BD campaigns win you new clients the same way sourcing campaigns win you candidates: managed cold outreach to decision-makers, AI-classified replies, and a human taking over the moment there's real interest. The AI never runs a discovery call — that's yours.
BD campaigns run through a four-step wizard — Basics, Audience, Message, Review. Unlike sourcing campaigns (five steps, where PlacementFlow writes the outreach and you configure the Qualifier and screening in-flow), BD has a Message step you write yourself — decision-makers reply to your voice, not a template's.
- Open the campaign wizard and choose Business development as the type
- Set the handoff email — where you'll be CC'd when a prospect shows interest
- Build the audience: target titles (e.g. "HR Director", "Head of Talent"), seniority, function, industry, company sizes, and locations
- Write the cold email — subject, opener, and up to two follow-ups
- Review and click Launch campaign
Unlike sourcing campaigns, BD campaigns launch immediately — there's no candidate experience to rehearse, so there's no draft/dry-run step. Outreach starts as soon as provisioning completes (which can take a couple of minutes).
Everything sends from PlacementFlow-managed sending domains — never your own.
Prospects matching your filters are sourced, enriched, and worked through your email sequence. Sends stop automatically the moment someone replies, and every reply is classified by AI. The BD dashboard (BD) tracks the pipeline: prospects sourced, replies, interested, converted.
Warm BD replies land in your BD qualified queue with the reply text and classification. From there:
- Read the reply and the thread
- Trigger the handoff — you're CC'd into the live email thread
- Take over from your own inbox and move toward a discovery call
Prospects move through a structured pipeline:
Prospect → Contacted → Replied → Interested → Discovery Scheduled → Discovery Done → Client
- Schedule discovery — once a prospect is interested, you have two ways to get the call booked:
- Propose times (default) — offer up to three slots and the prospect picks one from a booking page. PlacementFlow then creates the video link, puts it in your calendar, and sends the confirmations and reminders. You're notified the moment they book.
- Already booked — if you set the call up yourself over the phone or your own scheduling link, just record the time. Nothing is sent.
- Complete discovery — after the call, record the outcome, your notes, and the roles discussed.
- Convert to client — a successful discovery converts the prospect into a client record.
Proposing times needs a live contact email, so a prospect whose address has bounced or opted out can only be recorded manually.
Conversion is where BD feeds your delivery side: when you convert a prospect, PlacementFlow auto-generates a sourcing brief from your discovery notes and the roles you discussed. The new client arrives in your client list with a brief already drafted — review it, sharpen it, and your desk can start filling the role the same day.
- Sources decision-makers matching your targeting, sends the sequence, and stops on reply.
- Classifies every reply so your queue holds genuine interest, not autoresponders.
- Drafts the sourcing brief from your discovery notes at conversion.
- You handle every discovery call and every conversion — the AI hands off as soon as a prospect is real, and anything involving commercial terms is always human.
- Be specific about titles — "Head of Talent Acquisition" out-converts "HR".
- Target the buyer, not the company — the right person at a decent company beats a generic contact at the perfect one.
- Act fast on interested replies — same-day response dramatically increases discovery-call conversion.
- Write like a person — decision-makers reply to short, specific, honest emails.