r/UseApolloIo

ok so im gonna rant for a sec but theres actual advice in here if you stick with me. been doing b2b on linkedin since 2019 and at this point like 9 out of 10 things sold as "linkedin strategy" in 2026 actively makes you worse at this. its kinda insane.

for credibility or whatever — i run sales at a mid 7 fig b2b services thing, do my own outbound + work with 2 SDRs. last year we did 70-75% of pipeline through linkedin. this year its more like 30% but the absolute number is bigger, we just diversified. so im not theorizing from a chair.

the DM thing

cold DMs on linkedin in 2026 are basically email circa 2024 minus the deliverability tooling. connection-to-DM conversion is in the gutter, every DM opens with "saw your post about X" and nobody believes its real anymore because linkedin's own AI assistant literally suggests that exact opener when you start typing. like youve been trained by the platform to write what gets ignored by the platform. funny.

actual numbers from one of our test campaigns in march:

• 800 connection requests sent (manual, paced, no tools)
• 217 accepted (27%, ok fine)
• 198 follow up DMs
• 14 replies
• 9 of those were "please stop" or some variation
• 5 actually interested
• 2 calls booked

so 5 interested convos out of 800 attempts. 0.6%. and thats us actually trying. in 2022 the exact same playbook pulled 4-5%. channel got farmed, nobody warmed it back up, here we are

the tools are basically all dead now too

dux soup, expandi, phantombuster, half of the linkedin automation industry got vaporized between mid 2024 and early 2025 when linkedin started doing real device fingerprinting + behavioral detection. you can still find people on twitter selling "safe automation" but id rather not gamble my account. lost an account in 2023 with 8k connections on it, never doing that again, that one still hurts honestly.

paid stuff that still kinda works in 2026: sales nav (price went up AGAIN btw, advanced is $149/mo now, what are we doing), some chrome extensions if you only do like 20 actions a day instead of 200, taplio's fine for posting but the engagement boost feature is dead. thats kinda it.

what actually works now

ok going to be real, the stuff that works in 2026 requires you to actually exist as a person on linkedin. theres no shortcut anymore and im sorry. but the people doing it are eating extremely well.

1. comments > DMs by alot. the highest leverage thing you can do on linkedin in 2026 is comment on the right 30-50 peoples posts every day. not "great post!" — like actual substantive takes that add to or push back on what they said. you become visible to their whole audience without sending a single DM. half my inbound this year started with someone seeing me in the comments of someone they followed.
2. post in conversations, not monologues. the "founder advice carousel" era is dead. the "story → lesson → bullets → CTA" template is so worn out its almost satire. what works in 2026: short, opinionated, sometimes wrong takes that invite people to argue. i posted something in feb that said "most b2b 'positioning' work is consultants charging founders $40k to say the same 3 things back to them" — 400+ comments, half mad, half agreeing, 2 of the mad ones became clients. controversy isnt a strategy but having an actual opinion is.
3. connection requests, no note. yes really. notes get scanned for spam patterns now and no-note requests have like 2x the accept rate. once they accept, wait at least a week before you message, and your first message shouldnt pitch ANYTHING. not even "got a min to chat" — just engage with something they posted. if your not willing to do that dont connect.
4. stop using sales nav for prospecting, use it for research. find prospects in the COMMENTS of your ideal customers posts. those people are warm, they self selected, they care about the same stuff. the boolean filter game is dead because everyone has the same data and is messaging the same 4000 people on it.
5. voice notes are over. people figured out its a gimmick, in 2026 a voice note reads as desperate. dont.
6. video DMs work but only under 30 sec and only if they look like garbage. polished video reads as marketing. you in the car between meetings holding the phone weird reads as a real person. the iphone-in-landscape-with-a-tripod setup is dead to. just hold the thing.
7. linkedin newsletters are mid. huge hype 2023-24, fell off fast. open rates bad and getting worse. fine as a side thing not as your strategy.

the part nobody really wants to say out loud

linkedin outreach as a channel is late stage. it works but works less every quarter and costs more every quarter (time, attention, premium fees, whatever). people pretending its 2021 are losing money and dont know it yet. the channel will still exist in 5 years but the asymmetric edge is mostly gone.

if your starting from zero in 2026 i honestly wouldnt make linkedin your main channel. its fine as channel 2 or 3 behind something where you actually own distribution.

im still on linkedin like 90 min a day because the people i need are there and the relationships compound. but if you told 2021 me how fast this edge would erode i wouldve built less of the business on it. lessons i guess

ok rant over, ask whatever in comments ill try get to em tonight after dinner

Hey folks, John Barrows here. I have spent the last 20+ years training sales teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Google on how to prospect the right way.

I'll be here live from 11AM to 1PM EST. Ask me anything.

