Fill The Pipeline With High-Intent Opportunities & Scale Revenue with AI and Education-Based Outreach
Copyright Sharing, reselling, or duplicating this content without The Growth Systems's written permission is strictly prohibited. The way businesses connect with potential customers is changing dramatically. Word of mouth and events aren’t predictable nor scalable solutions for consistent and predictable growth.
Traditional cold outreach is dying.
That’s why we’ve developed a new method: education-based outreach.
This approach doesn't just generate leads - it leads with value, builds trust, and transforms how businesses attract and convert customers
This whitepaper explores how education-based outreach solves the challenges that outdated cold outreach, events, or word of mouth can’t.
With this new method, you’ll drive higher-quality leads into the sales funnel, shorten sales cycles, and increase conversion rates.
Through real-world examples, proven frameworks, and actionable strategies, this document offers a step-by-step guide to implementing education-based selling for your business.
Key Findings
  • 83% of B2B buyers ignore traditional sales pitches
  • Conversion rates for standard cold outreach have plummeted by 67% since 2018
  • The average B2B sales cycles have lengthened by 32% in just one year, slowing revenue growth, with the average cycle now stretching to over 6-12 months in many industries.
  • Pipeline generation down 47% in 2022
  • Education-based selling approaches can increase lead quality by 300%
Current Problem
  • Unpredictable pipeline
  • Only events/exhibitions
  • Word of mouth
  • Some manual outbound sales activities
  • Super long sales cycles
  • Missing trust, know, like factors
  • Uneducated buyers
  • Speaking with people who are in the research mode and who are not in desperate need of your service
Businesses are struggling because:
  • Trust is at an all-time low
  • Traditional methods are becoming increasingly ineffective
  • Depending solely on organic demand generation like Events or Word Of Mouth
The Consequences of Traditional Demand Generation & Sales Process
  1. Solely Relying on Organic (Events/Word of Mouth/Manual Outreach)
  • Unpredictable
  • Not scalable
  • Inconsistent results//Rollercoaster revenue
  • Growth constraints
  • Time intensive
  • Difficulty in tracking ROI Sources
  • Sources:
2. Outdated Strategies That Fail to Deliver
The core principle of traditional cold outreach - asking for value without providing any - has become ineffective in today’s buyer-centric market.
The typical cold email reads like this:
“Hi {first_name}, We recently helped {similar company} achieve {results}. If you’re interested in how you can get similar results, let’s jump on a 15-minute call this week.”
While this approach might have worked in 2015, modern buyers now expect more.
Research from HubSpot reveals the stark ineffectiveness of such approaches:
  • High competition: Prospects are bombarded with similar messages daily.
  • Lack of differentiation: These messages fail to stand out in a crowded inbox.
  • Low trust: Prospects are wary of being sold without proof or value.
Let's break down the current state of traditional sales outreach:
  • Average email open rates: 21.33%
  • Click-through rates: A mere 2.62%
  • Typical response rates: Less than 0.5%
3. Inefficiencies in the Sales Funnel
Traditional outreach creates significant bottlenecks in the sales process:
4. The Human Element: Buyer Psychology
Modern buyers are more informed and skeptical than ever. They conduct independent research before engaging with vendors, demand transparency and proof of value before investing time or money, and prioritize relationships with businesses that demonstrate expertise and credibility.
Modern B2B buyers are different.
They:
  • Conduct extensive online research
  • Seek genuine value before engaging
  • Want to learn, not be sold to
  • Trust peer recommendations and educational content
The Emergence of Education-Based Selling in B2B Space
What Is Education-Based Selling?
Education-based selling shifts the focus from pitching to educating. Instead of asking for value upfront, businesses provide actionable insights and valuable resources that address specific pain points, position the business as a trusted advisor, and build trust and rapport before any sales conversation.
The Philosophy Behind It:
This approach recognizes that buyers move through distinct stages in their journey:
  • Awareness: Realizing they have a problem.
  • Consideration: Exploring potential solutions.
  • Decision: Choosing a provider.
Education-based selling meets buyers at the awareness stage, guides them through consideration, and ensures they are fully informed when they reach the decision stage.
This is represented by the Buyer’s Pyramid.
6-7% are open to buying a solution.
30% are not thinking about it.
30% don’t think they’re interested.
And the remaining 30% know they’re not interested.
Here’s what it means to your business:
To get a client over the line, you need multiple meetings, pitches, customized proposals, and clients wanting to chat with your other customers…
And even then… they might still turn around and say that they’re not interested.
The key to unlocking the 97% of the market:

Education-based selling.
