Hey there, Matteo here 👋
This weekend I went to visit a client in Bergamo, near Milan.
We’ve been working together for over a year, but that’s the first time we saw each other!
Such a great experience. If you pass by Bergamo, try foiade and polenta. You’ll thank me later 😄
But while we were enjoying lunch, something stood out:
📊 The kind of performance we’re getting today… didn’t happen overnight.
This is the story of how we went from 0.4% to a consistent 1.7% reply rate across 5 countries, and what it taught us about strategy.
Even the best Heads of Marketing sometimes get it wrong.
Last year, we worked with a fast-scaling B2B company.
They wanted to target 10+ sectors across 5 different countries.
The request came from the board.
We implemented the system as asked.
And at first? It worked.
But then we noticed something:
⚠️ Results were unpredictable.
Some weeks, reply rates were above 2%.
Other times, below 1%.
There was no forecasting. No consistency.
Which made it nearly impossible to plan or scale.
Eventually, the client got frustrated.
They told us:
“It doesn’t make sense to go on with this if reply rates are this low.”
(They were at 0.48% at the time.)
Important note: we were executing exactly what had been approved at the board level.
But then, we took control.
Here’s What We Did:
- ✅ We reviewed every campaign, every reply rate, every booked meeting
- ✅ Broke it down by industry, region, and buyer type
- ✅ And we spotted something critical:
Some industries were dragging results down consistently (below 0.4%):
- Finance
- Institutional
- Professional services
Others were lifting performance to 2 to 7%:
- Events
- Travel
- Cinema
So we made the call:
- ❌ Cut underperforming industries (even if the board liked them)
- ✅ Doubled down on the winning verticals
- 🔻 Reduced monthly volume (from 100k emails → 70k emails)
The Result?
In 3 weeks:
📈 Reply rates jumped from 0.48% → 1.7%
🌍 Across all 5 countries
💸 And we saw stronger conversion to revenue
Bonus Outcomes:
- A more focused, knowledgeable sales team
- Cost savings on email infrastructure
- Higher close rates (since high-performing verticals also closed faster)
Here’s the thing:
Too often, businesses make outbound decisions based on what they hope will work.
But our job, as GTM Motion Experts, is to uncover what actually works.
Automation is easy.
Strategy is what moves the needle.
So if you’re a fast-scaling B2B company…
Don’t just hire a tech stack.
Find someone who knows how to combine strategy + automation.
That’s where the ROI lives.
And you don’t want to miss it.
Lawyer by training, then operations at Amazon. Runs delivery: process, documentation and the detail corporates expect.
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