One of the most common outbound mistakes is over-engineering targeting from day one.
Many teams start by creating extremely narrow lists of titles, exclusions, and subcategories before observing any real data. The result is often:
lower lead volume,
missed opportunities,
slower learning cycles.
Sonik.ai recommends starting broader, then refining progressively based on actual lead quality.
Use a simple structure like:
Persona job: “marketing”
Seniority level: Owner/Partner/CEO/Founder ; C-Level ; VP/SVP ; Director ; Manager
This is usually far more effective operationally than manually maintaining dozens of ultra-specific title variations.
The goal is not to predict the perfect targeting upfront. The goal is to generate enough signal volume to learn quickly and optimize progressively.