasing volume.

Want help building outbound that actually works?

You know where to find me.

Most buying signals are sh*t

and you're wasting your time using them...

it's a theme I'm seeing across 99% of my sales calls. 

"we want signals", "do you do signals?" etc etc. 

fine, it's the buzzword of the moment and they seem really cool in demos and conversations but here is where I see the issue. 

signals are an advanced play that is only useful when you've your foundations set up. 

instead of jumping into signals - you should focus on properly mapping your TAM (total addressable market) & TCM (total contactable market). 

this more than anything is going to determine how you should structure your GTM. 

- How you'll do outreach
- How many (if any) SDR's will you hire
- Do you go mass volume or ABM...

here's another thing: 

most companies TAM and TCM is much smaller than they think.

"Oh we have 20,000 personas in our TAM" 

ok... but how many do you have after: 

- Enriching email addresses?
- Enriching phone numbers?
- Validating email addresses?
- Validating phone numbers?
- Ensuring data accuracy? 

we've mapped dozens of TAM's and the data tells us it's always 50-60% of the size the client thinks it is. 

now once you've got your TAM and TCM mapped, you're messaging locked in, meetings and post meeting funnel smoothed out and revenue coming in. 

then you can look at layering in signals into your playbooks. 

signals based on closed / won deal analysis. 

stop jumping the gun and focus on basic's first

I see VC-funded “AI SDRs” flooding the market, it genuinely makes me smile.

Because every time another one launches… real sales skill becomes more valuable.

Everyone’s automating.

Everyone’s bragging about sending 10,000 messages a week.

Cool. You just made it way easier for one real human to stand out.

Because when every inbox sounds robotic:

 → Real tone
 → Real timing
 → Real curiosity
 → Real relevance

Win every time.

One thoughtful message now cuts through what 50 automated follow-ups never will.

And one genuine conversation books what 200 AI cold emails can’t even sniff.

Here’s the 🍵:

AI isn’t replacing salespeople.
It’s replacing bad ones (The market is shaking off the dust).

The ones blasting templated slop with zero context or care.

Elite reps? They’re thriving.

 Because they:

→ Spot nuance
→ Lead with insight
→ Go off-script when it matters.
→ Use automation and AI the right way 

So if your inbox feels more robotic lately… good.

That just means the personal touch matters more than ever.

The human edge isn’t disappearing.

 It’s compounding.

 And the bar for “effort” has never been lower.

avg founder sales person on a friday after another gruelling week: 

- dealing with last minute objections
- contract red lines
- vendor onboarding forms (why are they 700 steps long?)
- running 30 calls with every member of a team and their parents to get told "we've decided to try an AI-SDR", ok see u in 3 months. 
- updating salesforce

don't worry monday is only 2 days away :)

My little sister Alice Grainger just posted her first post. 

She's an IBM + Spanish student (far smarter than me)

I'm going to bully her into networking with any and everyone. 

She's interested in working in marketing (luxury fashion). 

Go say hello

4th year IBM with Spanish student at the University of Bristol

I’m back for my final year at the university of Bristol, after my year abroad. Living and Studying in Pamplona, Spain and Córdoba, Argentina, I didn’t just improve my spanish, it levelled up my problem-solving and adaptability skills as i moved between two different academic and cultural scenes 

What I learned: 
Pamplona, Spain 🇪🇸🐂: My experience in Pamplona, Spain allowed me to improve my spanish speaking skills by studying in the Universidad de Navarra. Whilst studying I took part in volunteering in an after school homework class for students from non-spanish speaking backgrounds. 

Córdoba, Argentina 🇦🇷 🧉: In Argentina I got to grips with a new style of spanish language and academics. Learning about the Argentinian culture was new to me, but I immersed myself into the lifestyle.

Ultimately this year did improve my spanish proficiency, but more importantly it gave me a global perspective after living on two different continents. I now bring a culturally aware approach to International Business and thriving in new environments ✌️

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