Sales Playbook from Conor McCarthy, Sales Lead EMEA @lemlist

Lead sourcing at lemlist is well dialed-in. With support from the growth team, each rep is fully autonomous in building their own prospect lists—using the lemlist database and third-party tools to enrich with even more data.‍

List building and enrichment via Lemlist & Clay:

• Filter the account list (geography, industry, number of employees)
• Find multiple targetable contacts (Head of Sales, GTM Engineer, Sales Ops)
• Add external data: (toolstack, job openings, sales team size, etc.)
• Enrichment (LinkedIn, email, and phone)

After collecting the data, reps leverage custom GPTs to craft targeted icebreakers on the company or prospect, then plug them into cold calls and sequences.

“Done by lemlist. It’s becoming a one‑stop shop: find people, enrich contacts, run campaigns, even dial”

Buying signals prioritized

• Hiring momentum in Sales/RevOps; hiring a Go-To-Market Engineer is a key trigger
• Known competitor in the stack (clear replacement value moving to a modern, AI-driven approach)
• LinkedIn engagement (post, like, comment)

Buying signals are core to the team’s prospecting strategy. The more we collect, the more a rep can confirm lemlist is a strong fit for that company.

“A Go‑To‑Market Engineer hire is a huge signal. If they’re using a competitor, we’re confident in our value proposition.”

Lead scoring & prioritization

With an international market and a universal product for B2B companies, lemlist’s total addressable market is massive. That’s why lead scoring is critical—to make sure reps target the right people at the right time.

The lead score increase if :

• Company employee is between 100 & 500
• Sales Time size is between : 25 & 100
• Competitor is known
• Sales CRM is SalesForce or Hubspot
• In-campaign scoring (lemlist): replies, connect+ on calls, multichannel engagement
• Prioritize where signals and interactions compound

Refreshing lists

• Refresh when active prospect count drops below a minimum threshold (booked, not interested, sequence completed)
• Strategic review every 2–3 months: adjust persona mix, signals, and scale what performs

Data ops hygiene

• Deduplicate and enforce rules of engagement
• Keep HubSpot sync always-on to avoid data distrust

“We don’t have issues with sync. The main thing is that reps trust the outbound process, and with lemlist + HubSpot, they do.”

Philosophy: Make every call a warm call

• Start with a text-based touch (email or LinkedIn) introducing value:‍


• Call the next day or two (D+1/D+2) so your name/value prop is familiar

“The goal is a warm calling campaign: text touch first, then call the next day. Higher chance they’ve seen our name and what we do.”

Channels in play

• Email: value-forward with relevant proof
• LinkedIn: profile view, connect, DM, voice messages (pattern interrupt)

Linkedin Message :

Hey {{firstName}} Q4’s a good time to stress-test your 2026 sales stack. You’re using {{VariableTool}}, right? Planning to challenge the tool?

Voice message :

Hey {{fistName}}, quick heads-up can I can share here how teams targeting {{ICP}} use Lemlist to get more replies and meetings ?

• Cold call: dedicated team calling blocks; 30–60 sec opener
• WhatsApp: useful in specific markets and for mid‑funnel/reactivation

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‍“Multi‑channel is a must. And LinkedIn voice messages are a real pattern interrupt, many say, ‘I’ve never received one before.’”

“On average, we see around 8 to 12 touchpoints to get a response or meeting — quality touches across channels.”

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Deliverability fundamentals

Although many sales teams underestimate it, deliverability is critical to successful prospecting—and Conor knows it. Without strong deliverability, all the work on list building and sequences goes to waste. That’s why he follows very strict rules here.

• Invest in a full outbound infrastructure with dedicated domains and emails
• Warm up for 3 weeks before scaling sends, and keep the warm-up active while sending emails.
• Distribute volume across multiple inboxes, maximum 10 emails / day / inbox
• Turn off open and click tracking
• Vary messages with AI (personalization and spintax)
• Optimize for positive replies and meetings

“Warm‑up tool, multiple inboxes, and AI‑driven message variation — get those right and you’re already halfway there.”

“I don’t agree with tracking open rates, for deliverability reasons. Optimize for positive replies and meetings.”

1. Quality over volume

Review at 2–3 months (not 2 weeks); adjust personas and signals based on outcomes

“We focus on quality and conversion rates, not volume. A 7–8 touch campaign with real quality beats a generic 20–22 step blast.”

2. Calling culture‍

120–150 dials/week/rep; fastest way to validate interest and build momentum

“Team calling builds confidence fast. After a block, everyone’s like: ‘Okay, that was good — I didn’t die. Cold calling is good.’”

3. Modern pattern interrupts

LinkedIn voice notes are rare and memorable in EMEA
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4. AI in the workflow

Call briefs (company/contact context), message variation, time saved in the dialer

“Using lemlist AI for company/contact summaries during dialing saves so much time — time is money when you’re calling.”

5. True multichannel orchestration

Email + LinkedIn + Calling + WhatsApp with conditional branches based on engagement

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