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Key takeaways
✔️ 3–5% of your total market is ready to engage now - the rest need thoughtful nurture.
✔️ Spammy bursts don’t build trust -strategic touch points over time do.
✔️ Great outbound is a team sport: reps, marketing, and even clients play a part in keeping momentum.
✔️ Cadence matters -a gentle check-in every quarter beats 15 ignored emails in 2 weeks.
✔️ The goal? Stop relying on luck. Build a pipeline that compounds over time.
In our latest episode of GTM Insider, trumpet CEO Rory Sadler sat down with Rob Harlow, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Sopro, to unpack the hidden reality behind so much outbound: it’s still guesswork.
When it comes to outbound, too many teams still rely on chance. They send batch-and-blast emails, hope something lands, and move on when they don’t see instant replies.
But what if your sales outreach could feel less random and actually build pipeline that sticks?
Together, they explore why the first touch is just the tip of the iceberg and why winning teams focus on staying top of mind long after that initial flurry of emails is over.
Cold outreach is still a roll of the dice
Rob pulls no punches: most outreach today is still a gamble.
Yes, you might have some intent signals maybe they visited a pricing page or downloaded a white paper. But for the majority of contacts, you’re still rolling the dice.
“There’s a percentage of people, three to five percent, who are going to be ready to reply at that point. Which, out of your entire addressable market, is tiny.”
So what happens to the other 95%? Too often: nothing.
Winning teams play the long game
Rob’s take is simple: high-performance outbound isn’t about hammering the same prospect with 15 emails in three weeks.
Instead, it’s about staying relevant over time with the right cadence, the right message, and the right signals to know when to jump back in.
“Most of our focus actually does go on that next stage which is about how do you keep in touch. And it’s quite a collaborative effort.”
He explains that for senior decision-makers, a touch every few months might be exactly right - if it’s valuable, respectful, and contextually relevant.
💡 FAQs
➜ Why is most outbound still so random?
Because even with intent data, many contacts show no obvious signals yet, so initial outreach is still guesswork for most sellers.
➜ What’s the risk of too much outreach?
Over-emailing tanks deliverability, annoys buyers, and burns bridges before a real conversation can happen.
➜ How do I keep in touch without spamming?
Use light, high-value touch points useful content, check-ins, new insights. Keep it relevant and spaced out to match your buyers’ reality.
Listen to the full episode
If you’re tired of guessing and ready to make your outbound more predictable, don’t miss this episode of GTM Insider with Rob Harlow.
👉 Link to listen on our Spotify or watch the YouTube video here.
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