The Challenge
Denniz was generating sign-ups through cold calling and Meta ads, but he hit a ceiling. The leads weren't good enough - mostly individual users, not the high-value sales teams he needed.
His goal was clear: land entire organizations that would spend more in a month than 100 solo users would in a year. He needed a smarter way to find and qualify decision-makers.
The Strategy
Denniz built a three-part system with Sendpilot:
1. Find Competitor Users on LinkedIn
Denniz knew Apollo.io users often shared pain points his product could solve. So he went straight to the source: LinkedIn posts about Apollo.
He used boolean search to find high-engagement posts:
- Search string:
("apollo" "connect with me") - Result: Posts where people actively discussed Apollo
2. Scrape Post Engagement
Using Sendpilot's Lead Extraction, Denniz scraped everyone who engaged with those posts—likes, comments, shares. This gave him a pool of warm leads who were already in the market for lead database solutions.
3. Filter with ICP Scoring
Not everyone who likes a post is a buyer. Denniz used Sendpilot's ICP scoring to automatically qualify leads before reaching out.
His ICP criteria: "CROs, CSOs, VPs of Sales, and Sales Directors responsible for driving revenue and go-to-market strategy at companies with a minimum of 10 employees”
ICP cutoff score: 80%
Only leads scoring 80% or higher would receive outreach. Everyone else was automatically filtered out.
4. Simple 3-Step Outreach
His sequence was dead simple:
- ICP Score the lead
- If ≥80% → Send connection request
- If accepted → Send this message:
Hey [Name], I’ve built a tool for teams that use Apollo/Zoominfo. It enriches data in real-time so you don't get outdated information or contact data. It also makes it 10x cheaper. Can I tell you more?
The reason it worked:
Zoominfo and Apollo are industry leaders with loyal users. Positioning A-leads as a competitor would trigger resistance. Instead, Denniz framed it as "a tool built for their users." This approach opened doors—once prospects heard the details, they often switched.
The Results
From one campaign targeting competitor engagement:
- 4,100 connection requests sent
- 2,170 accepted (53% acceptance rate)
- 410 replies (19% reply rate)
- 150 positive replies interested in learning more
It’s unclear how many of those 150 positive replies ultimately became paying customers, as the sales cycles often stretch to 3-6 months.
But Denniz says they’ve signed at least 5 of them on $10,000+ annual contracts.
In Denniz's Words
"The simplicity, the focus on LinkedIn growth. It's not just a tool like Heyreach. It focuses on content and also outreach. It's very easy to implement. The customer support is great and I use it quite a bit. Also very easy to integrate to other tools."
— Denniz Ozden, CEO of A-leads
Key takeaways for readers:
- Target competitor users where they're already active and engaged
- Use ICP scoring to filter out unqualified leads before you spend time on outreach
- Keep your message simple and focused on solving a specific pain point
Want to replicate Denniz’s results? Try Sendpilot free here.
