Case Study

The Playbook Agency Closed a $107k Deal and Booked 254+ Meetings Using Smartlead

Wajahat Ali
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February 24, 2026
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Key Highlights

  • 254 meetings booked in 12 months.
  • 60 closed deals with more in the pipeline.
  • $107,000 deal closed through Smartlead campaigns.

Introduction: Revolutionizing Outbound and RevOps for SaaS, B2B, and Web3

The Playbook Agency, co-founded by Abbas Somji and Leo Branica, is one of Europe’s fastest-growing outbound and RevOps agencies specializing in helping SaaS, B2B, and Web3 businesses achieve scalable success. Led by two former SaaS heads of sales, they bring unparalleled expertise to their clients, ranging from pre-product market fit startups to post-IPO enterprises.

Their mission is simple yet powerful: fix broken outbound systems and establish efficient, scalable outbound processes for businesses. Their client base is from the US, UK, Europe, and beyond.

The Challenge: Scaling Outbound with Efficiency

Before discovering Smartlead, The Playbook Agency faced key challenges:

  • Managing multiple client inboxes without an efficient system.
  • Lack of tools to monitor deliverability and track performance in real-time.
  • Difficulty in scaling email accounts for clients without compromising deliverability.
  • The need for advanced reporting and API customizations to enhance their operations.

After using many sales engagement tools – and he would not recommend using them as they don’t really work for cold email outreach or help the needle move forward –  and cold email platforms, Abaas stumbled upon Smarttlead.

How Smartlead Solved The Playbook Agency’s Challenges

Smartlead transformed The Playbook Agency’s operations by providing an all-in-one cold email platform that addressed their pain points and offered one thing they were looking for: scalability.

1. Centralized Client Management

  • Challenge: The team needed a centralized solution to manage multiple client accounts and streamline operations.
  • Solution: Smartlead’s client portal and centralized dashboard allowed The Playbook Agency to monitor and manage all client inboxes in one place. This feature eliminated inefficiencies and provided seamless client access, enhancing branding and operational visibility.

2. Unmatched Scalability

  • Challenge: Scaling email accounts for clients without affecting deliverability was a persistent issue.
  • Solution: With Smartlead’s Master Inbox feature, they could scale indefinitely using unlimited email accounts per client. Features like IP and inbox rotation further ensured that campaigns maintained high deliverability and avoided domain burnout.

3. Enhanced Personalization and Automation

  • Challenge: Generic email tools failed to offer the sophistication required for personalized outreach.
  • Solution: Smartlead’s spintax capabilities and AI-driven auto-categorization allowed The Playbook Agency to craft hyper-relevant campaigns. Custom prompts for auto-categorization tailored campaigns to individual client needs, delivering precise, value-driven messaging.

4. Cutting-Edge Deliverability and Metrics

  • Challenge: Ensuring high deliverability and understanding key performance metrics for cold email campaigns.
  • Solution: Smartlead’s SmartDelivery feature provided real-time insights into email deliverability, highlighting issues early. The team used these insights to tweak campaigns, resulting in consistent inbox placement and higher reply rates.

Impressive Results Achieved with Smartlead

The Playbook Agency’s partnership with Smartlead has delivered remarkable outcomes:

  • 254 meetings booked in 12 months, leading to 60 closed deals and additional deals in the pipeline.
  • A $107,000 deal was closed for one client using Smartlead-powered outreach.
  • Another client adopted Smartlead as their entire SMB function, driven by the agency’s results.

Favourite Smartlead Features

Abbas shared his favourite Smartlead features that have transformed their approach:

  1. Customizable Dashboards: Centralized and client-accessible dashboards enhance transparency and branding.
  2. Slack Integration: Real-time updates and issue resolution via Slack keep campaigns running smoothly.
  3. Spintax and Auto-Categorization: Automated personalization and email sorting save significant time.
  4. Unlimited Email Accounts: The ability to scale client email accounts ensures consistent outreach without compromising quality.

Looking Ahead: Features on Their Wishlist

While The Playbook Agency is thrilled with Smartlead’s capabilities, they’re looking forward to future enhancements:

  • More dashboard customization, including data on variation performance and subject line success.
  • Insights into the most receptive personas for campaigns.
  • Potential CRM features to further streamline operations.

Conclusion

Smartlead has enabled The Playbook Agency to redefine outbound success for their clients. By providing tools for scalable email outreach, robust personalization, and unparalleled deliverability insights, Smartlead has become an essential part of its operations.

Abbas sums it up perfectly:
"If you’re a founder or a Sales VP looking to book meetings at scale with automation, Smartlead is your best bet. Its unmatched scalability and deliverability have transformed how we run campaigns and deliver results for our clients.”

For any agency or business looking to optimize its cold email strategy, Smartlead offers a proven, scalable solution to achieve outstanding results. A 14-day free trial will show you how it helps your business - all just a click away.

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Wajahat Ali

Wajahat Ali is a Technical Content Writer at Smartlead, specializing in the B2B and SaaS sectors. With a talent for simplifying complex concepts, he crafts clear, engaging content that makes intricate topics accessible to both experts and newcomers. Wajahat’s expertise spans across copywriting, social media content, and lead generation, where he consistently delivers valuable, impactful content that resonates with a global audience. His ability to blend technical knowledge with compelling storytelling ensures that every piece of content drives both understanding and results, helping businesses connect with their target markets effectively.

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What our customers say

Bojan Najdov

Founder, Lambda Group

“The best outbound email marketing software. Customer support - they are so responsive and helpful Features - you can add multiple email doma”

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Frequently asked questions

What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
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Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.

How does Smartlead's unlimited mailboxes feature benefit me?
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Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.

What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
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The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.

With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.

2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.

3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.

Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
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Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.

Real-time AI learning refines strategies based on performance, optimizing deliverability without manual adjustments. Smartlead's advanced features and strategies are designed to improve email deliverability rates, making it a robust choice for enhancing cold email campaign success.

Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
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Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!

What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
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Smartlead is a robust cold emailing software designed to transform cold emails into reliable revenue streams. Trusted by over 31,000 businesses, Smartlead excels in email deliverability, lead generation, cold email automation, and sales outreach. A unified master inbox streamlines communication management, while built-in email verification reduces bounce rates.Additionally, Smartlead offers essential tools such as CNAME, SPF Checker, DMARC Checker, Email Verifier, Blacklist Check Tool, and Email Bounce Rate Calculator for optimizing email performance.

How does Smartlead, as a cold emailing tool, automate the cold email process?
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Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.

The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!

How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
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Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.

Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.

2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign.

3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.

4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.

What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
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Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.

Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.

Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
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Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.

Marketers and growing businesses benefit from the Pro Plan ($94/month), with 30000 active leads and 150000 monthly emails, plus a custom CRM and active support. Lead generation agencies and large enterprises can opt for the Custom Plan ($174/month), providing up to 12 million active lead credits and 60 million emails, with advanced CRM integration and customisation options.