Sales and outreach strategy

Date: 2026-10-02 (America/Chicago) Source of truth: the Research brief. Also drawn on: the Brand redesign and Agent OS and connectors pages.

Hard rules for this doc and everything it triggers

• No outreach has happened. No sends, posts, forms, enrichment or list uploads. Candid8 and candid8.us were not touched.
• Every message below is a draft. Nothing leaves without the human-yes gate in section 3.7.
• No personal contact data is in this document.
• No invented metrics. Where the brief says UNKNOWN, this doc says UNKNOWN. Any number with "target" next to it is a goal to measure against, not a forecast.
• Goal: the site must read and look like it was made for specific buyers by a real Houston company, not like generic web copy.

Two facts that change what we can say or send (from Research brief)

1. MBE status is company-reported (cert HS100001293, valid through 2027-07-31). No independent Houston MSDC or NMSDC directory record was found. Verify at source before any outreach or packet uses it. This is gate G0 below.
2. Staffing ("Consulting as a Service"), the SAP job post and the "140+ products, 4000+ developers, 600M+ lines of code" copy do not fit an ISP/hardware/licensing/help-desk story and cannot be verified. This strategy covers only the technology-services line. Staffing is a separate decision.

1. ICP: three segments Candid8 can win

Order = recommended focus. A is the wedge only Candid8 has (MBE). B pays the bills (help desk is $19/$39/$49 per user per month as published, 10-seat minimum, so one 10-seat customer is $190 to $490 a month before connectivity and hardware; prices are the company's public prices, confirm current). C is a test.

Segment A. Supplier-diversity and procurement buyers at Texas corporates and institutions ("MBE channel")

Segment B. Houston multi-site operators with 50 to 500 employees and thin IT ("the workhorse")

Segment C. Fast-growing Houston companies with 11 to 200 employees ("test segment")

Segment priority rule: if capacity is tight, A (relationship + proof build), B (volume outreach), C (test) in that order. A and B share one MBE page and one help-desk page, so building for A does not slow B.

2. Design and branding strategy

2.1 Where the current site can serve each buyer better (from Research brief §4, §5)

2.3 What each segment must see in 10 seconds

2.4 Positioning, voice, and copy lines

Positioning (from Brand redesign, sharpened): "The supplier-diversity-ready IT partner for Houston businesses. Business internet, hardware, software licensing and a help desk, one accountable team." Not biggest, not security-only.

Voice: plain, short, procurement-literate, Houston-warm, verbs first. Sentences under 20 words. No "powerhouse", "unleash", "cutting-edge", "seamless", "empower", "end-to-end".

Copy lines (all claims are structural, not metrics; each needs an owner yes):

• Home hero (B): "Business internet, laptops, licenses and a help desk. One Houston team."
• Home sub: "Fewer vendors. One person who owns your renewals. Real answers when something breaks."
• Door labels: "I run an office" / "I buy for a supplier-diversity program" / "We are a growing team".
• MBE page headline (A): "A certified MBE you can verify, and a supplier packet you can forward."
• MBE page body: "Candid8 is certified as an MBE through Houston MSDC. Here is the certificate, the scope it covers, and the link to check it yourself." (Only after verification gate G0. Until then: "Certification details are being confirmed", or do not publish the page.)
• Tier explainer: "Tier 1 is spend with us directly. Tier 2 is spend through your prime. Ask us how your program counts each one. We will say plainly what we resell and what we manage."
• Help desk: "Open a ticket. See its status. Know who has it." Plans: "Essential and Standard answer 8am to 5pm. Premier answers around the clock." (Confirm hours before shipping.)
• Quote: "Send us your current internet bill. We will compare options for your site and tell you if we are not the better fit."
• Renewal: "Every license, circuit and warranty on one calendar, and a reminder before each one."
• Boundary: "We quote it, you approve it, then we order it."
• Contact: "One number. One email. A person replies."
• Sign-off (keep): "When IT comes to tech, we're your best Candid8."
• Avoid: "24/7" unless tied to Premier; "authorized partner" or any logo badge without proof; "compliant", "secure", "certified" about security; any year, customer count or percentage not supplied and approved.

2.5 Site architecture per segment

Principle: one site, three doors on the home page, shared building blocks. Staffing, if kept, lives under /talent and is not linked in the main nav.

Technical: static H1, sitemap.xml, robots.txt, canonical, Open Graph, Organization + LocalBusiness JSON-LD, one phone and email, WCAG 2.2 AA, no analytics until owner yes.

2.6 Image direction: real-feeling, Houston-specific

Principle: every image shows a person doing a task at a place where it happens. No abstract networks, no glowing globes, no handshake stock. If real photos do not exist at launch, use the "AI-generated illustration" label rule from Brand redesign §7 and plan a real shoot in the 30-day plan.

