Head of GTM @ https://xitter.cf/t.co/wX9EiNDzTN | Building AI-native outbound systems for the most innovative B2B brands | Managed 3.5M+ cold emails/mo
Calgary, Alberta
Joined October 2013
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I've noticed most cold email advice on this app falls apart past 10k emails a day.
The lists crack first, then the infrastructure.
I was managing 3.5M+ emails a month before this, so I've watched it happen plenty.
Quick intro, since I'm posting properly on here now:
I'm Will, Head of GTM at @pipelinextech
We build and run outbound for B2B teams, and my job is keeping every client's campaigns printing.
A typical agency finds out a domain is burned once the replies stop.
We catch the dip on the dashboard first.
Across 100+ B2B companies, our team has done:
> 10M+ cold emails sent
> 700k+ cold calls made
> 30,000+ leads generated for clients
> $70M+ in B2B pipeline
This month one client pulled roughly 160 positive replies in their first week of sending.
That's a positive for every 100 emails or less.
Here's what I'll be posting:
> What breaks first when you scale volume
> Catching deliverability drops early
> Offers prospects say yes to fast
> How AI runs most of my GTM now
If you run outbound and want it to hold up at volume, this account is for you.
Hunter analyzed 31M cold emails sent in 2025.
I put what they found next to how we have run outbound for 100+ B2B companies.
Most of it lines up, and the rows that don't are where we break the rule on purpose:
The pipeline lever most B2B teams ignore is a free offer.
Keep your list and inboxes exactly as they are, and the offer alone can move you from 1 positive reply per 1,000 emails to 1 per 100.
I'm Head of GTM at @pipelinextech, where we've sent 10M+ cold emails across 100+ B2B companies.
If I was setting up outbound for a B2B team tomorrow, this is the offer setup I'd start with:
Why most B2B teams skip this:
1. They think free makes them look cheap.
Buyers at every size still take free work when it's the right work.
2. They rewrite the copy first.
Copy is the fourth thing I'd check on a stalled campaign, and the offer is the first.
3. They send a calendar link and wait.
The prospect who replied today has moved on by tomorrow.
If you're a B2B team at $3M+ ARR and want this built for you, DM me "OFFER".
I'll send you the link to book with our team.
Will Breton retweeted
Want to master GTM engineering but don't know where to start?
I wrote up a free 40-page guide that takes you from zero to booking meetings on your own.
(It's built from the systems behind our 10M+ cold emails.)
What's inside:
> See what the role is and why postings grew 205%
> Learn the one number that tells you a campaign works
> Forecast your meetings before sending a single email
> Find your best buyers in deals you've already closed
> Size your whole market in 20 minutes for free
> Pick an offer from the band that books 30X more
> Avoid the 3 offers that never work cold
> Pull lists your competitors can't buy
> Cut a list down so 90%+ fits who you sell to
> Get 20-30% more emails off the same list
> Use the info@ addresses that beat paid data
> Spot when a company is ready to buy
> Set up 500 inboxes for $1,500 instead of $4,000
> Warm them for 15 days before anything sends
> Swap out a burned inbox in minutes
> Write emails with 6 structures we reuse everywhere
> Choose subject lines that won't get you filtered
> Copy our exact campaign settings
> Send one follow-up and put the rest into new people
> Fix a dead campaign in the right order
> Draft every email variant with AI
> Get positive replies to your rep in 30 seconds
> Answer 90% of replies with 5 templates
> Lift show rates from 20-30% to 70-80%
> Follow the full build behind 53 meetings in 50 days
> Learn it all in 90 days by shipping one campaign
> Build the 3 portfolio projects that get you hired
> Climb from SDR to $250k+
Comment "GTM" and I'll send you the guide.
(Must be following me so I can send it)
Want to master GTM engineering but don't know where to start?
I wrote up a free 40-page guide that takes you from zero to booking meetings on your own.
(It's built from the systems behind our 10M+ cold emails.)
