xSellerate Blog | Sales, Lead Generation & Business Growth Tips

How to Start 10 Sales Conversations a Day Without Hiring Anyone

Written by Sean Piggott | Feb 10, 2025 9:15:00 AM

Let’s be honest. You don’t need more cold DMs. You need real conversations with real prospects who might buy.

But if you’re an SME founder wearing every hat, you’ve got:

  • No time
  • No SDR
  • No idea what’s working

This blog will show you exactly how to:

Start 10+ meaningful sales conversations a day, without hiring or managing anyone.

Step 1: Get Crystal Clear on WHO You Want to Talk To

Outbound doesn't work when it's vague. It works when you're laser-focused.

Start here:

  • Industry (e.g. legal firms, recruitment agencies, SaaS startups)
  • Job title (e.g. owner, director, head of operations)
  • Company size (e.g. 5–50 employees)
  • Pain point (e.g. no outbound system, inconsistent leads, poor follow-up)

The more specific, the more successful your messaging will be.

Use this to build your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).

Step 2: Build Your List

No list = no leads. Here are 3 founder-friendly tools that do the heavy lifting:

  • Clay: Pull verified emails, job titles, tech stacks, and more. Advanced, but powerful.
  • Apollo.io: Huge database + enrichment. Great if you're just starting.
  • Phantombuster: Scrape leads directly from LinkedIn searches.

Set your filters once. Export the data. Done.

Step 3: Write 1 Message That Doesn’t Sound Automated

Here’s the secret:

Don't write like a marketer. Write like a human.

Bad: “Hi [First Name], we help SMEs like yours scale with cutting-edge lead generation solutions.”

Better:

“Saw you run a growing [industry] firm — curious if you’ve ever built an outbound sales system? Most founders we speak to say: 'We tried it before. Didn’t work.' We’ve got a new way. Want to see it?”

Short. Real. Conversational.

Step 4: Automate Your First Campaign (Without Ruining Your Reputation)

Use safe automation tools that mimic human behaviour:

  • Smartlead.ai or Instantly.ai: Set up cold email flows with smart warm-up and deliverability built in
  • Expandi or We-Connect: Send LinkedIn connection requests and messages automatically

Make sure:

  • You personalise the first line or two
  • You keep it under 5 follow-ups
  • You track replies and handle the rest manually

Set it and check it daily. That’s it.

Step 5: Track What’s Working (and Fix What Isn’t)

Your sales system is only as good as your feedback loop.

Track:

  • Open rates (should be 40%+)
  • Reply rates (aim for 8%+)
  • Call bookings
  • Conversion to sales

Use our free Sales Math Tracker to reverse-engineer your targets.

Download the Sales Math Tracker

Want Us to Build It for You?

You can 100% do this on your own.

But if you want:

  • A campaign built and launched in 7 days
  • Clear dashboards
  • Pre-qualified leads booked into your calendar

We do it for you at xSellerate.

No team? No problem. You just need a system that starts the right conversations.

Start with this blog. Follow the steps. Or let us build it for you.
Either way — outbound doesn’t have to be hard anymore.