Look: natural light, 35 or 50 mm feel, slightly imperfect, real cables and real tags, no HDR, no teal-and-orange grade. Warm sand and navy site palette (Brand redesign §4) should echo what is in the frame (navy shirts, sand walls) rather than overlay gradients.

Shot list (half-day to one-day shoot, one local photographer, signed releases for people and any private location; use real Candid8 staff and real customer sites only with written consent):

1. Portrait of the founder/owner at a desk, ordinary light (name and role only if confirmed). Hero candidate for A.
2. Two techs at a customer's network closet, one holding a patch cable, labels visible. Hero candidate for B.
3. Tech at a small-business front desk replacing a laptop, employee watching. Hero for C.
4. Help-desk agent at a real desk with headset, a ticket queue on the screen (blur any real customer data).
5. Phone in hand showing an actual ticket status screen.
6. Boxes of hardware being staged and tagged on a workbench.
7. Router and circuit install at a small warehouse or light-industrial office in the Houston area.
8. Medical or dental office front desk (staff only, no patients, with consent).
9. Construction or engineering trailer office with Wi-Fi gear on the wall.
10. Two people at a table with a printed supplier packet and a laptop (procurement meeting feel).
11. A supplier-diversity or council event: Candid8 staff at a booth or conversation (only if they attend; do not stage a fake event).
12. Context places in Houston: an exterior of a real client or partner building (with consent), a downtown or Midtown street at normal daylight, an Energy Corridor or Westchase office park, a Ship Channel-area industrial park from public road. Use as small supporting images, never as the hero.
13. A hand-lettered or printed physical object: the actual MBE certificate on a wall or in a folder (only the real certificate, with permission).
14. Team group photo outside the real Houston office or at a cafe, no posed power-pose. Export 3 crops per image (16:9, 4:5, square) and write specific alt text (what is happening, not "IT solution").

What to avoid (the generic-look checklist)

• Stock blue/purple gradients, glowing circuits, floating dashboards, abstract nodes.
• A hero with a vague promise ("Empowering your digital future") and no noun.
• Fake stats, fake counters, "trusted by 500+" with no source, invented ratings.
• Typewriter or rotating headlines. Auto-playing carousels.
• Unlabeled AI-generated people or "customers". If an image is generated or stock, label it "AI-generated illustration" (or "Stock illustration").
• Fifteen sectors with the same sentence each.
• Badges for programs we cannot show proof for. Logos of partners we do not hold.
• Testimonials with generated avatars or relatives' quotes presented as customers.
• Copy that sounds like it could be on any MSP site. Test: swap in a competitor's name; if it still fits, rewrite.

2.7 Brand system (follows Brand redesign, no change to tokens)

The live redesign uses navy ink, sand paper and one amber accent, with open-license fonts (see the Credits page). Add: a trust bar component (legal name, city, certificate with verify link, phone), a plan card component, a case record component (Problem / Method / Result / consent line), an illustrative caption style for any non-client image. One accent, used for the button and the "8".

3. Cold outreach

3.1 Principles

• A list-and-enrichment tool builds the lists. A human presses send, or approves the exact recipients at the gate. Bots draft only: the Outbound SDR role has no lookup or send.
• Quality over volume: Segment A gets small, hand-written, relationship-first outreach. Segment B gets the volume. Segment C is a test.
• No cold outreach to anyone until gates G0 to G3 in 3.7 are passed.

3.2 Lists and filters (build as saved searches; do not reveal until owner approves)

Exclusions: Candid8's other providers and MSPs, staffing firms (NAICS 5613, 5416 unless relevant), government addresses until legal view on public-procurement outreach, anyone on the suppression list, anyone who has opted out, any existing customer, any personal email address.

3.3 Sequences (all drafts, plain short sentences, no em-dashes)

Placeholders: {First}, {Company}, {Trigger} (a public, checkable fact written by hand), {Sender} (the named Candid8 person, UNKNOWN), {Address} (valid postal address, see 3.5). Do not send any line that mentions the certificate until it is verified (G0). Bracketed [VERIFY] lines are the only ones that mention it.

Drafting roles per step: Outbound SDR (copy), Legal Sentinel (claims and footer review), CRO (pacing, caps, enrollment proposal), Inbound SDR (reply qualification), Listener (reply tagging), CoS (work orders, task scheduling), CEO (weekly brief), CFO (cost per meeting, tool spend), CTO (domains, DNS, tracking), Code Agent (review of site/form/tracking diffs), HR and Workload coach (not used here except if a BDR is hired).

