A GTM play is a repeatable campaign that starts from a specific trigger, goes to a defined group of people and sends a message that only makes sense because of that trigger. Pick one play that fits your buyers, build it properly, and only then add a second.
Buying tools is the easy part. The hard part is deciding when to reach out, to whom, and why now. Every play below is written in the same four parts so you can compare them and see what each one needs before you commit.
What you need
- A defined ICP and the roles you sell to
- A CRM with reasonably clean account and contact data
- Email sending infrastructure and a LinkedIn outreach tool
- Someone who can own one play end to end for a quarter
Signal plays
These start from something that just happened at the account. For how to choose and score signals, see signal-based outbound.
1. Hiring-signal outbound
- Trigger: a company posts jobs that show it is investing in the problem you solve.
- Target: the hiring manager or the leader of the team being built.
- Send: a short note that references the role and how you help that team ramp or cover the gap.
- Tools: TheirStack for job data, Bitscale for enrichment and research, HeyReach for LinkedIn outreach.
2. Competitor engagement poaching
- Trigger: someone in your ICP engages with a competitor's LinkedIn posts.
- Target: the people who engaged, filtered to your ICP roles.
- Send: a point of view on the topic they engaged with, not a pitch against the competitor.
- Tools: Trigify.io to track engagement, Bitscale to enrich, HeyReach to reach out.
3. Tech-stack displacement
- Trigger: an account runs a tool you replace or work better alongside.
- Target: the owner of that tool, usually the head of the team that uses it.
- Send: a specific limitation of their current tool that you solve, drawn from public reviews.
- Tools: BuiltWith for tech detection, G2 for review themes, Instantly for email.
4. Event and webinar play
- Trigger: someone registers for, attends or speaks at an event in your space.
- Target: registrants and attendees who match your ICP.
- Send: a follow-up tied to a session or topic from the event, with a useful takeaway.
- Tools: Luma or Zoom for the event and attendee list, HeyReach for follow-up.
Data and list plays
5. Email waterfall enrichment
- Trigger: you have the right accounts and people, but too few valid emails.
- Target: every contact on your list without a verified address.
- Send: nothing yet. This play feeds every other play with deliverable contacts.
- Tools: Prospeo and Findymail in sequence, ZeroBounce to verify. See waterfall enrichment.
6. Lookalike expansion
- Trigger: you have a handful of best customers and want more like them.
- Target: companies that resemble those customers on size, industry and model.
- Send: a message built around the problem your best customers had, framed for their peers.
- Tools: Ocean.io to find lookalikes, Apollo.io for contacts.
7. Local business outbound
- Trigger: your buyers are local businesses that are not well covered by B2B databases.
- Target: owners and managers found through maps listings and their own websites.
- Send: a short, direct message on the channel they actually use.
- Tools: Apify to scrape listings, Firecrawl to read their websites, WhatsApp for outreach where appropriate and permitted.
Pipeline and revenue plays
8. Closed-lost revival
- Trigger: a lost deal ages past the point where the reason may have changed, or a past champion moves to a new company.
- Target: the original contacts, and champions at their new employers.
- Send: what has changed since you last spoke, and a reason to look again.
- Tools: HubSpot for closed-lost records, UserGems for job changes, Instantly.ai for email.
9. Enterprise multithreading
- Trigger: a large deal depends on one contact.
- Target: the wider buying group: economic buyer, users, IT and procurement.
- Send: role-specific messages that each answer that person's question about the deal.
- Tools: Sales Navigator to map the account, Gong to see who has been involved so far.
10. AI reply handling
- Trigger: a reply lands on any campaign.
- Target: everyone who replies.
- Send: a classified, drafted response for a person to approve, fast.
- Tools: Instantly for replies, Claude to classify and draft, HubSpot to log. See outbound agents in Claude Code.
Infrastructure and channel plays
11. Cold email infrastructure ops
- Trigger: you are launching or scaling cold email.
- Target: your own domains and inboxes.
- Send: nothing until domains are set up, authenticated and warmed.
- Tools: Mailpool for inboxes and domains.
12. Cold calling engine
- Trigger: your buyers answer the phone, or a high-priority account has gone quiet on email.
- Target: contacts with verified direct dials.
- Send: a call with a clear reason for calling today, followed by an email that references it.
- Tools: Cognism for phone data, Nooks for dialing.
How to pick your first play
- Start from your buyers. Where do they show intent in public: job posts, LinkedIn, events, reviews? The play should follow the signal they already give off.
- Check your data. A signal play is only as good as your ability to find the right person at that account with a working email or profile.
- Write the four parts down. Trigger, target, message, tools. If you cannot write a message that only makes sense because of the trigger, pick a different play.
- Run it small. One segment, a few weeks, then read the replies before scaling.
Plays 5 and 11 are foundations, not campaigns. If your emails bounce or land in spam, every other play fails, so check enrichment and sending infrastructure before launching anything else.
Want a play designed and built around your buyers? Book a GTM Engine Review.
Frequently asked
How many plays should I run at once?
Start with one. Add a second only when the first runs without daily attention. Many plays at half quality produce less than one done properly.
Do I need all the tools listed?
No. They are examples of what fits each play. What matters is having a source for the trigger, a way to reach the right person and a message that uses the trigger.