The hardest part of business development isn’t effort, it’s consistency. Most recruiters know what to do, but struggle to do it every day while juggling clients, candidates, and placements. The solution? Build automated systems that generate leads while you focus on conversations that close deals.
Giorgio Zanella is a go-to-market engineer who’s built hundreds of automation workflows for recruiters and founders. In this episode of the Resilient Recruiter, we break down the exact infrastructure, tools, and strategies recruiters need to automate their outbound without sacrificing personalization or sounding like spam.
You’ll learn why Clay.com has become the go-to platform for scaling outreach, how to choose the right tools for email and LinkedIn automation, what infrastructure you actually need (domains, inboxes, and warming protocols), and how to achieve 3-5% response rates on cold email when most people can’t break 1%.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [00:50] Introducing Giorgio Zanella and the vision behind the “Automate Your Outreach” program.
- [03:30] What is Clay and why recruiters use it to automate lead generation.
- [07:35] The tech stack you actually need: Clay, Instantly, HeyReach (and what to skip).
- [12:20] How to replace expensive data tools like ZoomInfo with Clay’s “waterfall enrichment.”
- [18:40] Email vs. LinkedIn outreach: which gets more replies and why.
- [23:25] How to run synchronized multichannel campaigns (email + LinkedIn + phone).
- [31:30] Why personalization and timing beat volume every time.
- [40:55] Building a bulletproof email infrastructure (domains, inboxes, warm-up rules).
- [52:00] What “good” reply rates look like and how to calculate ROI on outreach.
- [1:10:00] Practical first steps to start automating your BD this month.
Relevance Gets the Response
Right person + right timing + right message = reply. Most cold outreach fails because it’s generic. Giorgio and Mark hammer home that automation isn’t about volume, it’s about relevance. Using Clay, recruiters can trigger outreach based on real-time data (job changes, promotions, funding signals), so messages land when prospects are most likely to buy.
As Giorgio puts it: “You have to reach out to the right person at the right time with the right message. If you miss just one of those, your email doesn’t get a reply.”
Key shift: Stop spamming 1,000 people. Start messaging 100 of the right ones.
Replace 10 Tools With One Workflow
Recruiters waste money on overlapping tools: ZoomInfo, Lusha, Apollo, Lemlist, and more. Clay’s “waterfall enrichment” lets you pull verified emails, phone numbers, and LinkedIn data from multiple sources automatically, and you only pay for results. The system searches the first data provider, then defaults to the second if nothing is found, then the third. You’re not paying for failed searches.
Giorgio breaks down the ROI: “ZoomInfo is the most expensive tool in the market. You can just cut it off as soon as your contract expires.” One recruiter saving $15K per year on data tools means Clay pays for itself immediately.
Outcome: Ditch thousands in annual software spend, simplify your tech stack, and still generate a cleaner pipeline.
Automate Outreach Without Damaging Deliverability
Most recruiters destroy their email reputation by blasting campaigns from their main domain. Your primary domain (the one connected to your website) should never touch cold outreach. One spam flag can kill your ability to reach clients and candidates.
Giorgio breaks down a safe infrastructure formula:
- 3 to 4 alternate domains (variations of your brand name)
- 2 inboxes per domain
- 12 to 15 emails per inbox per day (not the 50 Gmail technically allows)
- Warm them up for 2 weeks before launch
“Gmail’s technical limit is 50 emails per day, but that’s the quickest way to get your account banned. At 12 to 15 per day, we’ve run inboxes for over two years with zero issues.”
Result: You can send hundreds of personalized messages daily: safely, consistently, and on autopilot.
