A steady 9 qualified meetings a month for a UK venue and catering group
Over eight months, outbound to London-area companies replaced a feast-and-famine enquiry pattern with a stable run-rate, producing 68 qualified meetings, 200+ conversations, and 23 booked events.
Snapshot
Client under NDAA UK-based venue and catering group with 51 to 200 employees, running event spaces and full catering services for corporate clients in and around London. Enquiries used to flood in from September for Christmas and again in spring for summer parties, then go quiet for months at a time. The client’s name is withheld under a non-disclosure agreement, so the company is described by profile only.
Results at a glance
A steady run-rate by the second half, in a business where enquiries used to cluster around two seasons.
Booked with EAs, office managers, and event managers over 8 months.
Spread across the calendar rather than stacked into peak season.
Opened from roughly 6,300 researched London-area contacts in 8 months.
EAs, office managers, and event and marketing managers within reach of the client’s venues.
With the run-rate stabilising from month four onward.
Leadership wanted outbound to do something specific: fill the quiet months, and make the enquiry flow predictable enough to plan staffing against.
Strong demand, in the wrong shape
The client is a UK-based venue and catering group with 51 to 200 employees, running event spaces and full catering services for corporate clients in and around London. Revenue comes from company Christmas parties, summer socials, conferences, team dinners, and smaller formats such as breakfast briefings and board lunches.
The group had a strong reputation and healthy repeat business, and most new enquiries arrived inbound through listings sites and word of mouth. The trouble was the shape of that demand, not the volume: enquiries flooded in from September for Christmas and again in spring for summer parties, then went quiet for months at a time.
The kitchens, staff, and spaces were fixed costs that ran all year, so the off-peak months were where profitability leaked away.
Fill the quiet months, and make the enquiry flow predictable enough to plan staffing against.
Smoothing a calendar is not the same as generating volume
More emails would have amplified the pattern
Prospects asked cold in October about events think of Christmas, and the client’s Christmas dates largely sell themselves.
The quiet months needed demand created for them
The programme had to create demand for the formats and months the market does not think about on its own, which meant selling different products in different seasons rather than one venue pitch year-round.
The buyers receive relentless venue marketing
EAs and office managers organise most corporate events in London, especially around peak booking windows. Standing out required messages tied to a concrete, dated occasion the recipient was plausibly responsible for, rather than a general invitation to keep the venue in mind.
Where the enquiries came from, and when.
Enquiries flooded in from September for Christmas and again in spring for summer parties, then went quiet for months at a time.
Kitchens, staff, and spaces ran through the off-peak months, which is where profitability leaked away.
Simply sending more emails would have amplified the existing pattern rather than flattening it.
Sell the format the month actually needs
Researched a London-area list built around event responsibility
We compiled roughly 6,300 named contacts over the engagement, concentrating on EAs, office managers, and event and marketing managers at companies within practical reach of the client’s venues. Company size mattered less than event culture, so the list favoured firms with visible histories of team events, offsites, and client hospitality.
Mapped the client’s formats onto a twelve-month demand calendar
Together with the client we listed every event type they could deliver and assigned each to the season where it made sense to sell, not the season where it happened.
Sell the format in the month the buyer can still act on it.
Each event type was assigned to the season where it made sense to sell, not the season where it happened.
Written for the organiser, managed to a run-rate
Led with cold email, with LinkedIn in support
Email carried the dated, format-specific sequences, each anchored to an occasion and a month rather than to the venue in general. LinkedIn was used sparingly to reach event and marketing managers, and to warm up companies where an EA had opened a conversation and then gone quiet over a busy period.
Wrote for the organiser, not the attendee
EAs and office managers are judged on whether the event runs smoothly, so the messaging led with the things that make their job easier. Menu poetry was kept to a minimum.
Managed the programme to a monthly run-rate target
The goal was never a big quarter but a level line. Each month we reviewed meetings booked against the target, shifted volume toward the formats filling weak months, and deliberately throttled Christmas-adjacent outreach that would have inflated a season the client already sold out.
- Dated, format-specific sequences
- Anchored to an occasion and a month
- Event and marketing managers
- Warming up quiet EA conversations
A level line, through months that had produced almost nothing
The documented campaign figures, in the order they happened.
- Contacts~6,300
researched, London-area
- Conversations200+
qualified conversations opened
- Meetings68
qualified meetings booked
- Run-rate9
meetings a month from month four
- Events23
booked during the engagement
68 meetings from 200+ conversations is a conversion of roughly one in three, which sits at the strong end and reflects how concrete the asks were, since a message proposing a specific format in a specific month is easy to say yes or no to. The conversation rate of just over 3% of prospects contacted is higher than we would model for most B2B categories, and it is consistent with this audience, because EAs and office managers reply more readily than most executive buyers when the request is squarely inside their remit.
Held from month four onward
Through months that had historically produced almost nothing.
Spread across the calendar
Instead of stacking into December and July.
Questions about this case study
How did the client reach a steady 9 meetings a month?
By running format-specific campaigns matched to a twelve-month demand calendar, from a researched list of roughly 6,300 London-area contacts. The programme produced 200+ conversations and 68 qualified meetings over 8 months, with the run-rate stabilising around 9 meetings a month from month four.
Which channels were used?
Cold email led the programme, carrying the seasonal, format-specific sequences. LinkedIn played a supporting role with event and marketing managers.
Why is the client not named?
The engagement is covered by an NDA. We publish the full numbers and withhold the identity.
Would this work for a company like mine?
It depends on why your demand is uneven. If you have real capacity in quiet periods and formats you could sell into them, this approach transfers well. If your seasonality is driven by something structural in how your customers budget, outbound alone will not flatten it, and we would say that plainly on a first call.
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