Ep. 117 - Cracking the Code to Quality Outreach - Charles Tenot

In this episode of Future Fuzz, Justin sits down with Charles Tenot, CEO of Lemlist, to unpack the state of outbound sales in an era of automation overload. Charles shares how Lemlist is helping sales teams break through inbox fatigue with personalized, intent-driven outreach, while steering clear of the “spray and pray” approach damaging the industry.

From dissecting cold email spam to revealing why quality beats quantity every time, Charles also dives into the right way to combine LinkedIn and email, the importance of authentic engagement, and Lemlist’s own content playbook that fuels long-term trust. He also previews his upcoming Sassiest talk on breaking through revenue plateaus, doubling Lemlist’s ARR from $15M to $32M in just 18 months.

Guest Bio

Charles Tenot is the CEO of Lemlist, a next-generation sales engagement platform enabling teams to scale personalized outreach without sacrificing quality. Before stepping into the CEO role, Charles served as Lemlist’s COO and, prior to that, as Chief Revenue Officer at Skello, where he scaled the revenue team from 20 to 150 people.

Known for his candid take on outbound sales best practices, Charles actively shares insights on LinkedIn, speaks at leading SaaS events, and champions a “give value first” approach to marketing and sales. Under his leadership, Lemlist has doubled ARR in just 18 months by focusing on quality, authenticity, and strategic growth execution.

Takeaways

• The outbound industry is flooded with high-volume, low-quality outreach, hurting everyone.
• Quality beats quantity: personalized, relevant outreach drives better results.
• LinkedIn + email together outperform either channel alone.
• Authentic, human engagement is the antidote to automation fatigue.
• Content should be high-quality and trust-building, avoid “fluff” downloads.
• Growth plateaus can be broken with focused strategy and market-driven narratives.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome & Introduction to Charles Tenot

01:07 How the Outreach Landscape Has Evolved

03:27 The Rise of High-Volume Spam Tactics

04:55 Why “Spray and Pray” Damages the Industry

06:50 Quality Outreach: Lessons from a Top BDR

08:35 LinkedIn’s Strengths & Limitations for Sales

12:32 Boosting Acceptance & Reply Rates on LinkedIn

15:17 Balancing Automation with Human Touch

17:20 Lemlist’s Content Playbook for Customer Value

20:09 Running Webinars that People Actually Attend

21:36 Thought Leadership vs. Overly Commercial Pitches

22:54 Why Bad Content Erodes Brand Trust

24:09 Sassiest 2024: Breaking the $15M ARR Plateau

25:12 Closing & Where to Follow Charles

LinkedIn

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