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How I Built a 6-Figure Outbound Funnel Using AI and £0 in Ad Spend

Picture of Ian Spencer By  Ian Spencer  ·  4 minute read

Let’s start with a truth most founders don’t want to admit.

Your sales problem isn’t sales. It’s focus.

Not the “I work 14-hour days” kind of focus.


The kind of focus that forces you to admit: We can’t sell to everyone. We’re not ready. And most of our messaging is guesswork.

This is where most early-stage B2B companies fail before they’ve even started selling.

They launch campaigns without conviction, targeting five verticals at once, burning through tools, outreach scripts, and optimism — and eventually conclude that “outbound doesn’t work for us.”

It does. You’re just doing it backwards.

The Setup: 303 Companies, 1 Funnel, 290 Meetings

I’ve worked with dozens of founders over the years. One of the most effective results came from a RetailTech company with a lean team and a finite window to prove traction.

We started with a list of 303 target companies. That’s it.

No ads. No SDRs. No email lists bought from dodgy databases.

We closed over £4 million in ARR and generated a pipeline worth >£30 million over two years — entirely through outbound.

And while I’d love to say there was a magic trick involved, there wasn’t.
Just clarity, consistency, and some help from AI.

The Three Reasons Most Outbound Fails

Before I get into the stack or process, let me break down what outbound isn’t:

1. Outbound isn’t about numbers.

Spraying 1,000 cold messages a week doesn’t make you strategic — it makes you noisy.

2. Outbound isn’t a task for junior hires.

You’re asking someone with zero product context and no commercial insight to spark high-stakes B2B conversations? That’s not outreach. That’s hoping.

3. Outbound doesn’t work without positioning.

If you can’t tell me in one sentence:

“We help [specific role] at [specific company type] solve [high-cost pain point] using [evidence-backed solution]”
... then your outbound won't work — AI or not.

That’s where I start with every client at Revnuu. You don’t need a full RevOps overhaul. You need clarity and execution tied together in a way that can run on its own.

AI Doesn’t Solve Outbound. It Supercharges What Works.

The biggest mistake I see right now?

Founders thinking ChatGPT will write their sales messages, build their strategy, and book their meetings — all while they sip coffee.

Here’s the reality:

  • AI amplifies signal. If you feed it rubbish, it’ll just scale your noise.

  • AI increases test velocity. That means you can test 5 variations of your positioning in a week, not a quarter.

  • AI saves your team from grunt work. You should never again manually write 100 variations of a cold intro. GPT can do that with the right framing.

But none of it works unless your targeting, logic, and customer insight are dialled in.

The Actual Stack I Use (and Still Recommend)

Let’s be practical.

Founders don’t need another list of 30 AI tools they’ll never use.

They need a focused, lean tech stack that supports clarity and velocity.

Here’s the exact setup I’ve used across multiple projects, including the RetailTech success story.

1. Target List Management → Airtable

Simple, clean, filterable. Build your target list by:

  • Industry

  • Headcount

  • Website tech (via BuiltWith, optional)

  • Buying signals (hiring, expansion, funding)

  • ICP Fit Score (manual or logic-based)

2. Message Generation → ChatGPT or Claude

But only after you’ve written the base message yourself.

Use GPT to generate:

  • Variants by persona

  • Subject lines

  • Tone changes (formal, challenger, friendly)

  • Follow-ups with fresh value

Prompt structure matters more than tone tweaking. I use a prompt structure that reflects internal language, emotional pain, and what’s at risk if nothing changes.

3. Workflow Automation → n8n, Make.com or Zapier

Trigger-based automations to:

  • Send sequences via email tools (like Instantly or Lemlist)

  • Add leads to CRM

  • Track opens, replies, meetings

  • Log campaign-level performance

Don’t overcomplicate it. Start small: new ICP-fit lead triggers message generation → send → wait → follow-up → stop or re-score.

4. Delivery → LinkedIn + Cold Email (use phone to sniper)

I never rely on one channel alone.
LinkedIn warms the contact. Email starts the convo.
Both support each other.

With the right workflows, you can:

  • Visit a profile → trigger a connection request → follow-up with relevance

  • Send multi-step emails spaced over 7–10 days

  • Lead score + phone follow-up the most engaged

  • Measure real engagement (not vanity metrics)

Results You Can Expect (If You Do It Right)

When founders finally stop treating outbound as a side project and start treating it like a system, a few things happen quickly:

  • You stop chasing broad metrics and start tracking conversion points

  • You stop writing vague messages and start speaking buyer language

  • You stop “guessing and hoping” and start iterating with data

A well-built AI-assisted outbound system will:

✅ Give you predictable activity
✅ Help you test positioning fast
✅ Shorten sales cycles
✅ Avoid unnecessary hires
✅ Build a focused, high-fit pipeline

But only if you respect the process.

And Yes, This Works for Lean Teams

Let’s be real — most startup teams aren’t sitting on a room full of SDRs and marketers.
You’ve got two co-founders, a product roadmap, and just enough burn left to make things happen.

That’s the whole point.

This system isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s your advantage.

Most of your competitors are wasting budget on ads they can’t track or cold email sequences that never get opened.

If you can build a lean, high-fit outbound motion that scales with you — powered by AI and designed around your actual buyers — you don’t need to outspend.
You’ll just outperform.

Final Thought: AI Is Not a Hack. It’s a Mirror.

I’ll leave you with this.

If your outbound strategy lacks clarity, AI will expose it.
If your messaging lacks truth, AI will scale that weakness.

But if you’ve done the work — really nailed your ICP, your value, your buyer pain, your evidence — AI will become your most powerful growth partner.

It’s not about replacing humans.
It’s about augmenting the ones who are focused, aligned, and ready to execute.

So the question is:
Are you building a growth engine, or just sending messages?