• What "sales-ready messaging" means and why most companies get it wrong before they ever touch a tool
• Whether AI is going to replace SDRs (it's not, but it will replace the ones who don't adapt)
• What a high-quality, no-spray-and-pray prospecting workflow actually looks like in practice
• How he's actually using the Apollo MCP connector inside Claude for my daily prospecting routine

Drop your questions now or come back at 11AM. I'll be answering from u/JohnMBarrows.

Update 1: WE ARE LIVE!! Ask away!!

Update 2: THANKS EVERYONE! Great questions. You can keep up with John on LinkedIn here.

https://preview.redd.it/6xqeqb0pn32h1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3f65256cc7872bce9f8e6027205d2b509df1b0f

so this happened about 6 weeks ago and im still kind of in shock about it. wanted to share because I think theres a lesson in here somewhere even if I cant figure out exactly what it is.

we were prospecting into this mid market fintech. maybe 400 employees. ideal customer for us in every way. I had been trying to get in for like 4 months at this point and getting nowhere. tried the CFO, tried the VP of ops, tried the head of finance, nothing. crickets.

so I did something dumb. I built a sequence that hit 14 different people at the company in the same week. different angles, different value props, the whole thing. I thought I was being clever by "surrounding" the buying committee.

reader. I was not being clever.

what I didnt realize is that 3 of those 14 people sit in the same slack channel and they started comparing emails. then one of them forwarded the whole thread to their IT team. then their IT team blocked our entire domain at the gateway level. not just my email. the ENTIRE domain. our CEOs emails wouldnt even land there anymore.

I found out when my coworker tried to send a contract to a totally different client at the same parent company (didnt even know they were related) and it bounced.

I genuinly thought I was going to get fired.

so I did the only thing I could think of. I looked up the head of revops on linkedin, the guy who had apparently started the whole "is anyone else getting spammed by these people" thread, and I sent him a connection request with a note that basically said "hey, I'm the person who spammed your entire company last week. I deserved the block. can I buy you a coffee and apologize properly, no pitch, I just want to understand what we did wrong so I dont do it to someone else."

he accepted. we got on a zoom call. I expected to get yelled at.

instead he spent 40 minutes telling me exactly why our approach was tone deaf, what their actual buying process looks like, who the real decision maker was (it wasnt anyone I had been emailing), and what would have actually gotten his attention. he was weirdly generous about it. I think he respected that I owned it instead of ghosting.

at the end of the call he said "you know what, send me a one pager on what you actually do. I'll forward it to the right person."

we signed them last month. $84k ACV. biggest deal of my year.

the lesson I keep coming back to is that the worst thing you can do in cold outreach isnt sending a bad email. its sending a bad email and then disappearing when someone calls you out. owning the mistake publicly with the person you wronged turned out to be way more powerful than any sequence I could have written.

also obviously dont email 14 people at the same company in one week. that part was just stupid.

anyone else ever turned a disaster into a win like this? curious if im the only idiot or if this is more common than I think.

so ive been getting into cold email lately for my small biz and someone in a discord mentioned puzzleinbox said its good for cold email inboxes.

anyone used them? how are they performing?

hey guys so im just starting out doing cold email for a lending company (we do business loans / working capital) and ngl im kinda lost lol. ive read alot but would love some actual advice from ppl whove done this for real.

few things im stuck on:

• how do u write a subject line that doesnt look like spam or a scam.. lending already has a sketchy rep in the inbox
• whats working for u as an opener? personalization or just straight to the value prop
• how short is too short.. i keep seeing "3 sentences max" but idk if that works for this niche
• any tips for deliverability?? heard horror stories abt finance emails getting flagged
• follow ups, how many before u give up

Apollo released their ChatGPT app this month and I've been using it to replace my entire outbound workflow. Already had a lot of success for our clients so wanted to share it with y'all on this sub. Important note before you start reading: We run an agency that implements inbound/outbound workflows for clients using Apollo. Some of our clients leverage Claude, some leverage ChatGPT. Therefore, we had to build instruction manuals for both. If you're not a ChatGPT user, [click here] to read the reddit thread I published on the Claude <> Apollo MCP.

Setup if you haven't done it: ChatGPT Settings > Connectors > search Apollo > connect and authorize. Under 2 minutes.

One thing worth knowing before you start: in a new ChatGPT conversation, begin prompts with "Use Apollo to..." until you confirm the connector is active. After that it routes automatically.

Prospecting and Discovery (all free, no credits)

Find ICP leads by title, industry, location, company size:

Use Apollo to find me [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at [INDUSTRY] companies in [LOCATION] with [EMPLOYEE RANGE] employees.

Find leads at companies using a specific tech stack:

Use Apollo to find me [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at companies currently using [TECH TOOL] in [LOCATION] with [EMPLOYEE RANGE] employees.

