What's up, it's Zayd

We have 40-50 positive replies coming into our LinkedIn inbox every day at Valley.

Sounds great, right? Pipeline machine running smoothly.

Kind of, but not really… half of them never turn into meetings.

It's the dating app problem. Getting matches is easy. Getting someone to actually show up for drinks is hard.

You swipe, you match, you send a decent opening message.

They respond positively. Then... nothing. The conversation dies. No date happens.

Outbound is the exact same thing.

Everyone obsesses over getting replies. Tools optimize for response rates.

Sales leaders track "positive response %" as a key metric. Then those positive responses sit in an inbox while your team tries to figure out what to do with them.

The bottleneck is in converting attention into meetings.

Forwarded this email? Get Enabled in your inbox each week.

Zayd’s Picks

My favorite finds of the week

• Warm intro template to grow your pipeline (link)

• Generate $440k with automated 2-touch warm outreach in 30 days (link)

• How to identify the root causes of a prospect’s pain (link)

• Email open tracking is dead (link)

• The traditional outbound playbook is dead (link)

• Growth survey insights from 100+ companies (link)

The Response Management Black Hole

Most sales tools end at "got a reply." Then what?

The reply sits in your inbox. Maybe you respond in a few hours. Maybe the next day. The prospect was interested when they responded, but now they're back to their actual job.

You suggest a meeting. They say "sounds good, let me check my calendar." You’ve played the dating app game before, that’s just a lowercase ghost.

Or they ask questions. You answer. They ask more questions. Three emails later, still no meeting booked. Again…kind of like dating.

Or they say "interesting, can you send me more info?" You send a deck. Never hear back. (ok, I’m going to be done with the metaphor now)

The gap between "sounds interesting" and "meeting booked" is where most pipeline dies.

The Types of Positive Responses

Just like dating apps have different types of matches, not all positive responses are the same:

Type 1: "Tell me more" These people are curious but not convinced. They need education before they're ready for a meeting.

They're chatting but want to know more about you before committing to meet. Trying to book immediately feels pushy, but sending too much info means they disappear.

Type 2: "Sounds interesting, let's chat" High intent. Ready for a meeting. These are more straightforward. Suggest times, book the call, done.

Type 3: "Not right now, but maybe later" Soft interest. Timing is wrong. You need to stay on their radar without being annoying.

It’s like an "I'm super busy with work right now but let's stay in touch."

Could be real. Could be a brush-off. Either way, persistence without pressure is the play.

Most teams have no system for categorizing responses. They treat the "tell me more" people the same as the "let's chat" people and the result is lower conversion across the board.

The Speed Problem

When someone responds positively to your outreach, they're in the moment. They're thinking about their problem. Your solution is top of mind.

Every hour you wait to respond, that urgency fades. They get pulled into meetings, other priorities, different problems.

It’s like matching with someone, them messaging you immediately, and then you waiting 24 hours to respond because you don't want to seem too eager. By then, they've matched with five other people and you're competing for attention.

We built a Zapier automation that pushes every positive reply into Slack with their contact details. Alex (our founding AE) can see them immediately and respond or call.

Response within 15 minutes converts way higher than response the next day. Even if it's the exact same message. Momentum matters more than perfect messaging.

The Context Loss Problem

Most response management happens across multiple platforms and people.

Initial message on LinkedIn. Reply comes in. You respond. They ask questions. You answer. Someone else on your team follows up. Context gets lost.

The prospect told you something important in message 3. By message 7, you've forgotten. You ask them to repeat themselves. They get annoyed and it’s an instant turn-off. Or worse, two people from your team follow up separately because nobody's tracking who's handling which response.

This doesn't scale. As soon as you're getting 20+ responses per day, things start falling through cracks.

The Qualification vs Momentum Tradeoff

Ok, here’s where it gets a bit trickier. Everyone always talks about not wanting to spin their wheels if something’s not the right fit, so they want to qualify responses before spending time on calls.

The problem there is that sometimes, asking qualification questions kills momentum. The prospect was interested, but now you're grilling them before you'll even take a meeting.

Most teams either:

1. Over-qualify and lose interested prospects

2. Under-qualify and waste time on bad-fit calls

Here’s what’s worked for us. For every positive reply that comes in, we ask:

1. What type of interest is this?

• High intent (ready for meeting)

• Medium intent (needs more info first)

• Low intent (wrong timing)

2. How fast can we respond?

• Within 15 minutes = highest conversion

• Same day = okay

• Next day = momentum probably lost

3. What's the next step?

• Book meeting immediately

• Answer specific question then book

• Nurture for later

Having a system for this converts way more responses than just winging it.

The Ghosting Problem

"Sounds interesting, let me check my calendar and get back to you."

Then they never get back to you.

This is the most common way positive responses die. Prospect expresses interest. Says they'll do something. Then disappears.

Most teams send a follow-up in 3-5 days. "Just checking in."

That's too late. If they were going to book, they would have done it already. The better approach would be to make the next step as easy as possible in your first response.

Instead of "Let me know when works for you" → "I have Thursday at 2pm or Friday at 11am, which works better?"

Instead of "Happy to chat whenever" → "Here's my calendar link, grab any time that works"

Reduce friction. Make it stupid easy to say yes.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

Track:

• Response rate

• Positive response → meeting booked rate

• Time to first response

• Response drop-off rate by type

If you have a 30% positive response rate but only 20% of those positive responses turn into meetings, you have a response management problem, not an outbound problem.

Everyone wants to solve the "get more responses" problem, but for most companies doing outbound right, the real bottleneck is: What do you do with the responses once you get them?

Everyone on dating apps is focused on getting more matches. Better photos, better bio, better opening lines. The real skill is converting matches into dates, then into an actual relationship.

What We're Still Figuring Out

Full transparency…we don't have this completely solved.

We're good at getting responses. We're okay at converting them, but there's always still room to improve.

Specifically:

• How to nurture medium-intent responses without being annoying

• When to call vs when to message

• How much to qualify before booking

• How to handle responses that ghost after initial interest

Still testing different approaches. If you've figured this out, let me know what works.

The Action Items

If you're getting positive responses but not converting them:

1. Categorize your responses High/medium/low intent. Different approaches for each. Just like you'd treat different types of dating app conversations differently.

2. Build a system for speed Slack alerts, shared sheets, whatever works. Just don't let responses sit in an inbox. Respond fast or lose momentum.

3. Reduce friction Make it stupid easy to book. Suggest times. Send calendar link. Do the work. "Want to meet Thursday at 2pm at this coffee shop?" beats "we should hang out sometime."

4. Track the right metrics Not just response rate. Response → meeting rate. Matches don't matter. Dates matter.

5. Accept that it's manual You can systematize it. You can't fully automate it. Build process that scales but stays human.

ps. Since it’s Black Friday week, we’re offering a 50% off Valley for a month.

Valley’s available for $197/month instead of the usual $395. You don’t need to commit to an annual plan, and we will NEVER offer a discount this large to let people try Valley again.

If you’re an affiliate partner, this might be the best time to recommend Valley.

Use code “coolmessagebro” when checking out here.

How can we work together 🏔️

1. See more of Valley’s messaging examples, feel free to roast them: https://withvalley.notion.site/Cool-Message-Bro-1c0b917b0ed481dab014c465c354b4b8 

2. Generate more demos for your company using LinkedIn: https://meetings.hubspot.com/zayd-from-valley/tryvalley
   

3. Become a Valley partner and get 20% recurring commission for every user you bring in: https://withvalley.notion.site/valley-affiliate-partner-program