How to Build an Email Sequence for BDRs

Most B2B companies are sabotaging their email marketing from day one. They're copying e-commerce welcome sequences and wondering why their results are mediocre at best. After years of testing with dozens of service-based businesses, I've discovered something counterintuitive: the "best practices" for welcome sequences are actively harming B2B service companies with long sales cycles. ❌ They treat high-touch relationships like quick transactions. When your sales cycle is 6+ months, why would you use the same approach as someone selling $30 t-shirts? ❌ They prioritize immediate sales over deliverability. If your emails don't reach inboxes consistently for your full sales cycle, nothing else matters. ❌ They focus on single-channel communication. Once someone unsubscribes, you've lost them forever with no backup plan. ❌ They send generic "thanks for subscribing" messages. When everyone does the same thing, you become invisible. Take a different approach: → Email 1: Generate a reply, not just an open. The first email should be conversational and designed to get a response. This dramatically improves deliverability for all future emails. Our clients see 10-20% reply rates with this approach, many directly sales-related. → Email 2: Set clear expectations. Explicitly tell subscribers what types of content they'll receive and how often. This reduces unsubscribes and builds trust for the long relationship ahead. → Email 3: Connect on secondary channels. Establish multi-channel relationships early so that even if they unsubscribe from email, you haven't lost them completely. → Email 4: Gather critical intelligence. Use strategic questions to understand: What content do they want? How did they find you? Where else do they spend time online? This data improves all your marketing, not just email. → Emails 5-7: Provide soft pathways to sales conversations. Instead of aggressive pitches, create natural progression points that align with your sales process. The traditional welcome sequence works fine for consumer products with short sales cycles. But in the B2B service world, where relationships drive revenue and sales cycles extend for months, this approach is fundamentally broken. I've seen companies with mediocre products outperform superior competitors simply because they understood this difference and engineered their welcome sequence accordingly. The welcome flow is the foundation for a six-month relationship that may eventually lead to a conversation. Often the welcome flow is the highest-engagement touchpoint you'll ever have with prospects. It deserves a strategy as sophisticated as your services. What's one change you could make to your welcome sequence this week?

Most cold email sequences get 1% to 3%reply rates. Mine get 10% (Here's the difference) 𝗕𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: - Time-based follow-ups - Same message for everyone - "Just checking in" emails - 3+ hours to build 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀: - Behavior-based paths - Different messages for different engagement - Triggered by actions, not days - Built in 15 minutes with AI 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁: - Stop following YOUR calendar. - Start following THEIR behavior. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻: - "Opened 5+ times? → Send: 'Seems like good timing to chat?'" High intent path. - "Clicked pricing link? → Send case study + booking link immediately" They're ready. Strike now. - "Replied 'not interested'? → Move to 90-day nurture sequence" Long game. Stay top of mind. - "Zero opens? → Try completely different value prop" Your angle isn't landing. Switch it. - "Opened 2-3 times, no clicks? → Send: 'Noticed you checked this out - questions?'" Soft nudge. They're curious. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Building these manually takes 3+ hours per sequence. Most teams don't have that time. So they use generic templates and get generic results. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: I started using AI to map the logic. (Specifically: Saleshandy's AI Copilot) Drop in website → Answer 3 questions → Get full behavior-based sequence. 3 hours → 10 minutes. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: The framework comes first. AI just speeds up execution. Time-based sequences = treating everyone the same. Behavior-based sequences = treating everyone right. As long as you match message to behavior... Hard not to see reply rates double. Which approach are you using? #SalesStrategy #ColdEmail #B2BSales #EmailMarketing #Outbound

