AI Made Cold Email Worse ft. Michael Gardiner

Most People Are Learning The Wrong Skills ft. Carly Louw

In today's episode, I chat with Carly, GTM engineer at Mako Professionals, about building outbound systems for recruitment agencies—first for Evolution Group in the Netherlands placing financial staff, now for Mako Professionals in the US sourcing SAP and Oracle architects.  The standout workflow is a Clay-based candidate scoring table that scrapes job posts and candidate profiles, runs an AI match score, and only pushes the best-fit candidates into outreach sequences—with recruiters signing off on the results and being genuinely happy with the quality. From there, leads flow into a Lemlist sequence combining emails, LinkedIn, phone calls, and voice notes. Carly's path in is one of the more unexpected ones: operations assistant at a financial immigration company, got a cold LinkedIn message from an agency called Blueprints, everyone told her it was a scam, she followed her gut anyway, met Rayyan Khan who trained her, and hasn't looked back since. Her prediction: email is getting harder, LinkedIn is where the opportunity is growing, and automation through tools like Make is going to be the real differentiator as CRM and ATS integrations get smarter. Her advice cuts in two directions—for aspiring GTM engineers, don't get lost in the jargon, focus on building the workflow and saving time for your team, and use the free education that's already out there; for founders and CEOs, trust your GTM engineer and give them the space to work.  Enjoy 🙂 (0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards (0:21) What Mako Professionals Does: GTM and Outbound for Recruitment Agencies (1:33) The Clay Candidate Scoring Table: AI Match Scoring Before Pushing Into Campaigns (2:43) The Lemlist Sequence: Emails, LinkedIn, Calls, and Voice Notes (6:06) Carly's Journey: Operations Assistant to GTM Engineer via a LinkedIn Cold Message Everyone Said Was a Scam (8:04) Predictions: Email Getting Harder, LinkedIn Growing, Automation Through Make Is the Opportunity (10:55) Advice for GTM Engineers: Focus on the Workflow, Not the Jargon—Education Is Free (12:13) Advice for Founders: Trust Your GTM Engineer and Give Them Space 🔗 CONNECT WITH CARLY 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-louw-6a7201141/] 💻 Website [https://www.makopros.com]  🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV 🎥 YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@_sauravgupta/videos] 🐦 X (Twitter) [https://x.com/saguppa] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saurav_salesrobot] 💻 Website [https://www.salesrobot.co/] 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-g-43b959225]📧 Email - saurabh@salesrobot.co 🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :) 👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

The Real GTM Edge Has Nothing To Do With Tools ft. Omar Farghaly

In today's episode, I chat with Omar, GTM engineer at Saltfish, an early-stage SaaS company in Sweden building interactive demos for other SaaS products. Omar joined as their first GTM hire with a mandate to take them from selling only in Sweden to conquering Europe, the US, and the MENA region—owning the full process from ICP definition to booked meetings.  The campaign he walks through is a great one: Saltfish had a case study with Fathom showing that an AI avatar on a pricing page improved conversion by 13%, so Omar built a Clay list of SaaS companies, then ran each through an AI agent that validated three things—do they have a pricing page, is the product self-serve, and what's the pricing page length—and used that last variable as a personalized line in the cold email. 40 interested leads and 15 booked meetings in 20 days. His background runs through one of the first GTM-focused agencies in the Arab region, where he joined a friend's operation as employee number one, spent two years managing 15-20 client accounts, became head of GTM, and helped grow the agency from a small office with no clients to 30 active clients, 100+ total, and $50K MRR before going independent. His prediction and advice land in the same place: the GTM engineers who only know how to execute workflows will get replaced by AI, and the ones who survive will be the ones who can think like marketers, generate creative campaign ideas, and understand offers deeply—read $100M Offers before you open Clay University.  Enjoy 🙂 (0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards  (0:36) What Saltfish Does: Interactive Demos With AI Avatars for SaaS Products  (2:06) The Fathom Case Study Campaign: Pricing Page Validation, AI Enrichment, 15 Meetings in 20 Days  (5:25) How to Take It Further: Traffic Data, Dollar Value, MRR Impact in the Email  (7:23) Omar's Journey: First Employee at an Arab Region GTM Agency, Head of GTM, $50K MRR  (9:56) Predictions: Execution-Only GTM Engineers Will Be Replaced, Creativity Is the Moat  (12:36) Advice: You're a GTM Engineer, Not Just an Engineer—Mindset and Offers First, Tools Second 🔗 CONNECT WITH OMAR 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-farghaly-74321a202/]  🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV 🎥 YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@_sauravgupta/videos] 🐦 X (Twitter) [https://x.com/saguppa] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saurav_salesrobot] 💻 Website [https://www.salesrobot.co/] 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-g-43b959225]📧 Email - saurabh@salesrobot.co 🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :) 👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

