Case Study at a Glance
The Challenge
Drive more organizational leads—not just individual interest—for leadership development services in new industry sectors.
The Solution
A sales funnel campaign paired with behavioral automation and LinkedIn outreach to re-engage highly interested—but non-converting—prospects.
The Results
✔ Warmed a previously cold contact into a proposal-stage opportunity
✔ Identified a high-potential lead in a new vertical
✔ Enabled sales rep to tailor pitch to top engagement topics
✔ Demonstrated value of leveraging email engagement beyond direct clicks
Client Background and Challenges
APA Solutions provides leadership development programs for both individuals and organizations. While individual leaders often seek out their services, APA Solutions wanted to grow their organizational partnerships—particularly in new verticals.
Marketing leadership development services has always been a challenge: it’s high-value, but not always urgent. Despite solid email engagement, APA wasn’t seeing direct conversions from early campaign efforts. The goal: get in front of the right decision-makers—where they are, not just through the inbox.
The Solution
Email + Sales Funnel Strategy
APA Solutions ran a targeted sales funnel campaign to promote organizational leadership development. While direct clicks and form fills were low, email open rates were strong, signaling interest without action.
Rather than wait for prospects to raise their hand, the team shifted gears to activate new touch points for those engaging with content.
Behavioral Triggers + LinkedIn Automation
To capitalize on strong opens and engagement, we implemented a LinkedIn connection automation:
- When a contact opened multiple emails, they were automatically sent a LinkedIn connection request
- This passive re-engagement strategy met prospects where they were most responsive
Key Outcome:
One prospect, sourced from Apollo and previously unknown to the client, responded directly on LinkedIn asking to “learn more about your leadership development solutions.”
This lead:
- Came from a completely new industry sector
- Scheduled a meeting the following Monday
- Is now in proposal stage—a significant opportunity for APA to expand into a new vertical
Sales Intelligence for Smarter Conversations
Our team also equipped the APA sales rep with insight into the content that prospect engaged with most:
- The lead clicked on emails related to employee disengagement and leadership development challenges
- They did not engage with emails focused on talent retention
Armed with this data, the sales rep tailored her pitch to match prospect interest—focusing only on the most resonant pain points.
The Results
- A completely cold contact moved into the proposal stage
- Lead came from a target industry APA is actively trying to grow
- Email engagement + LinkedIn automation proved to be a powerful one-two punch
- Sales call was highly targeted thanks to behavioral insights from email topics
Want to Turn Email Engagement into Real Conversations?
Sales funnels don’t end in the inbox. Let’s talk about how to combine email + LinkedIn + data to help your sales team connect with the right prospects—at the right time.
