We turned Claude into an SDR team that booked 19 meetings in 2 weeks.

Cold outbound is broken. Here's why.

97 out of 100 people ignore cold outreach. Not because your product sucks. Because your timing does.

Traditional outbound: buy a list, blast emails, hope someone replies. 3% reply rate if you're lucky.

We flipped it. We stopped contacting people. We started listening first.

The 5 buying signals we monitor

These are the signals that actually predict who's ready to buy. Not lookalike scores. Not firmographic filters. Real behavior.

The 5 signal types we monitor, configured and running

How Claude monitors these signals

We use Sortlist Signals to detect intent signals across LinkedIn. Claude sits on top and processes everything. Here's the actual setup.

Our ICP configuration: VP/CMO, 50-500 employees, SaaS, Europe

Job change monitoring: tracking CMO, VP Marketing, Head of Growth appointments

Our daily feed: 10-20 qualified signals per day, each with context

Each lead comes with full signal context: what they did, when, and why it matters

The exact Claude prompt we use

This is the engine. We don't write messages. We don't use templates. We feed Claude the signal and it figures out the angle. The key: Claude never mentions the signal directly. It uses the signal to understand what the person cares about right now, then starts a conversation about that problem.

Copy this. Paste it into Claude. Replace the [bracketed parts] with your business.

You are writing outbound messages for me. I'll give you a buying signal about a prospect. Your job is to turn that signal into a natural, human conversation starter.

MY COMPANY (replace with yours):
- Company: Sortlist
- What we sell: We match companies with the right marketing agencies in 2 weeks instead of 3 months
- Who we sell to: CMOs, VPs Marketing, Heads of Growth at companies with 50-500 employees
- One proof point: Helped a Series B fintech go from 0 to 3 vetted agency proposals in 11 days

THE PROSPECT:
- Name: {{name}}
- Role: {{role}}
- Company: {{company}}

THE SIGNAL:
- Type: {{signal_type}} (job_change / competitor_engagement / topic_conversation / funding / content_engagement)
- Detail: {{signal_detail}}
- Date: {{signal_date}}

CRITICAL RULES:

1. NEVER reference the signal directly. Don't say "I saw your post", "I noticed you liked", "Congrats on the new role", "I saw you raised". The prospect should not feel watched.

2. Instead, USE the signal to identify what problem they likely have RIGHT NOW, then open with that problem. The signal is your intel, not your opener.

3. The message should feel like it comes from someone who lives in the same world and genuinely understands their current situation — not someone who scraped their LinkedIn.

4. ANGLE STRATEGY by signal type:
   - Job change → Talk about the challenge that comes with the new role. Don't mention the move.
   - Competitor engagement → Talk about the topic they engaged with. Don't mention the competitor or the post.
   - Topic conversation → Respond to the idea, add a contrarian or complementary take. Don't say "I saw your post."
   - Funding → Talk about the scaling challenge that follows growth. Don't mention the round.
   - Content engagement → Talk about the theme of the content. Don't mention the like/comment.

5. Tone: short, direct, zero fluff. Like a text from a smart friend who works in the same industry. No "Hope you're well." No "I'd love to." No "I wanted to reach out."

6. Max 60 words for Message 1. Max 40 words for Messages 2 and 3.

7. End Message 1 with a genuine question, not a meeting request. The goal is a reply, not a booking.

8. Include ONE specific proof point (company name or metric) — but weave it in naturally, don't list it.

WRITE A 3-TOUCH CROSS-CHANNEL SEQUENCE:

Touch 1 — LinkedIn connection request + note (Day 0):
- Problem-led opener based on the signal intel. Ask a question.
- Must fit in 300 characters (LinkedIn limit for connection notes).

Touch 2 — Email (Day 2):
- Share something useful (a number, a benchmark, a take). No "following up."
- Max 60 words. Reference the same theme as Touch 1 but don't repeat yourself.
- Subject line: max 5 words, no clickbait, no caps.

Touch 3 — LinkedIn message (Day 5):
- Only if they accepted the connection. One sentence. Give them an easy out.
- Max 30 words. Conversational, like a DM to a peer.

What the output looks like

Same prompt, different signals, completely different messages. This is how we use it at Sortlist to sell agency matching. Notice: none of them mention the signal.

Signal: New CMO just joined a Series B SaaS company (job change)

Signal: Liked a post from a Sortlist competitor about agency selection (competitor engagement)

Signal: Posted about needing to scale content production (topic conversation)

How we send these across channels

This is where Overloop comes in. One sequence, multiple channels. Overloop handles the orchestration: LinkedIn connection request on Day 0, email on Day 2, LinkedIn DM on Day 5. All automated, all personalized by Claude.

The flow in Overloop:

1. LinkedIn connection + note — first touchpoint, low friction, starts the relationship
2. Email — 2 days later, add value with a proof point or data
3. LinkedIn DM — only if they accepted, soft close, one sentence

Claude writes all 3 touches. Overloop sends them in the right order, on the right channel, at the right time. You review the daily batch and hit go.

Signal-qualified leads go into a cross-channel Overloop sequence: LinkedIn + Email automated

The 4-week plan: 0 to 10+ qualified calls per week

Here's exactly how we ramped this up. You don't need to do everything at once.

Real numbers, no BS

Here's what we actually measured over the first 2 weeks of running this system.

The tools we used

Full transparency on the stack. Nothing hidden.

• Sortlist Signals for detecting buying signals across LinkedIn (starts at €59/mo)
• Overloop for running outreach sequences (email + LinkedIn)
• Claude for ICP qualification and message generation
• Your existing CRM (we use HubSpot, but any works)

The full stack connected: Signals detects, Claude qualifies, Overloop sends, CRM tracks

Want to try it yourself?

You can run this entire playbook manually with Claude and LinkedIn. It works. It's just slow.

If you want to automate it, Signals comes with 100 free leads on the trial. That's enough to run your first campaign end-to-end and see if signal-based outbound works for your market. No credit card, no call needed.

The setup takes about 30 minutes:

1. Define your ICP in Signals (5 min)
2. Pick 2 signal types to monitor (2 min)
3. Copy the Claude prompt above and adapt it to your business (10 min)
4. Connect Overloop for cross-channel sending (10 min)
5. Review your first batch of signal-qualified leads the next morning

By day 3 you'll know if this works for you. Most people know by the first reply.