3‐step ritual that books 20 ICP calls per month

Cold outreach is tough. Most founders scrape by on 2% reply rates, barely having a few conversations with their ICP every month which is unsustainable if you want to start and eventually scale a business.

The issue with most cold outreach is quite simple: it’s either framed incorrectly because it’s more about you than the prospect, or the value proposition isn’t attractive enough.

In this email i’ll share a simple psychological trick that reframes your cold outreach and has, in 100% of cases when implemented, helped previously frustrated founders acquire conversations with their ICP on demand. This method is part of my daily ritual that I call my “LinkedIn daily non-negotiables”.

Here’s why this matters in the first place: leads are the lifeblood of a go-to-market motion. Without leads you have no pipeline or revenue and your startup will never see the light of day, regardless of how good your product is.

Until you're consistently engaging with people who actually feel the pain your product solves, everything else - pricing tests, product iterations, investor decks is pure guesswork and honestly a waste of time.

That's why I developed what I call the LinkedIn Daily Non-negotiables ritual. It’s a structured, repeatable daily ritual that turns cold connections into warm, high-value conversations by doing something stupid simple: seeking feedback instead of pitching a sale.

I call it “non-negotiable” because I truly believe that there is no better use of a founder’s time than speaking with and closing customers.

Here’s exactly how you do it:

1. Send 20 new ICP connection requests daily
   
   Target high-signal prospects based on job title, tech stack, and company size. Keep the connection message blank. You should be achieving > 30% acceptance rate.
   

2. Message every new connection
   

   Thank them for connecting. Send them a quick open-ended message that gets them engaged such as “what you working on atm?”. Ideally don’t make your ask right away but this is time-dependent. Although simple this step is important to establishing a human connection. In the past i’ve sent over a quick 30 sec Loom video so they can see my face.

3. Send 20 outbound DMs daily to existing connections
   
   You will think of every excuse in the world to try avoid this. Ignore those excuses. Get this out of the way first thing in the morning - it really is the most important thing you can do if you’re just getting started.

Why the feedback-first approach works

People are more friendly than you think. If you can frame your DMs in a way that positions the other person as an authoritative figure by letting them know how you value their opinion and make it clear that you don’t intend to pitch them, i’ve found that reply rates easily 3-5x.

Specifically why it works:

• Ego boost: People love being recognised as experts

• Curiosity hook: Early-stage ideas intrigue busy professionals

• Reciprocity effect: People naturally want to reciprocate when you've valued their input first

If you think about it for a second, at a macro-level marketing and sales is all about framing.

Now you might be asking “what exactly do I say in these DMs?” or “what happens when they say yes, how do I run the calls?”

For the first question reply “SOP” and I’ll send over a simple SOP for you to follow. For the second question, i’ll be sharing the Structured Interview method in Friday’s email so keep an eye out for that. I’ve found it to have the single biggest impact on validating a SaaS product and stress-testing your assumptions without wasting months of time and a lot of money.

Reply “SOP” for the resource and keep an eye out for Friday’s email.

Cheers,

Liam

P.S.

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