Case
We looked at who actually replies in our data. The basis is an analysis of 20,978 people contacted through SalesXMachina, resulting in 1,060 genuine replies.
Who actually replies
| Level | Contacted | Replies | Reply rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practitioners (no leadership role) | 7,979 | 455 | 5.70 % |
| Heads of department | 3,628 | 171 | 4.71 % |
| Managing directors / C-level | 8,223 | 379 | 4.61 % |
We distinguish three groups: 1. practitioners without management duties, 2. heads of department or middle management, and 3. executive leadership and managing directors.
What stands out: practitioners have a higher reply rate, between 5.21 and 6.23 percent, while managing directors sit between 4.18 and 5.08 percent. So practitioners are about 25 % more likely to reply than the leadership of a company.
What this means for your targeting
If you only write to C-level today, you are ignoring the level that replies most often. If you only write to practitioners, you will later be missing the person who signs.
So our recommendation is clear: include both in the campaign, but don't give them the same text. At SalesXMachina this happens automatically, because the message is built from the signal and the role, not from a template.
Happy selling, Axel