Small-scale marketing and lead generation agencies have difficulty reaching potential clients through social media and building relationships.

Doing this manually every day can be a laborious process that stretches your resources and doesn’t deliver optimal results.

This was a familiar challenge for Papa A. Sefa, the founder of Leveraged Outbound. His B2B sales and lead generation agency, which primarily serves the North American and Canadian markets, was ready to grow but needed a more efficient solution to handle outbound email campaigns at scale.

This is how Smartlead became the backbone of Leveraged Outbound’s success, helping them generate millions in revenue for their clients through cold email outreach.

Key Takeaways

• Saved 80% of operational time.
• 20-30 meetings booked per month for US clients.
• Generated multi-millions in pipeline revenue for clients, with high six-figure deals closed in 12 months.
• Smartlead’s API automation workflows, reduced manual efforts, and improved campaign efficiency.

How It Started: The Journey of Papa A. Sefa and Leveraged Outbound

Leveraged Outbound, founded by Papa Akwasi Sefa, is a specialized lead generation agency focused on helping businesses scale their revenue through AI-driven outbound email systems. With clients across North America and Canada, especially in PR firms, Leveraged Outbound has built a reputation for creating effective outbound strategies that don’t require expert-level involvement from their clients.

However, before discovering Smartlead, Papa’s journey was anything but smooth. Starting as a medical doctor who ran Facebook ads for businesses on the side, Papa’s passion for marketing quickly took center stage. He eventually launched his agency, serving healthcare and aesthetics clients in the US and UK.

Despite delivering great results, Papa faced one major issue: inconsistent lead flow. Frustrated with the lack of reliable lead generation, Papa immersed himself in the world of cold email outreach. Through trial and error, he discovered the secret to consistently generating leads and found his true passion in building outbound campaigns that deliver results.

That’s when Leveraged Outbound was born—an agency designed to help other business owners add six figures or more to their pipelines in less than 12 months, powered by cold email outreach.

The Challenges Faced Before Smartlead

Despite his success in lead generation, Papa’s business was far from efficient in the early days. His primary challenge was finding and reaching prospects at scale.

1. Manual Effort:

Papa spent hours manually managing his email outreach efforts. The process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, from building email lists to manually sending and tracking emails. Searching for relevant profiles on social media and engaging with them individually was inefficient, leaving little room for scalability.

2. Lack of Resources:

With limited resources, Papa found managing his clients' growing demands challenging. Scaling his outreach efforts while keeping interactions personalized became increasingly difficult, leading to bottlenecks in lead generation.

3. Social Media Reliance:

Relying heavily on social media to find prospects was slowing down his processes. While effective in building relationships, the manual effort involved in researching and reaching out to prospects was becoming unsustainable.

Papa knew he needed a tool to automate much of the work while maintaining the required personalization to connect with his prospects.

The Smartlead Solution

Papa's turning point came when Smartlead was recommended to him by several peers in the industry. Papa decided to try the platform, and within 18 months, Smartlead had become an integral part of his business operations.

Smartlead revolutionized the way Leveraged Outbound approached outbound marketing. The tool offered everything Papa sought: email automation, personalization, and seamless integration through its powerful API.

1. Automation that Saves 80% of Time

Smartlead’s automation capabilities were a game-changer for Papa and his team. By automating the entire email outreach process— from finding prospects to sending personalized emails and follow-ups—Papa saved 80% of the time he previously spent on manual tasks. 

He was able to automate the process for hundreds of emails per day, freeing up time to focus on more strategic business activities like client results and business development.

This allowed him to focus on other business areas, such as client results and social profile building.

Papa says, "My entire business is pretty much built upon Smartlead. Without it, I wouldn't have any business." Smartlead's efficiency allowed Leveraged Outbound to operate at a higher scale without sacrificing the quality of its campaigns.

2. API Access for Seamless Integration

According to Papa, one of the standout features of Smartlead was the API access. 

Papa used the API to connect Smartlead with his CRM and analytics tools, creating a fully automated system that handled everything from list building to tracking outreach performance. This eliminated the need for manual data entry and allowed real-time updates on campaign effectiveness.

Smartlead’s API access allowed them to build custom workflows tailored to their specific needs, a benefit they hadn’t found in any other tool.

3. Community Support via Slack

Another key benefit Papa appreciated was the sense of community and support that Smartlead provided. Papa could quickly get answers to any queries through a dedicated Slack channel, usually within minutes. The fast and responsive support system helped him overcome challenges and stay focused on growing his business.

Results: Multi-Million Dollars in the Pipeline

The results of using Smartlead were astounding for Leveraged Outbound:

• Significant Time Savings: Smartlead’s automation saved Papa 80% of his time, allowing him to focus on other critical aspects of his business.
• Meeting Bookings: Using Smartlead, Papa’s team could book 20-30 monthly meetings for their US clients, a drastic improvement in lead engagement and outreach.
• Revenue Growth: This year alone, Leveraged Outbound put multi-million dollars in the pipeline for its clients, closing high six-figure deals. This level of performance was previously unattainable without Smartlead.
• API Integration for Efficiency: Smartlead’s API allowed seamless integration and workflow automation, reducing manual efforts and improving campaign efficiency.

One of Papa’s clients saw exceptional results, adding over six figures to the sales pipeline in just a few months, thanks to the effectiveness of Smartlead-powered outreach campaigns.

‍What’s Next with Smartlead?

As Leveraged Outbound continues to scale, Papa is optimistic about the future and sees Smartlead as a permanent partner in his journey. He plans to explore additional features Smartlead offers, including enhanced deliverability tools and deeper analytics.

Papa’s vision includes creating custom dashboards for his clients, allowing them to gain more detailed insights into their campaign performance. This would further enhance the transparency and trust between Leveraged Outbound and its clients, giving them greater control over their outbound strategies.

Additionally, with Smartlead’s consistent updates and feature rollouts, Papa is excited to see how the platform will evolve to meet the ever-changing demands of the lead generation space. He appreciates the customer-first approach that Smartlead takes, continuously improving its platform based on user feedback.

Conclusion

For Papa A. Sefa and Leveraged Outbound, Smartlead has proven to be more than just a tool—it’s the backbone of their business. With Smartlead, they’ve been able to scale their outbound campaigns, automate their workflows, and, most importantly, deliver tangible results for their clients.

Papa’s success story is a testament to the power of automation and personalization and how Smartlead enables lead-generation agencies like Leveraged Outbound to generate millions in revenue through cold email outreach.

Papa says, "Smartlead helped us save 80% of our time, book 20-30 monthly meetings, and close six-figure deals for our clients. It’s been a game-changer."

With the right tools in place, Leveraged Outbound is set for even greater success in the future, and Smartlead will continue to be at the heart of its operations.

If you're looking for a solution to supercharge your email outreach and achieve scalable growth, Smartlead is your tool. Here's the 14-days free trail.

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