2
1 week
1 follow-up
The challenge
A supply chain software company launched a new product in response to a regulatory change, and it needed leads fast. The catch: the product only made sense for Fortune 500 companies. There was no long tail of small buyers to warm up on. Every conversation had to be with a senior leader inside one of the largest companies in the world, and those people do not answer cold email.
The company had a clear target list and a short window. What it needed was a way to start real conversations with the right people at those accounts, quickly, without burning the list.
The approach
A DM program aimed only at the target list
Working from the LinkedIn account of a company leader, I built the outreach around the Fortune 500 target list and the specific roles inside each company who would own the regulatory problem. Connection requests went out to those people, and everyone who accepted received a hyper-personalized, manually written DM tied to the regulatory change and what it meant for their operation.
Follow up like a human, not a sequence
Every unanswered DM got a short, specific follow-up a few days later. No automation, no templates, no third and fourth nudges. One good follow-up, written for that person.
Other channels in parallel
LinkedIn was the primary channel, but the same target list was worked through other channels at the same time, and several additional conversations came from those.
The results
Week one
- Calls booked with two Fortune 500 companies in the first week of DMs.
- Additional conversations started through the other channels working the same list.
The follow-up that made the second meeting
- We messaged a VP at one of the target companies. She did not respond.
- After the first follow-up, one of her direct reports messaged my client's account within days to set the meeting. The VP had forwarded it internally.
- That is the pattern to understand about senior outreach: the person you message is often not the person who replies. The DM has to be good enough to be forwarded.
Why it worked
- The message was about their problem, the regulatory change, not about the product.
- It came from a real leader's profile, so the VP could vet the sender in ten seconds before forwarding it.
- The follow-up was specific and polite, which is what makes forwarding it internally feel safe.
The VP never replied. Her direct report booked the meeting days after the follow-up. Persistence is the strategy, and the message has to be good enough to forward.
The takeaway
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