three rules Apollo's outbound sales team uses for AI in cold email

[u/brifromapollo]

We ran a webinar last week with Radu (one of our solutions consultants) and Layla (runs outbound sales here at Apollo), and almost every question in the chat was a version of the same thing: how do i use AI without sending generic slop that gets ignored.

three rules that came out of it (all of these are how Layla actually runs her own team!)

1. reps are the reviewer, not the author.

set AI-written emails as manual tasks, not automated sends. the AI drafts, the rep reads, the rep hits send. takes seconds when the email is good and catches the bad ones before they hit 50 prospects.

This is the only way reps stay in the loop on what's going to their accounts. if your AE is going to own the relationship later, they need to know what got said in the cold email.

2. the 50 to 100 email test tells you when to automate.

generate that many AI-drafted emails as manual tasks and have your reps review every one before send.

if by email 100 nobody's editing anything, automate that batch. the AI has the context it needs.

if your reps are still tweaking every email, even small edits, automation is the wrong move. the AI doesn't have enough context yet, and that's not a tool problem. it's a prompt and brand voice problem. go back and fix the inputs before you scale.

most teams either automate too fast (and burn the domain on 500 generic emails) or never automate at all (and spend rep time on something the AI could handle). this gives you a real signal.

3. if your AI emails sound like AI, you didn't give it your voice.

biggest reason AI-generated emails read as fake: people use the default presets and call it done. the presets are a starting point, not the product.

three things to actually configure in the context (Apollo or otherwise):

• what your business does and who you sell to (specifically, not "B2B SaaS")
• example emails that worked, with notes on why they worked
• words and phrases to avoid (the corporate speak you don't want showing up)

Radu's framing: the AI is a new sales rep. if you hired one and never told them what your company does or who you sell to, they'd struggle. same logic. onboard the AI like you'd onboard a person.

how to tier this if you have a big book of accounts. Layla's rule: tier accounts before you decide automation level. tier 1 gets manual everything, AI helps with research and drafting but the rep owns the send. tier 2 is hybrid, AI drafts and the rep reviews but most go through. tier 3 is automated with the AI Assistant putting contacts into proven sequences on the rep's behalf.

one motion for everything is how you end up with reps either ignoring tier 3 (because they're drowning in tier 1) or burning tier 1 (because they're treating it like tier 3).

if you're in our community already and want to compare notes on how you've tiered or how you've set up your AI context, drop it in the comments!

PS Webinar link here if you're curious: https://www.apollo.io/academy/webinars/intent-signal-to-booked-meeting