GrowthRise Mastermind #10 Recap: From Chatbots to Cold Calls (& Everything Between)

This week, the GrowthRise community came together for Mastermind Call #10 to share what’s actually working in today’s fast growing B2B landscape.  

There was so much value shared that we decided to compile a summary of the best insights with you in this week's newsletter below 👇.

If you're not already a member, apply to join us here and join us for the next mastermind call every Tuesday at 2pm ET. We're building the best community for B2B Marketing Leaders and would love for you to join us!

Our latest mastermind call on May 6, 2025, was packed with hard-won insights—ranging from AI-driven customer support to high-converting outbound sequences, cold call strategy, and LinkedIn content amplification.

We’re building the world’s best community for B2B Marketers. If you’re not already a member, you can apply to join GrowthRise here.  Let's dive in!

1. AI Chatbots and the Future of Customer Experience

The conversation began with a frank and detailed discussion around the evolving role of AI in customer support—especially for product-led B2B SaaS companies. One founder shared a recurring issue: even advanced AI chatbots like Chatbase or GPT-driven interfaces still struggle with nuanced customer needs, especially when those needs involve images or screenshots.

“One of the big limitations right now is most of these bots can’t handle images—if a customer uploads a screenshot of an issue, the system just doesn’t know what to do with it.”

To address this, several members are now exploring custom automations via Make.com. One implementation that stood out involved setting up a workflow where a screenshot submitted by a customer is routed to an image recognition tool, which then tags and classifies the image. Depending on the tag, the ticket is escalated or resolved automatically.

The conversation acknowledged that tools like Zendesk and HubSpot Service Hub still lead in terms of centralized support infrastructure, but layered AI enhancements like Lamatic were gaining traction for their ability to offer smart response suggestions based on past tickets.

One participant emphasized the importance of using “AI to augment, not replace.” In other words, the focus should be on building hybrid systems that increase agent efficiency, not remove human empathy from the support equation.

“Customers don’t always want a bot. They want a fast answer. AI just helps us get to the fast answer faster.”

Key takeaways from this segment:

• Text-only bots are a limiting factor for B2B SaaS companies with technical customer bases
  
  
• Make.com is being used to build visual analysis flows for image-based support
  
  
• Zendesk and HubSpot are preferred for ticketing, with AI assist layered in
  
  
• The goal is efficiency, not full automation
  

2. B2B Outbound Lead Generation: Stacking the Deck Right

Outbound continues to evolve—and this GrowthRise session offered a practical breakdown of what’s working best in 2025.

First, the conversation focused on Apollo.io as a data provider. Multiple participants praised it as the best cost-to-value tool currently on the market, with Ryan offering a connection to a data broker named Amin who is able to get records incredibly inexpensively:

“We’re paying $600 for 100,000 records, and the data quality’s solid for most mid-market use cases.”

From there, the workflow moves into Clay for enrichment and personalization. Several members are using Clay in tandem with GPT-4o to auto-generate personalized first lines for cold emails. These are injected dynamically into sequences managed through platforms like Instantly or Smartlead.

This full-stack setup—Apollo → Clay → Instantly—is helping founders hit personalization at scale without ballooning headcount.

Another standout insight: Hypertide was mentioned as a sending infrastructure tool that enabled one team to hit 87% inbox placement across large email volumes. Hypertide works by cycling sending domains and managing reputation in real time, essentially shielding the core domain from deliverability damage.

When it comes to cold calling, the crowd was split. However, one founder targeting high-ACV accounts shared:

“We closed three deals over 25k this quarter just from follow-up cold calls—each one had already seen our emails and LinkedIn content.”

This backs a recurring theme: multi-channel orchestration wins. Cold emails get the attention, but warm cold calls close the deal—especially when outreach is backed by social visibility or shared content touchpoints.

Tool Highlights:

• Apollo.io: affordable high-volume data
  
  
• Clay + GPT: scalable personalization
  
  
• Instantly/Smartlead: warm-up and sequencing
  
  
• Hypertide: advanced sending infrastructure
  
  
• Cold calling remains powerful for ACVs $25k+
  
  

Pro Tip: One member runs their entire outbound engine using Zapier to tie Apollo, Clay, and Instantly together—allowing them to trigger follow-up tasks, assign owners, and tag leads in their CRM (Hubspot) based on reply behavior.

