With a well-prepared program, outreach usually starts two to three weeks after kickoff, and the first qualified meetings typically follow within the first weeks of outreach. Steady, predictable performance usually takes around three months, as lists, messaging and qualification are refined from real conversations.
Weeks 1–2: setup
The first two weeks decide how fast everything else goes.
- Agree on the ideal customer profile: sectors, company size, regions, roles
- Write the messaging for each persona and language
- Build and verify the first account and contact lists
- Get access to your CRM and calendars, and agree on what a qualified meeting is
- If emails go out from a new domain, start warming it up — new sending domains need time before they can send at volume
Weeks 3–4: first conversations
Calls, emails and LinkedIn messages start. The first replies show which segments and messages work. Early meetings often come from the phone, because it doesn't depend on email deliverability.
Months 2–3: refining
With a few hundred conversations logged, the team can see which titles answer, which objections come up and which messages get replies. Lists are adjusted, weak segments are dropped and qualification gets sharper. This is when meeting volume usually becomes steady.
Month 3 and beyond: a predictable pipeline
By now you should see a consistent number of qualified meetings each month, a stable show rate, and opportunities created from those meetings. That's the moment to decide whether to add SDRs, languages or markets.
What speeds things up
- A clear ideal customer profile and examples of your best customers
- Fast feedback on the first meetings: were they the right people?
- Existing assets: customer stories, a short pitch deck, answers to common objections
- Calendar access, so meetings are booked without back-and-forth
What slows things down
- Long approval loops on messaging
- No access to the CRM, or no agreement on what counts as qualified
- A brand-new sending domain with no warm-up
- A target market that is too broad, or too small to sustain outreach
What to measure in the first 90 days
- Activity: calls, emails and LinkedIn touches per week
- Reply rate and positive reply rate, per segment
- Qualified meetings booked and held
- Show rate
- Meetings that turn into opportunities
In the first month, judge the program on learning. From the third month, judge it on pipeline.
Planning a launch? Talk to our team about your timeline.
Written by
Pratura team
Our SDR, customer experience and RevOps teams share what works on the floor — in Canada, France, Belgium and beyond.
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