Stage 01 · Seed
Leads
Skip to main

We look at every business

like a garden.

Growth is nature's most ancient law. Why would you deprive your business of it?

Case studies
Case 01 · SEO marketing agency · FinTech
Still working together

One of the biggest outbound mistakes:
always targeting the CEO.

"I was offering a vitamin to someone who was in deep pain about something else."
Short version
  1. Ran outbound for an SEO agency
  2. Targeted CEOs initially
  3. Low engagement
  4. Unexpected replies came from Business Developers
  5. Those replies generated referrals
  6. Data suggested the real buyer was BD / growth roles
  7. Pivoted targeting
  8. Campaign performance improved
  9. Client paused campaign to hire a new SDR
The full context

My first case study from 3 years ago: an SEO agency.

1. Started targeting FinTech companies through email and LinkedIn — the usual C-level decision-makers: founders, owners, CEOs. Used Apollo, Clay, and Linked Helper, tracked KPIs and replies in CSVs. Most bookings came after showing my client's case studies to prospects.

2. After a couple of months, they said they needed a higher ROI to keep going. It made sense. I couldn't let go of my first client like that, so I said what every lead-gen agency should say at this point: pay me only for meetings booked.

3. After a couple of hundred replies, I noticed something. Business Developers were much more open and gave more positive replies than CEOs. We weren't targeting BDs specifically — but every lead filter on every platform has a minimum 10% error rate, letting other job titles slip in. That error rate turned out to be useful: it provided an extra testing layer.

This made me realize: CEOs aren't thinking that much about SEO. They aren't even thinking about client acquisition that much. I was offering a vitamin to someone who was in deep pain about something else.

Solution: talk to the person who can use your offer as medicine, not a vitamin. We switched the target.

I looked at:

  • Company characteristics of the Business Developers with positive replies
  • The function and level of the people who had been referred to me
  • The copy that got the best results

I launched a new campaign and took everything to another level. They had to ask me to put the campaign on hold — they needed to hire a new SDR to take all the meetings. We've done many campaigns since then. The game has changed a lot, but the biggest success is that we still have a great relationship today.

What this taught me
  • You don't always have to target the highest decision-makers for the best results.
  • Data will transition into conclusions — you need to be patient and consistent.
  • Strategy gets built once a month and tested through execution — not re-brainstormed every week.
  • If you're confident in your ability to deliver, don't charge more than an initial setup fee for the testing period. Take the testing period seriously — the more prior data we have, the shorter it has to be.
Case 02 · Content generation company
End-to-end

30 meetings.
Zero wasted credits.

The ICP was e-commerce founders — one of the most competitive niches on the internet. I tightened the list in CSV before a single message went out: only qualified prospects got touched. No emails, no credits, no effort spent on irrelevant companies.

Beyond lead-gen: I managed appointment setting and onboarding, and built the SOPs the company now runs sales and fulfillment from.

30
Qualified
meetings booked
SOPs
Sales &
fulfillment
Full write-up coming soon
Case 03 · UGC operations · 3-brand portfolio
Fulfillment · process design

AI didn't automate this workflow.
Process design did.

Before automating anything, I ran the UGC workflow manually for 3 weeks. Anything we automate should be 100% clear and obvious on a boring level — otherwise we're automating friction, not removing it.

The work

I joined the team of a company holding three brands. There was no workflow. I defined and built one — together with a Talent Relationship Manager (an influencer CRM) in ClickUp to track every creator and their stage.

Tools: Zapier + ClickUp

1. The biggest time drain was entering creator details into the TRM (address, deliverables, SKUs, timeline). I replaced this with a ClickUp form that creators submit once they agree to collaborate — their answers populate the task automatically.

2. There was no contract template. I created one and automated everything around it.

3. Creator sourcing was another bottleneck. Manually listing 100 creators a week was unsustainable. Basic AI scraping gave terrible results — but using agent mode, I generated clean CSV lists importable into ClickUp in minutes.

4. Outreach personalization from GPT didn't outperform a simple offer template ("X product value for X content"). What helped more was saving reply templates for common creator questions.

