Case Study

Outbound Mastery: The Deal Lab's Journey with Smartlead

Priya Abraham
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February 24, 2026
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We all love stories, don't we? Some, like that of The Deal Lab, are truly inspirational.

Founded by Kellen Casebeer, he is the driving force behind this innovative venture.

But how did it all begin?

Kellen's journey embodies the essence of entrepreneurship: identifying a problem, crafting a solution, and taking bold action.

Noticing a gap in outbound sales, he saw an opportunity to revolutionize the industry.

Since then, Kellen has remained steadfast on the path to success. So, what’s the secret behind this triumph? Smartlead played a pivotal role in his journey, amplifying his efforts and propelling The Deal Lab to new heights.

Join us as we explore the origins of The Deal Lab, uncover the influence of Smartlead in its remarkable ascent, and discover the keys to Kellen’s enduring success.

The Journey of The Deal Lab

The Deal Lab was founded by Kellen Casebeer, a seasoned sales professional with a passion for efficiency and results.

Recognizing a common struggle among companies—the difficulty in generating consistent and repeatable pipelines—Kellen set out to transform the way businesses approached outbound sales.

Having trained hundreds of sales reps, Kellen noticed that these challenges often stemmed from misaligned communication with target market segments and a lack of modern technology to support sales efforts.

Driven to address this gap, he founded The Deal Lab with a clear mission: to help companies "speak their prospects' language" and achieve Message-Market-Fit, a principle central to effective sales communication.

At The Deal Lab, Kellen and his team offer a range of solutions designed to optimize sales processes and deliver tangible results.

One of their core services is cold outbound email campaigns, where strategic messaging and precise targeting help book calls and drive engagement.

In addition, The Deal Lab provides cold calling, B2B sales consulting, RevOps support, and sales process optimization.

Fueled by Kellen's obsession with speed to value, The Deal Lab empowers companies to overcome pipeline generation challenges.

By combining expert insights with modern technology and focusing on effective communication, Kellen and his team help clients accelerate sales growth and achieve measurable results.

How does The Deal Lab work?

The Deal Lab operates differently from traditional lead generation agencies. Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, they believe in the power of personalized and targeted strategies to drive results.

With The Deal Lab, they own the tech stack, utilizing a proven process they’ve executed dozens of times. Operating autonomously with little drag on clients' businesses, they bring back their findings at a quality and speed that would be challenging to replicate elsewhere.

The Deal Lab team recognizes a common challenge faced by many businesses engaging in lead generation – the lack of consistency and repeatability in their sales efforts. While some agencies rely on mass email blasts and generic messaging, The Deal Lab understands that such approaches often yield mixed results and lack long-term sustainability.

Their proprietary segmentation & experimentation model allows them to rapidly iterate outbound campaigns, double down on what works, and zero in on Message-Market-Fit.

Their approach is centered around understanding their clients' target market segments on a deep level. They invest significant time and effort into segmenting the market, analyzing contact records, and identifying the pain points specific to each persona within these segments. By doing so, they ensure that their campaigns resonate with the intended audience, addressing their unique needs and challenges.

Once they have segmented the market and identified key pain points, they conduct rigorous split testing to fine-tune their messaging and optimize campaign performance. This iterative process allows them to pinpoint the most effective strategies and discard those that do not yield the desired results.

No expense or effort is spared when it comes to their campaigns; where many try to run lean & focus on profits, The Deal Lab has invested heavily in toolsets to gain all possible advantages.

What role does Smartlead play in The Deal Lab's success?

The pivotal role Smartlead played in the success of Deal Lab cannot be overstated. Smartlead has been an integral part of the business's strategy, enabling them to scale operations efficiently and effectively.

Recognizing the need to streamline and automate lead generation processes, Kellen Casebeer, the founder of Deal Lab, turned to Smartlead early on. Coming from a background of high-ticket consulting, Kellen understood the importance of maximizing time and expertise across multiple clients. Smartlead presented itself as the perfect solution to this challenge, offering a platform that aligned with Deal Lab's objectives of scalability and reliability.

One of the key advantages of Smartlead is its robust feature set, which includes unlimited inboxes, custom API calls, and inbox rotation. These features have proven instrumental in executing highly targeted and personalized outbound campaigns. Moreover, Smartlead's purpose-built design and intuitive interface have made it easy for Deal Lab to implement complex strategies and workflows seamlessly.

Beyond its technical capabilities, Smartlead stands out for its unwavering commitment to customer success. Kellen emphasizes the importance of being part of a community that prioritizes its members and actively supports their growth. Smartlead's team and the broader community have been invaluable resources, providing guidance, assistance, and encouragement every step of the way.

The impact of Smartlead on Deal Lab's success is evident in the tangible results achieved through their partnership. By leveraging Smartlead's capabilities, Deal Lab has consistently achieved impressive open and reply rates (as high as 23.2%), exceeding industry benchmarks.

Looking Ahead

The Deal Lab is all set for an exciting journey filled with growth and success. They're passionate about crafting personalized strategies and ensuring their clients thrive.

Looking forward, The Deal Lab will keep embracing partnerships and innovative tools to push boundaries and surpass expectations.

And, with Smartlead by their side as a trusted ally, they'll continue to navigate the outbound landscape with confidence and finesse.

Join the ranks of successful businesses using Smartlead to revolutionize their outbound strategies by signing up today.

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Priya Abraham

Priya is a Senior Technical Writer and Editor with extensive experience in creating high-quality, SEO-optimized content that delivers measurable results. Specializing in technical writing, she crafts clear, concise, and valuable content that enhances online presence and establishes credibility for businesses across various industries. Priya combines her deep understanding of technical concepts with a strong focus on SEO best practices to produce content that is both informative and strategically optimized for search engines. With a passion for leveraging the power of well-crafted words, she helps organizations improve their digital footprint, drive engagement, and achieve their business objectives.

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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.