A high-touch, multi-channel sequence designed for executive search firms to engage senior candidates and land retained search clients without burning domains.
Executive search cold email sequences need 6-7 touches over 14-21 days. Anything less is easily missed by a busy executive.
For C-suite targets, a LinkedIn profile view before the first email can warm up the contact. It's a low-risk, high-awareness touch.
Personalizing the first two sentences based on a candidate's recent project or public statement is non-negotiable for executive outreach.
Sending to personal inboxes (Gmail) from your primary domain is a critical error. One spam complaint can tank your firm's deliverability.
This sequence is built for Managing Partners, Directors of Research, and Heads of BD at executive search firms. Use it for high-stakes outreach where personalization and professionalism are non-negotiable, such as engaging C-suite candidates or starting conversations for new retained searches.
This is a measured, professional sequence designed to build credibility and get a response from a difficult-to-reach audience. It avoids aggressive, high-frequency follow-ups that can damage your firm's reputation.
Each step is designed to be a light, professional touchpoint that respects the recipient's time.
Step 1: The Hyper-Personalized First Touch
Subject:
Your work on Project Titan
Body:
Saw your recent feature on the Titan project. The approach to scaling the data infrastructure was impressive and relevant to a confidential search I'm leading...
Subject:
Re: Your work on Project Titan
Body:
Just following up on my note from earlier this week. Thought this role might be a strong fit given your background in X.
Subject:
Quick thought on [Their Industry] trends
Body:
Came across this market report on [Relevant Trend]. The section on [Specific Topic] seemed relevant to our earlier conversation. No reply needed.
Subject:
Closing the loop
Body:
Assuming the timing isn't right. I won't follow up on this again, but will keep you in mind for future roles that align with your expertise.
This sequence fails without hyper-personalization. The structure is the template, but the content must be unique. Generic templates sent to C-suite executives are deleted on sight.
Focus personalization on the first two steps. Research the individual and reference one of the following:
The rest of the sequence can be more templatized, as it references your initial, highly-personalized message.
Executive search outreach is high-risk. You are often sending to personal inboxes (Gmail, Outlook.com) which have extremely sensitive spam filters. One mistake can get your entire firm's domain blacklisted, crippling your ability to contact candidates and clients.
Never run this sequence from your primary corporate domain. Instead, use a set of dedicated, warmed-up sending domains. Keep sends low per inbox—no more than 30-50 new contacts per day. Rotate between inboxes and domains automatically to spread the load and protect the reputation of each asset.
Recruiting agencies send to personal inboxes (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com). This audience is more sensitive to deliverability issues than B2B corporate domains. Using primary domains is a massive risk—once Gmail flags your domain, your entire agency's deliverability suffers. This is why agencies rely on secondary domains + inbox rotation.
Tools like SuperSend exist to handle this infra and orchestration so teams don't have to duct-tape it together inside a primary inbox. It's the cold email infrastructure your team has been missing.
Join thousands of teams using SuperSend to transform their cold email campaigns and drive more revenue.