Onboarding — First 7-14 Days
Outbound System takes new clients from signed contract to live cold email campaigns in 7-14 days. The process runs in four parallel workstreams — ICP definition, infrastructure build, copy creation, and list building — so nothing waits on anything else. Most clients see their first positive replies within the first week of sending, and first qualified meetings by day 14-30.What Happens During Onboarding
The 7-14 day onboarding timeline is designed to eliminate the 2-3 month ramp that in-house SDR teams typically require. Every step below runs on a fixed schedule with clear ownership — you’ll always know what your team handles versus what Outbound System delivers.Day 1: Kickoff Call and ICP Deep-Dive
A 60-minute strategy session with your dedicated account strategist. You’ll walk through your ideal customer profile, competitive landscape, value propositions, and common objections. The strategist uses a structured discovery framework covering target titles, company size, industry verticals, geographic focus, and buying signals. This call replaces the weeks of tribal knowledge transfer that typically delays in-house SDR ramp-up. Come prepared with your best current customers — the team reverse-engineers what makes them a fit.
Days 2-3: Infrastructure Provisioning and Lead List Building
Two workstreams launch simultaneously. The technical team provisions your dedicated sending infrastructure: separate cold outreach domains (never your primary domain), Microsoft email inboxes on U.S. IP addresses, and full email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). The Growth plan includes 350 warmed Microsoft inboxes; the Scale plan includes 700. All infrastructure is private — not shared pools — which is why Outbound System maintains 98% inbox placement rates versus the 45% industry average. Domain warm-up begins immediately with automated engagement signals.In parallel, the data team builds your first prospect lists using a 9-step waterfall enrichment process. This includes syntax validation, SMTP verification, bounce data analysis, engagement signal checks, and spam trap filtering. The result: virtually zero hard bounces and no spam traps from day one. The Growth plan delivers 5,000 verified leads per month; Scale delivers 10,000. Lists are built to your exact ICP specifications from the kickoff call — filtered by title, industry, company size, geography, and buying signals identified through six-source verification.
Days 3-4: Copy Creation
Professional copywriters draft your cold email sequences — not templates, but custom messaging built around your specific value propositions and the pain points identified during the ICP deep-dive. Each sequence includes an initial email plus 3-4 follow-ups with different angles. The copy combines human writing with AI-powered personalization that references each prospect’s company, role, and situation. This approach produces 2.8x higher response rates than generic templates. You receive drafts for review and approval before anything sends.
Days 4-5: Copy Review and Approval
You review all email sequences, suggest edits, and approve final versions. The account strategist incorporates your feedback and ensures messaging accuracy — correct terminology, accurate claims, and proper brand voice. Most clients complete this in 1-2 rounds. The strategist also sets up A/B test variants so the campaign launches with multiple angles from day one, generating data on what resonates fastest.
Days 5-7: Campaign Staging and Early Launch
Infrastructure warm-up continues scaling — starting at 5 emails per inbox per day and ramping to 20+ by this phase. The warm-up network generates real opens, replies, and positive engagement signals that build sender reputation faster than manual approaches. The team loads approved sequences, maps lead lists to campaigns, configures sending schedules with natural timing patterns, and sets up your unified inbox. Clients with fast copy turnaround can see first sends begin as early as day 7.
Days 7-14: Full Campaign Launch and First Sends
Live cold emails reach prospects. Initial volume starts conservative — matching the warm-up ramp — then scales over the first week of sending. Real-time monitoring tracks deliverability, open rates, and reply rates from the first send. Your account strategist watches every metric and adjusts in real time. You get dashboard access to see every email, every reply, and every metric as it happens.
First qualified meetings typically arrive between day 14-30. Campaigns launched on this timeline reach full sending volume within 2-3 weeks of contract signing, with optimization cycles compounding results every week after that.
