When we first start out in outbound, many of us pitch our company and products as a way to drive interest.

It usually sounds like this, “Hello Mr. Prospect, I work for X Start-up. We are a $100 Series C Venture Backed with Founders from Elite College. Do you have a minute to chat?”

After thousands of calls like this and very little success, most SDRs will evolve into looking for reasons to reach out and mentioning those reasons in the call. It usually sounds like this and you have surely heard this on the phone or seen it in your LinkedIn inbox.

“Hi Mr. Prospect, I saw that you recently posted about XX and YY on LinkedIn.”

“Hi Mrs. Prospect, congrats on your new role/promotion! How are things going?”

“Hi Mr. Prospect, I saw that you recently raised funding. Congrats!”

While these show a bit of effort from the caller and might lead a prospect to give a couple minutes of their time, it is clear to the prospect that the caller is just using this as an excuse to pin them down for a pitch, which doesn’t add value that leads to a meeting. 

So we looked at the data behind the real reasons for reaching out to prospects, how to use them and most importantly, how they affect your connect-to-meeting rates.

What the data shows: 

According to Nooks AI Analysis on 5M+ calls made from Nooks AI Dialing Assistant mentioning a specific reason for reaching out increases connect-to-meeting rate 2.3x.

Here are some examples of reasons to reach out that work: 

• Re-engage closed lost accounts
• Prospect is engaged with a competitor 
• New executive joined the company
• Previous champions who changed jobs
• Strong headcount growth in X department
• People who mentioned follow up in previous conversations

When you mention a specific reason for reaching out, you do more than just show your prospect that you’ve done your homework - you add real value to the potential conversation. 

This will sound like:

Re-engage closed lost accounts:‍

“Hi Mrs. Prospect, I’m reaching out because we worked together last year but decided not to move forward. I was curious where you all are at with <problem mentioned in previous conversations>.

Prospect is engaged with a competitor:‍

“Hi Mr. Prospect, I saw that you were currently speaking to <competitor> and wanted to see where you’re at in the process and if I could share with you some alternatives that we offer.”‍

New executive joined the company:‍

“Hi Mrs. Prospect, I saw that you recently brought <executive name> onboard. I know that they came from <company> where they were big on <value prop>, have you noticed that need in your role? 

‍Previous champions who changed jobs:‍

“Hi Mr. Prospect, congrats on moving over to X company! You were a customer at <previous company> and wanted to reach out and learn if you had any plans to bring things over to the new company.”

Strong headcount growth in X department:

“Hi Mrs. Prospect, I saw that your company has grown X%. I was wondering how that’s going to affect your <value prop> motion and if it would make sense to chat about <value proposition>.

People who mentioned follow up in previous conversations:‍

“Hi Mr. Prospect, we chatted a few months ago and you mentioned that you were interested in <value proposition> and asked me to follow up with you because of <objection>. Have you seen any movement on this?”

The takeaway? Successful outbound isn’t only about making calls—it’s about making them count. By implementing these strategies, sales reps can move beyond transactional conversations and create real opportunities for engagement.

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