How we helped Instantly add 187 customers in 120 days on top of its own outbound

Introduction

Instantly is a cold email and sales engagement platform: a lead database, email verification, campaigns, deliverability and warm-up, a CRM and AI agents, used today by more than 50,000 sales teams. It is also one of the tools we run client campaigns in, and we are an Instantly partner. Instantly’s own outbound was already strong when we started working together. The question was what a partner could add that the in-house team was not already doing.

The Challenge

Adding customers to a company that already does outbound well.

A strong incumbent motion → Instantly’s own team ran excellent outbound. Duplicating it would have produced duplicate conversations and little else.
Alternative channels needed → the opportunity was in the customers the in-house motion was not reaching: people in our network, in partner communities and in adjacent audiences.
Measurable contribution → anything we brought in had to be attributable, so both sides could see what the partnership was worth.

What We Built

We worked the channels that sit next to a sales team rather than on top of it.

1. Outbound to adjacent audiences. Campaigns to segments and lists the in-house team was not working, so every conversation we opened was net new.

2. Referrals from our network. As an agency running cold email for clients, we were already recommending tools. We made Instantly the recommendation and introduced the teams that needed it.

3. Partnerships. As an Instantly partner, we brought the platform into the communities and collaborations we were part of, turning shared audiences into sign-ups.

The Outcome

In four months, the channels around the sales team produced a customer count the sales team did not have to earn.

• 187 customers added in 120 days → through outbound, referrals and partnerships, on top of Instantly’s own in-house outbound.

• No cannibalisation → the customers came from audiences the in-house motion was not working.

• A partnership that continues → we still run client campaigns on the platform and still refer teams to it.

Why It Worked

1. We added channels, not competition. Working next to a strong sales team means finding the customers it will not reach, not racing it to the same ones.

2. Referrals from practitioners convert. A recommendation from an agency that uses the tool every day carries more weight than any sequence.

3. Partnership is a channel. Shared communities and collaborations produce customers when someone is tasked with working them.

Ready To Own Your Pipeline?

If your sales team is already good and you want the customers it is not reaching, this is where we start. We work the channels next to the team: adjacent outbound, referrals and partnerships, all attributable.

Book an outbound strategy call and we’ll map what an owned outbound channel would look like for you.