The email was written. The prospect was chosen. Someone had pressed send. And then, for a troublesome share of Belkins’ outreach, nothing useful happened. In a case study published by its validation supplier, ZeroBounce, the agency describes bounce rates climbing above 19%. Before a salesperson could be persuasive, an address had to work.
That is an awkward problem for a company paid to introduce businesses to potential customers. It is also a revealing one. We tend to imagine sales as a contest between personalities: the gifted closer, the irresistible pitch. Belkins’ business directs attention toward the people checking the list, maintaining the inbox and figuring out whose problem the offer actually solves.
- The job: find relevant B2B buyers and arrange sales conversations.
- The method: researchers, writers and sales development staff working across channels.
- The catch: a meeting needs a viable offer and a capable closer.
01 / First, get through the door
Belkins’ founders, Vladyslav Podoliako and Michael Maximoff, bootstrapped the agency in 2017. Its history records an email-to-spam crisis in 2020 that helped produce Folderly, an email deliverability product. The sequence matters: the agency encountered a problem in its own work, developed a response, then made that response available to others.
Validation addresses a related weakness. In the ZeroBounce account, inaccurate contacts damaged engagement and threatened sender reputation. Belkins began checking addresses before using them. There is a wonderfully practical lesson here for anyone writing increasingly elaborate follow-ups: inspect the route to the customer before polishing the sentence.
“Even a sprinkle of invalid contacts in a list can ruin an entire campaign”
Michael Maximoff / ZeroBounce customer case study
02 / A calendar takes a crew
A buyer hires Belkins to handle the work that precedes a sales conversation. That includes researching accounts, finding decision-makers, checking contacts, developing messages and following up. Email, LinkedIn and telephone outreach can become parts of a coordinated campaign. The promised handoff is a relevant conversation for the client’s sales team.
This puts Belkins in the market for outsourced sales development alongside providers such as Callbox and Martal Group. A company choosing among them is also comparing an agency with hiring its own prospecting team. A database subscription supplies names; an outreach platform supplies sending capacity. Both still leave someone responsible for the research, decisions and replies.
Belkins adds services around that core: account-based marketing, deliverability consulting, outsourced sales development representatives and HubSpot CRM support. It appears in HubSpot’s solutions directory. These services address a familiar operational mess: marketing produces names, sales wants opportunities, and useful feedback gets stranded between the two.
Belkins builds the introduction. The client handles the close.
03 / Silence is information
The technology has distinct jobs, too. Folderly focuses on deliverability. Belkins lists Charge for bulk outreach through Outlook and Frostbite as a free email outreach tool. A sending tool helps execute a campaign; the harder judgment is deciding which accounts deserve attention and what would make a conversation useful to them. That judgment remains central to the service being sold.
The YorkTest campaign shows why this is more complicated than adding contacts. The British testing company wanted to develop its American B2B business. Belkins initially approached HR professionals and employee benefits brokers. HR contacts were unresponsive; concentrating on brokers improved the early response but left disappointing return on investment.
The team revised the audience again, looking for HR and benefits professionals in sectors such as software development and digital marketing. It combined email with LinkedIn connections, messages and educational content. Belkins reports an average of five appointments a month. The useful detail is the sequence of revisions: silence changed the targeting; weak economics changed it again.
A different customer required something tangible. For Omnicharge, which makes portable power products, Belkins proposed sending prospects a demonstration unit. Its case study reports more than 320 appointments over a year and nine deals in the first three months. Those are agency-reported outcomes, rather than a forecast for the next buyer. The transferable idea is to let prospects experience what the offer claims.
04 / Put a price on the introduction
Belkins sells custom monthly retainers. Its current packages describe annual appointment targets: 100-plus for Growth, 200-plus for Growth Plus, and 30-plus for a small-business offering delivered through partner agencies. Enterprise work has custom terms. Buyers need a quote that spells out channels, qualification and responsibilities before those packages become meaningfully comparable.
In an April 2025 Impact Pricing interview, Podoliako used an illustrative client paying $10,000 monthly, or $120,000 annually. That was an example, not today’s price list. He connected the investment to the client’s close rate and sales cycle. The calculation needs the buyer’s own costs, too: a signed deal still requires sales effort and delivery.
Agency-fee break-even only. Add internal sales costs; allow for timing and failed opportunities.
This explains the limits of outsourcing. A low-value offer can struggle to carry the acquisition cost. A product without clear demand needs learning before scale. A sales team that neglects replies or cannot close can waste good introductions. Buyers should agree what qualifies a meeting, track attendance and connect each opportunity to eventual contribution, rather than celebrating calendar density.
05 / The edit is part of the engine
Belkins applies a similar discipline to its own marketing. In September 2026, announcing an SEO Web Excellence Award, it described reducing thousands of website pages to roughly 100 core pages. It reports organic traffic rising from about 7,000 to more than 30,000 unique monthly visits over three years, supported by a two-person core SEO team.
The stated method was repeated revision: fresh data, better examples, expert input and regular updates. It fits the less glamorous reading of the company. Growth involves maintenance. A list needs checking. An audience needs reconsidering. A page needs editing. Readers can copy that habit without hiring Belkins: locate the weak link, change something specific and measure what happens after the introduction.