Outbound Prospecting Playbook
The outbound prospecting playbook below is free to preview and install in Zealos. A complete outbound sales system — ICP definition, target account tracking, cold email sequences, and objection handling.
Pages in this template
- 🎯ICP & Target Accounts
- 📧Sequences & Scripts
Preview: ICP & Target Accounts
ICP & Target Accounts
A sharp ICP is the foundation of effective outbound. If you're not laser-focused on who you serve best, you'll waste time chasing prospects that will never close. Define it once, refine it quarterly.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Attribute | Ideal | Acceptable | Disqualified |
|---|---|---|---|
Industry | [e.g., B2B SaaS, Professional Services, E-commerce] | [e.g., Healthcare, Fintech, Education] | [e.g., Government, Non-profit, Heavy industry] |
Company Size (Employees) | [e.g., 50-500] | [e.g., 20-50 or 500-1,000] | [e.g., Under 10 or Over 5,000] |
Annual Revenue | [e.g., $5M - $50M] | [e.g., $2M - $5M or $50M - $100M] | [e.g., Under $1M or Over $500M] |
Marketing Budget | [e.g., $10K - $50K/month] | [e.g., $5K - $10K/month] | [e.g., Under $3K/month] |
Decision Maker | [e.g., VP Marketing, CMO, Head of Growth] | [e.g., Marketing Director, CEO (at smaller companies)] | [e.g., Intern, Junior coordinator with no budget authority] |
Tech Stack | [e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, WordPress/Webflow] | [e.g., Marketo, Shopify, custom CMS] | [e.g., No CRM, no website, no tracking] |
Growth Stage | [e.g., Series A-C, established and scaling] | [e.g., Bootstrapped but profitable, Series D+] | [e.g., Pre-revenue, declining/restructuring] |
Geographic Focus | [e.g., North America, English-speaking markets] | [e.g., UK, Australia, Western Europe] | [e.g., Markets where we have no expertise or language capability] |
Pain Points | [e.g., Struggling to generate leads, can't attribute marketing to revenue] | [e.g., Inconsistent brand presence, need to hire] | [e.g., No urgency, happy with current agency, budget frozen] |
Current Marketing | [e.g., Doing some in-house but need expertise to scale] | [e.g., Using a freelancer, exploring agencies] | [e.g., Already locked into a 2-year agency contract] |
Target Accounts Tracker
Maintain a living list of your top 50-100 target accounts. Update status and next actions weekly during your pipeline review.
Company | Industry | Size | Key Contact | Title | Status | Next Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
[Company A] | [SaaS] | [120 employees] | [First Last] | [VP Marketing] | Researching | Send Email 1 | [Found via LinkedIn, recently raised Series B] |
[Company B] | [E-commerce] | [85 employees] | [First Last] | [Head of Growth] | Email 1 Sent | Follow up in 3 days | [Posted about hiring a marketing agency on LinkedIn] |
[Company C] | [Professional Services] | [200 employees] | [First Last] | [CMO] | Meeting Booked | Discovery call [Date] | [Referred by [Name] — warm intro] |
[Company D] | [Fintech] | [350 employees] | [First Last] | [Marketing Director] | Nurturing | Share case study | [Interested but no budget until Q3] |
[Company E] | [Healthcare Tech] | [75 employees] | [First Last] | [CEO] | Qualified | Send proposal | [Small team, CEO makes marketing decisions] |
Weekly Activity Targets
Consistent activity is the key to a healthy pipeline. Track these metrics weekly and adjust targets based on conversion rates.
Activity | Daily Target | Weekly Target | Current Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
New accounts researched | 5 | 25 | [X] |
Personalized emails sent | 10 | 50 | [X] |
LinkedIn connection requests | 10 | 50 | [X] |
Follow-up touches (email + LinkedIn) | 8 | 40 | [X] |
Phone calls / voicemails | 5 | 25 | [X] |
Discovery meetings booked | — | 3-5 | [X] |
Proposals sent | — | 1-2 | [X] |
Qualification Criteria
Use these criteria to determine whether a prospect is worth pursuing. Not every interested company is a good fit — protect your time.
Budget: Do they have (or can they allocate) the minimum budget for your services? ($5K+/month retainer or $15K+ project)
Authority: Are you speaking with a decision maker or someone who can champion internally and get budget approved?
Need: Do they have a clear, urgent marketing challenge that your agency is uniquely positioned to solve?
Timeline: Are they ready to start within the next 30-60 days, or is this a "someday" conversation?
Fit: Do they match your ICP? Is this an industry and company type where you deliver your best work?
Culture: Is this a client your team would enjoy working with? Red flags in the sales process predict red flags in delivery.
Growth Potential: Is there potential for the engagement to expand over time (more services, higher budget, referrals)?
If a prospect fails on Budget, Authority, or Need — stop pursuing. No amount of nurturing will overcome a fundamental disqualification. Focus your energy on prospects where you can win.
About this template
Build a repeatable outbound engine that fills your pipeline with qualified prospects. This two-page playbook starts with a sharp ICP definition and target account tracker to focus your efforts, then provides battle-tested cold email sequences, LinkedIn outreach scripts, objection handling frameworks, and call scripts your team can use immediately. Stop guessing and start prospecting with a system.
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