What's up, it's Zayd.

I've seen thousands of outbound messages, and there's a clear pattern: most "personalization" is just surface-level flattery that prospects can spot from a mile away.

"Hey, I noticed you're based in New York. Have you tried Joe’s Pizza? It's great. By the way, come join our webinar."

That's not personalization, that's just a mail merge with a local reference. A really bad one, at that.

This week, I'm breaking down the research framework we've built at Valley that's completely changing how personalization works in outbound—and why the future belongs to teams who understand the difference between fake flattery and genuine relevance.

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Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week.

• ColdIQ’s framework for team-led content on LinkedIn (link)

• 6 common social listening mistakes and how you can avoid them (link)

• LinkedIn is about to become THE enterprise pipeline channel. (link)

• Habits that lead to PMF with founder-led sales (link)

• How to get a new saas site to DA30 for free (link)

The Death of Fake Personalization

When I talk to sales leaders, I hear the same frustration over and over: "We've tried personalization, but it doesn't move the needle."

The problem isn't that personalization doesn't work. It's that most teams are doing it completely wrong.

True personalization isn't:

• Mentioning where someone lives

• Referencing their job title

• Noting how long they've been at their company

• Using their first name multiple times

These are just mail merge fields with a human face. They don't demonstrate any real investment in understanding the prospect.

The trick when it comes to first liners is people hate being sold to, people love feeling flattered, however you don't flatter directly.

The Psychology of Meaningful Connection

Most salespeople think about personalization all wrong. They're searching for "conversation starters" when they should be looking for "conversation deepeners."

There's a fundamental psychological principle at work here: humans respond to signals of investment. When you demonstrate you've spent significant time understanding someone's situation, it triggers reciprocity—their brain says "this person invested in me, I should invest back."

This is about creating genuine relevance that goes further than mere flattery. You don't flatter directly. That's not the way you want to be flattering someone. Because then if you say that topic and then go into a pitch, it's like, 'you kind of tricked me, screw you.'

Instead, the magic happens when you show the prospect that you spent real time finding a data point so specific that it could only come from deep research. That's the difference between:

Basic personalization: "Congrats on your recent promotion to VP of Sales!"

Investment-signaling personalization: "I noticed in your recent podcast with RevGenius you mentioned struggling with attribution for outbound efforts. That resonated with me because we've been tackling that exact challenge with our customers at Front and Miro."

The second approach shows you understand what they care about and connects it directly to value you can provide.

The Four Dimensions of Meaningful Research

After studying our highest-performing customers, we've identified four distinct research dimensions that create the most compelling outreach:

Recency-Based Triggers

Fresh information creates urgency. Recent company events, news mentions, or social posts indicate what's top of mind right now:

• New executive hire (last 30 days)

• Competitor product launch (last 60 days)

• Recent product announcement or feature release

• Latest earnings call insights

Problem-Pattern Recognition

Identifying specific pain patterns in their public content:

• Consistent themes in their LinkedIn content

• Questions they're asking on forums or communities

• Challenges mentioned in interviews or podcasts

• Pain points their customers mention in reviews

Strategic Initiative Alignment

Connecting to the company's public objectives:

• Annual report priorities

• CEO statements about direction

• New market expansion efforts

• Digital transformation initiatives

Contrarian Insight Delivery

Providing unexpected perspective on their situation:

• Industry data that contradicts common assumptions

• Success patterns from similar companies they wouldn't normally benchmark against

• Alternative approaches to challenges they've publicly discussed

• Unique angles on problems they're clearly facing

The key is selecting the right dimension based on who you're reaching out to. C-level executives respond better to strategic and contrarian insights, while directors and managers engage more with recency and problem-pattern approaches.

People think it's about efficiency, but the best personalization actually requires significant investment. The quality of conversations is dramatically different when you actually care. Instead of prospects saying "How did you get my info?" they're saying "This is exactly what we've been struggling with."

You've got to show that you're willing to invest into them so that they invest back into you.

How To Implement This Framework

If you're looking to upgrade your outbound approach, here's how to get started:

1. Create a research checklist for each of the three levels (individual, company, industry)

2. Build a library of sources for each dimension:

   • Individual: LinkedIn, Twitter, podcasts, YouTube, newsletters

   • Company: Crunchbase, earnings calls, press releases, job boards

   • Industry: Trade publications, analyst reports, conference talks

3. Establish clear patterns for how to use the research:

   • Lead with company/industry context, not individual flattery

   • Connect research directly to your value proposition

   • Focus on recent changes or events (last 30 days)

4. Test different approaches to see what resonates:

   • Try leading with different levels of research

   • Test direct vs. indirect references to your findings

   • Measure response quality, not just quantity

The Future of Research-Driven Outbound

This is where outbound is heading. The spray-and-pray era is coming to an end, and the winners will be those who combine deep research with perfect timing.

But here's the challenge—this level of research typically takes 2-3 hours per prospect. That's unsustainable at scale.

That's exactly why we built Valley's research capabilities. Our AI can now analyze all three levels in minutes, allowing sales teams to send messages with the depth of a 3-hour research project and the efficiency of a template.

How I Can Help?

Let me book sales calls for you while you’re actually connecting with people. Seriously.

I built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.