3. Marketing Budget Allocation: The Test-and-Scale Mindset

This section opened with a critical question: how much do you need to test a new channel?

The consensus: allocate at least $2,000–$3,000 per channel as a testing baseline. Any less and you're flying blind—data won’t be statistically significant, and decisions made on that shaky data can kill promising strategies prematurely.

Founders reported testing a wide variety of channels:

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram): still a top performer for TOF content distribution
  
  
• Google Search: strong for intent-based lead generation
  
  
• LinkedIn Ads: powerful but expensive unless leveraging a boosted thought leader ad strategy
  
  
• AddRoll: for retargeting across web platforms
  
  
• Bing Ads: a surprising contender in niche markets where CPCs are lower
  
  

One member put it bluntly:

“If you’re spending less than 3k, you're not testing—you’re gambling.”

Another insight: The most successful campaigns are being evaluated through the lens of customer payback period, not just cost-per-lead. The goal? 6–12 month payback or faster.

A few members mentioned that they avoid brand campaigns unless they can prove that brand lift correlates with sign-up velocity. Attribution tools like Cometly and Dreamdata were cited as helpful for figuring out the true ROI across blended channels.

Lastly, some marketers are experimenting with channel stacking—running low-budget tests on LinkedIn + Meta simultaneously, then feeding warm leads into a segmented newsletter journey powered by a weekly founder video.

Budgeting Key Points:

• Don’t test with less than $2k–$3k per channel
  
  
• Track payback period over vanity metrics
  
  
• Attribution tools help validate scaling decisions
  
  
• Stack channels and retarget into email or community

4. LinkedIn Marketing That Doesn’t Suck (Or Burn Your Budget)

If there's one platform where B2B visibility is non-negotiable right now, it’s LinkedIn. But the old playbook of static display ads and low-engagement posts is quickly falling apart. The GrowthRise members shared fresh strategies that are helping them stand out in a crowded feed—and do so without blowing the budget.

Thought Leader Ads vs. Display Ads

The group resoundingly agreed: “Thought leader” ads are crushing traditional display ads. These are ads that amplify a founder or executive’s organic-style post, often written in first person with a strong story or viewpoint. One participant shared how a text-based “Here’s what I learned from losing $80k on a bad hire” post outperformed their entire last quarter’s display campaign in both engagement and CTR.

Why does it work? The audience wants real people, not polished brand messaging.

“We’re getting CPMs around $35–40 for founder-led story posts. Compare that to $200+ CPMs we saw on image-heavy display ads. It’s not even close.”

The group suggested treating paid LinkedIn spend not as a performance channel in the early stages—but rather as a distribution layer for already high-performing organic content.

The Content Strategy That’s Working

Most GrowthRise companies are running a hybrid strategy:

• Posting 2–3x/week organically (often from the founder or CEO)
  
  
• Boosting best-performing posts with $50–$150 in ad spend
  
  
• Retargeting engaged viewers with conversion-focused ads (lead magnet, call booking, webinar)
  
  

One founder outlined their weekly flow:

1. Film a short 1-minute video sharing a lesson from the week
   
   
2. Post it with a narrative caption
   
   
3. Use LinkedIn's native boost tool to push it to a lookalike audience of ICPs
   
   
4. Monitor engagement and collect data on topic resonance
   
   

This approach was credited with significantly increasing qualified inbound interest, including speaking invitations and demo requests.

Newsletter Integration

There was also conversation around LinkedIn Newsletters, which are becoming a backdoor email list builder. One founder noted:

“We grew to 1,200 subscribers in our first 30 days—just by inviting our 1st-degree connections.”

The trick? After someone subscribes to your LinkedIn newsletter, sync them into your main CRM, tag them as warm leads, and drop them into a weekly nurture flow.

Big takeaway: Treat LinkedIn like a long game. It’s about layered visibility, consistent content, and using ads to amplify authenticity—not replace it.

5. Email Automation Sequences That Warm and Win

Email marketing remains the backbone of the GrowthRise GTM stack—but the emphasis has shifted from frequency to sequencing intelligence and narrative quality.

