From 5% to 30% of pipeline from outbound? Here’s how ElevenLabs did it with lemlist!
June 17, 2025
|6 min read
Your team can’t rely on inbound alone. Here's how ElevenLabs built a reliable pipeline with a strong outbound and a workflow the whole team actually uses.
6x
Outbound success
71%
Interaction rate
25%
Reply rate
Jonathan Chemouny, Head of Sales Development at ElevenLabs, oversees pipeline generation across EMEA.
His goals?
1. Find the best opportunities in the market
2. Build a team that can (out)reach them effectively.
1. Find the best opportunities in the market
2. Build a team that can (out)reach them effectively.
His challenges?
- Stop relying on inbound only
- Move upmarket and win bigger accounts
We know that inbound is not predictable. You can have good momentum, but sometimes it goes down. We want to be in control.
To grow sustainably and go after specific ICPs, territories, and strategic accounts, they needed a reliable outbound motion.
The Problem
Inbound was strong. But it was risky.
When Jonathan joined ElevenLabs, the company was riding massive inbound demand. But that came with a hidden danger.
When I joined, we had about 95 percent inbound. It’s super dangerous because you are not in control of your destiny.
Inbound decides:
- Which ICP shows up
- Which territory converts
- What deal size lands in your pipeline
Outbound represented just 5 percent of total pipeline.
At the same time, the outbound motion itself was broken.
Email lived in one tool. LinkedIn in another. Cold calling somewhere else.
Sequences were duplicated. Visibility was low. Optimization was almost impossible.
When you don't know what SDRs are doing in terms of sequences. You can’t really optimize.
And the playbook was outdated.
It was a lot of spray and pray. Just sending stupid emails all the time.
The team needed control.
They needed focus.
And they needed a real multichannel engine.
They needed focus.
And they needed a real multichannel engine.
Why lemlist & How It Was Implemented
Step 1: Consolidate the stack. Simplify execution.
Jonathan’s first move was clear. Stop juggling tools.
lemlist became the single execution layer for outbound across markets.
What stood out immediately?
Ease of use.
It’s so easy to use compared to other tools. The Sequence Builder is very visual. You can really see how to create your sequence. I love this feature.
It allowed:
- Centralized multichannel sequences
- Full visibility across SDR activity
- A B testing everywhere, including the sequence structure itself
And most importantly, it felt built for real salespeople.
With lemlist, you can feel it has been built by people who really understand prospection.
Step 2: Move from volume to value with modern multichannel
Email alone was not enough anymore.
Five or six years ago, you could send 100 emails a day. Today, one, it’s impossible. Two, it’s counterproductive.
The team redesigned outbound around multichannel engagement:
- LinkedIn profile visits and thoughtful connection flows
- AI powered LinkedIn voice notes
- Personalized videos embedded directly into sequences
- WhatsApp for nurturing after initial interaction
- Email, protected with strict deliverability discipline
Email deliverability is a real challenge. Thank you for the deliverability hub on lemlist, it’s super useful.
LinkedIn voice notes were a turning point.
I’m a big fan of the lemlist AI audio notes. You can clone your voice and send a message super personalized with variables.
As an AI audio company, Jon even turned outreach into a demo.
I tell them, I wanted to invite you to a demo, but actually this is a demo. The voice you’re listening to is a clone of my voice.
The result? High engagement and conversations that actually start with context.
Signals also became central to the motion.
Signals are the future of outbound. When someone engages with your content, you have the right context to contact them.
Outbound stopped being interruption based.
It became signal driven and value based.
It became signal driven and value based.
Step 3: Create adoption through proof, not mandates
Jonathan did not push lemlist top down.
He led by example.
He prospecting himself. Shared LinkedIn results. Showed what worked.
When results started coming in, the rest followed.
Someone in the team messaged me, "hey can you get me a seat on lemlist." They just wanted to replicate the success.
From there, experimentation became structured.
They launched internal SD Labs. Once a month, SDRs test new tactics and creative approaches.
What I love with lemlist is you [lemlist] are also experimenting a lot, so we can experiment together.
Results & Business Impact
Outbound became a growth engine, not a side channel.
Three months after consolidating on lemlist:
Outbound grew from 5 percent to 25 to 30 percent of total pipeline.
Early 2025, we had about 5 percent outbound. A few months later with lemlist, we were already between 25 and 30 percent.
Over the following year, the motion kept compounding.
In January 2026, we are at 46 percent outbound while growing like crazy the total volume of pipeline.
Nearly half of pipeline now comes from outbound.
And these are not small deals.
A very small deal is 30 to 40k. Enterprise, we talk about millions.
Campaign performance improved significantly too.
On one standout campaign:
- 71 percent interaction rate
- 25 percent reply rate
- Real conversations with qualified prospects
On one campaign, we had about 71 percent interaction. On the 71 percent, we had 25 percent answers, meaning real conversation.
Outbound deals also showed strategic advantages.
With outbound, the deal size will be bigger.
You build a stronger relationship from day one. Because our sales deeply understand the pain.
The transformation was not just about metrics.
The team moved:
- From scattered tools to a unified stack
- From activity based metrics to opportunity driven performance
- From volume based emailing to signal driven engagement
- From reactive inbound dependency to controlled pipeline generation
Outbound is no longer a fallback.
It is a core pillar of growth.
It is a core pillar of growth.
Final Word
If I had to describe lemlist in one sentence, it’s the platform for salespeople looking to build pipeline easily using the best tactics on the market.
Want ElevenLab's full outbound strategy?
Watch the full interview (July 2025) with Jonathan to see how ElevenLabs built a winning outreach engine, one experiment at a time:
And watch the replay of his webinar (January 2026) with the lemlist CEO, where he breaks down his GTM motion and how he uses lemlist to scale outbound:
Curious to see what your team can achieve?
Try lemlist for yourself to simplify outreach, personalize at scale, and bring your team together:
Start your 14-day free trial here
Start your 14-day free trial here
AI audio research and deployment company creating ultra-realistic text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing, and conversational voice agents.
SIZE
~ 350 employees
FOUNDED
2022
