OUTBOUND PLAYBOOK
Sales Plays That Work in 2026
Static lists are dead. The plays that book meetings today are built on intent signals — real-time events that tell you exactly when a company is ready to buy.
The Problem with Spray & Pray
Most outbound is a numbers game played badly. Buy a list of 10,000 contacts, blast a generic pitch, hope for the best. Reply rates keep dropping because everyone's inbox is overflowing with irrelevant outreach.
The data backs this up. Our research across 3M+ cold emails shows that relevance and timing are the two biggest drivers of positive replies — not volume, not fancy copywriting, not the number of follow-ups.
Why Intent Signals Win
An intent-driven sales play targets companies based on something they just did — hired someone, raised funding, adopted new tech, launched a product. You're reaching out at the exact moment your offer is most relevant.
The result: 3-5x higher reply rates, shorter sales cycles, and conversations that start with context instead of a cold pitch. Every play below is one we run for clients at Sales.co.
THE PLAYS
10 Intent-Driven Plays We Run for Clients
Target Recently Hired Roles
When a company hires a new VP of Sales, Head of Marketing, or CTO, they come in with a mandate to make changes. They have budget, authority, and a 90-day window to prove themselves. That's your opening.
New hire announcement on LinkedIn
Within 30-60 days of start date
New leaders actively seek vendors to hit goals fast
Target Founders at Recently Funded Startups
A startup that just closed a Series A or B has fresh capital and a board expecting growth. The founders are actively looking to invest in sales, marketing, and infrastructure. Timing your outreach to the funding announcement means you're selling into budget that was literally just created.
Funding round on Crunchbase / press
Within 2-8 weeks of announcement
Fresh capital = active buying mode
Target Companies Running Ads for Keyword X
If a company is spending money on Google Ads for keywords related to your space, they've already validated the problem and are investing to solve it. They're not in research mode — they're in buying mode. Your outreach arrives as a potential alternative or complement to what they're already paying for.
Active ad spend on relevant keywords
While campaigns are actively running
Proven budget allocation for your category
Target Companies That Recently Added Technology X
Tech stack changes are one of the strongest intent signals. When a company adopts HubSpot, Salesforce, or Snowflake, it tells you exactly what problems they're solving and what their stack looks like. If your product integrates with, enhances, or replaces part of that stack — you have a warm opening.
New technology detected via technographics
Within 1-3 months of adoption
Signals active investment in your category
Target Companies Hiring for a Specific Role
Job postings are public declarations of a company's priorities. If they're hiring three SDRs, they're scaling outbound. If they're hiring a data engineer, they're investing in data infrastructure. Match your offer to the role they're filling and you become part of the solution they're already building toward.
Open job postings on LinkedIn / career pages
While the role is actively open
Job posts reveal budget and strategic priorities
Target Recently Launched Companies
Newly launched companies need everything — tools, services, vendors, partners. They're making dozens of buying decisions in their first 6 months and they don't have established vendor relationships yet. If you can identify companies at launch (via Product Hunt, press, new domain registrations), you're in before the competition.
Product Hunt launch, press coverage, new domains
Within first 1-6 months of launch
No incumbent vendors, fast decision-making
Target Prospects Based on Social Posts
When a decision-maker posts about a challenge they're facing, a tool they're evaluating, or a goal they just set — they're telling you exactly what's on their mind. A LinkedIn post about struggling with outbound, a tweet about scaling their sales team, or a comment asking for vendor recommendations is the strongest signal there is: self-declared intent.
LinkedIn / X posts about relevant problems or goals
Within days of the post
Self-declared need — no guessing required
Target Competitor Customers
Your competitor's followers and customers are pre-qualified buyers. They already understand the category, have budget allocated, and are actively using a solution like yours. Scrape follower lists from competitor social profiles, identify who's engaging with their content, and build a list of people who've already said yes to the problem you solve — just not to you yet.
Followers / engagers on competitor social profiles
Evergreen — run continuously
Pre-qualified: they already buy in your category
Email & Call Your Website Visitors
97% of website visitors leave without filling out a form. But with visitor identification tools, you can de-anonymize them — matching IP addresses and browser signals to real companies and decision-makers. Instead of waiting for the form fill that never comes, you follow up with a personalized email or call within hours. It's retargeting without the ad spend.
Website visit identified via de-anonymization
Same day — within hours of the visit
They already showed interest — you're just closing the loop
Revenue Reactivation
Every company has a graveyard of leads where the conversation went silent — demos that never closed, proposals that went cold, trials that expired. These people already know you, already showed interest, and already understand what you do. A well-timed cold call or email sequence to your dead pipeline is the easiest revenue you'll find this year. No new list needed.
Stalled deals, expired trials, ghosted proposals
30-180 days after conversation went silent
Warm leads with zero acquisition cost
THE MISTAKE EVERYONE MAKES
Intent for Data is Only Half the Play
Most teams use intent signals to build better lists — and stop there. They find the right companies, then send them the same generic pitch everyone else sends. That's using a scalpel as a hammer.
"Hi {{firstName}}, I noticed {{company}} is growing fast. We help companies like yours scale their outbound. Would you be open to a quick chat?"
You found the right company using a funding signal — but the email could be sent to anyone. The prospect has no idea you know something specific about them. It reads like every other cold email in their inbox.
"Congrats on the Series B, {{firstName}}. Most founders in your position are under pressure to show pipeline growth within 90 days — before the board starts asking questions. We help post-funding teams go from 0 to 40+ qualified meetings/month without building an SDR team from scratch."
Same signal, completely different email. The intent data shapes the entire message — the opening, the pain point, the urgency, and the offer. The prospect feels understood, not prospected.
INTENT DATA ONLY vs. INTENT DATA + MESSAGING
Based on Sales.co campaign data across 200+ intent-driven campaigns.
The signal tells you when to reach out. The messaging tells them why you're reaching out now. When both are dialed in, every email feels like it was written for that one person at that exact moment. That's what turns a cold email into a warm conversation.
We Run These Plays for You
Sales.co identifies the right intent signals, builds the prospect lists, writes the outreach, and books the meetings. You just show up to the call.