Multiple founders shared their exact setup:

• A 90-day sequence with 30 total emails
  
  
• Blend of how-to content, story-based posts, case studies, and soft CTAs
  
  
• Sent 2–3x per week max to avoid list fatigue
  
  

Weekly Newsletters as Testing Ground

One of the most effective strategies discussed was using your weekly newsletter as a test lab. You send a casual insight or personal story, then track open rates, replies, and click-throughs. If the content resonates?

“We just drop it into our evergreen nurture flow. Why reinvent the wheel?”

Several participants use tools like ChatGPT to repurpose top LinkedIn posts into email format, reducing content creation time by over 70%.

Another unique insight: one B2B SaaS founder splits their sequence into two tracks—education-focused for new leads, and validation-focused for warm ones who’ve seen a demo but haven’t bought. This segmentation, powered by Hubspot automation, increased post-demo conversion rate by 18%.

Optimal Cadence

The consensus was clear: 2–3 emails per week was the sweet spot.

Any less and you’re forgotten. Any more, and you risk hitting the spam folder—unless you're delivering legitimate value every time.

One participant summed it up perfectly:

“Don’t just automate emails. Automate trust.”

Nurture Framework Highlights:

• Lead magnet opt-in or warm contact import triggers a 30-email, 90-day sequence
  
  
• 2–3x/week sending cadence
  
  
• Weekly newsletter doubles as content testbed
  
  
• Top performers get recycled into automation
  
  

Dynamic segmentation (cold vs. demo vs. active users)

6. AmpleMarket: Trigger-Based Outreach That Actually Works

One of the newer tools making waves in this call was AmpleMarket—a smart outbound platform that monitors LinkedIn behavior and email engagement to trigger highly personalized outreach sequences.

Instead of sending generic cold emails to a cold list, founders are now using AmpleMarket to:

• Detect job changes (new hires, promotions)
  
  
• Identify posts or engagement with competitors
  
  
• Track new funding or headcount growth
  
  

From there, you can set your system to automatically initiate outreach—either via email or LinkedIn DM.

“We built a trigger for Series A CFOs who just posted about hiring. When that hits, AmpleMarket sends a custom intro line with a Calendly link. It’s hands-free and closes like crazy.”

Deliverability & Volume

To maintain domain health, the group recommended limiting outbound to:

• 200–300 emails per day per domain
  
  
• Rotate sending domains and use a warm-up tool (e.g., Instantly)
  
  

Some founders are integrating AmpleMarket with:

• Clay – for dynamic enrichment and GPT-based personalization
  
  
• Hubspot – to track engagement and convert opens/clicks into deals
  
  

One founder shared a full stack:

• AmpleMarket watches LinkedIn
  
  
• Clay enriches and writes intros
  
  
• Instantly sequences messages
  
  
• Hubspot tracks replies and tasks SDRs for follow-up
  
  

The result? A fully automated outbound flywheel that reacts to buying signals in real time.

7. Dialers and Calling Tools for Modern Sales Teams

Although much of the GrowthRise community operates with modern tech stacks focused on automation, there’s still strong consensus around the importance of live calls—especially for high-ticket sales. That said, the right tools and systems matter more than ever.

Recommended Tools

Several founders shared their call stack preferences:

• Google Voice was cited as the easiest and most cost-effective way to get started. It’s flexible, free for basic use, and integrates reasonably well with most CRMs using Zapier or browser plug-ins.
  
  
• HubSpot Dialer was repeatedly mentioned as the go-to for teams already using HubSpot’s CRM. One key benefit? The ability to select local area codes when calling, which increased connect rates by up to 25% for one team.
  
  

“If your number looks local, people pick up more. It's small, but it adds up.”

Meanwhile, Go High Level got mixed reviews. While several attendees acknowledged its built-in calling capabilities, issues with call clarity, delayed connections, and UI clunkiness led many to abandon it in favor of more stable dialer-first platforms.

Systems Matter More Than Tools

Perhaps more important than the dialer itself was the workflow design. One growth lead shared that their SDRs receive auto-generated call tasks inside HubSpot based on:

• Time since last email open
  
  
• LinkedIn engagement
  
  
• Lead scoring thresholds
  
  

This triggered a just-in-time cold call, often after a lead had interacted with two or more pieces of content—making the call far more warm than cold.