This Is What Modern Community-Led Growth Looks Like ft. Juan Luis Ramirez

In today's episode, I chat with Nelson and Juan from Tennis One, a tennis coaching academy in Auckland, New Zealand, that's building itself into a lifestyle brand rather than just a service.  The GTM story here is unlike anything else on the show: Juan runs an influencer outreach operation entirely on Instagram DMs, targeting micro to macro influencers between 5K and 50K followers whose content naturally aligns with the Tennis One lifestyle, offering them free coaching in exchange for content creation. The reply rate is 60-80%, and the first seven months produced nothing—then one influencer said yes, and the snowball effect took over. Mission Bay Tennis Club just won the 2025 New Zealand Tennis Club of the Year award, and inbound brand partnerships now come to them rather than the other way around. Juan's background runs from waiter in a Colombian restaurant in Takapuna—where he consistently outsold every other staff member on the monthly special—through an IT degree he pivoted away from, into tech sales startups, and eventually into GTM engineering at Tennis One. Nelson's take as the business owner is straightforward: one specialized person who can contact influencers effectively and build the system around it is worth more than a full marketing team running ads. Their advice: always lead with value, think in systems, show employers outcomes not effort, and persevere long enough to find the trigger—because once it clicks, it compounds fast.  Enjoy 🙂 (0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards  (0:26) What Tennis One Does: Coaching Academy Turned Lifestyle Brand in Auckland  (2:17) The Instagram Influencer Outreach Playbook: 60-80% Reply Rate, Free Coaching for Content  (5:29) Seven Months of Nothing, Then One Yes, Then a Snowball—and a National Club Award  (7:45) Juan's Journey: Top Waiter to IT Student to Tech Sales to GTM Engineer  (9:46) Predictions: GTM and RevOps Are the Careers of the Future, SDRs Are Being Replaced  (12:49) Advice: Lead With Value, Think in Systems, Show Outcomes Not Effort, and Persevere 🔗 CONNECT WITH JUAN 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-luis-ramirez/] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/tennisone_nz/] 💻 Website [https://clubspark.kiwi/tennisone]  🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV 🎥 YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@_sauravgupta/videos] 🐦 X (Twitter) [https://x.com/saguppa] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saurav_salesrobot] 💻 Website [https://www.salesrobot.co/] 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-g-43b959225]📧 Email - saurabh@salesrobot.co 🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :) 👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