That’s why we’ve developed a new method: education-based outreach.
Education-based marketing doesn’t mean putting together a vague presentation in 10 minutes.
That’s just wasting your prospect's time.
They’re running businesses, managing teams and each of their businesses is different.
What do we do instead?
We run education-based outbound campaigns that aim to deliver a lot of value to B2B decision-makers through personalized education.
How It Differentiates from Traditional Outreach:
Traditional outreach focuses on immediate conversions, while education-based selling emphasizes building trust and nurturing relationships over time.
Key Principles:
  • Provide Value Before Asking
  • Share insights
  • Solve small problems
  • Demonstrate expertise
  • Build trust naturally
Focus on Education, Not Selling
  • Create assets/content that helps
  • Address specific challenges
  • Show how you solve real problems
Comparative Performance Metrics
Real-World Validation Case Study: Sharpify
Challenge: Declining lead quality and extended sales cycles
Approach: Full education-based selling implementation
Results:
  • Lead quality improvement: 327%
  • Sales cycle reduction: 62%
  • Customer acquisition cost decrease: 34%
How Education-Based Selling Works The Outreach Message
The first touchpoint is critical. Instead of pitching, the message provides value upfront.
Here’s an example:
“Hi {first_name}, my team created a short video sharing the exact strategy we use to book 30–90 business meetings monthly. Would you like me to send it to you? There’s no catch - just actionable insights.”
OR
Hi {first_name}, my team made a short video that gives away the {strategy} we use to {result}. You can use it to {first_desire} and {consequence of result}. Mind if I send this video to you here? There's no catch.
These messages are proven to work because:
  • Promises immediate value
  • Sparks curiosity without demanding commitment
  • Builds trust by offering something useful.
Providing Value with Sales Assets:
The cornerstone of education-based selling is creating and deploying high-value sales assets that inform, engage, and build trust with prospects.
These assets are designed to showcase your expertise, address your audience's specific challenges, and position your solution as the ideal fit for their needs.
Here are the key types of sales assets that drive results in education-based selling:
  • Tutorials: Step-by-step guides that provide actionable insights and demonstrate how your expertise solves specific problems. These guides should simplify complex concepts, making it easy for prospects to understand and apply the information. Tutorials are especially effective for prospects in the early stages of their journey, as they help establish credibility while offering immediate value.
  • Market Insights: Thought leadership pieces that highlight trends, challenges, and opportunities within your industry. By addressing the broader context in which your prospects operate, you position your business as an authority and trusted advisor. Market insights can include whitepapers, articles, or reports that offer a unique perspective and align your solution with the market’s evolving needs.
  • Case Studies: Real-world success stories that showcase your solution’s impact. A well-structured case study takes the prospect through a journey:
  • The client’s background and initial challenges.
  • The specific solutions implemented.
  • The tangible results achieved.
  • Case studies resonate because they are relatable and provide proof of your ability to deliver results.
  • How Your Solution Solves Problems A/B/C: Detailed explanations of how your product or service addresses the most common pain points your prospects face. Breaking down solutions to specific problems demonstrates that you understand their challenges deeply and have tailored your approach to meet their needs.
  • Tutorial Videos of Product in Use: Short, engaging videos that demonstrate your product or service in action. These videos should focus on practical applications and outcomes, giving prospects a clear picture of how your solution works and what it can achieve. Visual content is highly effective in building trust and conveying value quickly.
Together, these assets provide a powerful arsenal for educating prospects, overcoming objections, and moving them closer to a buying decision.
Nurturing Prospects with Sequenced Content
Once prospects engage with your initial outreach and sales assets, the next step is to guide them through a nurturing sequence.
This process keeps your business top-of-mind, builds deeper trust, and ensures that prospects remain engaged until they are ready to take the next step.
The Purpose of Nurturing Sequences
A nurturing sequence is a carefully planned series of touchpoints - emails, videos, articles, or social media interactions - that serve three primary goals:
  • Building trust and credibility: Reinforce your expertise through consistent, valuable content.
  • Educating about your solution: Help prospects understand how your offering solves their specific problems.
  • Overcoming objections: Address common fears or misconceptions that may prevent prospects from moving forward.
What to Include in Your Nurturing Sequence
  • Case Studies and Testimonials: Share examples of success to reinforce your credibility.
  • Educational Content: Provide insights on common challenges and how to address them.
  • Proof of Unique Value: Highlight what sets your solution apart from competitors.
By the end of the sequence, prospects should feel confident in your expertise, fully understand the value of your solution, and trust you as a partner.
