VeST - Cold Outreach AI Sales Agent

Cold Email Outreach

From Ineffective Cold Emails to an Autonomous AI Sales Representative

Background: A Struggle with Traditional Sales Outreach

Like many B2B companies, Velais initially struggled with lead generation using traditional outbound techniques.

Our approach relied mailny on LinkedIn Sales Navigator direct messages and cold emails targeted at our Ideal Client Profile (ICPs). However, the results were disappointing:

📉 Open rate: Below 10% (which is the industry average for IT services outreach)

📉 Response rate: A mere 0.8%, meaning almost no engagement

Without a dedicated sales team, we knew that scaling outbound outreach manually was not sustainable. Instead of hiring a team of sales reps, we decided to use AI to build an automated solution.

This decision led to the development of our Velais Sales Tool (VeST), which started as an internal tool and quickly became one of the most requested solutions by our clients.

The Challenge: Generic and Impersonal Cold Emails

🔹 Cold outreach emails typically fail because they are too generic and lack personalization

🔹 Recipients see them as spammy and irrelevant

🔹 Most sales outreach methods rely on broad messaging, which doesn’t connect with a lead’s specific pain points

Through market research, we found that despite the hype, Generative AI was still underutilized in cold email automation.

We based our AI Agent on one key assumption:

"If we can deeply understand a lead's company, industry, challenges, and the person we’re reaching out to, we can craft highly personalized, compelling emails that resonate with potential clients".

The Solution: VeST, an AI-Powered Autonomous Sales Agent

To solve this challenge, we developed an AI Sales Automation Agent capable of:

✅ Analyzing the lead's company, industry, and market

✅ Understanding their products, services, and customer base

✅ Identifying potential pain points based on their business model

✅ Personalizing the email’s tone and style based on the recipient's social activity and professional background

1️⃣ Intelligent Data Gathering from LinkedIn & Beyond

Our AI Agent starts with a LinkedIn URL and automatically collects relevant company information using LinkedIn’s APIs.

✔ Searches company details (size, industry, funding stage, product offerings)

✔ Analyzes key personnel and decision-makers

✔ Identifies recent company news, announcements, and leadership changes

To deepen its understanding, the AI Agent then performs an intelligent web search to gather:

• Press releases and blog content

• Public financial reports (if available)

• Customer reviews & feedback

• Market trends affecting the business

2️⃣ Understanding the Email Recipient

Once we understand the company, we analyze the person receiving the email:

✔ Extracts recent LinkedIn posts, articles, and comments

✔ Identifies their role, responsibilities, and interests

✔ Adjusts the email tone and style based on their writing and engagement patterns

3️⃣ Generating Hyper-Personalized Cold Emails

The AI Agent crafts an email tailored specifically for that lead, ensuring that:

✔ The opening line references a specific, relevant insight about their company

✔ The body aligns with their business challenges and shows how Velais can help

✔ The call-to-action feels natural and compelling, increasing response rates

Using this method, the increased level of specificity makes emails feel personal and relevant, drastically increasing response rates.

Expanding into a Full AI-Powered Sales Automation Service

As demand for our AI Agent grew among our clients, we expanded it into a fully managed service, covering:

✔ Domain setup & reputation management: We purchase a new domain, configure DNS records, and warm up email accounts to increase deliverability.

✔ Automated email sending: The AI Agent integrates with tools like Apollo and SalesHandy to automate outreach campaigns.

✔ Response monitoring & lead nurturing: AI categorizes replies and can adjust follow-up messages dynamically.

✔ CRM Integration: The AI seamlessly connects with existing sales CRMs to enrich prospect data.

🚀 Essentially, this system operates as an autonomous sales rep, working 24/7 to generate leads.

The Results: A 7X Increase in Cold Email Engagement

💡 Before VeST: Manual cold outreach. 9.1% open rates and 0.8% response rates

💡 After VeST: Autonomous hyper-personalized outreach. 18.5% open rates and 3.9% response rates.

🚀 Key Outcomes:

✅ Email open rates skyrocketed from 9.1% → 18.5% (a 2X increase)

✅ Response rates jumped from 0.8% → 3.9% (5X improvement!)

✅ Cold email campaigns now generate 9X more sales calls

✅ Clients using the AI Agent see an average 40% increase in qualified leads

✅ Sales outreach is now fully automated, freeing up time for higher-value tasks

With this AI-driven approach, we eliminated the inefficiencies of traditional outbound sales and transformed a low-performing channel into a predictable, high-impact lead-generation system.

Why This Case Matters

This project proves the power of AI-driven sales automation. Instead of relying on outdated cold email tactics, we leveraged AI to deeply understand leads, personalize outreach, and drive real engagement.

For B2B companies struggling with lead generation, this case study demonstrates that AI can revolutionize outbound sales, making it:

✅ More effective with higher engagement and conversion rates

✅ More scalable since AI automates repetitive sales tasks

This approach it’s a game-changer for outbound sales.