B2B SaaS . Performance Marketing
How Directive Consulting booked 284 meetings and closed 22 customers through cold email.
How we helped a leading B2B performance marketing agency generate $772K in contract value, close enterprise clients like iXSystems, and prove cold email as a scalable revenue channel in 12 months.
01 / At a Glance
The numbers
$772KContract value generated
22Paying customers closed
284Meetings booked
4.6xReturn on investment
12 moEngagement duration
"Team, DO NOT stop what you're doing! As of this note, we have 16 active leads. 7 have calls scheduled, 6 we're waiting on a response to schedule and 1 has gone to SOW. These opps range in topline value from $15M/yr to $634M/yr."
Devin Range, CRO at Directive Consulting
All metrics from internal tracking and attribution. Engagement ran February 2025 to February 2026.
02 / Who is Directive?
A performance marketing agency built for B2B
Directive Consulting is a performance marketing agency built specifically for B2B brands. Founded by Garrett Mehrguth, Directive works with SaaS companies and enterprise brands to drive measurable revenue through paid media, SEO, and demand generation.
Their sweet spot is the 200-1,000 employee B2B SaaS segment, targeting demand gen managers, directors, VPs of marketing, and CMOs across North America and the UK. When Directive came to us, they were already experts in marketing, but they needed a cold email partner who could match their standards for creative quality, data enrichment, and volume.
IndustryB2B Performance Marketing Agency
Target ICPB2B SaaS Companies (200-1,000 employees)
EngagementFebruary 2025 to February 2026
03 / The Challenge
Frustrated by slow, generic, junior-run cold email
Directive had worked with other cold email agencies before. The experience left them frustrated.
- Too Slow: Their previous cold email agency couldn't keep up with Directive's pace. Campaign iterations took weeks instead of days.
- Junior Talent: Too many account transitions and junior-level operators on the account. No continuity, no depth.
- Generic Copy: Garrett wanted original creative and real data enrichment, not basic merge tags recycled from underperforming ads.
"I don't see any of the amazing data enrichment you sold me on in the loom video. These are all basic merge tags that lack imagination. I want your best, most creative work so that we can scale together."
Garrett Mehrguth, CEO & Founder at Directive (March 4, 2025, 5 days into the engagement)
This wasn't a gentle suggestion. Garrett set the bar on day five: deliver world-class creative or this partnership wouldn't last. We took the feedback seriously and went back to the drawing board.
04 / Phase 1: The Turnaround
Rebuilding the copy and targeting from scratch
After Garrett's feedback on day five, we overhauled everything.
- Rewrote the entire copy library from scratch
- Built deeper AI personalization beyond surface-level merge tags
- Tested 19 different campaigns in the first two weeks across 3 offers, 3 sales triggers, and 3 AI prompt types
- Built a lookalike audience of 43,000 SaaS companies, plus purchased a 133K SaaS database
- Layered an AirPods incentive that converted 1 person per 300 emails, 2.5x the normal rate
The Breakthrough: Lookalike Audiences + AirPods. What actually worked wasn't the fancy AI prompts or complex sales triggers. It was simple, straightforward messaging ("here's what we do, are you interested?") combined with a lookalike audience built from Directive's current customer base and an AirPods incentive for taking a call.
March 19
First positive signal
Early cold email tests showed the copy and targeting were already creating real signal.
April 1
Crisis and recovery
A major Directive client received our outreach. All campaigns paused, DNC lists rebuilt with proper exclusions, campaigns relaunched within days.
April 4
Breakthrough day
3 calls booked overnight. Previously had 1 in three weeks. Everything changed in 12 hours.
05 / Phase 2: Rocket Ship Mode
Deals closing, pipeline exploding
April through July 2025. Deals started closing, pipeline exploded, and the sales team couldn't take calls fast enough.
April 8
The message that said it all
Devin Range pinged the channel: 16 active leads, 7 calls scheduled, 1 gone to SOW. Pipeline value per opportunity ranged from $15M/yr to $634M/yr.
April 17
First major close
iXSystems, a $100M company, closed as a sourced client. Started on a Startup package with absolute upside for growth.
May
Back-to-back wins
Cobalt.io and Reveel both closed as attributed deals. The performance model shifted into stronger recurring upside.
June 27
Peak day
71 positive replies in 4 days, previously a monthly volume. 14 calls scheduled in a single day. 32 intro calls that week with 50% conversion to strategy calls.
"There's nothing better on the sales side than being the team that is breaking things from a positive perspective."
Devin Range, CRO at Directive (June 27, 2025)
06 / Phase 3: Scaling & Optimization
Growing pains, then coming back stronger
With volume came growing pains. Both crises were resolved, and the campaigns came back stronger.
July 2025
The quality reckoning
56 intro calls held, only 3 converted to strategy calls, a 5% conversion rate. Garrett was direct: "Email is not free. My team taking calls with people we can't win has significant cost." Targeting was overhauled: NA + UK only, excluding agencies, government, ecommerce, and retail. AI Search Optimization became the best-performing campaign with a 450:1 email-to-lead ratio.
October 2025
Infrastructure rebuild
Complete infrastructure collapse requiring an emergency 24-hour migration. Campaigns ran at reduced capacity for 2 weeks. New infrastructure came back stronger and campaigns resumed at full volume.
November 2025
Leadership transition
Devin Range, the CRO who had championed the engagement from the start, departed Directive. Sean Baker stepped in as the new CRO on day 10 of his tenure. Despite the transition, the partnership continued. Attribution showed cold email contributing 7.87% of Directive's total pipeline.
Why intro calls weren't converting (July sample): 15 DOA / Bad Fit, 10 Incentive Chasers, 10 Timing, 7 Authority, 3 Price.
07 / The Results
What the engagement produced
1.1M+Emails sent
628KUnique prospects reached
517Positive replies
12.5%Positive reply rate
Top Performing Campaigns
- AI Search Optimization (best single campaign by volume): 87 meetings, 7 customers
- Global V1 (AirPods) (best customer conversion rate): 54 meetings, 9 customers
- SaasyDB (AirPods) (highest reply rate, 2.49%): 16 meetings, 4 customers
iXSystems$100M company, closed April 17, 2025
Cobalt.ioClosed May 2025
ReveelClosed May 2025
MotivosityClosed December 10, 2025
$166KTotal cost to Directive
$772KContract value generated
4.6xReturn on investment
08 / In Their Words
What Directive says
"Team, DO NOT stop what you're doing! As of this note, we have 16 active leads. 7 have calls scheduled..."
Devin RangeCRO, Directive Consulting
"If you continue to send us leads like we've gotten in the past 12 hours, we'd work with you forever."
Devin RangeCRO, Directive Consulting
"AirPods are hitting HARD."
Devin RangeCRO, Directive Consulting
"This could just be rocket ship type of scenarios here."
Devin RangeCRO, Directive Consulting
"This is an important channel and it's a channel that we feel will absolutely help our company not be so reliant on pay to play."
Garrett MehrguthCEO & Founder, Directive Consulting
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