What You Provide vs. What the Team Handles
Clear ownership eliminates bottlenecks. Here’s the split:| Responsibility | You Handle | Outbound System Handles |
|---|---|---|
| ICP Definition | Attend kickoff call, share best-fit customer examples | Structure the ICP framework, research competitors and market |
| Infrastructure | Nothing | Domain procurement, inbox setup, authentication, warm-up |
| Lead Lists | Approve target criteria | 9-step verification, list building, ongoing enrichment |
| Copy | Review and approve drafts (1-2 rounds) | Write all sequences, A/B variants, follow-up angles |
| Technical Setup | Nothing | Sending tool config, CRM integration, unified inbox |
| Campaign Management | Close deals when meetings book | Daily monitoring, weekly optimization, deliverability management |
Infrastructure Setup in Detail
The technical foundation determines whether your emails reach primary inboxes or spam folders. Outbound System’s infrastructure setup follows enterprise-grade standards that most in-house teams take months to replicate. Dedicated domains are registered separately from your primary business domain — typically using alternate TLDs (.io, .co, .net) or word variations. This protects your main domain’s reputation entirely. If a cold domain ever encounters issues, your normal business email remains unaffected. Microsoft inboxes on U.S. IP addresses provide consistent sender reputation. The Growth plan’s 350 inboxes and the Scale plan’s 700 inboxes distribute sending volume across enough accounts that no single inbox exceeds safe daily limits. Each inbox sends a controlled volume — keeping individual account reputation high while achieving aggregate scale. Full authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is configured on every domain before a single email sends. This is table stakes for deliverability, but many DIY setups miss one or more records, immediately flagging their emails as suspicious. MX-based routing and natural sending patterns mimic human behavior — varying send times, spacing between emails, and engagement patterns. This prevents the robotic sending signatures that trigger spam filters.ICP Definition Process
The kickoff call isn’t a casual chat — it’s a structured extraction of the targeting parameters that determine campaign success. The account strategist covers: Firmographic filters: Company size (employee count and revenue), industry verticals, geographic territories, and technology stack where relevant. These map directly to data filters used in list building. Persona mapping: Exact titles and seniority levels of decision-makers and influencers in the buying process. A campaign targeting CTOs requires fundamentally different messaging than one targeting procurement directors, even at the same companies. Pain point hierarchy: The 2-3 problems your solution solves, ranked by urgency and frequency. The copy team uses this to lead with the pain point most likely to get a response, not the feature you’re most proud of. Competitive context: Who your prospects currently use or consider, and what makes your approach different. This feeds directly into email angles that position against alternatives without sounding defensive. Proof points: Case studies, metrics, and client names you can reference. Emails with specific results (“42 qualified responses monthly for a client in your space”) dramatically outperform vague claims.Copy Creation and Approval Workflow
Email sequences are the single highest-leverage element of your campaign. The copy workflow ensures quality without dragging timelines. The copywriting team drafts sequences after the kickoff call, using the ICP framework as their brief. Each sequence follows proven structures from data across 52M+ cold emails sent for 1,000+ B2B clients — but the content is entirely custom to your business. You receive drafts via your account strategist with specific guidance on what to review: factual accuracy, terminology, and any claims that need adjustment. The strategist isn’t looking for you to rewrite — they need you to confirm the message is truthful and sounds like it could come from your team.When to Expect First Results
The 7-14 day onboarding gets campaigns live. Results follow a predictable curve: Days 7-14: First emails land in prospect inboxes. Early opens and clicks confirm deliverability. Initial replies — both positive interest and “not now” responses — begin appearing in your unified inbox. Days 14-30: First qualified meetings book. The account strategist monitors which angles, titles, and industries generate the strongest response and begins optimizing. One client reported 9 leads and 5 CRM-worthy deals in their first week of sending. Days 30-60: Campaigns hit full volume and the weekly optimization cycle takes hold. New angles tested, targeting tightened, underperformers cut. Expect response rates to climb as the team dials in messaging. Clients running for 6+ months consistently report compounding results — the warm database grows monthly, and pipeline builds without adding headcount. Months 3+: Mature campaigns produce predictable, repeatable pipeline. Multiple case studies show 15-20+ meetings per month at this stage, with some clients generating 42-52 qualified responses monthly.For context: an in-house SDR hire typically takes 2-3 months just to ramp to consistent performance. Outbound System’s 7-14 day onboarding means your outbound engine is producing while a new hire would still be in training.
