50% Open Rates. 200% More Replies. Accounts Cracked in Days for Orlo

The Challenge 

Oonagh was building an SDR team in a business shifting toward a vertically-focused public sector go-to-market - local gov, NHS, housing, emergency services and central government. 

The team had no prospecting foundation, were phone-shy, and over-reliant on email. The numbers reflected it: open rates at 2-12%, reply rates even lower, and key target accounts remaining uncracked.

Public sector prospecting added its own layer of difficulty - contacts are hard to find, job titles vary wildly, and LinkedIn activity is inconsistent across organisations.

“Our open rates were shockingly low - only 1%! Scott’s initial insights on deliverability helped us realise we had an issue here and got them up to 50%+”

The Solution 

We ran a focused session in-person across email and cold calling.

On email, the work started before the session. A 2-12% open rate pointed to a deliverability problem, not just a copy problem - so we fixed the foundations first. Two live emails from the team's sequences were then rewritten ahead of the session and pulled apart line by line. "He broke down examples from the team beforehand which meant the learnings really resonated."

On cold calling, the focus was mindset before mechanics. We stripped the pressure of needing every call to produce a meeting and reframed success around one small win per call - one piece of information, one warm handoff, one discovery.

“Scott’s effort & attention to detail in the build up to the session ensured we were really aligned on what was most important”

“The session Scott ran was so impactful! He broke down examples from the team beforehand which meant the learnings really resonated with the team”

The Impact 

Open rates went from 2% to 50%+. "Scott's initial insights on deliverability helped us realise we had an issue here and got them up to 50%+."

Reply rates increased by 200%. In the days after the session, the team were booking meetings with accounts they'd been unable to crack for months with a Head of Digital in a Key Account.

"The outcomes speak for themselves!" - Oonagh - Sales Director