Overview
I handled overseas business development at a senior-healthcare company. With LinkedIn cold outreach ending without replies, I designed a GTM to wake up dormant leads and, at the same time, a low-risk path into the US market.
Problem
Overseas cold outreach got no replies, and hundreds of contacts met at trade shows from 2022 to 2026 sat unused instead of being treated as assets. In the US, setting up a local entity without concrete results was too risky, so we needed a partner-based entry path.
Approach
I shifted the strategy from prospecting new leads to reactivating dormant ones. Using the list of companies that visited our trade-show booths, I sent newsletters personalized by name 3 times (August, early September, late September). Instead of promoting the company, each one focused on 1 proven result (adoption at 3 hospitals of a Singapore public healthcare group), and I cleaned up bounced addresses every round. For the US, I wrote the submission (a service introduction) for a government program supporting North America expansion myself, and it was selected. After completing the 8-day local program (design thinking, FDA regulatory approval, separating buyer/user/payer), I agreed on a joint pilot (PoC → profit sharing on conversion to paid) with a senior-care startup I met at a local event. I then hosted direct interviews with US facility operators and confirmed that “diaper costs are a meaningless variable for US facilities; the biggest cost is labor.” So I rewrote the US message from cost savings to staff efficiency and additional revenue. I reorganized all opportunities on an 8-stage sales pipeline board to give a basis for allocating resources.
Results
The early-September campaign went to 407 contacts and drew 12 replies in total (about 2.9%). The 3rd campaign in late September went to 404 contacts and was published on LinkedIn at the same time. The replies actually opened 1 investor update call, 1 quote request, 1 European distribution partnership inquiry, and 1 call proposal from the largest e-commerce company in the Middle East. A reply from an Indian government-affiliated organization also became a lead strong enough to change our CEO’s travel schedule. LinkedIn engagement was about 2x higher. The pilot pipeline with the US partner covers 3 senior living facilities in Ohio and California, with a scale of 700+ people according to the partner, and 2 new partners joined in late September. I also submitted an application, written with internal AI tools, to a US hospital group’s PoC program.
Lessons Learned
Only the number of new leads has grown; conversion from stage 3 to stage 4 hasn’t happened yet. What breaks through the 25% wall is reaching decision-makers, not sending more emails. The message changed too: not “a soiling-detection sensor” but “passive care infrastructure that requires no change in behavior.”