20 SQLs per month for a Saudi telecom firm selling managed connectivity to enterprise
An outbound motion adapted for the GCC — built around Arabic-language messaging, Ramadan calendar awareness, and senior enterprise buyers.
A 120-person Saudi telecom and managed-connectivity firm wanted to grow enterprise sales beyond their existing government accounts. We built a LinkedIn-only outbound motion targeting IT and infrastructure leaders across KSA, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain — delivering a consistent 20 SQLs per month with messaging in both English and Arabic.
THE CHALLENGE
What we walked into
- Buyers in the GCC are senior, network-driven and skeptical of cold outreach.
- Most outbound agencies don't understand the cultural cadence — Ramadan, Eid, government working weeks.
- Mixed language preference: many C-suite GCC buyers prefer English, but mid-management responds better to Arabic.
- Long approval cycles (4–9 months) made disciplined nurture critical.
THE ICP
Exactly who we targeted
Job titles
Industries
Geographies
Company size
500+ employees, enterprise / large enterprise
THE APPROACH
How we ran the motion
Bilingual messaging tracks
Every sequence had two variants — English for C-suite, Arabic for VP/Director level. Native-speaker copywriter on the account. Reply rate on the Arabic track outperformed English by 1.8x at mid-management level.
Local profile fronting
Outreach ran from two locally-based senior profiles (Head of Enterprise + Account Director) — both with established GCC networks. We did NOT use the founder's profile for cold outreach (cultural fit).
Cultural calendar awareness
Outreach volume scaled down during Ramadan, halted on Eid, and shifted to a Sun–Thu working week. Mondays were treated as 'second day' not 'start of week' — our open rates on Sundays were 2.3x higher than the global benchmark.
Reference-led credibility
First message led with one named (already-public) reference customer in the same vertical. In GCC enterprise, social proof from a peer organisation outperforms every other hook we tested.
In-person handoff
Any SQL who replied 'open to a meeting' was offered a coffee at their office in Riyadh / Jeddah / Dubai — handled by client's local rep. Show rate on in-person bookings was 87%.
TRIGGER SIGNALS
What we waited for before reaching out
Every account had to fire at least one of these signals in the last 90 days before it entered the sequence. Trigger-based timing is the single biggest driver of reply rate.
Vision 2030 program awards / digital transformation mandates
Government tenders + press
Pre-allocated budget for connectivity & infra
New CIO / Head of Network appointment
LinkedIn job-change alerts
New leaders re-tender connectivity contracts
Multi-site or branch expansion announcements
Local press + LinkedIn company posts
SD-WAN / MPLS re-evaluation window
Existing telecom contract age (>3 years)
Public procurement records + manual research
Renewal cycle approaching
Active hiring for network / cloud roles
LinkedIn Jobs (KSA + UAE)
Infrastructure investment underway
THE FUNNEL
Numbers at each step of the motion
Monthly steady-state. Numbers rounded; conversion rates measured over 6+ months.
Target accounts (KSA + GCC)
Enterprise, 500+ employees
1,800
Buyer contacts identified
Bilingual EN/AR enrichment
5,200
Connection requests sent / month
2 profiles · 120/wk · Sun–Thu
1,000
Connections accepted
410 (41%)
Conversations started
247
Positive replies
54 (13.2%)
Meetings booked / month
In-person preferred
23
Sales-qualified (SQL)
87% show rate on in-person
20
CAMPAIGN MECHANICS
What the engine looked like
Profiles running outbound
2 (Head of Enterprise + Account Director)
Connection requests / week / profile
120
Languages
English + Arabic (native-speaker copy)
Personalization level
Account + vertical + named reference
Tools
Sales Navigator, HeyReach, Clay, internal CRM
TIMELINE
From kickoff to steady state
Week 1–2
ICP rebuild, vertical prioritization, reference selection
Week 2–3
Bilingual copy, sequence build, profile optimization
Week 4
Launch — 1 profile, GCC working week cadence
Week 5–8
Ramp to 2 profiles. 18–22 SQLs/month consistently.
Week 9–24
Steady state. Expansion into Qatar + Bahrain verticals.
Engagement length: Ongoing — 9 months at time of writing
THE RESULTS
Numbers that held month after month
SQLs booked
in 6 months
SQLs / month
months 2–6 average
Acceptance rate
on connection requests
Positive reply rate
of accepted connections
Show rate
on in-person meetings
Active enterprise deals
in pipeline at month 6
"What impressed us was how seriously they took the local context — Arabic copy, Ramadan calendar, the in-person handoff. Most foreign agencies copy-paste a global playbook. This felt built for our region."
Head of Enterprise Sales
Telecom / Managed Services · 120 employees · Riyadh
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