An HR consulting and executive search firm had no repeatable way to start a conversation with a buyer who had never heard of them. New business arrived when a referral happened to appear. Over 18 months we booked 97 appointments with owners and HR executives, producing $167,000 in closed engagements across four clients, without the firm adding a single sales hire.
What the program delivered
- 97 appointments with owners and HR executives over 18 months
- $167,000 in closed engagements across four clients
- $75,000 largest single engagement
- No additional sales headcount required
The position before we started
The owner of this firm was the entire sales function, while also running a second company. That is a common position in professional services and it works until it does not, because referrals arrive on their own schedule and nobody can prospect consistently while delivering the work and running another business at the same time.
The firm was strong at the part that matters most. What it lacked was a reliable way to get in front of somebody who did not already know them, which is a different problem from being unable to sell.
What the firm needed
- A first conversation that does not depend on a referral. Referrals arrive on their own schedule, which makes revenue impossible to plan around.
- Meetings with people who can authorise a fee. Retained search is a considered purchase, and a meeting with somebody who cannot sign is a pleasant waste of an hour.
- No additional headcount. The owner was already the whole sales function while running a second company, so any solution that required managing a new hire was not a solution.
What we ran, and why it was mostly LinkedIn
This program used LinkedIn, phone and email rather than the four-channel mix we run for contractors, because the buyers are different. An HR executive or a company owner considering an executive search firm is reachable on LinkedIn in a way that a plant maintenance supervisor is not, and a sequenced connection and message lands better than a cold call into a front desk.
Retained search is a considered purchase, so the qualification focuses on whether a role is actually open, whether the person we are meeting can authorise a fee, and whether the need is defined well enough to discuss terms at a first meeting.
$75,000, from a sequenced LinkedIn approach
A sequenced LinkedIn connection and message reached the chief executive of a specialty construction firm with between 50 and 200 employees, and he replied with interest. The firm’s principal asked to take it from there directly, which is the correct instinct for a professional services sale at that level.
Appointment setting opens the door. The relationship gets built by the person who will deliver the work. That engagement closed at $75,000, the largest of the program, and it closed quickly because the meeting was with somebody who could authorise it and the need was already defined before anybody sat down.
Why 97 is the number to read
Professional services revenue lags the work that produces it. An executive search engagement takes months from first conversation to signed agreement, and the relationships that produce the largest fees are usually not the ones that close first.
Ninety-seven qualified meetings with owners and HR executives who had never heard of this firm is a different operating position from waiting for referrals, and it is the asset that outlasts any single engagement on the list.
What building this in house would have cost
The alternative to an outbound program is hiring for it. Median on-target earnings for one sales development representative were $80,000 in 2025, and that figure is compensation alone. It does not include recruiting, management time, technology, data, or the ramp period before a new hire produces anything at all.
For a firm where the owner is already the entire sales function while running a second company, the constraint is not only the money. Building a sales team is itself a project, and it lands on the person with the least time to run it. This firm got the calendar without adding a seat.
Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models, Motions & Metrics. 351 B2B companies, 78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS.
Questions about this program
What did the program produce?
97 appointments with owners and HR executives over 18 months, and $167,000 in closed engagements across four clients.
Why does this program use LinkedIn rather than direct mail?
The buyer is different. An HR executive or company owner is reachable on LinkedIn in a way that a plant maintenance supervisor is not, so the channel mix follows the buyer.
How long does an executive search engagement take to close?
Months, typically. Professional services revenue lags the meetings that produce it, and the relationships that generate the largest fees are usually not the ones that close first.
What was the largest engagement?
$75,000, from a sequenced LinkedIn approach to the chief executive of a specialty construction firm.
Is this cheaper than hiring a sales development representative?
Median on-target earnings for one representative were $80,000 in 2025, before recruiting, management time, technology, data and ramp. For an owner who is already the whole sales function, the time cost of building a team is often the larger constraint.
Results from Abstrakt program records for this client, first published September 2026.