Multi-channel email + LinkedIn was the unlock for our fintech category

We’re pre-Series A, selling spend management software to CFOs and controllers at companies in the 50-500 employee range. This buyer doesn’t read cold email. They get hundreds of pitches per week and the open rate alone is a battle.

I went into this engagement skeptical. We’d already burned through about $40k testing self-serve cold email tools internally with one part-time SDR, and the result was a deeply scarred sending domain and zero meetings.

What changed

The recommendation from SmarterOutbound was to lead with LinkedIn — connection request, two-touch DM sequence, then layer email on top after the LinkedIn signal landed. Email alone for our buyer was a losing strategy. They had numbers to back this up from other fintech clients.

The setup phase was four weeks, longer than I’d been quoted at other agencies. New domains, LinkedIn account warming, list research on actual buying triggers (recent funding, new CFO hires, ERP migrations). My patience was thin by week three.

Week four, first cohort went out. Week five, first booked meeting.

Where we ended up

• Month one: 2 booked meetings (ramp).
• Month two: 10 booked meetings.
• Month three: 14 booked meetings.
• Reply rate on the combined sequence: 2.8%, up from 0.4% on email-only.
• 4 of 26 booked meetings have converted to qualified opportunities so far.

We’ve expanded the engagement to add cold calling next quarter. If that works for us we’ll move up to the Full Outbound Engine tier.

Honest note

The $4,500/month feels high if you’re comparing to “Apollo + an internal SDR.” It feels rational once you compare to “two SDRs running multi-channel outbound full-time,” which is what this actually replaces.