Outbound prospecting
In a firm that sells its expertise, prospecting happens when delivery is quiet, which is too late. An AI agent can keep it going every week. It researches the organisations you name, checks which may be emailed without consent, and drafts a first message worth reading. Your people approve the list and take over at the first reply.
The role in brief
Researches target organisations, screens each against UK email marketing rules and sends a first email, marked as written by an AI agent, within your limit.
Your CRM, Companies House for legal forms, organisations' own websites, and a mailbox on its own sending domain.
The partner or sales lead who owns the pipeline. They approve the list, wording, first batch and sending limit, and receive every reply that is not an opt-out.
Organisations researched and screened, replies handed to a person, and opt-outs and bounces.
Prospecting, in the gaps between client work
It is usually a partner or a director, with a list exported from the CRM and a free afternoon that never quite arrives. They look up each company, find a name, write something personal and send a dozen emails. Then a client calls, and the follow-ups are never sent.
Prospecting stops when delivery starts
The work you are delivering now came from conversations started months ago. When everyone is on client work nobody starts new ones, and the gap shows up as an empty diary once the current engagements end, too late to fill.
Emails to the wrong kind of business
Under PECR a company, LLP or Scottish partnership can be sent marketing email without consent. A sole trader, or an ordinary partnership elsewhere in the UK, counts as an individual and needs consent unless already your customer. If unsure, the ICO says treat them as an individual. A bought list rarely says which is which.
No opt-out, no sender, no record
Every marketing email must say who it is from and give a valid opt-out address. A named person at a company also has an absolute right under UK GDPR to object, and must be told by the first message. The ICO can now fine a PECR breach up to £17.5m or 4% of global turnover.
From a target list to a first reply
Your people approve the list, the wording and the first batch. Sends then run within the limit you set; every reply, and anything outside that limit, goes to a person. The list criteria and daily limit are agreed with you first.
List
Builds the list from criteria you set, such as sector, size and place, using your CRM and public registers, and removes anyone on your do-not-contact list.
Approval of the criteria.
Screen
Checks each organisation's legal form at Companies House. Companies and LLPs go forward. Sole traders, ordinary partnerships and anything unclear are set aside.
Approval of the screened list, and whether and how to ask those set aside for consent. A person decides.
Research and draft
Reads what each organisation publishes about itself and writes a short first email that refers to it, names your firm, says an AI agent wrote it and gives an opt-out.
The wording, the first batch of drafts, and any claim about your clients or results.
Send and hand over
Sends within the daily limit you set, adds every opt-out to the suppression list before the next send, and passes every other reply to a named person with the research.
Every reply and every conversation, and any send outside the limit. Phone calls and LinkedIn messages are your people's.
Organisations researched and screened
How many organisations went through research and the legal-form check each week, and how many were set aside as individuals or unclear. Reviewed with you each month.
Replies handed to a person
Counted from the agent's mailbox. Each reply that asks a question or shows interest, passed to the person you named, with what was sent.
Opt-outs and bounces
Every opt-out and undelivered address as a share of emails sent, with a check that each was suppressed before the next batch.
Questions owners ask
Is cold email to businesses legal in the UK?
To a corporate body, yes. The ICO says PECR's consent rule for email does not apply to companies, LLPs, Scottish partnerships and some government bodies. Sole traders and other partnerships must have consented or be a customer already (the soft opt-in). Every email must identify the sender and give an opt-out. It is not legal advice on your campaign.
Do recipients know the email was written by an AI?
Yes. Every message the agent sends on its own says it comes from an AI agent working for your firm, names the firm and says how to reach a person. That sentence is fixed wording, which the agent does not vary. A partner may send the agent's draft instead.
Can it message people on LinkedIn or phone them?
No. We do not automate a client's LinkedIn account, and this role works by email, so LinkedIn messages and calls stay with your people, with the agent's research to hand. For marketing calls to businesses, the ICO says numbers are screened against the TPS and CTPS registers first.
Where do the contact details come from?
From your CRM, an organisation's website where it publishes an address, and a bought list we screen first. Companies House gives the legal form, not an email address; where none is published the agent does not guess one. For a named person, UK GDPR says the first message gives the source of their details and their right to object.