“The best time to call someone is right after they’ve opened something from you. Our SDRs don’t waste time dialing random leads anymore.”

Call Scripts and Training

Another insight? Scripts are becoming more conversational and diagnostic, not pitch-heavy. One successful format included:

1. A soft open (mention of a mutual LinkedIn group or recent post)
   
   
2. 1–2 context-setting questions
   
   
3. A positioning statement
   
   
4. A 30-second value proposition
   
   

Several teams are training reps with AI call coaching tools and recording every outbound call for quality control and improvement loops.

Takeaway: Dialing works—but only when it’s informed by buyer behavior and supported by a feedback-rich environment.

8. Content Distribution at Scale: Becoming a Category Leader

One of the most future-forward conversations in the call revolved around scaling content like a media company. It’s no longer enough to “post when you feel inspired.” The winning GrowthRise teams are building repeatable content machines with the aim of hitting 1M+ monthly impressions.

The Content Machine Framework

Here’s a typical week in the life of a high-performing content team, as described on the call:

• 1 Long-form video or webinar (recorded weekly or biweekly)
  
  
• Clipped into 6–10 short-form assets using tools like Descript or Opus
  
  
• Distributed across LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, TikTok (if relevant), and newsletter
  
  
• Tracked with UTM tags or tools like Cometly to monitor downstream impact
  
  

“It’s not about just going viral. It’s about staying top of mind every week. You want people to expect to see you.”

Hosting Platforms

The call included a comparison of hosting tools:

• Wistia was praised for its brand customization and detailed analytics
  
  
• YouTube is still key for discoverability and SEO
  
  
• Some founders use both—YouTube for public-facing content, Wistia for gated or private content libraries (e.g. demo vaults, client portals)
  
  

One team built an internal dashboard to measure weekly video impressions, shares, and engagement per asset—using this to double down on formats and hooks that perform.

Growth Tactics

Several advanced strategies emerged:

• Running LinkedIn video carousels with multiple 15-second cuts to test hooks
  
  
• Using AI voice cloning tools to narrate blog posts into podcast-style audio
  
  
• Embedding short-form video in cold email footers (increased CTR by 3x)
  
  

The key mindset shift was simple but profound:

“Act like a media company. Don’t just publish—program your content calendar.”

9. Landing Pages That Convert: Tools and Tactics

Finally, we dove into one of the most overlooked—but essential—parts of the growth stack: landing pages. A great landing page can be the difference between a lead and a bounce, and the GrowthRise community is dialing in what works.

Tool of Choice: Unbounce

Unbounce was suggested as a strong landing page hosting solution by some attendees, as it’s used for:

• Rapid prototyping of campaigns
  
  
• A/B testing headers, CTAs, or images
  
  
• Integrating with email tools or CRMs via Zapier, native APIs, or webhooks
  
  

One founder said:

“We launched and tested 5 landing pages in 3 days. Unbounce made that easy without a dev team.”

Other options for landing page solutions include WebFlow, Go High Level, Leadpages, Wordpress, Hubspot, ClickFunnels and many more.

What Works on High-Converting Pages

Key components of the best performing pages:

• Short-form copy with big, bold headlines
  
  
• Founder's face or voice—video is outperforming static images
  
  
• Bullet points that hit pain, outcome, and timeframe
  
  
• Strong CTA — Calendly embed or lead magnet with low friction

One startup shared that their top converting page had just 3 sentences, a testimonial, and a booking link. Sometimes, simplicity sells.

A few members emphasized the importance of mobile responsiveness and speed—pages that didn’t load within two seconds consistently underperformed. Most pages used minimalist design and clean UX to avoid distracting from the primary action.

Testing Culture

There was broad agreement that testing is everything. One attendee noted that 3 out of their 5 “best ideas” failed—until they ran A/B tests and uncovered what actually moved conversions.

Top tests included:

• Emotional vs. logic headline tests
  
  
• With vs. without video
  
  
• Personal (“you”) vs. authoritative (“we”) tone
  
  

Tools like Google Optimize, VWO, Go High Level, and Unbounce’s built-in A/B features are making this process faster than ever.