Sequence 1. Supplier-diversity and procurement (Segment A), 4 touches over 21 days, low volume, hand-edited

Parallel non-email step: LinkedIn connection note from the named person (human-sent, section 4.5). Council and event follow-up beats cold email for this segment.

Sequence 2. Houston operators, owners and ops/IT (Segment B), 5 touches over 25 days

Trigger variant for companies hiring for IT, touch 1: {Company} is hiring for IT support. If it helps, we can cover tickets while you hire, or after. (hand-written from the job post; Outbound SDR drafts, human edits.)

Sequence 3. Fast-growing teams (Segment C), 4 touches over 18 days (test)

Rules for all bodies: one ask, under 90 words, no attachments in touch 1, no tracking pixels on A, no image-only content, no "just circling back", no claims about speed, savings, uptime or compliance, no em-dashes.

3.4 Deliverability plan

• Never send cold email from the main domain candid8.us. Use a separate sending domain or subdomain owned by Candid8, with a separate sender account. The bot never sends directly. The specific name is UNKNOWN until Candid8 chooses it.
• Start with 2 to 3 inboxes on 1 to 2 domains. Real person names, real signatures.
• Authentication before first send: SPF, DKIM, DMARC (start at p=none, move to quarantine after clean reports), custom tracking domain if tracking is used, reverse DNS where supported. CTO drafts the DNS change plan; a human applies it; Code Agent reviews any form or script change.
• Warm-up: 3 to 4 weeks of low-volume real conversations and a warm-up service before any cold send. No cold sends in warm-up weeks.
• Caps (proposed targets for CRO to set and reevaluate weekly, since the CRO contract takes capacity, bounce and complaint rates as inputs): start at 15 to 20 cold emails per inbox per day, ramp to 30 to 40 only if bounce and complaint stay in range, never above the provider's guidance. Total per week set by what the humans can answer.
• Health thresholds (targets, adjust after real data): hard bounce under 2%, spam complaint under 0.1% and never above Gmail's published 0.3% limit, positive-plus-neutral replies tracked. If a threshold is crossed: pause the inbox, CRO files a pacing proposal, human decides.
• Verified emails only. Verify at reveal and again before send. Remove role addresses unless intentional. No purchased lists. No scraped lists. No personal Gmail or Yahoo addresses.
• Plain text, no images, one link at most (none in touch 1 for A), no URL shorteners, unsubscribe text in the footer, list-unsubscribe header if the tool supports it.
• Timing: Tuesday to Thursday, 8 to 11am Central, no sends on Houston holidays or the week of any local disaster or storm event.

3.5 Compliance (draft for counsel review; Legal Sentinel prepares, not legal advice)

• CAN-SPAM (US): accurate From, Reply-To and routing info; non-deceptive subject lines; identify the message as an ad where required; include a valid physical postal address (the street address on the public jobs page may be a mailbox suite; counsel should confirm it qualifies, or use a registered PO box); a clear, working opt-out; honor opt-outs within 10 business days (we will honor immediately); no selling or transferring opted-out addresses; the sender is responsible even if a vendor sends for us.
• Opt-out text in every email: "If you want no more email from Candid8, reply stop and I will remove you."
• Suppression: one master suppression list (opt-outs, bounces, complaints, customers, other providers, "do not contact" notes). Kept outside the list tool as well. CRO blocks enrollments against it; Outbound SDR must be handed the list each time.
• No cold calls or texts in this plan. TCPA and Texas telemarketing rules apply to calls and texts; the BDR cold-calling job post in the Research brief is a separate matter for counsel.
• Data handling: collect only business contact data, source and date noted per record, deletion on request, no sensitive data, no inference about protected traits (important for the MBE and diversity framing).
• GDPR/CCPA: US business contacts only at start. California residents and any EU contacts are excluded from the first waves unless counsel clears.
• Claims review: Legal Sentinel checks every message, page and packet for the MBE claim, "certified", "authorized partner", price and 24/7 statements.
• Sub-processors: record that the list tool and the sending tools receive contact data; list them in the privacy policy.

3.6 Metrics (targets, not forecasts; first 60 days)

Review weekly: CRO pacing proposal; CEO draft in the weekly brief; Listener tags replies (interest, objection, wrong person, opt-out).

3.7 Human-yes gate (all drafts, owner approves exact recipients)

No bot sends, enrolls, reveals, or exports. Reveal and enrichment spend requires a named person to approve the count and cost first.

4. Warm and cold lead ways

4.1 Lead magnets (from Agent OS and connectors; all gated forms, human-yes on every reply)

Each magnet needs: one page, one form, consent line, a reply time, and a sample of the output (illustrative, labeled).