Find leads at recently funded companies:

Use Apollo to find me [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at [INDUSTRY] companies in [LOCATION] that have raised funding in the last [NUMBER] months.

Find decision makers at named target accounts:

Use Apollo to find the key decision makers at: [COMPANY 1], [COMPANY 2], [COMPANY 3]. I am looking for [JOB TITLE] level contacts.

Find leads at companies actively hiring:

Use Apollo to find me [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at [INDUSTRY] companies in [LOCATION] that are currently hiring for [HIRING ROLE].

Enrichment (these use Apollo credits)

Enrich a single contact:

Use Apollo to enrich [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] at [COMPANY NAME] and give me their verified email, phone number, job title, and LinkedIn URL.

Bulk enrich a list (up to 10 at once):

Use Apollo to enrich the following contacts: [NAME 1] at [COMPANY], [NAME 2] at [COMPANY]. Return verified emails, phone numbers, and job titles.

Enrich a full company profile:

Use Apollo to give me a full company enrichment for [COMPANY NAME] including tech stack, funding history, headcount, and latest news.

Get job postings at a target account:

Use Apollo to show me the current job postings at [COMPANY NAME] and what they reveal about where this company is investing.

CRM Actions (all free)

Create a new contact record:

Use Apollo to create a new contact: Name: [NAME], Email: [EMAIL], Job Title: [TITLE], Company: [COMPANY], Location: [LOCATION].

Update an existing contact:

Use Apollo to update the contact record for [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] at [COMPANY]. Change their [FIELD] to [NEW VALUE].

Look up a contact in your CRM:

Use Apollo to search my contacts for [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] at [COMPANY] and show me their full contact record.

Sequence Management (all free)

Show all active sequences and stats:

Use Apollo to show me all my active sequences including names, number of contacts, open rates, and reply rates.

Find the right sequence for a specific ICP:

Use Apollo to show me which of my sequences is most suitable for [ICP DESCRIPTION]. Include steps and performance data.

Add a contact to a sequence:

Use Apollo to add [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] at [COMPANY] to my [SEQUENCE NAME] sequence using my [EMAIL ADDRESS] mailbox.

Remove a contact from a sequence:

Use Apollo to remove [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME] at [COMPANY] from my [SEQUENCE NAME] sequence.

Check who is in a sequence:

Use Apollo to show me all contacts currently active in my [SEQUENCE NAME] sequence -- name, email, title, company, and current step.

Full Workflow Prompts

The full outbound loop in one prompt:

Run a full outbound workflow using Apollo: Step 1. Find [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at [INDUSTRY] companies in [LOCATION]. Step 2. Enrich the top [NUMBER]. Step 3. Create a contact record for each. Step 4. Add each to my [SEQUENCE NAME] sequence using my [EMAIL ADDRESS] mailbox.

Account research brief before a sales call:

Use Apollo to build me a full account research brief for [COMPANY NAME] -- overview, tech stack, funding, job postings, decision makers, and anything useful before a sales call.

New market entry:

Step 1. Use Apollo to find [NUMBER] [JOB TITLE] at [NEW INDUSTRY] companies in [LOCATION]. Step 2. Enrich the top [NUMBER]. Step 3. Give me a summary of patterns worth knowing before I start outreach.

Re-engagement of cold contacts:

Use Apollo to search my contacts for [JOB TITLE] in [INDUSTRY] with no activity in the last [NUMBER] days and not in any active sequence. Give me the best re-engagement opportunities.

A few things that make a difference:

Always paste a quick context brief at the start of each session before running any prompts:

Before we begin, here is context about my outbound: ICP: [describe your ideal customer] Product: [what you sell and the problem it solves] Active sequences: [name your main sequences] Territory: [geographic or vertical focus]

ChatGPT performs noticeably better when it understands who you are targeting before it starts executing.

Run the sequence audit prompt before adding anyone new to avoid duplicate outreach. Sequence names need to match exactly what's in Apollo -- one character off and it won't find it.

Questions on any of these, drop them below.

Got into cold email pretty recently. Thats why i am always in a disocvery process for new cold email tools. Do you guys have any experience with sending tools, lead databases, inboxes etc?

Would appreciate the help. Thanks again

hey everyone what subject lines is working for you guys right now

mine been getting decent replies but feels like its slowing down past few weeks. curious what styles or formats people having luck with lately

drop your best ones if you dont mind sharing

Most cold email advice floating around online is recycled nonsense written by people who have never actually run a campaign past a couple hundred sends so I figured I would put together something useful for anyone here grinding away at outbound right now. I run a small B2B agency and over the last quarter we averaged roughly 25 booked meetings per month from pure cold outreach with no paid ads and no SDR team behind us. It is just me handling strategy and copy with one virtual assistant cleaning data and pulling lists in the background. What follows is a breakdown of what actually moved our numbers from genuinely embarrassing to something we can build a business on.