Building Trust Before the Call
One of the most significant advantages of education-based selling is that it ensures prospects are pre-qualified and informed before they schedule a call.
By the time they reach this stage, they: Know what problem your solution solves. Understand why your offering is uniquely suited to meet their needs. Trust your expertise, thanks to the sales assets and nurturing sequence.
This approach not only shortens the sales cycle but also improves conversion rates, as prospects enter the conversation ready to explore how to move forward.
The Education-Based Selling Funnel: An effective education-based selling funnel aligns seamlessly with the buyer’s journey, ensuring prospects are guided from curiosity to conversion. This framework emphasizes delivering value at every stage, building trust, and creating a seamless path to decision-making.
Awareness Stage: Sparking Interest and Building Curiosity
Goal: Capture attention by addressing immediate pain points and positioning yourself as a valuable resource.
Tactics: Value-Packed Outreach Messages: Craft personalized and engaging messages that immediately deliver something of value, such as tutorials, market insights, or problem-solving resources. For example, “We created a short guide that shows how to solve {specific pain point}. Would you like me to share it?” Educational Content: Share content tailored to your audience’s challenges, such as blog posts, videos, or infographics that provide actionable advice. This positions your business as a thought leader in the industry.
By providing value upfront, you establish trust and curiosity, encouraging prospects to take the next step in their journey.
  1. Consideration Stage: Building Trust and Establishing Authority
Goal: Educate prospects about your solution while positioning it as the best fit for their needs.
Tactics: Case Studies: Share real-world success stories that mirror the challenges your prospects face. Highlight the problem, the solution, and the measurable outcomes, so prospects can envision similar success for themselves. Testimonials: Use authentic quotes and results from previous clients to showcase social proof. These testimonials should highlight key benefits and transformational results. Tutorial Videos and How-To Guides: Demonstrate your expertise by showing exactly how your product or service solves specific problems. Make these easy to understand and practical to implement.
This stage is all about making prospects feel confident in your expertise and assured that your solution can deliver the results they need.
  1. Decision Stage: Converting Educated Prospects into Customers
Goal: Make it easy for prospects to take action and commit to your solution.
Tactics:
Call-to-Actions (CTAs): Ensure that scheduling a call or taking the next step is effortless. Use tools like embedded calendars (e.g., Calendly) to reduce friction. Reinforce Trust: Present key highlights from the case studies and testimonials in concise, hard-hitting formats to remind prospects of your proven success. Focus on Simplicity: By this stage, prospects are educated and ready. Avoid overloading them with new information - direct them to the decision with clear next steps.
The Benefits of Education-Based Selling
  • Higher Booking Rates
  • Education-based selling achieves booking rates of 9%+ compared to the 0.5% average of traditional cold outreach.
  • Shorter Sales Cycles
  • Prospects who are educated and informed require less time to convert, accelerating the sales process.
  • Increased Conversions
  • Trust and credibility built through education lead to higher close rates.
  • Scalable Growth
  • This approach creates a growing pipeline of qualified, engaged buyers.
  • Maximized ROI
Education-based selling ensures every touchpoint delivers value, resulting in better outcomes for every euro spent. Implementing
Education-Based Selling - Create Your Sales Assets Start by developing tutorials, market insights, case studies, and product demo videos tailored to your audience’s needs.
Redesign Your Outreach Messaging - Focus on providing value upfront, shifting away from pitches to education-based messaging.
Build a Nurturing Sequence - Use a combination of content types to keep prospects engaged and move them closer to a buying decision.
Optimize Continuously - Monitor key metrics, such as booking rates and conversion rates, and refine your approach to maximize results.
Conclusion
Education-based selling is transforming the way B2B businesses approach lead generation.
By focusing on providing value, building trust, and educating prospects, businesses can secure more meetings, close deals faster, and achieve sustainable growth.
If this resonates with you and you would like us to show you how this could work for your business then feel free to schedule a strategy call with our team.
On the call, we’ll understand more about your current business structure, your needs and goals, and based on all that we’ll map out a step-by-step growth plan on how to implement this system in your business.
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You’ve probably seen how crowded this space has become, and I’m guessing you’ve either experienced - or at least heard - of companies working with agencies that overpromised and underdelivered.
Would that be fair to say?
That’s actually why we do things differently…
We don’t see ourselves as just another agency. Instead, we work as a strategic partner, fully invested in your success.
And rather than asking businesses to commit upfront, we offer a way for them to experience working with us first - almost like a ‘try before you buy’ approach.
We’ve done this with others who were initially skeptical, and once they saw the difference, it completely changed their perspective.
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