5. ClickUp automations handled logistics — e.g. EU vs US shipping assigned automatically.

Final workflow
AI generates ~25 creators/day
Outreach goes out
Interested creators receive a form
Form triggers Zapier:
  • ·Creator task created in TRM
  • ·Google Drive folder generated
  • ·Contract duplicated & auto-filled
  • ·Contract sent for signature
Manual review happens only at the contract stage. Logistics and shipping then run themselves.
The takeaway

The only AI-driven part is creator research. The rest is process design and automation. A workflow doesn't need to be fully AI-driven to save hours every week.

5-6h2h
Daily ops time
per brand
+300%
Weekly creator
capacity
Other industries we worked in

Some of our work runs through partner agencies, which means we can't share names or specifics. But here are the industries we've been planted in:

  • Oil & gas
  • Software development
  • Energy resources
  • Information technology
  • Event services
  • B2B marketing
  • Hardware equipment
CRM illustrations — pending images from you
Who's behind this

Richárd Török. Five years in.

After my psychology degree, I knew what I needed if I wanted to build anything big: capital. And capital means growth. So I asked myself — if I could pick any industry to build capital in, which would it be?

I picked the one where you grow by helping others grow. That's how I ended up in marketing.

My first job was B2C cold calling. Then I moved to B2B and started from the bottom again — virtual assistant work — picking up every part of the stack along the way:

  • B2C cold calling
  • B2B cold calling
  • LinkedIn outreach
  • Email databases & sequencing
  • Message automation

I worked with three marketing companies along the way. Two were Romanian. The third one turned out to be founded by two Romanian guys — something I realized about twenty minutes into the interview.

Every time I saw a chance to grow myself and the business, I went all in. Project manager, then account manager, then COO.

Now I'm on my own journey. Growing my own garden.

5
Years in B2B
sales & ops
61%
LinkedIn accept
on current campaigns
6-fig
Client accounts
managed as COO
CJ
Based in
Cluj-Napoca
Voices from the garden

What clients actually say.

Quiet quotes from the people we work with. Names shortened where they asked. No one is paid to say any of this.
"Richárd rebuilt our outbound from zero and stayed out of our way. Three months in, we had a pipeline we could actually forecast."
Founder · AI/ML consultancy
Cluj-Napoca
Draft · needs real quote
"He didn't try to sell me a bigger retainer — he told me exactly what I needed and what I didn't. I hired him the same week."
Fractional COO · DACH
Remote
Draft · needs real quote
"We went from chaotic Slack threads to a workspace I can actually hand to a new hire on day one. The system outlasts the person."
Founder · Digital agency, 12 people
Bucharest
Draft · needs real quote
Pricing

We grow together.

The structure is built around a common ROI. We bring the system, you bring the substance — we share the upside.

Our input

We build the whole system.

  • Outreach across all three channels (LinkedIn, cold email, cold calling — or any other if it fits)
  • CRM build in ClickUp: pipeline, statuses, weekly reports
  • Automations across Zapier / Make / n8n
  • ICP design + verified lead lists
Your input

Trust — in two places.

  • Trust that your service can appeal to strangers — not just referrals
  • Trust in our ability to connect the two
Phase 01 · First 3 months
Monthly fee

The system goes in.

By the end of month 3, the system, the ICP, and the meetings will all be there.

Pay monthly
€740 / mo
Pay upfront · save €520
€1,700 / 3 mo
What gets built
  • ICP definition + verified lead lists (Sales Navigator, Apollo, Clay)
  • Full outreach across all three channels — written, sent, managed
  • Email infrastructure: domains, mailboxes, SPF / DKIM / DMARC, warm-up
  • CRM build in ClickUp + automations (Zapier / Make / n8n)
  • SOPs so the system outlasts any single person
Grab a coffee
Phase 02 · Month 4 onward
Performance only

You only pay for results.

After phase 1, no monthly fee. You pay only for the meetings we book — or the deals you close from them. Your call.

Option A
Per qualified meeting booked
Option B
Per closed deal — or % of revenue
What stays the same
  • Same full service — leads, outreach, CRM, onboarding, delivery ops
  • You pick the KPI before phase 2 begins
  • Stay flat-fee if you'd rather — totally your call at month 3
Grab a coffee

KPI and rate agreed in writing before phase 2.

