216 meeting-ready leads in 78 days for ProfResults

ProfResults is a small, boutique local marketing agency, somewhere between 1 and 10 people. They help local businesses get found on Google, and sell a local SEO package.

They didn't need us to survive. Inbound and referrals already worked. They wanted one more channel on top, one that could bring in 1 to 3 extra clients a month.

From Oct 31, 2025 to Jan 16, 2026, cold email produced 216 meeting-ready leads across eight trades.

This case study covers how ProfResults was growing before, the one email that worked across every trade, the targeting mistake we fixed after month one, and the sales system we built so no lead went cold.

1. Challenges

A good engine, but only one

Before us, ProfResults grew on organic content plus paid ads that sent people to lead magnets. Those fed a newsletter, and the newsletter is what signed local businesses for them. It worked, but every client came through the same funnel.

A clear target: 1 to 3 extra clients a month

The goal was specific. Book meetings for the local SEO package, and add 1 to 3 clients a month on top of what inbound and referrals already brought in.

Not every local business can buy

A local SEO package needs an owner who can pay for it. As we found out in month one, plenty of the owners who reply are too small to buy.

2. What they tried

Content, ads and a newsletter

Organic content, paid ads to lead magnets and a newsletter brought in their clients. Inbound and referrals were their whole pipeline.

No outbound channel

There was no cold email running. Every lead had to find ProfResults first.

3. Our solution

Lists built from Google Business Profiles

We built the lists from Google Business Profile data and split them by trade: tree surgeons, chiropractors, heating engineers, plumbing contractors, electricians, roofers, pest control and drainage services. Each trade got its own campaign, so we could see which trades replied best.

One email for every trade

Subject

quick question

We kept the subject lines to two plain words, like "quick question".

Body

Hey {first name}, just saw you're not ranking top three on Google.

We could get you into the top three on Google Maps within 90 days or you don't pay.

Can I send you a video showing how I would do that?

Three lines did all the work:

1. A real observation. They weren't in the top three on Google.
2. A clear promise with no risk. Top three on Google Maps within 90 days, or they don't pay.
3. A small ask. Not a call, just "can I send you a video?"

The trade was a merge field, so the same email worked for plumbers, roofers, solar and basically every home service.

Fix the targeting after month one

Month one taught us something. We were hitting owners who were too small to buy.

At the end of that first month, in early December 2025, we switched the targeting to multi-location businesses, or sites showing more than a couple of employees. After that the leads were good, and it stayed easy right through Christmas.

The interesting part: the reply rate didn't really move. The same share of people said yes. The meetings just fit a lot better.

A sales system, not just leads

We didn't just hand over leads and walk away.

• We built their CRM in Close.
• We set up calling inside it.
• We wrote warm-call scripts so they knew exactly what to say when someone picked up.
• We added follow-up automations for leads that didn't book right away, so nobody slipped through.

By early November, ProfResults was set up to call every new lead within 5 minutes of the reply.

Ramping up the volume

We started with one trade, tree surgeons, on Oct 31, 2025. The other seven trades were added between Nov 9 and Dec 28. Sending ramped up to around 2,000 emails a day in December.

4. Results

Bottom line

• 216 meeting-ready leads in 78 days (Oct 31, 2025 to Jan 16, 2026).
• 27,520 leads across eight trade campaigns.
• Every new lead called within 5 minutes of the reply, from early November.

Source and limits

• Leads and positive replies come from the trade campaigns screenshot at the top of this page.
• "Leads" means contacts in the campaign. It isn't the number of emails sent.
• "Meeting-ready" means a positive reply, the reply label in the sending tool.
• The window starts on the day the first trade campaign was created and ends on Jan 16, 2026.
• Our job stopped at the lead. ProfResults ran the calls and the closing.

Positive leads by trade

What the numbers say

Tree surgeons led on volume. 50 positive leads, from the first campaign we launched. It also had the longest run.

Roofers and drainage led per lead. Roofers gave about 12 positive replies per 1,000 leads in a campaign that started on Dec 11. Drainage did about the same from a much smaller list.

Heating engineers had the biggest list, but not the most leads. 5,664 leads produced 26 positive replies, less than half the rate of roofers.

Pest control was a one-off. That campaign bounced at 10% (225 bounces). It's the outlier in the set.

What prospects said

Most positive replies were answers to the video offer. We offered each owner a short Loom video showing how we'd get them into the top three on Google Maps in their local area. They wrote back saying yes, send it over, and the video opened the door to a call.

Before and after the targeting fix

The switch didn't change how many people replied. It changed who replied: after month one, the people on the calls were multi-location businesses or companies with more than a couple of staff.

After the fix there was no pushback on lead quality. The only objection ProfResults ever had was lead quality before the fix.

Timeline

How it ended

ProfResults had proven the channel works, so they brought outreach in-house. We still work with them on and off.

What we learned

Check who can buy, not just who replies

Month one looked fine on reply rate. The problem only showed up on calls: too many owners were too small to buy. Fixing the list kept the replies and made the calls worth having.

One honest observation beats a long pitch

"Just saw you're not ranking top three on Google" is short, true and easy to check. It gave owners a reason to reply without a single line about the agency.

Take the risk off the table

"Within 90 days or you don't pay" turned a monthly SEO retainer into a safe test. That made a cold reply much easier.

Merge fields let one winner scale

Once the email worked for one trade, it worked for the next with one word changed. That's how we went from one campaign to eight in two months.

Speed to lead is part of the result

A positive reply is only worth something if someone calls fast. The CRM, the scripts and the 5-minute rule turned replies into conversations.