4.2 MBE supplier-diversity channels (warm, relationship-led; verify every name, date and rule before use)

• Houston MSDC (HMSDC): the certifying council per the company's claim. Join/maintain membership, attend matchmaking and supplier-showcase events, use the member directory, ask the council which corporate members buy IT. Confirm the cert directory entry first.
• NMSDC: national events and its directory raise visibility with national corporates that have Houston operations.
• TXMSDC: the exact organization and its relationship to HMSDC and other Texas councils is UNKNOWN; confirm the correct entity and whether it applies.
• Corporate supplier-diversity programs and portals: register in each target buyer's supplier portal (ports, hospitals, universities, energy and industrial companies in Houston). Note each portal's category codes and Tier 1/Tier 2 rules. UNKNOWN until researched.
• Texas HUB program (Comptroller): HUB is a state-agency program and is not the same as an NMSDC MBE. Candid8's HUB status is UNKNOWN; never imply equivalence. If eligible, it opens Texas agency work.
• SBA and federal: SAM.gov registration (UEI/CAGE are UNKNOWN per Research brief), SBA programs the company may qualify for, and Houston APEX Accelerator (formerly PTAC) for help with government contracting. Verify eligibility first.
• Chambers: Greater Houston Partnership and the chambers that match the owner's real community and customer base. Pick two to three, not ten. Names and fit to be confirmed by the owner.
• Primes and Tier 2: ask primes' supplier-diversity offices for their Tier 2 reporting process; offer to be listed as a diverse sub-tier supplier.
• Rules: attend with one goal per event (a named buyer conversation), follow up within two business days from the named person, log the contact, and only then add to the suppression-aware outreach lists.

4.3 Partner and referral

• ISPs and carriers: become an authorized agent or reseller with the main Houston carriers (partners UNKNOWN). Co-quote where a carrier lacks small-business sales.
• Distributors and OEMs (hardware, licenses): partner programs give authorization letters and deal registration that procurement buyers ask for. Only name partners after the letter exists.
• MSPs and IT firms without MBE status: subcontract MBE-eligible portions of large deals (and vice versa where Candid8 lacks a capability). Written agreements; counsel review.
• Accountants, insurance brokers, commercial real estate brokers, office movers, cabling contractors: they hear about offices that are moving, growing or unhappy. Offer a simple referral note, not a commission scheme, until counsel reviews referral fee rules.
• Existing customers: one referral ask per quarter, drafted, human-sent.

4.4 Google Business Profile, SEO and local

• Claim and complete Google Business Profile; one canonical phone/address; categories "Internet service provider reseller" or "IT services" as accurate; photos from the real shoot.
• Ask real customers for Google reviews in a simple, consented way (never from relatives, never incentivized, never faked). Reply to every review.
• Fix the site basics in Research brief §4 (sitemap, canonical, schema, titles).
• Pages that match search: "business internet Houston", "managed help desk Houston", "MBE IT supplier Houston", "Microsoft 365 license renewal Houston". One page per intent, useful content, no keyword stuffing.
• Local citations: consistent name, address and phone in major directories. Do this after the legal name is settled.

4.5 LinkedIn

• Owner and named sales lead profiles are the main channel for Segment A. Human posts, human connections, no automation tools.
• Weekly post cadence (target 1 to 2): a renewal tip, a real install photo, an event note. No generated people. No claims without proof.
• Connection notes: one sentence, no pitch. Follow-up message only after acceptance.
• Company page: fix the duplicate/conflicting "Candid8" pages (Research brief §1.6), one page, correct employee count.
• Activity on the supplier-diversity community feed of events attended.

4.6 Webinars and events

• Small, practical, 30 minutes, recorded: "License renewals without surprises", "What counts as Tier 1 and Tier 2 for IT spend" (for primes and diversity offices; Candid8 does not give legal advice), "Setting up laptops for new hires".
• Co-host with a council, a chamber or a carrier partner so Candid8 borrows trust.
• Registration form feeds Inbound SDR drafts, no auto-emails.

4.7 Reviews and case studies

• Start collecting after the first 2 to 3 customers. Use a Problem / Method / Result format with written consent and a "results vary" line.
• Ask for permission to name the customer; otherwise use "Houston medical group, 35 employees" only if true and consented.
• Do not reuse the four relatives' Google quotes as proof. Replace with real, dated, sourced reviews.

4.8 30-60-90 day plan (all numbers are targets, not forecasts; owners are human, roles draft)

Success is not "more emails". The 90-day question: did the proof (verifiable cert + real people + clear plans) make buyers say yes more often than the old site would have?

5. Role map (12 roles, draft-only)

Sources: the Research brief, the Brand redesign page and the Agent OS and connectors page. Regulatory points (CAN-SPAM, Gmail sender limits) are summarized from general knowledge and must be confirmed with counsel before use.