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Playbooks · Step 02

Reach out at the right time

Good timing does most of the work. These playbooks show how to act on buying signals, write emails a busy leader will read, and keep your email setup healthy so messages reach the inbox.

In one paragraph

Reaching out at the right time means acting on real changes at a company, such as a new leader, a job move or growing interest, within the window when they matter. It also means emails that read like one person writing to another, sent from a setup that protects your main company domain.

01

Let signals fade, and act when they stack

Also called Signal scoring with time decay

Give every signal a value that shrinks over time, add them up per company and add your fit score. Companies with several fresh signals of different kinds rise to the top. Each band gets a response time, from within a day to simply keep watching.

Why it matters. Without fading, a visit from last month counts the same as one from today. Without stacking, one random signal looks like a buying window.

How to do it

  1. Give each signal type a starting value and a half-life, for example two weeks for website visits.
  2. Recalculate each morning: value drops by half every half-life.
  3. Add a bonus when signals come from more than one group.
  4. Remove customers, open deals and companies in a cooling-off period.
  5. Sort into bands: act now, warm, watch. Give each band a response time.
  6. Write the score back to the CRM so reps never touch the maths.

What goes wrong

  • Copying someone else’s half-lives as if they were facts. There is no published standard, so start with a guess and tune it.
  • Old evidence that stays while its flag has faded. Keep them in sync.

See how long each signal lasts

02

Turn job moves and job ads into outreach

Also called Trigger-based outbound

Build a list from people who just started or were promoted, and companies advertising jobs for the problem you solve. Check each one is real and recent, check the company fits, then write three short emails. The trigger decides who and when, but never appears in the email.

Why it matters. A new leader is re-thinking plans and a job ad shows budget. Both open a window, as long as you check they are still true.

How to do it

  1. Pull new hires and promotions in your target roles, with start dates.
  2. Check each person still has that job, the start date is inside your window, and a promotion is a real step up.
  3. For job ads, check the company posted it, it is still open and it genuinely describes your problem.
  4. Run your company and job title checks.
  5. Write to the person who moved, or for job ads to a senior buyer, never the future hire.
  6. Send only rows that passed every check. Hold the rest with a reason.

What goes wrong

  • Opening with "congrats on the new role". Everyone automates it, so it reads as spam.
  • Sorting by date instead of filtering, so six-month-old moves slip through.
  • Recruiter job ads that look like company ads.

Act-now signals

03

Follow your champions when they change jobs

Also called Champion and customer job-change tracking

Watch your customers’ champions and past contacts for job moves. When someone moves, update the CRM, flag the old account as at risk, open the new company as a warm lead and alert the owner with a suggested angle.

Why it matters. A person who already trusts you, now at a new company, is the warmest lead you will ever get. It is also an early warning at the account they left.

How to do it

  1. Feed customer and champion contacts into a job-change monitor daily.
  2. When a move is found, check the new company fits.
  3. Find the new work email and check the company is not already in your CRM.
  4. Update the contact, link the new company and flag the old one.
  5. Send the owner an alert with the angle.

What goes wrong

  • Creating a duplicate company when the new employer already exists.
  • Overwriting a hand-entered email address. Only fill empty fields.

UserGems reports that opportunities with a past-customer champion show a higher win rate. [vendor study]

Run it with the Account intelligence agent

04

Follow up on company visits without being creepy

Also called Website visitor identification

Identify the company behind high-intent website visits, check it fits before spending money, find the right people there and start a relevant conversation. Never mention the visit itself.

Why it matters. Most visitors never fill in a form. Knowing which companies are reading your pricing or comparison pages tells you who is evaluating.

How to do it

  1. Use a visitor tool to name the company behind a visit.
  2. Keep only fitting companies, meaningful visits and non-customers.
  3. Find the right people in your target roles who are not already being contacted.
  4. Write about the problem the visited pages address, not about the visit.

What goes wrong

  • "I saw you on our pricing page" reads as surveillance.
  • Identifying individual people is legally risky for EU visitors. Work at company level there.

Warming-up signals

05

Write emails that sound like one person to another

Also called Cold email copywriting

Short emails, one real observation about the company, one problem framed as common at firms like theirs, one piece of proof and one easy question. Three emails, each with a different angle. If the fit is weak, the system holds the email instead of sending it.

Why it matters. Busy leaders skim. Anything that looks automated, flattering or salesy is deleted in seconds.

How to do it

  1. Email 1, under 90 words: one real observation, the common problem, what you do about it, one proof point, one soft question.
  2. Email 2, under 60 words: a different benefit and different proof.
  3. Email 3, under 60 words: a final note that asks who else to talk to if this is not their area.
  4. Use subject lines of two to four lowercase words about the topic.
  5. Check every fact can be traced to a source.
  6. Read ten emails side by side before sending hundreds.

What goes wrong

  • Openers like "Just following up" or "Quick one".
  • Calendar links in the first email.
  • AI copying your examples word for word. Tell it not to.

Run it with the Email check agent

06

Protect your main email domain

Also called Cold email infrastructure and deliverability

Send cold email from separate look-alike domains, set up the technical records that prove you are who you say, warm new mailboxes up slowly over three to five weeks and check their health weekly. Your main company domain stays safe for customers and your team.

Why it matters. If cold email from your main domain lands in spam, your invoices and customer emails can follow.

How to do it

  1. Work out capacity: daily cold emails ÷ about 30 per mailbox ÷ 3 mailboxes per domain = domains needed.
  2. Buy domains close to your brand, such as get-brand or brand-hq, and point them to your main site.
  3. Set up the records that prove your identity (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and check they are live.
  4. Create real-name mailboxes with a light signature.
  5. Warm up for three to five weeks before sending cold email, and never switch warm-up off.
  6. Check weekly: spam complaints, bounces and inbox placement.

What goes wrong

  • Cold email from the main domain.
  • Assuming records are live when the domain still points to the old provider.
  • Two SPF or two DMARC records, which cancels them out.

Google’s sender guidelines ask bulk senders to keep spam complaints below 0.1% and never reach 0.3%. [platform guidelines]

07

Plan events backwards from day zero

Also called Event-led outbound

Lock the attendee list, segments and senders three weeks before an event, run a short pre-event sequence to book meetings, capture every conversation on the day and treat the weeks after as the main campaign.

Why it matters. Most event value is lost after the event, when leads sit in a spreadsheet. Planning backwards means the follow-up is ready before the doors open.

How to do it

  1. Five weeks before: agree presence and who sends to whom.
  2. Four weeks before: pull the list, remove duplicates, check against the CRM.
  3. Three weeks before: qualify, lock segments and start the first email.
  4. The week before: a short last note with a new angle.
  5. The day: capture every conversation and stop pre-event emails.
  6. The days after: personal thank-yous, then a follow-up to people you missed.

What goes wrong

  • Measuring badge scans instead of meetings and pipeline.
  • Emailing someone who is already in a live deal with you.

Questions people ask

How many cold emails can I send per mailbox per day?

Most practitioners keep cold sends to roughly 15 to 35 per mailbox per day after warm-up, spread across several domains. Going higher raises the risk of landing in spam.

How long should cold emails be?

Short. A first email under about 90 words and follow-ups under 60 words work well, because busy readers decide in seconds.

Should I mention a trigger event in my outreach?

No. Use the event to decide who to contact and when, then write about the problem it creates. Mentioning the event reads as automated or intrusive.