What's inside:
> See what the role is and why postings grew 205%
> Learn the one number that tells you a campaign works
> Forecast your meetings before sending a single email
> Find your best buyers in deals you've already closed
> Size your whole market in 20 minutes for free
> Pick an offer from the band that books 30X more
> Avoid the 3 offers that never work cold
> Pull lists your competitors can't buy
> Cut a list down so 90%+ fits who you sell to
> Get 20-30% more emails off the same list
> Use the info@ addresses that beat paid data
> Spot when a company is ready to buy
> Set up 500 inboxes for $1,500 instead of $4,000
> Warm them for 15 days before anything sends
> Swap out a burned inbox in minutes
> Write emails with 6 structures we reuse everywhere
> Choose subject lines that won't get you filtered
> Copy our exact campaign settings
> Send one follow-up and put the rest into new people
> Fix a dead campaign in the right order
> Draft every email variant with AI
> Get positive replies to your rep in 30 seconds
> Answer 90% of replies with 5 templates
> Lift show rates from 20-30% to 70-80%
> Follow the full build behind 53 meetings in 50 days
> Learn it all in 90 days by shipping one campaign
> Build the 3 portfolio projects that get you hired
> Climb from SDR to $250k+
Comment "GTM" and I'll send you the guide.
(Must be following me so I can send it)
Outbound agency owners after discovering what actually happens when you scale to 3.5M cold emails/month:
45 outbound plays we use to book B2B meetings:
1. TAM mapping: List every industry and sub-industry you could sell to before you pick one.
2. ICP from closed-won: Build it from sales call recordings and your top 10 closed deals.
3. Disqualifiers: Write down what your ICP is NOT, or AI will invent reasons a company fits.
4. Pain-qualified segments: Group prospects by a pain they share, so one message fits the whole list.
5. Approach by TAM size: Go account by account under 10k contacts and go for volume past 100k.
6. Volume formula: Verified contacts ÷ 3 months × emails per sequence = your monthly sends.
7. The 0.7 rule: Multiply a raw database count by 0.7 to see what survives enrichment and verification.
8. Inbox maths: 100k emails a month is about 450 inboxes sending 10 a day each.
9. List pricing: At 500 prospects per lead, a 5,000-person list holds about 10 leads.
(10-18 below: building the list)
28. Offer first: On any stalled campaign, check the offer before the list, the copy or the inboxes.
29. Free work up front: An audit, a teardown or a sample, so the meeting is earned before you ask for it.
30. Sample list: Send 50 accounts from their market as the free offer.
31. Outcome over mechanism: Sell more jobs booked, never "we build AI agents for your business".
32. One-line email: One sentence asking if they want the free thing, then a P.S. with proof (that's the whole email).
33. Missing-hire angle: Ask who covers a role they don't have (464 prospects per positive vs 2,587 for the rest of that account).
34. Variables past first name: A campaign using their project and location hit 14.5% vs 1-3% for generic.
35. Subject lines: 1-3 words, lowercase, with a variable in at least one version.
36. Skip "quick question": It wins public A/B tests, but 20,000 identical subject lines a day get filtered.
(37-45 below: testing and replies)
37. Two emails, no step 3: Send a fresh first email and one threaded follow-up, and give a new angle its own campaign.
38. Offer-only test: Keep every line identical except the offer, then push the top 1-2 forward.
39. 1,000 sends per variant: Decide nothing before then, and kill the bottom 60-70% at two weeks.
40. One test at a time: Change the subject line and the offer in the same launch and you learn nothing.
41. Reply diagnosis: Under 1.5% reply on unique prospects points to the list or deliverability, and under 15% positive points to the offer.
42. Read the no's: "We handle that in-house" means wrong segment, and "not right now" means timing.
43. Fast replies: Take over a day and the lead is gone (one client went from 20% to 80% of positives booked once replies sped up).
44. Propose times: The first reply offers 2-3 specific slots, and the pre-call sequence holds show rates at 75%+.
45. Pre-call reminders: Send them 24h, 4h, 1h and 10 minutes out to take show rates from 20-30% to 80-90%.