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When Shira Simmonds scaled her lead generation agency from 100 team members down to just 25 while increasing output, she wasn't following a playbook—she was writing one. As founder of SmartReach.AI, Shira discovered what most SaaS founders miss: AI doesn't replace human connection in outbound; it amplifies it.

In this episode, she reveals why hyper-personalization alone failed, how intent signals transformed her conversion rates by 5x, and why she refuses to build another faceless AI tool in an industry drowning in them.

Talking points include:

• Why reducing her team by 75% actually solved her biggest scaling problem.
• The "aha moment" that turned 2-3 booked calls into 10-15 per campaign.
• Why ICP targeting isn't enough, and what signals actually predict purchase readiness.

Listen to find out more about:

• The cookie challenge that's blocking LinkedIn follower scraping (and how she's solving it).
• Why combining human-written messaging with AI learning creates better results than pure AI generation.
• How SmartReach.AI's three-tier pricing addresses startups, scale-ups, and legacy enterprise needs differently.

Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune in to go direct:

[00:02:20] The agency pain point that became a SaaS opportunity—scaling from 100 to 25 team members

[00:07:55] Why LinkedIn scraping requires cookies (and the authentication headaches nobody talks about)

[00:11:00] The two-part breakthrough: personalization + intent signals = 5x conversion increase

[00:17:40] How personal relationships with integration partners (Ocean, HeyReach, Reply.io) create platform advantages

Ready to Transform Your Outbound Strategy?

Shira's journey from agency owner to SaaS founder offers a masterclass in solving real problems with hybrid AI-human solutions. This isn't theory, it's battle-tested strategy from someone who's sent 25 million messages and learned what actually converts.

Want to see how combining intent signals with hyper-personalization can turn your lead generation from guesswork into a predictable revenue engine?

Try SmartReach AI

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