Employee Cycle — 14.6x ROI
Employee Cycle booked 14+ meetings in a single month with 43 qualified responses, and the majority moved directly to product demos. The outreach had already done the selling before the first conversation — because messaging led with the problem (hours spent manually pulling reports from disconnected systems) instead of the feature (centralized HR dashboard). That flip produced a 3x improvement in response rates over feature-first messaging.Total Spend
$1,800
Revenue Generated
$28,000
ROI
14.6x
Meetings Booked
14+
Cost Per Meeting
$129
New MRR Added
$28,000
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Industry | SaaS |
| Company Size | 10-50 employees |
| Services Used | Email + AI Calling + LinkedIn |
| Duration | 1 month |
The Challenge
HR leaders are some of the hardest buyers to reach via cold outreach. Inboxes flooded with SaaS vendor pitches have conditioned them to ignore anything that sounds like another demo request. Standard SaaS pitch structures (“centralized HR dashboard”) blended into the noise. The real pain was HR leaders spending hours manually pulling reports from disconnected systems every time leadership asked a people question. Feature-first SaaS outreach that blended into the flood of vendor pitches HR leaders receive daily was producing no predictable pipeline. Before Outbound System:- Feature-first messaging lost in vendor noise
- HR leaders conditioned to ignore SaaS demo requests
- No problem-first messaging framework
- No multi-channel approach for hard-to-reach HR buyers
- 14+ meetings booked in a single month
- 43 qualified responses
- Majority of leads moving directly to product demos
- Problem-first messaging cutting through inbox noise at 3x the rate
The Solution
Six-source verified prospect lists targeted HR directors and VPs of People at mid-market companies (200-2,000 employees). Enterprise infrastructure (2 USA IPs, 100 Outlook inboxes) ensured deliverability into aggressive corporate filters. The standard SaaS pitch was flipped: lead with pain, not product.Cold Email
Led with the pain (hours spent manually pulling reports from disconnected systems) rather than features. Sequences positioned Employee Cycle with specific time-savings data from comparable companies. Problem-first outperformed feature-first by 3x in response rates.LinkedIn Outreach
Content-driven engagement sharing HR analytics insights and benchmarking data that demonstrated Employee Cycle’s expertise before ever asking for a meeting.AI Cold Calling
Direct touchpoint for high-priority accounts with brief scripts offering a 15-minute product walkthrough rather than a traditional sales call format — a lower barrier that matched the audience’s time constraints.Beyond the Meetings
- Market Intelligence: Problem-first messaging outperformed feature-first by 3x in response rates, providing Employee Cycle with positioning data applicable across their entire marketing strategy.
- Pipeline Insurance: Multi-channel broke through HR inbox noise that kills single-channel campaigns, with LinkedIn and calling reaching buyers who aggressively filter vendor emails.
- ICP Refinement: Companies with 200-500 employees showed the fastest demo-to-close cycles, indicating the sweet spot where HR data pain is acute but solutions haven’t been deployed.
- Demo-Ready Pipeline: The majority moved directly to demos — the outreach had already done the selling. Prospects arrived understanding the value before the first conversation.
Campaign Timeline
Week 1: Infrastructure and Messaging
Six-source verification of HR leaders at mid-market companies. Problem-first messaging developed. Enterprise infrastructure configured for corporate HR email filters.
Week 2: Campaign Launch
Email, LinkedIn, and calling launched simultaneously. First responses within 4 days. 43 replies pace established immediately.
Week 3: Pipeline Accelerating
Meetings accelerating. Leads moving directly to product demos without lengthy education cycles. LinkedIn building pre-meeting credibility.
Full Metrics Breakdown
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Spend with Outbound System | $1,800 |
| Campaign Duration | 1 month |
| Qualified Leads Generated | 43 |
| Cost Per Qualified Lead | $42 |
| Meetings / Calls Booked | 14 |
| Cost Per Booked Meeting | $129 |
| Show Up Rate | 88% |
| Revenue Generated (cash collected) | $28,000 |
| New MRR Added | $28,000 |
| ROAS (on cash collected) | 15.56x |
| Total ROI | 14.6x |
“The majority, if not all, of the leads we’ve gotten have scheduled demos with us.” — Bruce Marable, Co-Founder & CEO at Employee Cycle
Get Results Like Employee Cycle
Employee Cycle proved that problem-first messaging is the only way to reach HR leaders who’ve been conditioned to ignore SaaS pitches. If you’re a SaaS company selling to hard-to-reach enterprise buyers, flipping from feature-first to problem-first can produce a 3x improvement in response rates. See how our cold email service handles enterprise deliverability and our multi-channel outbound breaks through inbox noise.Book a Strategy Call
See how problem-first messaging and multi-channel outbound would work for your SaaS pipeline.