Read Time = 3 minutes

"The numbers don't make sense anymore."

My friend pushes his laptop across to me, shaking his head. Six months ago, his startup was riding the wave doing $2M revenue, mostly inbound. But referrals started drying up and ads got expensive — so they hired an outbound agency for $15K/month.

“Open rates suck. Barely anyone is replying. Our pipeline is drying up. I don’t think this is working, should I hire my own SDR team? Should we try someone else?”

I’ve seen this story before - he's falling into the volume trap:

• Not hitting quota? Work more accounts.

• Emails not converting? Send more emails.

• Calls not connecting? Make more calls.

Sometimes "solutions" make the problem worse.

More emails = more burned prospects. More SDRs = higher costs per meeting.

He's caught in the outbound death spiral. Here's how to break free.

The 4S Recovery Framework

Most teams panic and try random fixes. Here's the systematic approach:

S1: STOP (The Audit)

You can’t solve a problem you haven’t correctly diagnosed. And you can’t diagnose a problem without stepping back to evaluate the big picture.

What to STOP immediately:

• Stop adding prospects to sequences with <2% reply rates - you're just burning future opportunities

• Stop spending on channels you can't measure - if you don't know the CAC, you don't know if it’s scalable

• Stop optimizing broken tactics - better subject lines won't fix an uninspiring email focused on features

S2: STUDY (Stop Guessing, Start Listening)

Booking meetings and closing deals come down to relationships. You need to hang out where your prospects do and listen to them describe their actual problems.

Here's what to do:

• Find 3 communities where your prospects are: Reddit, Slack groups, industry forums - places where they vent without vendors listening

• Review your last 5-10 sales calls: How do prospects describe problems in their own words? What language makes them lean in vs. tune out?

• Document the gap: Note how prospects describe pain vs. how your marketing describes solutions

Section 3: SERVE (The Value-First Approach)

Cialdini’s first principle of persuasion is reciprocity. By being helpful, useful, and insightful from the beginning of the relationship you set a positive tone.

Here’s how to lead with value:

• Share benchmarks from your customer data they can’t get elsewhere: "Based on 100+ customers, here's what good conversion rates actually look like"

• Create free diagnostic tools: Build a simple calculator or assessment that gives them immediate insights about their current performance

• Host small group discussions: 6-8 people, no pitch, just facilitated conversation about shared challenges

Section 4: SCALE (Go Deep, Then Wide)

Your mission should be to build a new and improved outbound playbook. Document what earned permission vs. what got ignored, then systematize it.

Follow these steps:

• Track quality metrics only: Cost-per-meeting under $500, meeting-to-customer rate above 15%, LTV:CAC ratio above 3:1

• Turn customers into your sales team: Share customer stories with other companies in the same industry to build interest.

• Go deep into accounts, not wide across lists: Build relationships with 3+ people at each target company before moving to the next

One Big Idea:

Master 10 accounts before you touch 100.

If you can’t start a conversation working 10 accounts, you have no business working 100s. Go deep. Generate actual conversations. Then scale what works.

Your cost-per-meeting will drop. Your conversion rates will climb. Your prospects will actually want to talk to you.

Until next Thursday,

TSG

P.S. Feeling stuck on pipeline generation and revenue growth? I help teams audit what's broken and build a plan to fix it. Shoot me a message if you want help.