Not every outbound program has the same job. Some are meant to book meetings, some to open doors, and some to teach you something about your market. Running them all through one agent with one message is why most outbound underperforms.
Below are six agent types worth running, why each works, and how to actually build it in Alsona. The setup details matter more than the strategy here, because the difference between these five is mostly configuration.
1. Signal-based agent
What it is: an always-on agent built around a single piece of buying behavior. Instead of working a list, you tell Alsona what a company has to be doing for you to reach out, and it finds those companies continuously as they enter that state.
Why it works: timing is the variable nobody controls in outbound, and this is the closest thing to controlling it. A company that just posted eight support roles has a support problem this month. A company that just swapped out a piece of its stack is re-evaluating everything next to it. Reaching those companies in the window is why signal-based agents consistently out-reply everything else you run. It also means the agent never goes stale, because the prospects are generated by events rather than pulled from a list that ages from the day you build it.
Use it for: your highest-conviction trigger. The one thing that, when you hear about it, makes you want to pick up the phone.
How to build it:
Prospect source: 360 signal search.
Intent signals: one to three sources, not six. This agent is deliberately narrow. If you sell developer tooling, that might be technology stack changes narrowed to replacements. If you sell recruiting services, hiring demand momentum narrowed to current openings. Open Customize on every source you turn on and tighten it.
Opportunity score: switch it on and weight the balance bar toward intent rather than ICP fit, since the whole premise of this agent is that the behavior is the qualifier.
Conversation goal: book a meeting, with your meeting link on the agent profile.
Outreach mode: co-pilot for the first week so you can read how the agent writes about the signal, then outbound or full autopilot.
Workflow shape: short and fast. The value of a signal decays, so a sequence that takes six weeks to get to the point is working against itself.
The thing to get right: the message has to be about the signal. Not "we help companies like yours," but a first line that only makes sense because of what that company just did. Reference the behavior without describing the detection. "Saw you're building out the support team" works. "Our platform detected eight new job postings at your company" does not.
How this differs from a new business agent: a signal agent is narrow by design and optimizes for reply rate. A new business agent covers your whole ICP and optimizes for coverage. Most companies should run both, and most should start here.
2. First-degree nurture
What it is: outreach to people who already know you. Past conversations, current contacts, former clients, and anyone who has engaged with you before.
Why it works: warm contacts are the most overlooked growth lever in most businesses. They reply more, refer more, and cost nothing to reach. This is not a selling motion. It is a staying-known motion.
Use it for: announcing a launch or new offer, checking in and offering help, asking for referrals, or reactivating a client who went quiet.
How to build it:
Prospect source: CSV import for a list you already have, or a LinkedIn search URL scoped to your first-degree connections. Signal search is the wrong tool here, because you already know who you want to reach.
Conversation goal: something softer than "book a meeting." Pick the goal that matches what you actually want, whether that is a reply, a call, or a referral.
Tone: friendly. This should not read like your cold outbound.
Outreach mode: co-pilot or outbound autopilot. These are people who know you, and a misfire costs a relationship rather than a lead.
Workflow shape: short. A LinkedIn message, a wait, one follow-up. Skip connection requests since you are already connected. Use the "if profile connected" condition if your list is mixed.
The thing to get right: additional instructions should tell the agent that these contacts already know you, so it does not introduce your company from scratch. Nothing kills a warm outreach faster than a message that reads like the sender has forgotten who they are talking to.
3. New business
What it is: cold outbound to companies that match your ICP. This is the flagship use of the platform.
Why it works: cold outbound still scales better than almost anything else when the targeting is good. In Alsona the targeting is not a static list, it is a set of signals, so the agent keeps finding companies as they enter the market rather than working through a list that ages from the day you build it.
Use it for: pipeline generation, entering a new segment, or launching into a market where you know the profile but not the names.
How to build it:
Prospect source: 360 signal search.
Intent signals: four to six sources that match what a buyer of yours would be doing right now. Open Customize on each one and narrow it. See "Choosing your intent signals" for how to pick.
Opportunity score: switch it on. It is off by default. Start the outreach threshold at 75+ and adjust from there.
Conversation goal: book a meeting, with your meeting link filled in on the agent profile.
Outreach mode: start on co-pilot for a week, then move up. Full autopilot once you trust what it writes.
Workflow shape: multi-step and branching. View profile, invite to connect, then split on whether the invite was accepted. Add the email path for prospects where a business email is found.
The thing to get right: the message has to reference the signal that surfaced the prospect. A cold message that ignores why you are reaching out this week is just a cold message with extra steps.
4. Partnerships
What it is: outreach to companies whose audience overlaps yours without competing for the same budget. Adjacent services, complementary tools, agencies serving the same buyer.
