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70% of our pipeline arrives through one paid channel. We're committing to $14M FY27 ARR. Inbound alone won't get us there. This is the plan to install a signal-led, AI-assisted outbound engine in 90 days — $13-28k incremental tooling, no new headcount, $1.5-2.5M of net new ARR uplift by FY28.
Telling reps "do more outbound" and paying them 1.5× isn't a motion. Right now Jess sends 107 emails over 3 months and gets 3% response. Miles hits 134 councils and converts 10.4%. They're working — but without lists, signals, content, AI personalisation, and a manager running it, every rep solves outbound from scratch. The plan below makes outbound the team default, not a heroic individual effort.
Shift inbound/outbound mix from 70/30 to 60/40 by Q4 FY27 by installing a signal-led, AI-assisted outbound engine running off HubSpot Sequences + Apollo + LinkedIn Sales Nav + Claude. AEs hunt their named-account list, Inside Sales catches the small-deal overflow, customer referrals (the 30-45% conversion channel we've ignored) layer on top. 90-day install, $13-28k tooling, no incremental headcount. Net effect: $1.5-2.5M additional ARR per year, less concentration risk on Google Ads, and a sales team that can replicate the motion in UK, US, and Asia when those markets switch on.
The current pipeline is mostly Google Ads paid inbound, supplemented by direct (referrals/relationships) and a thin layer of organic. It works — for now. The forward risk is concentration.
Sources: April 2026 board pack — Abe (Marketing Dashboard), Peter (Sales Report). New ARR attribution back-calculated from lead source × conversion rate × avg deal value.
| Rep | Vertical | Contacted | Response rate | Key engagements | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jessica | Health | 107 | 3% | 3 (1 demo, 1 referral, 1 re-engagement) | Initial email only; no follow-up cadence; mostly inbound workload competing |
| Miles | Gov (LGAs) | 134 | 10.4% | 5 meetings, $78k pipe | VIC LGAs targeted; replicating to QLD/WA/TAS/SA in Q2 |
| Team total over ~3 months | 241 | 7% blended | 8 meetings, ~$80k pipe | ~$320k annualised pipe — without an engine. With engine: 6-10× lift. | |
Inbound concentration via paid ads isn't unique to us — it's how most $5-15M SaaS companies got here. The risk is forward-looking.
Research: B2B SaaS Google Ads CAC rises 10-20% annually as competitors enter the same auction. Two AU competitors (SafeTCard, Tunstall) and the global category (Blackline, SoloProtect) are all increasing paid spend. At our current $34k/month run-rate, we lose ~$3.4k/month of efficiency in Year 1, $7-10k by Year 2 — without changing what we do.
Short-term paid pipeline looks good. Long-term, the in-market buyer pool shrinks as competitors invest in awareness. We're only reaching the ~3% of safety buyers who are currently shopping. The other 97% don't know us, don't search yet, and find us only when their need spikes — too late if a competitor reached them first.
Industry benchmark: Google Ads/PPC converts at 0.7% visitor-to-lead and 26% MQL-to-SQL. Organic SEO converts at 2.1% and 51%. Referrals convert at 30-45%. Outbound at 5-10%. We're spending $396k on the worst-converting channel by % because it's the most controllable by volume.
From the April board pack rep feedback: "the inquiries have been mainly for 1-5 licenses" (Adam UK), "majority driven by ad words attracting wrong crowd" (Fed NZ), "50/50 split between lower quality leads and stronger opportunities" (Lachlan). Google brings volume; outbound brings the $50k+ enterprise deals we actually want.
Direct customer-acquisition strategy for the players we compete against. None of them rely as heavily on Google Ads as we do today.