In the last 3 months I've audited sequences from 10+ companies - virtually no one has email working as a channel Here are the 7 important shifts outbound sales teams need to make in order to get sequences and email actually work First - good copy I have yet to see an organization that consistently hits all copy fundamentals Make an observation, infer pain, share a value prop, invite to a next step Short mobile friendly sentences, 50-75 words One pain point, one value prop Rarely done Second - persona building Very few orgs have clear validated messaging in the buyer language I've see a FEW good marketing personas... but they're rare AND you also need the ability to prove a marketing persona WRONG (IE I got 100 replies from an email with this persona message and <10 were positive) Third - contact research ZoomInfo and Apollo.io make it easy to automatically find the right buyers at a company using personas/buying committee Sales nav has this too (though it's not as good) NO ONE IS USING THIS So SDRs spend .5-2 hrs a day just adding contacts ENORMOUS waste of time Fourth - no segmentation by intent, triggers, direct dials or channel responsiveness 60-80% of your prospects don't really answer the phone And many data providers have around 50% coverage on direct dials Reps are manually research prospects that don't have direct dials who have 60-80% lower connect rates than responsive prospects To top it off... those prospects often aren't even in market You have to be focusing on prospects you can actually REACH Fifth - there's little clear direction on personalization ✌🏽Dorothy Huynh helped me write a sequence with an extremely clear personalization framework for emails Where to look, what to ask about, etc Most orgs don't have that Without direction they tend to flop And no, Clay doesn't match the personalization of good SDRs, not by a long shot Sixth - too few or too many manual emails, too few multichannel touches (when appropriate) Most orgs fall in one of 3 camps Everything is automated emails with little split testing or segmentation Tons of manual emails which get completed late (credit for Remington Rawlings and 🖋Dave Breshears for talking about this) Or too MANY emails, calls, Linkedin messages... often targeting prospects without direct dials or Linkedin presence Tie manual touches to the level of intent, data, and channel responsiveness you have with each prospect instead Seventh - continuous optimization No one really has the bandwidth to split test, optimize and manage all of this So sequences usually become a mess This is why I'm building the outbound engine We build account and contact lists for your sales team Craft buyer personas Write good sequences And optimize based on what's working Build a machine that your sales team lives in, don't leave everyone to figure it out for themselves (DM if you want help)

Cold email sequencing is an art. It’s not just about sending follow-ups—it’s about sending the right message at the right time. A well-structured #emailsequence can nurture leads over time, building trust and moving them closer to a decision. Start with a soft touch - an introduction or a value proposition. Follow up with more detailed information, like a case study or a relevant industry report. Your final emails should focus on creating urgency and a clear call-to-action. Here’s some quick tips on improving your sequencing: 👉🏻 Don’t bombard your prospects. Give them time to absorb your message before following up. A good rule of thumb is to wait 3-5 days between emails. 👉🏻 Use behavioral triggers. Set up your email sequence to react to your prospect’s behavior. For example, if they open your email but don’t reply, send a follow-up with more information or a different angle. 👉🏻 A/B test your sequences. Different prospects might respond better to different sequences. Test variations in timing, messaging, and CTAs to see what works best. Building an effective #coldemail sequence requires strategy and patience, but the results are well worth the effort.

Before launching your next sequence, ask this: Is our outreach driven by real signals—or are we just guessing? Outbound has gotten noisy. Everyone’s sending something. And most of it? Still falls flat. But I recently saw a team flip the script. They weren’t chasing volume. They were chasing context. Every message adapted based on real triggers: → Are they hiring for a specific role? → Did they just raise funding? → Are they using a tool we integrate with? → Have they engaged with our content? That context shaped everything—the message, the channel, the offer. Signals were pulled in through tools like Clay. Then, they scaled all of it inside lemlist: ✅ AI Variables to personalize each message automatically ✅ Value props that shift by persona or industry ✅ Multichannel outreach: email, LinkedIn, even calls ✅ Route hot leads instantly via Slack ✅ Run the whole thing at scale—without losing context Most BDRs obsess over templates and timing. But none of that matters if the message isn’t relevant. Clay + Lemlist is powerful. Check it out. P.S. What’s one signal you always look for before hitting send? 👇 #Outbound #BDR #SalesPlaybook #LeadGeneration #SalesTools #lemlist