— the list is doing 70 percent of the work —

For the longest time I made the same mistake almost everyone makes which is treating the prospect list as the boring chore you rush through so you can get to the fun stuff like agonizing over subject lines and arguing about whether emojis lift open rates. The hard truth is that your list is responsible for maybe 70 percent of your outcome and the copy is fighting over the scraps that are left. Once I flipped the ratio of effort and started spending the majority of my time hunting for companies that had a real reason to need us this quarter rather than someday in theory the reply rate climbed from around 2 percent up to nearly 9 without me changing a single sentence in the email itself.

A tight list is not just a filter by industry and headcount with the country set to whichever market you serve. It means you are stacking trigger events that suggest the prospect is either in pain or in motion right now. A recent funding round signals that budget is unlocked and someone is being measured on growth targets they cannot hit alone. A new VP hired into sales or marketing in the last 60 days signals somebody is desperate to prove themselves quickly and is unusually open to outside help during their first quarter. A specific role posted on the careers page tells you exactly what gap they are already aware of which means you are not selling them on the problem and only need to sell them on a faster path to solving it.

— warming the infrastructure before you ever send —

I run my outbound out of four separate inboxes on a custom domain that is deliberately not my main company domain so if the cold domain ever gets burned by a sloppy list or an aggressive sending day it does not take down the inbox I rely on to talk with clients and partners. Each inbox sends somewhere between 20 and 30 real cold messages per day which adds up to that 80 to 120 daily volume figure across the full setup. Before any of those inboxes ever touch a real prospect they spend at least three weeks running through one of the standard warmup tools where they exchange messages with other warming inboxes and gradually build the kind of sender reputation that keeps you out of the spam folder. Skipping this step is by far the most common reason I see people online declaring that cold email is dead when in reality their messages are just being filtered into spam and nobody on the receiving end is even seeing them.

— how the actual email is built —

The first email never runs past three sentences and I am genuinely strict about this rule even when I feel the urge to add another line of context to make the message feel more substantial. Sentence one shows the prospect I did real research on them by referencing something specific about their company or their recent activity rather than the kind of empty compliment any tool could generate in a second. Sentence two takes whatever I noticed in the first sentence and bridges it directly into a problem my service is built to solve so the relevance is immediately obvious without me ever needing to explicitly explain the connection. Sentence three is a low friction ask that is dramatically easier to agree to than a meeting request and it usually sounds like me asking whether they have looked at solving the problem internally already or whether a quick conversation next week would be worth their time.

I do not pitch the service in the first email and I do not attach a deck or a one pager and I do not drop a calendar link into the signature even though every guru online tells you to do exactly that. Every one of those moves signals to a smart buyer that you are running a template and trying to force a close on touch one. All of that pitching machinery only comes out after a prospect has actually responded and given me some signal that they are open to a conversation.

— the follow up sequence is where most meetings actually come from —

The first follow up goes out roughly three days after the initial send and it approaches the same underlying problem from a slightly different angle which might mean leading with a specific data point or a one line case study about a similar company we helped recently. The second follow up lands about five days later and is even shorter than the first usually two sentences end to end because by this stage the prospect has either absorbed enough of the message to engage or they just need a small nudge rather than another argument piled on top. The final touch is a breakup email about a week after that and counterintuitively it is the single message in the sequence that pulls the most replies because something about the implied loss of future contact pushes people who were silently lurking to finally respond. Roughly 60 percent of every meeting we end up booking traces back to one of these follow ups rather than the initial cold email which means anyone running a single touch sequence is quietly throwing away the majority of their pipeline before it ever has a chance to materialize.

— things we stopped doing once the numbers got serious —

We stopped using the obvious personalization tokens like first name and company name pulled into the body of the email because every prospect has seen that pattern a thousand times and at this point it actively signals automation rather than thoughtfulness. We stopped writing long emails that try to explain everything we do and every reason we are credible because nobody on the receiving end cares about your value proposition until after they care about their own problem. We stopped doing the pure spray and pray approach where you blast the same template to 5000 contacts every week because the only thing that approach reliably builds is a blacklisted domain and a creeping sense of despair. And we stopped letting AI write the full body of the email because both you and the prospect can feel the texture of a fully generated message even when neither of you can point to exactly what gives it away. AI is genuinely useful for research and data cleaning and even brainstorming angles but it should not be writing the final words that hit a real human inbox.

I run a B2B growth agency, NerdyJoe.com.

We’re in the Apollo certified partner program.

I’m running a content series with the Apollo team… looking to connect with power users.