| Competitor | Primary acquisition | Secondary | Scale signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duress (us, today) | Google Ads paid inbound | Direct relationships (founder/Karl/Adam) | $396k/yr spend; ~70/30 inbound/outbound; minimal channel |
| Blackline Safety (CA, public, $200M+ ARR) | Channel partner network — 250+ partners globally | Direct enterprise (oil & gas), trade shows (MINExpo) | One channel partner grew from $15k to $1.14M in 12 months (2022→2023). Co-op marketing fund. |
| SoloProtect (US/UK) | Strategic partnership with Samsung (next-gen wearable) | Direct + reseller network; OSHA-driven inbound | Partnered with a tier-1 hardware brand to access enterprise channels we can't reach. |
| SafeTCard (AU) | Direct field sales + reseller channel | ARA (Australian Retailers Association) partnerships | "Leading lone-worker monitoring solution in Australia" — built via direct enterprise sales in AU, not paid ads. |
| StaySafe (EcoOnline) (UK/Global) | Acquired by EcoOnline (cross-sell to 7,100+ customers) | Outbound SMB AEs hiring now per current job ads | Active outbound investment: hiring Account Executives with "prospecting, outbound calls, and generating new opportunities" as the primary motion. |
| Peoplesafe (UK) | Direct + channel | BSI / BS8484 certification as inbound trust signal | UK market presence built on accreditation + outbound, not paid ads. |
| Samsara (US, public, $1B+ ARR) | Direct enterprise sales heavy — large field sales org | Industry events (Beyond conference), thought leadership | Sells fleet + worker safety bundle to large enterprises directly. Their wearable launch (2025) sells into existing accounts, not via ads. |
| SafetyCulture (AU, iAuditor) | Product-led growth + freemium | Outbound for enterprise expansion | Massive AU brand built on PLG. Cross-sell threat to us — they own the safety-platform mindshare in AU. |
| Tunstall Healthcare (AU/UK) | Direct + healthcare partnerships | Aged-care provider relationships | Healthcare-vertical specialised — sells via clinical decision-maker networks, not paid ads. |
| AirAgri (PLD) (AU) | Direct + farmer-community grassroots | Agricultural retailers | Niche AU agri play — relationship-driven, no paid spend at scale. |
Blackline (250+ partners), SoloProtect (Samsung), and Peoplesafe (certification networks) all built scale through partnerships. We have Halo + Simply Unified — early-stage. Channel partner expansion is a parallel growth lever for FY28+, not in this plan.
EcoOnline (StaySafe) is actively hiring outbound SMB AEs. Their hiring signal is direct evidence the software side of the category is investing in the motion we don't yet run. If we don't match, we lose the SMB-mid-market deals to them.
Samsara, SafeTCard at scale, Tunstall — none of them rely on Google Ads. They have direct field sales orgs. We can't match their headcount but we can match their discipline via a structured AE-led outbound motion + AI personalisation.
The architecture in one picture. Each layer is HubSpot-native or a thin SaaS bolted on. Total tooling spend: $13-28k Y1.
5 ICP one-pagers (Health, Gov, Retail, NFP, Mining), tool stack decision, budget signoff, KPIs locked. Pre-work before any spend.
The 5 ICP one-pagers landed today (20 May). Each covers buyer / technical buyer / economic buyer / company-size bracket / industry signals / disqualifiers / existing-customer proof / outbound angle. Lives in analysis/icps/.
HubSpot custom properties, Apollo subscription + integration, LinkedIn Sales Nav seats × 5, 200-account named lists per AE, TenderLink + AusTender feeds → HubSpot, intent signal sources connected, deal-source attribution at create-time.
The layer the team actually uses. My Day HubSpot dashboard per rep, Slack #outbound-signals + #outbound-wins, mobile push notifications, 7:30am morning digest, Friday wrap, Sales Manager dashboard, HubSpot/Aircall dialer integration, 5pm wrap reminder.
5 vertical case studies, 5 compliance briefs, 1 ROI calculator (Healthcare-first), 5 demo videos, 55 email templates (11 touches × 5 verticals), 5 LinkedIn lead-magnet posts. The assets the cadences need to convert.
Claude prompt library for 1st-touch personalisation (5 prompts × 5 verticals = 25). Signal-to-cadence automation (48h auto-enrolment on TenderLink hit = 4.2× engagement uplift). AI drafts → AE reviews/edits → sends. Quality bar: no auto-send without human review on 1st touch (5.1% reply vs 2.4% fully-AI).
Miles (Gov AE) runs the full cadence on his 200 named accounts. Daily activity tracking. Weekly CEO + Miles + RevOps review. Iteration log. Two-week pilot, gate decision Week 7.
Jess (Health), Chanel (Retail), Karl (Mining), Adam (UK) all launch cadences in sequence. Outbound metrics dashboard live. Weekly outbound review locked. First A/B test launched. Monthly template iteration.
Account scoring model, auto-meeting-booking, multi-channel orchestration, sequence performance ML (auto-deprecate <2% reply, auto-promote ≥8%), customer-success-driven outbound (existing-customer peer prospecting).