10. Data Enrichment: Getting Precision with Targeting

Much of the discussion on outbound success circled back to one core truth: bad data equals bad results. That’s why so many members are turning to enrichment tools to make their contact lists more intelligent before sending a single email.

The tools repeatedly mentioned:

• Clay – for AI-driven data layering and GPT-based personalization
  
  
• ListKit – for building initial prospecting lists with ICP filters
  
  
• Apollo.io – for broad-based contact info and company signals
  

One use case stood out: a founder shared how their team takes a raw Apollo export, pushes it into Clay, and enriches it with job title context, LinkedIn activity, and recent funding rounds. Clay then uses GPT-4 to write a custom first-line intro for each prospect, all automated.

“We’re not sending mass cold emails anymore. We’re sending 100 truly unique emails a day—and it’s paying off.”

Another member mentioned how they’ve layered in LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter for companies that just posted hiring notices, then enriched those accounts through Clay and ListKit to build hyper-targeted campaigns based on team expansion and job titles.

The critical mindset shift: your list is a strategic asset, not just a bucket of emails. Investing time and tools into its quality dramatically impacts reply rates and demo conversions.

12. Conclusion: Tech-Enabled Growth, Powered by Community Intelligence

The final segment of the call wrapped up with a recognition of how far B2B growth has come. Every founder and operator on the call is running a version of the modern GTM playbook—stacked with automation, enriched with AI, and guided by iterative testing.

Yet, it was clear that tech alone isn’t the differentiator.

What’s making the difference?

• Contextualized implementation (not just copying tools, but integrating with strategy)
  
  
• Feedback loops from peers (calls like this create real-time signal on what works)
  
  
• Clear prioritization (doubling down on what's proven, cutting what’s noise)
  
  

The mood was one of optimism. Several GrowthRise members shared recent wins—improved funnel conversion, stronger partner attribution, and reduced CAC from channel optimization—proving the methodologies discussed weren’t theory, but lived experience.

“We didn’t invent anything new—just listened to the data and got sharper with our execution.”

🚀 Ready to Scale? Here Are Two Ways We Can Support.

If you've made it this far, you're clearly committed to scaling your B2B SaaS company with precision, performance, and purpose.

And we’re here to help you do exactly that.

Below are the two ways we can support you:

🎓 Option 1: Apply to Join the GrowthRise Membership

The GrowthRise Membership is built for Marketing Leaders across any industry who are scaling their organization from $1M to $100M in ARR — and want to surround themselves with a growth-minded community of professionals.

Inside the membership, you’ll get:

💬 Private Slack + WhatsApp groups with access to 130+ CMOs & Marketing Leaders
🔁 Weekly Mastermind Calls to solve real-time growth challenges
📚 Access to our B2B Growth Course Slides
🎯 Member Directory to connect by industry and revenue stage
🎁 Perks and discounts on vetted tools and vendors
🧠 Weekly support from Ryan Allis and the GrowthRise coaching team

👉 Apply here to join the GrowthRise community and start your free 14-day trial.

🎯 Option 2: Apply for the Upcoming B2B SaaS Growth Program Cohort

If you’re looking for deeper implementation support to actually build and launch your growth engine step-by-step — the B2B SaaS Growth Program is your next move.

This 16-week, done-with-you accelerator helps you:

✅ Build a laser-targeted ABM lead list using Clay, Apollo, ListKit & Instantly
🚀 Launch digital ads across Meta, LinkedIn, Google, Bing & AdRoll
🧪 Optimize funnel conversion rates with proven CRO frameworks
✉️ Deploy AI-powered outbound campaigns that generate real results
📈 Track CAC, CPL, ROI, and KPIs across the full funnel
🔄 Scale your system using real-time data and weekly feedback

You’ll get live coaching, funnel reviews, campaign builds, and Slack/email support — all directly from the SaasRise and GrowthRise team (Ryan, David, Salman).

🧠 If you represent a $1M–$100M ARR B2B company ready to build a repeatable revenue engine, this is your moment.

👉 Apply here to join the next B2B SaaS Growth Program starting soon.

The future of growth is here — and it's human-first, AI-powered, and founder-led.

All the best,

Ryan Allis, CEO & Founder
GrowthRise | The Community for B2B Marketing Leaders