After Onboarding: Ongoing Optimization
Onboarding ends at day 14, but the real compounding starts with weekly optimization cycles. Every week, the account strategist analyzes campaign data: open rates, reply rates, positive response rates, and meeting conversion rates. Based on this data, the team tests new subject lines, adjusts targeting criteria, cuts underperforming segments, and doubles down on what works. This constant iteration is what separates managed outbound from set-and-forget tools. As one client put it after 8 months: the service “worked without a glitch and consistently delivered leads every day.” Your account strategist becomes a consistent point of contact who knows your business — clients regularly note that having the same person managing their campaigns means never having to re-explain their business or market.Ready to Launch Your Outbound Pipeline?
The 7-14 day onboarding means you’re as little as one week away from a live cold email engine generating qualified meetings. No infrastructure to build, no tools to learn, no SDRs to hire and train. Book a free consultation to get your custom growth plan — including ICP mapping, projected meeting volumes, and a walkthrough of exactly how your onboarding would work.Cold Email Service Details
See everything included in managed cold email campaigns — infrastructure, copy, leads, and deliverability management.
Cold Email Agency vs. In-House SDR
Compare the cost, speed, and performance of outsourced outbound against building an internal team.
Case Studies and Client Results
Real metrics from 50+ B2B companies — meetings booked, pipeline generated, and revenue closed.
How long does onboarding actually take before emails start sending?
How long does onboarding actually take before emails start sending?
Seven to fourteen days from signed contract to first live sends. The process runs four parallel workstreams — infrastructure, lead lists, copy, and warm-up — simultaneously rather than sequentially. The biggest variable is client copy review speed. Clients who return feedback within 24 hours can see campaigns live as early as day 7. Most are fully launched by day 14.
How much of my time does onboarding require?
How much of my time does onboarding require?
Approximately 3-4 hours total. That breaks down to a 60-minute kickoff call, 1-2 hours reviewing and approving email copy drafts, and about 30 minutes on final approvals. The Outbound System team handles everything else — infrastructure provisioning, domain setup, list building, warm-up, and technical configuration require zero effort from your side.
When should I expect my first meetings to book?
When should I expect my first meetings to book?
First qualified meetings typically arrive between day 14 and day 30 after contract signing. Campaigns need roughly one week of live sending to generate enough replies for meetings to start converting. Some clients see results faster — one reported 9 leads in their first week — but day 14-30 is the reliable benchmark across hundreds of onboardings.
What happens if I don't like the email copy your team writes?
What happens if I don't like the email copy your team writes?
You have full approval authority over every email before it sends. Most clients finalize copy in 1-2 revision rounds. The account strategist incorporates your feedback on tone, terminology, and claims, then delivers updated drafts. The team writes based on the structured ICP deep-dive from your kickoff call, so first drafts are typically close to final — but you’re never locked into messaging you haven’t approved.
Do I need to provide any tools, software, or technical setup?
Do I need to provide any tools, software, or technical setup?
No. Outbound System provides the entire technical stack: sending domains, email inboxes, warm-up infrastructure, sending software, lead data, and a unified inbox for managing replies. The only integration that may require your involvement is CRM connection, and the team handles that setup — you just provide access credentials.
What if I need to add channels like LinkedIn or cold calling later?
What if I need to add channels like LinkedIn or cold calling later?
Additional channels can be layered on after your cold email campaigns are running. LinkedIn outreach follows a similar 4-step onboarding: target prospects via Sales Navigator, write personalized messaging sequences, execute daily outreach and follow-ups, and notify you when meetings book. Cold calling adds SDR recruiting, lead list building, script writing, and training — typically live within 2-3 weeks. Clients running all three channels see 2-3x the meetings compared to email alone.
Is there a long-term contract or can I cancel after onboarding?
Is there a long-term contract or can I cancel after onboarding?
All plans are month-to-month with no long-term contracts. The Growth plan starts at 999/month, both with a $1,500 setup fee. You can scale up, scale down, or pause as your business needs change. That said, campaigns typically need 2-3 months to reach full optimization — clients who commit to at least that window see the strongest compounding results.