Don’t Become A GTM Engineer In 2026 ft. Enzo Carasso

In today's episode, I chat with Enzo Carasso, founder at C17 Lab, about why he's actively steering away from B2B SaaS clients and going deep on professional services, manufacturers, and logistics—industries that represent 80% of US GDP but get ignored by most outbound agencies chasing the same SaaS slice.  The campaign story is one of the best on the show: a client getting 500 leads a month but converting at 5% because their prospects—traditional business owners—were responding to emails at 6-7am from their phones, then disappearing into the field all day. The fix wasn't better copy. It was switching device: email replies triggered an SMS prompt that moved the conversation to the SDR's phone, where these owners were already comfortable. The result was a dramatically higher show rate. Enzo has since built SMS and iMessage directly into the post-reply funnel and is pulling heavily from B2C info product playbooks—abandoned cart logic, newsletters for anyone who replies regardless of outcome, multi-channel nurture sequences—and applying them to B2B. His background is corporate outbound at Booking.com and Square, where he was leading acquisition records quarter over quarter before deciding at 29 he wasn't going to be working for someone else at 30. His prediction: the mid-tier agency charging $4-7k is going to get squeezed out—what survives is either the high-volume factory model or the genuinely high-ticket strategic partner, with software-like fulfillment on both ends. His advice is the most contrarian on the show: don't become a GTM engineer. The tools are becoming commoditized fast, and what actually matters now is the strategic thinking that connects them to ROI—study other industries, find alpha, and think like a business owner first.  Enjoy 🙂 (0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards  (0:20) What C17 Lab Does: Full Funnel Revenue Engineering From Lead to Booked Call  (1:09) Why Enzo Is Running Away From B2B SaaS—And the GDP Argument Behind It  (4:00) The Device-Switching Campaign: 500 Leads a Month, 5% Conversion, and the SMS Fix  (7:15) Building SMS and iMessage Into the Post-Reply Funnel  (9:20) What B2B Can Learn From B2C: Abandoned Cart Logic, Newsletter Retargeting, Multi-Channel Nurture  (10:43) Enzo's Journey: Booking.com, Square, Crushing Acquisition Records, Going Solo at 30  (12:25) Predictions: The Mid-Tier Agency Dies, Two Models Survive—Factory or High-Ticket Strategic Partner  (16:56) Advice: Don't Become a GTM Engineer—Become Someone Who Thinks Strategically About ROI 🔗 CONNECT WITH ENZO 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/coldoutreach/]  💻 Website [https://www.c17.ai]  🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV 🎥 YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@_sauravgupta/videos] 🐦 X (Twitter) [https://x.com/saguppa] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saurav_salesrobot] 💻 Website [https://www.salesrobot.co/] 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-g-43b959225]📧 Email - saurabh@salesrobot.co 🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :) 👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.

The GTM Industry Has A Shiny Object Problem ft. James Barrell

In today's episode, I chat with James, founder at Litehouse, about why offer, volume, and deliverability are still the three pillars that actually move the needle—and why most of the fancy workflows people post about on LinkedIn are more performance than necessity.  The standout campaign is a competitor-ranking angle for a local SEO client: find what keyword the prospect wants to rank for, scrape who's outranking them, pull that competitor name into the copy, and pitch an asset breaking down exactly why the competitor is winning. Simple, personal, and it works because the prospect already knows and wants to beat that competitor. James also walks through an automated audit workflow where a positive reply triggers Clay to pull context, Claude generates a bespoke doc, and it gets sent back as a PDF—fast turnaround, high perceived value. His take on the market is worth paying attention to: 18 months ago he was sending 20-30 emails per inbox per day comfortably; now it's a max of 5 new contacts, inboxes burn out in months, and $4-5k a month is the new floor to run cold email properly. Volume is the underrated lever right now—doubling sends will often outperform spending hundreds of hours optimizing copy. His path started with a web design agency, using cold email to generate their own meetings, realizing lead gen was the only thing reliably working, and deciding to sell that as the service itself. His advice: don't chase shiny objects, listen to your own data over LinkedIn noise, and stick with things long enough to actually get good at them.  Enjoy 🙂 (0:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards  (0:21) What Litehouse Does: Cold Email at Scale, Clay Automations, LinkedIn  (1:22) Competitor Ranking Angle: Scraping Who Outranks Your Prospect and Using It in Copy  (2:01) Automated Audit Workflow: Positive Reply Triggers Clay, Claude Builds the Doc, PDF Sent Back  (2:57) The Three Pillars: Offer, Volume, Deliverability  (6:29) James' Journey: Web Design Agency to Cold Email as the Actual Product  (9:35) Predictions: Volume Is Underrated, Clay Pricing Is a Big Deal, Inbox Burn Rate Has Exploded  (13:08) Cold Email Is Harder But Still Working—A Client Closed $22K in One Day  (15:36) Advice: Ignore Shiny Objects, Trust Your Data, Stick With It Long Enough to Get Good 🔗 CONNECT WITH JAMES 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-barrell-b92520207/] 💻 Website [https://litehouse.so]  🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV 🎥 YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@_sauravgupta/videos] 🐦 X (Twitter) [https://x.com/saguppa] 📸 Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/saurav_salesrobot] 💻 Website [https://www.salesrobot.co/] 👥 LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saurav-g-43b959225]📧 Email - saurabh@salesrobot.co 🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :) 👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.