u/Federal_Bit6400

Wasn't planning to write about it but a few people have asked so here's what actually happened.

I run outreach for a handful of clients. Things were working fine on HeyReach until I started scaling past a certain number of accounts. 

Not breaking exactly i would say, just getting hard to handle. Replies that were coming in across 8-10 accounts had no way to manage them without logging in everywhere and manually staying on top of every thread. 

I'd have a warm lead reply and by the time I got back to them two days later the conversation was cold.

That was the real problem for me.

I looked at the numbers one month and realized I was probably losing 30 to 40% of interested replies just to slow follow ups. 

The other thing was voice notes. A few people in communities I'm in were getting noticeably better reply rates using them. HeyReach doesn't have this. I wanted to test it properly.

So I switched.

The Clay thing is real and I'll say it upfront. HeyReach has native Clay integration. SalesRobot doesn't (they apparently tried and it didn't work out). If Clay is central to how you build lists this genuinely matters and I won't pretend otherwise. I use Clay but it's not the whole workflow so I could live with it.

3 months in, the inbox management is the thing that actually changed my day. There's an AI  that drafts replies for you to approve. I run it in copilot mode, spend maybe 15-20 minutes a day reviewing and sending. 

The slow follow-up problem has basically disappeared from my life.

Voice notes took a campaign or two to figure out but the reply rates are higher on accounts where I use them.

The ban rate is fine. Zero issues across all accounts. 

Reply rates are roughly where they were on HeyReach, maybe slightly better.

Overall, good tool if you are looking at using AI to manage your LinkedIn replies.

I sell ignition interlock devices, basically breathalyzers wired into vehicles so people can't drive drunk. Customers are transport companies, construction firms, fleet managers. It’s a niche product that we sell exclusively in the Netherlands.

I didn't think LinkedIn outreach would work for me, but it did.

A recent campaign got 19% acceptance and 61% reply rate. My whole strategy was to not ask for anything.

Connection request was just a qualifying question: "I saw you work in transport, is it still true you're in this industry?"

The reason for this is people change jobs and don't update LinkedIn. Filters them out before they accept and then the message lands on someone who's been in a different industry for two years.

First message after connecting had no pitch at all. I asked if they knew anyone in their network who might want a free trial.

What usually happens is they say they don't personally know anyone but they'll point me to a specific company or give me a name. Now I can reach out to that company and say so-and-so suggested I contact you. 

That's a completely different conversation than cold. Even when they say no they don't know anyone, we've already had an exchange. It's not a complete dead end.

Sequence was 3 follow-ups after that. 2nd message was a shorter version of the same ask, 2 days later. Third added a line about alcohol-related incidents in fleets, 3 days after. Breakup message 7 days after that.

I’m using SalesRobot for this right now. Switched from a Chrome extension tool a while ago.

Two things I want to test next: stretching follow-up intervals to 5-7 days because every 3 days felt like a lot. 

And a re-engagement message 1-2 months later to the 40% who never replied. That's still 400 people per 1,000 who might just have been busy.

The thing I'd tell anyone starting this: respond fast when someone replies. I lost a few good conversations just by coming back 5-6 days late. The reply rate is only half of it.