The B2B Playbook #199: B2B Outbound Strategy: Conversations Over Meetings with Joey Gilkey
If your outbound is optimised for meetings, not conversations, you’re burning cash and trust.
We sit down with Joey Gilkey (CEO, Titan X) and Adem Manderovic (Closed Circuit Selling, CRO School) to rebuild B2B outbound so it actually drives revenue. We unpack why the SDR-AE factory failed, how to get 25% connect rates, and how to use first-party signals to guide timing, ads, and follow up.
Joey shows why he pays SDRs to create completed conversations and rigorous disposition buckets. Adem explains cataloguing and channel validation so marketing stops guessing and starts planning around real timing. We dig into audience activation using opt-in texts and VSLs, and why “buyer intent” data isn’t the shortcut you think it is.
Tune in and learn:
+ A practical B2B outbound strategy built on conversations and 6 disposition buckets
+ Why the SDR-AE model and Predictable Revenue broke outbound (and what replaces it)
+ Why pipeline coverage and meeting quotas mislead teams, and what to measure instead
This is a must-watch if you’re a B2B revenue leader. Stop chasing low-value meetings and start engineering high-value conversations that inform ads, timing, and deals.
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00:00 Why today’s outbound is breaking trust
01:34 Joey Gilkey on Titan X and the “phone intent” wedge
02:58 The 25% connect-rate play and why conversations matter
04:30 How the SDR-AE split eroded buyer trust
06:05 Cheap headcount, costly model: the real flaw
08:36 What APAC got right: senior sellers and CS roots
10:28 Market validation beats MQLs every time
12:44 VC incentives and the sales industrial complex
13:58 Joey’s reversal: paying SDRs to have conversations
15:42 Long-cycle selling lessons that fix short-term thinking
18:32 Buckets, not bookings: 6 dispositions that run your follow up
21:05 Full-cycle AEs vs modern roles – what actually works
27:10 Audience activation: VSL + phone + SMS that scales trust
32:33 Opt-in texting, pixeling, and smarter retargeting
34:52 Make marketing useful: capture commercial intel, not contacts
36:55 Pipeline coverage is a vanity metric without context
38:28 Phone intel powering LinkedIn ads and account timing
40:28 Why “buyer intent” data misses the mark
45:35 PE firms are cutting SDRs – what to run toward instead
52:57 Retraining SDRs is easy. Leaders are the bottleneck
55:40 Final take: value conversations, not meetings
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S07 E199 - The B2B Playbook
#b2b #b2bmarketing #digitalmarketing #demandgeneration #outboundsales