One Email. Then Call the Openers. That's It.

Tony Berthomé, CEO at Leverage, doesn't have time for elaborate sequences. His sales team makes 200+ calls per week. They need leads who are already warm, and they need them fast.

So he stripped prospecting down to its simplest form. Send one email. Track who opens it. Call those people within 24 hours. Ignore the rest.

No follow-ups. No LinkedIn touches. No 7-step nurture campaign. Just signal detection and speed.

It sounds almost too simple. But when your team is strong on the phone and tight on time, simplicity wins.
‍

The email does one job: create a reason for the call

Tony's team sends this on Monday morning:

"Hi {{FirstName}},

Quick question: how are you currently handling [SPECIFIC PROCESS] at {{CompanyName}}?

We've helped [INDUSTRY] companies reduce [PAIN POINT] by 40% on average. Worth exploring?

I'll give you a ring this week to discuss."

Three sentences. One question. One proof point. One promise of a call.

The email doesn't ask for a meeting. It doesn't link to a calendar. It just plants a flag: "I'm going to call you, and here's why it might matter."

Then they wait 4 hours.

Tuesday morning: filter by "Email opened" and start dialing

This is where the magic happens. Most reps treat email opens as vanity metrics. Tony treats them as qualified leads.

By Tuesday 9 AM, the sales team opens Zeliq, goes to the sequence dashboard, and applies one filter: "Email opened." On average, 30 to 35% of recipients open within the first 24 hours. For a batch of 150 emails sent Monday, that's 50 warm leads ready by Tuesday morning.

They export that list into "My Tasks" and start calling. Not emailing again. Not waiting. Calling.

The opening line on the phone?

"Hi {{FirstName}}, Tony from Leverage. I sent you a note yesterday about [TOPIC]. Saw you opened it, so I wanted to follow up quickly. Do you have 3 minutes?"

Instant credibility. They opened your email. You're not a stranger. You're someone they were half-expecting to hear from.

Conversion rate from call to meeting? 22%, compared to 6% on completely cold calls. That's nearly 4x higher, with zero extra touches.

What about the people who don't open?

They stay in the database. No follow-up email. No second sequence. They go into a "low-signal" bucket.

Tony's philosophy is ruthless: if someone doesn't open your email in 48 hours, they're either not interested or not in buying mode. Chasing them with 3 more emails won't change that. It just wastes your time.

Instead, that time goes to finding 150 new prospects the next week. Fresh batch. Same process. 50 new openers. 50 new calls.

The math is simple: 50 calls per week at 22% conversion = 11 meetings per week per rep. That's 44 meetings a month. From one email and a phone.

Why this works for certain teams

This technique is not for everyone. It requires three things:

Strong cold calling skills. If your reps freeze on the phone or can't handle objections, this won't work. The email creates warmth, but the call still has to convert.

High volume capacity. You need to be able to call 50+ people per week. If your team can only handle 10 calls a week, a longer nurture sequence makes more sense.

Confidence in your ICP. You're not nurturing stragglers. You're only talking to people who show interest signals. That means your targeting has to be sharp upfront.

If you have those three things? This is the fastest path from prospect to conversation.

How to set this up in Zeliq

Create a new sequence. Add one step: Email (Day 1).

In the email template, write your 3-sentence message. Make sure to include the line "I'll give you a ring this week" so they're primed for the call.

Set the sequence to send Monday mornings at 8 AM. This gives prospects the full workday to open it before you start calling Tuesday.

Enable "Pause if replied" and "Pause if meeting booked." You don't want to call someone who already responded positively.

Load 150 prospects every Monday. By Tuesday 9 AM, go to the sequence dashboard, filter by "Email opened in last 24 hours," and add those contacts to a call task list. Your team works through the list over Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday, you prep the next batch for the following Monday. Rinse, repeat.

💡 Pro tip: Use Zeliq's "Last Activity" field to avoid calling the same prospect twice within 90 days. Set a filter rule: "No email sent in last 90 days" before adding to the sequence. This keeps your outreach fresh and prevents list burnout.

The unexpected benefit: speed to insight

Beyond meetings, this method gives you fast feedback on messaging. If only 15% of people open your email (vs. the 30-35% benchmark), your subject line or targeting is off. You know within 24 hours, not after a 2-week sequence.

If 35% open but only 8% convert on calls, your email created curiosity but your pitch isn't landing. Again, you know within 48 hours.

Fast cycles = fast iteration. Tony's team tweaks email copy every week based on open rates and call outcomes. They don't wait a month to see what's working.

‍