How Skillful.ly Closed $300K and Generated $6M+ in Pipeline

The Situation

Skillful.ly is a hiring platform that helps companies assess candidates using real-world simulations instead of resumes.

When they came to us, they were:

spending $10,000/month on an outbound vendor
running cold email + cold calling with poor results
booking very few meetings
talking to the wrong people
operating with just a VP of Sales and no real GTM system

They needed pipeline — but more importantly, they needed proof that outbound could work for their product.

Phase 1: Proving Outbound Could Work (Fast)

We started with a LinkedIn-only proof of concept to demonstrate what modern, signal-driven prospecting could do. Using AI-powered data tools (Clay), we:

targeted companies actively hiring
personalised messaging based on the roles being hired for
tied each message directly to how Skillful.ly helps assess those candidates

Almost immediately, response quality improved: more positive replies, clearer pain recognition, real buying conversations. That was enough for Skillful.ly to cut spend with their previous vendor and go all in.

Slack message from Sam Basile: first call with prospect with 300k applicants and $600k+ opportunity — Early signal: a single sourced prospect representing a $600k+ opportunity.

Phase 2: Scaling Outbound While Refining ICP

Skillful.ly only had one strong case study at the time — so we leaned into it. We built lookalike audiences around that case study and ran campaigns framed around:

“Want me to walk you through how [X company] achieved these results?”

This worked well, but volume was still capped. So we moved into ICP discovery: recruiters at agencies, internal recruiters, fast-growing tech companies with funding, and teams hiring at scale. Each segment got specific messaging based on role, industry, and hiring pain.

To support this, we expanded email infrastructure, scaled sending volume to ~150,000 emails/month, and layered in LinkedIn signal-based campaigns (competitor followers, engagement scraping).

Slack message from Sam Basile: 5 booked meetings in one day — Best day yet: 5 booked meetings from cold email in a single day.

Instantly dashboard showing 422k emails sent, 278 interested leads — 422,469 emails sent across 120 days — 278 interested leads at 8.34% interest rate.

Phase 3: Capturing and Converting Demand

As interest increased, we focused on conversion and efficiency, not just volume. We helped Skillful.ly:

contact high-intent website visitors
follow up with form fills automatically
reactivate stale leads via newsletter-style sequences
re-engage event attendees (e.g. HRTech)

To improve booking rates, we added a warm-calling SDR to follow up on interested leads — doubling booking rates from ~20% to ~40%. We also enriched CRM records so reps had full context pre-call, implemented pre-call summaries, and cleaned up CRM logic, no-show sequences, and routing.

Outcome

$6M+ in pipeline generated
$300K closed revenue
278 qualified leads
114 meetings booked
13–40 meetings/month consistently

Most importantly, outbound went from “doesn’t work” to predictable, ICP became clearer over time, and sales conversations improved in quality, not just quantity.

The Results

Metric	Before	After
Pipeline Generated	Sporadic, untracked	$6M+
Closed Revenue	Minimal	$300K
Meetings Booked	Few, wrong people	114 (13-40/month)
Booking Rate	~20%	~40% with warm calling
Qualified Leads	Untracked	278

Key Learnings

Kill the Vendor First

A LinkedIn-only proof of concept outperformed the $10k/month agency in week one.

One Case Study Is Enough

Lookalike targeting with a "want me to walk you through it?" frame scaled pipeline from a single reference.

Warm Calling Compounds

Adding an SDR with enriched data and pre-call context doubled booking rates overnight.

Reactivate Before You Prospect

Stale leads, event attendees, and website visitors converted faster than cold lists.