DATE
01/09/2025
Duurzaam Investeren
Duurzaam Investeren raises crowdfunded capital to finance renewable-energy projects across the Netherlands and Europe, with €75M raised in 2025; they're a major player in the energy transition.
Investor demand was strong, but the pipeline of new projects wasn't keeping up. The BD team needed a smarter way to find the right prospects and reach them at the right moment.
So, we built a signal-based prospecting model to solve exactly that.
B2B
Signal Based Prospecting
Services
Growth Lead
Industry
B2B - Finance & Climate Technology
Client
Duurzaam Investeren
Problem Analysis
Demand from investors was high, and projects often filled within days. However, the pipeline of new project owners was shrinking.
The sales team struggled to identify and approach relevant companies consistently and had limited time to find high-intent leads.
Sales funnel analysis
The Sales Team struggled with identifying the right companies at the right time
There wasn't enough capacity in the sales team to manually search for relevant signals to write outbound messages
The conversion rate from reaching out to companies to investment was performing under benchmarks.
Dectecting Demand & Hyper-personalising AI messaging
The challenge required more than just lead generation; it called for two things. Detecting companies that could be relevant prospects and improving the effectiveness of the sales outreach to convert these companies to sales leads. This is why we utilised our signal-based prospecting tactic so that we could anticipate where the next renewable energy projects would emerge, tell a story that would resonate with founders and directors, and convert that attention into pipeline value.
Solution
Together with Sprints & Sneakers, I built a new outbound model powered by live business signals, enriched data, and personalised storytelling, a system we call Signal-Based Prospecting.
The tactic replaced guesswork with real-time intelligence and transformed one-to-few cold outreach to mass contextual outreach.
1. Detecting Signals - Predictive Data Layer
Using CrunchBase’s Funding Predictor Model, we identified 800 high-potential Clean-tech companies (solar, wind, biogas, storage, hydrogen).
The model surfaced funding-intent signals such as:
Recent growth or investment rounds
Annual statements
Leadership changes or strategic hires
These signals revealed when a company was most likely to seek external financing.
2. Enriching Profiles - Contextual Intelligence
All prospects were imported into Clay, where data was enriched with:
Open vacancies and project indicators
Press releases and event appearances
New permit approvals or project announcements
News coverage and website updates
Social-level details like recent promotions, podcast features or alumni links
Design maker
This step turned generic contact lists into dynamic company dossiers for personalised outreach.
3. Priming Awareness - Soft-Entry Marketing
Before any direct contact, we launched LinkedIn Ads campaigns aimed at these accounts.
Each received three exposures featuring:
Testimonials from successfully funded partners
Thought-leadership content from the DI BD team
This created early brand familiarity, boosting future acceptance and reply rates.
4. Personalised Outreach - Multi-Channel Activation
Using Apollo.io, founders and directors were approached via LinkedIn messages and email flows referencing the detected signals.
Each message was created by Claude based on the signals, combining personalisation with social proof (example message below):
Responses and engagements were synced through Zapier into a live Google Sheet dashboard, feeding results back into the next iteration.
5. Campaign Briefing & Team Alignment
Running a system this interconnected required tight coordination across teams. I led the briefing process for both the Duurzaam Investeren team, covering campaign strategy and messaging direction, how to interpret the signals the system surfaced, creative direction for the LinkedIn Ad campaigns (formats, copy angles, thought-leadership positioning), and the end-to-end outreach process, including how to work with Apollo and the lead dashboard.
The goal was to make sure every person touching the campaign, whether writing an ad, reading a signal, or sending a message, was working from the same strategic logic.
Example fully AI written outbound copy
Subject: Congratulations on securing the licence for Zonneveld Dassenberg
Dear Michel,
Congratulations on securing the licence for the Zonneveld Dassenberg solar park, a significant milestone for Odura. Now that this project is cleared for development, I'm curious how you're thinking about the financing side and whether we could play a role.
We recently facilitated €1,698,250 for Trio Investment's solar-park portfolio (230 MW), fully financed within 5 days through our network of 20,000 investors.
Would you be open to a short chat this week to see if this could be relevant for you? I'm available Tuesday at 3 p.m. or Thursday at 10 a.m.
Best,
Frank
Duurzaaminvesteren.nl
Results
The Signal-Based Prospecting Tactic didn’t just generate replies; it reignited Duurzaaminvesteren.nl’s entire deal pipeline.
Within weeks, the outbound engine evolved from a test campaign into a predictive growth system: consistently surfacing new renewable-energy projects, building trust with decision-makers, and converting personalised outreach into qualified opportunities.
What this enables + KPIs
Utilising this method, we've been able to increase the sales team efficiency by automatically detecting potential leads 24/7, enriching that data with real-time signals and formulating outbound messages with 0 human intervention. Enabling the team to start their day by opening up their dashboard with new leads and messages and reaching out to them with a single click.
KPIS:
+172% increase in reply rates
3.2% conversion to SQLs from cold accounts
Daily inflow of new relevant leads, without manual research
Sales reps began each day with pre-written, personalised messages ready to send
Outreach quality improved significantly, leading to more relevant conversations and a healthier long-term pipeline
Beyond the reply-rate numbers, this project restructured how the sales team starts its day. From manual searching and guesswork to a prioritised queue of pre-researched, pre-written outreach, the pipeline became visible, measurable, and repeatable. This is the foundation any B2B growth system needs before it can scale.
How We Work?
