The Outbound PlaybookLinkedIn, cold email and cold calling

Before we ramped cold calls, this was our most consistent outbound channel. In five months, from April to September 2026, it booked us 20 or more meetings, and around 38% of our connection requests were accepted.

Most LinkedIn outreach fails because of the “pitch slap”: connecting and instantly dumping a calendar link. We take the opposite route.

No pitch in the connection request. No pitch in the first message. No pitch at all, really, unless someone asked. We'd ask questions that were useful to them, not to us. “How are you finding hiring for that role?” Not “Would you like help with your pipeline?” No playbook. No set sequence. Just showing up like a normal person.

How we run it now

We did start with a sequence of sorts, but we felt they just don't work. Now we send a connection request, and within a few days we follow up with a quick hello that refers to our content. Chris and I both post most days of the week, and we've started our I Love Sales newsletter, so we'll mention that, but we never try to pitch in a DM. We just use DMs as a way to say hello.

We average around 38% of connection requests accepted (April to September 2026), and that comes from personalising them. Some people prefer to send a blank request, but we've had good success with a personalised note. We take into account what type of person it is: the founder of a business of 1 to 10 people gets a very different connection request from someone at a company of 50 to 100. We don't just target one type of person, and we keep track of it.

1. 

   Joe Stone · , Connection request, with a note

   Hi [first name], noticed your work as [role] at [company]. I've spent 15 years in B2B sales and like comparing notes with people in roles like yours. Open to connecting?

2. [First name] accepted your invitation
3. 

   Joe Stone · , A few days later

   Good to connect, [first name]. No pitch coming. Building [company] lean usually means outbound happens between everything else, so I share the odd useful thing on that here.

4. 

   Voice note from the LinkedIn app: under 45 seconds, using their name

Chris May · , His version of the same hello

Good to connect, [first name]. No pitch coming. Running [company] usually means the desk eats the week and client BD gets whatever is left, so I share the odd useful thing on that here.

Voice notes

Once someone accepts, we often send a personalised one-to-one voice note. It takes 30 to 45 seconds, proves you are a real human who looked at their profile, and opens a relaxed dialogue.

We get really good traction from voice notes. We set a reminder to do them a few times a week, and they're never longer than about 45 seconds. They touch on a pain we think might be relatable. It's very soft: not an invitation for a coffee, just “does this relate?”, plus a mention that we post lots of content about sales. It's been a really nice way to break the ice.

You can even say it in the voice note: I just want to let you know I'm a real person. There's so much AI out there now. Rather than see that as a challenge, use it as an advantage, and be the person who stands out with good-quality outreach.

So many people just aren't doing this, so it can make you stand out. We'd highly recommend giving voice notes, or even videos, a go as part of your outreach. The best way to get good at them is to be consistent, so allocate time slots. We block out 9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and each do 10 to 15 voice notes. It takes 10 to 15 minutes, and then we get on with our day.

The bit nobody talks about is how long that takes. Weeks of conversations that go nowhere obvious. Months of being useful without any return. That's where most people drop off. They do it for a fortnight, nothing happens, and they go back to blasting pitch decks into DMs.

The companion guideThe LinkedIn Outreach PlaybookLinkedIn's 2026 rules, the profile they'll click, the request for each type of buyer, and whether Premium or Sales Navigator is worth paying for.

I had not cold called in nearly three years, due to a narrow ICP in my previous role. I picked the phone back up in August using a parallel dialler, and in the first three weeks it booked six new business meetings.

In August I was scared to pick up the phone. 15 years in B2B sales, and I was still scared of a phone. What got me moving again was not courage. It was a call sheet I keep open on my screen.

I believe it's the most effective way to get meetings. It just takes practice, and you have to detach from the outcome. Rejection isn't personal, even when it feels like it.

Chris taught me this years ago, when he was my manager. He stopped me chasing a daily dial count just to hit my KPIs, and got me focused on useful conversations. Which, ironically, led to more dials. Better ones.

My call sheet

Six parts, in the order a call runs. It's ours, and it fits on one screen.

Do not dial looking for a meeting. Dial to learn about their reality and start a relationship.

Cold calling is really important if you treat it the right way. Don't treat it as a way of guaranteeing meetings. Treat it as market research, with the potential to book a meeting at the end.

The parallel dialler

The call sheet handles the craft. The volume comes from a parallel dialler. I use Trellus and I'd recommend it. I prefer three lines at once rather than five. It syncs with our CRM and works through Chrome.

More dials only help if the first thirty seconds are good, which is why the call sheet comes first.

Full disclosure: I get free access to Trellus on the basis that I share my usage once a month, whether I like it or not. I can say without doubt I love it, would highly recommend it and would definitely pay for it.

A parallel dialler rings more than one number at a time, so Ofcom's rules on abandoned and silent calls apply. They're in the next chapter, with the rest of the UK rules.

When I call

My personal preference is Tuesdays and Thursdays, morning and afternoon. I see Mondays and Fridays as no-gos, though that could be an opportunity for someone else, as there might be lots of people who think the same.

One day in August I woke up and considered sacking it off. So I sat down and dialled. Some good conversations, no meeting booked. On paper, that looks like a bad day. In reality, it pulled me out of the slump. The act of doing the work changed how I felt about the work.

Further readingIs cold calling legal in the UK?The TPS and CTPS, sole traders, caller ID, and the 2026 fines, in full.

1. Chris

   I probably live a bit more in lived experience. Joe probably takes a bit more from theory and other people's guidance. Neither one of those is correct on its own, but put the two together and you get the ideal.

2. Joe

   I always say it's human psychology: everyone's the same. Chris is a bit more nuanced to the sector.

3. Chris

   We've got a lot better over the months at making our messaging work: psychological triggers for individuals, coupled with lived experience. Those tools do get a response and trigger people's interest. What I sometimes disagree with is that I can see that stuff from a mile away, because we're not the only ones doing it. So use people's methodologies, but personalise them to suit your ICP, your personality and your business, rather than taking them verbatim the way other people promote them. That's where you see others doing it really obviously now.

4. Joe

   It's all similar in vein, with slight nuances. Challenger, where you challenge someone, is quite different from MEDDIC, for example.

One thing each we got wrong this year

1. Joe

   I'm a bit more of a perfectionist, and it's delayed us a little with some of our cold email, because I want to write the perfect email. Chris is happier to go and try some bits and bobs. Sometimes I'm in the theory a bit too much, when we just need to get some stuff out and learn from the mistakes. And these aren't costly mistakes.

2. Chris

   I just go off and do it. Especially when you're still in trial and error, sometimes it's better to do something when you're 80% there than nothing because it's not 100%. You learn from both. We've learned from going off and doing it, then reviewing it and realising it probably could have been refined to be better.

3. Chris

   So when you're trying this stuff out, if you do disagree, A/B test it. Fighting until one person feels they've won isn't going to get you any further. Let both ideas trial themselves and see what works and what doesn't. You'll probably find the answer is a Venn diagram of two or three different theories and mindsets.

4. Joe

   We land in a positive place because we disagree in the right way.