UK BDR hire (already in plan). Aged Care + Education sub-verticals split out. Customer cohort outbound at scale — top-30 customers each contribute 5 peer accounts/quarter (the referral motion).
| Layer | Job | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Signals | Detect buying triggers in near-real-time | TenderLink + AusTender feeds, LinkedIn Sales Nav saved searches, news monitoring, HubSpot web tracking, customer-referral signals |
| Named accounts | Define who each AE is hunting (200 accounts/rep) | HubSpot dynamic lists scored by ICP fit + intent |
| Personalisation | Generate 1st-touch emails at scale with human review | Apollo for contact data, Claude for 1st-touch drafts, AE reviews/edits/sends |
| Cadence | Multi-touch sequence delivery (11 touches × 28 days) | HubSpot Sequences across email + LinkedIn + phone |
| Conversion | Move responsive prospects through Discovery → Demo → Pilot → Close | HubSpot deal pipeline + meeting auto-booking (Chili Piper or HubSpot Meetings) |
| Measurement | Track everything, iterate weekly | HubSpot dashboards (My Day per rep + team view for Sales Manager) |
Four scenarios: today's run-rate, light outbound (current Jess+Miles), engine mature (Batch 5), full scale (Batch 7). Modelled honestly — using conservative benchmarks from B2B SaaS 2026 research.
| Input | Floor | Target | Stretch | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Touches per rep per day | 25 | 30 | 40 | Bridge Group activity floor |
| Annual touches (5 reps × 22 working days × 12 months) | 33,000 | 39,600 | 52,800 | 5 AEs running engine |
| Response rate (AI-assisted + signal-led) | 5% | 8% | 12% | Lavender 5.1% AI + human; top decile 10-20% |
| Responses / year | 1,650 | 3,168 | 6,336 | — |
| Demo booked rate (% of responses) | 25% | 30% | 35% | Industry SaaS standard |
| Demos / year | 413 | 950 | 2,218 | — |
| Opp creation rate (% of demos) | 30% | 40% | 50% | — |
| Opps / year | 124 | 380 | 1,109 | — |
| Win rate (% of opps to closed-won) | 15% | 20% | 25% | SaaS enterprise 25-35%, conservative for new motion |
| Closed-won deals / year | 19 | 76 | 277 | — |
| Avg Y1 ACV (outbound-sourced, conservative) | $25,000 | $30,000 | $35,000 | Outbound typically lands smaller than inbound first deal |
| Estimated new ARR / year (Y1) | $475k | $2.28M | $9.7M | — |
The "stretch" column is mathematically achievable but assumes every metric hits top-decile simultaneously and ignores deal-team capacity. Plan to the "Target" column ($2.28M). That is the realistic engine-running outcome.
| Scenario | State | Inbound new ARR / yr | Outbound new ARR / yr | Referral new ARR / yr | Total new ARR / yr | Mix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today (May 2026) | Google Ads + ad-hoc outbound | $1.85M | $0.3M | $0.45M | $2.6M | 71% / 12% / 17% |
| Light Outbound | Jess + Miles disciplined but no engine | $1.85M | $0.5M | $0.45M | $2.8M | 66% / 18% / 16% |
| Engine Mature (Batch 5 done) | 5 AEs running engine, AI-assisted, signals + lists | $1.85M | $2.28M | $0.65M | $4.78M | 39% / 48% / 14% |
| Full Scale (Batch 7 + UK BDR + cohort referrals) | UK BDR firing + customer-referral motion mature | $2.0M | $3.5M | $1.5M | $7.0M | 29% / 50% / 21% |
Today's $2.6M new ARR reconciles to the +$2.4M-ish gap between FY26 ARR ($8.3M MRR-based) and FY27 commit ($14M TSAV — see FY27 deck reconciliation). The Engine Mature case ($4.78M) is the realistic FY27 commit anchor. Full Scale is the FY27 stretch case ($17M) if Karl whales land + UK BDR + referral motion compound.
| Cost item | Y1 spend | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo subscription | $6k | Contact enrichment + email finder; 5 seats |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | $5k | 5 seats × $80/month |
| Aircall (if HubSpot dialer not sufficient) | $2k | Optional Batch 1.5 add |
| Possible platform consolidation (Batch 6) | $0-15k | Only if HubSpot Sequences caps out — likely not in Y1 |
| RevOps contractor time | $0 incremental | Already in FY27 plan ($150k Y1 RevOps) |
| Content build | $0 incremental | Existing marketing budget + Abe contracting |
| UK BDR (Batch 7, Q1 FY27) | $0 in this plan | Already budgeted in FY27 hiring plan |
| Total incremental Y1 | $13-28k | Inside the $95k Y1 sales investment already committed |
ROI math: $13-28k invested, $1.5-2.5M new ARR uplift at 73% software GM = $1.1-1.8M of incremental Y1 gross margin contribution. ROI = 40-100×. Payback in week 4 of engine running.
Each milestone is a gate — if it doesn't pass, the next batch slips. Honest sequence, not aspirational.
This is a working plan, not a formal approval doc. The five things below would lock the install.