Systems (not tools) can scale outbound (1000%+ ROI)
Last Friday, Instantly dropped their $1 Black Friday deal. Hypergrowth plan for $1. Normally $97/mo. Maybe Black Friday offers do feel sketchy now. Whatever. I subscribed anyway. And then I ran the only thing that never lies The System I Already Run (If you don’t run something like this, no tool will save you.) I pull hyper-intent ICP leads from Apollo, Sales Nav, Vayne — not the “random CEO of a 2-person company” garbage. 5,000 filtered decision-makers in one click. Then my icebreaker workflow (heavily modified Nick’s system) personalizes every single lead in minutes. 1–2 hours. Fully ready campaign. Zero manual pain. Now the Cold Math 5,000 leads → Instantly → 7% reply 50% positive 20% conversion = 24 real opportunities. Avg deal value? $1,000 (being conservative; many of you charge more). That’s $24K in pipeline. Close half → $12K collected. Cost to Generate That? Time cost: Lead scraping + setup → 2h Replies handled by Instantly → near-zero Onboarding calls → 24 × 15 min = 6h Total = 8 hours Even if you price your time at $100/hr → $800 “labor” cost. Tools cost: Instantly: $1 Enrichment: $70 Vayne: $99 Total = $170 + $800 = $970 total cost ROI = (12,000 – 970) / 970 × 100 = 1,137% ROI From something every “too smart” founder called a scam. Founders who complain about reply rates do this: • Scrape random leads • Send 2019 templates • Personalize nothing • Blast & pray • Then blame the channel Meanwhile, the teams hitting 7%+ reply rates: • Target precisely • Personalize at scale • Automate the boring parts • Track the numbers • Iterate by data, not ego The math works when the system works. The tool is just an amplifier. Whether you grab the black friday deal or not, totaly depends on you. I'd just suggest to use these kind of systems to scale. Nick's one liner workflow is free on his gubroad. Copy - customize - use. Be hyper-specific with your ICP. Use a lead gen system (copy/ build). Did this make you realize why your pipeline’s flat?