Cluj-based discount

If your company is based in Cluj, you get a discount.

FAQ

Questions we get on every call.

Straight answers. No fluff.

The service
What does B2B Gardening actually do?
We fill your calendar with qualified meetings. We handle outreach end-to-end — building your ICP, writing the copy, running LinkedIn and email campaigns, and booking the calls. You show up, we do the rest.
Which channels do you use?
LinkedIn outreach (connection requests + DMs), cold email, and cold calling. Most campaigns start with LinkedIn, then we layer in email once domains are warmed up. We pick the mix based on your ICP — and anything else that your niche requires.
Is it automated or manual?
We apply the 80/20 rule. 80% of the work — sending sequences, warming domains, managing lists — is automated. The 20% that matters most — ICP decisions, message strategy, lead qualification, reply handling — stays human. Structure is automated, decisions are not.
Do you also handle CRM, SOPs, and automations?
Yes. We build workspaces in ClickUp or any other CRM, document SOPs, and set up automations in Make, n8n, or Zapier. Some clients start with lead gen and add ops work later. Some start with ops.
Getting started
What do you need from me to start?
Three things: access to your LinkedIn profile (or a dedicated one), 2–3 email domains for outreach, and 30 minutes to fill out our ICP form. That's it — we handle setup from there.
Do you use my LinkedIn profile or yours?
Yours. Prospects need to see the real person behind the business. We optimise your profile, run outreach from it, and manage the conversations. Your brand, your face, our engine.
How do you define my ICP?
We start with an ICP form — who you serve, company size, industry, pain points, deal size. Then we validate it with real data from the first 2 weeks of outreach and adjust targeting based on who actually responds.
What does the first month look like?
Week 1–2: profile setup, domain warmup, ICP research, campaign build. Week 3–4: live outreach starts, first replies come in, we start booking conversations. The first month is about data and momentum — not miracles.
Results & expectations
When will I see results?
LinkedIn replies start within the first 2 weeks. Email takes longer because domains need 2–3 weeks of warmup. Expect real pipeline conversations by the end of month 1, qualified meetings from month 2 onward.
How many meetings can I expect?
It depends on your offer, ICP, and market. We don't promise "50 leads guaranteed" — that's a red flag from any agency. What we do promise: consistent, targeted outreach at a volume you can't do alone, with real humans managing it.
What if it doesn't work?
We iterate. If messaging isn't landing, we rewrite it. If the ICP is wrong, we adjust. After 3 months we shift to performance-based pricing — which means we only keep earning if we keep delivering.
Pricing & terms
How much does it cost?
Lead generation retainers start at €500/month for local Cluj clients, €750/month for global. First 3 months are a flat retainer, then we move to performance-based. 50% upfront before any work begins.
Why a 3-month retainer first?
Because outreach takes time to build momentum. Domains need warming, ICP needs validation, messaging needs testing. Judging a campaign after 2 weeks is like planting a seed and checking for fruit the next morning.
What does "performance-based" mean after month 3?
After the initial retainer, we tie our fee to results — meetings booked or deals closed. The exact structure depends on your deal size and sales cycle. We agree on it together before month 3 ends.
Do you work hourly?
No. Retainer or performance only. Hourly billing incentivises slow work — we want to get you results fast.
Working together
How much of my time does this take?
After the initial ICP setup (30–60 min), about 1–2 hours per week. A weekly check-in call and reviewing any warm leads we surface. We handle the heavy lifting.
What tools do you use?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Helper, Smartlead or Instantly for email, Apollo for data, ClickUp for project management, and Make / n8n for automations. We adapt to your stack if needed.
Where are you based?
Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We work with clients locally and globally. If you're in Cluj, we'll happily do this over coffee instead of Zoom.
An honest note

Conversion is downstream of conversation.

Most founders we talk to think their main problem is conversion — they're losing deals they should be winning. Sometimes that's true. But you can't fix what you can't see, and you can't see what's broken in your pitch until you have enough meetings to find a pattern.

Pipeline first. Diagnosis second. Conversion fix after that.

"Your conversion rate is high?"
I'm sure you could use more meetings.
"Your conversion rate is too low?"
I'm sure you could use more meetings.
Either way — the answer is upstream.