Why it works: a good partner brings a multiplier. One partnership can produce more warm introductions than a quarter of cold outbound, and the conversation is easier because nobody is being sold to.
Use it for: co-marketing, joint content or webinars, referral arrangements, and integration conversations.
How to build it:
Prospect source: signal search works here, but your ICP needs rewriting. You are targeting companies that serve your buyer, not your buyer.
Intent signals: the ones that indicate a company is visible and active. Events and talks signals surface people speaking publicly. News and media surfaces companies with something to announce. LinkedIn audience engagement with the right keywords surfaces people already talking about your space.
Opportunity score: weight the balance bar toward ICP fit rather than intent. Partnership fit is structural, not temporal.
Conversation goal: a conversation, not a demo.
Tone: professional or friendly, never bold.
Outreach mode: co-pilot. Partnership conversations are relationship-shaped and go off-script fast.
Workflow shape: low-pressure and slower. Follow the profile, engage with a post, then invite to connect. Earn some familiarity before you message.
The thing to get right: additional instructions must forbid pitching. Tell the agent explicitly that this is a partnership conversation and it should never propose a demo or send a sales calendar link.
5. Network growth
What it is: connecting with peers, people in similar roles, and others in your industry to build reach and social capital.
Why it works: not every touchpoint has to be transactional. A larger relevant network makes every future campaign work better, because more of your market is one degree away and more of them see what you post.
Use it for: thought leadership reach, community building, and creating the warm-introduction surface you will draw on later.
How to build it:
Prospect source: LinkedIn post reactions, event attendees, or group members are all strong here. So is signal search with a broad ICP.
Intent signals: LinkedIn audience engagement with keywords is the most useful single source for this, since it finds people actively discussing your topic.
Opportunity score: you can leave it off. You are not qualifying for fit, you are building reach.
Conversation goal: connect on LinkedIn.
Outreach mode: outbound autopilot or full autopilot. This is the lowest-risk agent type to automate.
Workflow shape: engagement-first. View profile, follow profile, like a post, post a comment, then invite to connect. The connection request lands warmer when you have shown up first.
The thing to get right: keep the connection note short or leave it off entirely. A connection request with a pitch attached is the fastest way to get ignored, and it hurts your acceptance rate, which affects every other agent on that sender.
6. Market research
What it is: outreach designed to gather input rather than sell. No pitch, just questions.
Why it works: people who will not take a sales call will often answer a good question. You get positioning input, you build goodwill, and you open a door you can walk back through in a few months.
Use it for: validating a product or feature, understanding how buyers describe their problems in their own words, and testing pricing or positioning language.
How to build it:
Prospect source: signal search with a tight ICP, or a CSV of a specific segment. Keep the volume small. You want depth, not scale.
Intent signals: narrow ones. You want people currently dealing with the thing you are asking about.
Conversation goal: whichever goal matches asking a question rather than booking time.
Length: concise. A research ask should be short enough to answer on a phone.
Outreach mode: co-pilot. You want to read every response yourself, since the responses are the product.
Workflow shape: one message and one follow-up. That is the whole thing.
The thing to get right: ask one question, not five. And mean it. Instructions should tell the agent not to pivot into a pitch if someone answers, because the moment a research conversation turns into a sales conversation you have lost both.
Choosing what to run
If you only run one agent, run new business. It is where the platform's advantage is.
If you run two, add first-degree nurture. It is the cheapest pipeline you will ever generate and most companies never do it systematically.
Beyond that, add types as your goals demand rather than because the list has five items. Four well-tuned agents beat nine neglected ones, and every agent you add is another set of instructions to maintain and another set of numbers to read.
One practical note on cost: Alsona meters signals, so agents built on signal search consume credits as they detect, while agents fed from a CSV or a LinkedIn list are not detecting signals at all. That makes nurture and network agents inexpensive to run alongside your main outbound program. NEEDS CONFIRMING — I am inferring this from the credit model rather than having seen it stated. Worth confirming before we publish it, because people will plan around it.
What Alsona gives you for all six
A workflow template library. 138 templates across 17 categories, plus My Templates for your own saved workflows and Agency Templates if you run multiple accounts. Browse by category rather than building from scratch, then edit the steps and copy to fit.
Agent Assistant. At step 4 of the wizard, the AI builder asks five questions and generates a branching workflow with drafted copy in about 40 seconds. Faster than building manually, and the chat stays open so you can ask for changes.
Message variants. Run A and B copy inside a single step and let the numbers pick the winner.
Additional outreach instructions. The field that separates these five agent types more than anything else. Same product, same platform, different rules of engagement.
Per-step counters. The workflow canvas shows how many prospects passed and failed at each step, so you can see where a sequence stalls rather than guessing.