SaaS & AI HRtech Employee Experience EMEA

10 CHRO meetings. Zero prior clients.

An AI platform enabling 1:1 employee conversations at scale needed its first EMEA pilot customers. We built a precision account-based outreach program that generated 10 qualified CHRO meetings for a brand no one in Europe had heard of yet.

10
Qualified meetings booked
5–7 days
Avg. time from first outreach to meeting
100%
Meetings with CHRO or VP People
0
Prior EMEA clients at launch
01 — The Brief

First clients. New market.

Challenges

×Zero EMEA clients, no brand recognition, no social proof in the target market.
×Enterprise buying cycles for HR technology are long and committee-driven.
×The product category (AI 1:1 employee conversations) was unfamiliar — needed education before a pitch.

Objectives

Book demo and pilot meetings with CHROs and senior HR leaders in EMEA.
Build a repeatable outreach playbook for ongoing EMEA pipeline.
Deliver clean, CRM-ready handoffs with qualification context for each meeting.
Target ICP
IndustriesTechnology & Software · Financial Services · Professional Services · Healthcare
Company size500–5,000 employees
TitlesCHRO · Head of HR · VP People · Employee Experience Lead · Head of People Analytics
RegionsUK · Ireland · Germany · Austria · Switzerland · Nordics
02 — Our Approach

Account-first targeting based on active employee experience signals — then a dual-channel cadence built to earn trust with a low-friction pilot offer before any sales conversation started.

03 — Execution

Signal-first, offer-led.

Each track had its own approach, hover to see exactly how we ran it.

01
Account Selection

Prioritizing companies with active employee experience signals: recent eNPS initiatives, engagement announcements, or Best Place to Work certifications.

02
LinkedIn

A 2-3 touch connection-to-conversation sequence designed to establish credibility with CHROs before email arrived, using a resource share rather than a pitch.

03
Email

A 4-5 touch value-led cadence that built from industry data through product proof to a direct pilot invitation, keeping each touch relevant to EMEA enterprise HR leaders.

LinkedIn InMailsEmail sequencesPilot offerAccount-based targetingCRM handoff
01 — Account Selection

Prioritizing companies with active employee experience signals: recent eNPS initiatives, engagement announcements, or Best Place to Work certifications.

1
Signal research
Account-first list prioritized by EX signals

Companies with recent employee engagement announcements, eNPS initiatives, or "Best Place to Work" certifications prioritized, as signals of active HR investment.

2
ICP mapping
CHRO-level decision-maker targeting

CHRO, Head of HR, VP People, and Employee Experience Lead at 500+ employee companies across UK, Ireland, DACH, and Nordics.

3
Validation
CRM context logged on every account

Decision-maker name, seniority, conversation history, stated pain point, and suggested discovery angle handed to the sales team before each call.

02 — LinkedIn

A 2-3 touch connection-to-conversation sequence designed to establish credibility with CHROs before email arrived, using a resource share rather than a pitch.

1
Connection
2-3 touch connection-to-conversation sequence

Connection request followed by a resource share (AI in HR trends report), then a pilot offer framed as "run it with 50 employees, measure the signal." No hard sell before touch 3.

2
Pilot offer
Low-friction evaluation framing

"Run it with 50 employees" reduced the perceived commitment to zero, making it easy for CHROs to engage as evaluators rather than buyers.

3
Manual follow-up
Personalized close referencing company initiatives

Bespoke final message referencing a specific company initiative: headcount growth, restructuring, or a recent people strategy announcement.

03 — Email

A 4-5 touch value-led cadence that built from industry data through product proof to a direct pilot invitation, keeping each touch relevant to EMEA enterprise HR leaders.

1
Touch 1
Industry stat on employee disengagement cost

First touch opened with an industry stat on the cost of employee disengagement, not a product pitch, giving CHROs a reason to engage before trusting a new brand.

2
Touch 2-3
Product explainer video and case methodology

Product explainer video link, then a case methodology from a comparable engagement, building familiarity step by step.

3
Touch 4-5
ROI frame and direct pilot invite

ROI framing followed by a direct pilot invite, completing the journey from awareness to an easy yes for a low-commitment evaluation.

04 — Results

10 CHROs. One new market unlocked.

10
Qualified meetings booked
CHRO
Seniority level, every meeting
5–7 days
Avg. first contact to meeting
LinkedIn connection → reply
24%
Email open → reply
9%
Reply → pilot/demo meeting booked
41%
05 — Key Takeaways

What earns CHRO attention.

01
Zero proof, right message wins
Framing outreach around the problem (employee disengagement at scale) rather than the product gave CHROs a reason to engage before trusting a new brand.
02
Pilot offer removes purchase risk
"Run it with 50 employees" reduced the perceived commitment to zero — making it easy for CHROs to say yes to a conversation without internal approval.
03
Account timing is everything
Targeting companies actively signaling people investment (engagement initiatives, restructuring, eNPS) meant outreach landed when it was most relevant.
04
LinkedIn primes email
A resource share on LinkedIn 5–7 days before email made the email recognizable rather than unknown, lifting reply rates in a skeptical senior-buyer segment.
Why this campaign worked
Precise account selection
Companies with active employee engagement signals were far more likely to respond than cold accounts — account selection did more work than any copy or channel tactic.
Synchronized dual-channel
LinkedIn credibility established before email arrival meant CHROs received the email as a follow-up from someone they'd already noticed, not a cold pitch.
Offer-led messaging
"Pilot with 50 employees" removed purchasing friction and allowed CHROs to engage as evaluators rather than buyers — the right frame for an unfamiliar product category.
Let's build your engine

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