Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Why 'Congrats on Your Funding' Emails Don't Work (And What Does)
"Congrats on the funding" = proof you can Google.
"Your growth means you need X" = actual relevance.
The difference between these two approaches isn't just style. It's the difference between research and buying context—and it determines whether prospects engage or delete.
The Performative Personalization Problem
Everyone has access to the same public data. Funding announcements. Employee growth. New executive hires. Product launches.
But access to information doesn't create urgency. Twenty vendors send the same "congrats on Series B" email. They all make generic assumptions about what the news means. None of them demonstrate understanding of the actual business challenge.
Prospects see through it immediately. The template is obvious despite the personalization tokens. Credibility is lost in the first sentence. The email is deleted before reaching the value proposition.
This is performative research—proving you found information without demonstrating you understand what it means.
What Buying Context Actually Means
Buying context connects company signals to specific problems your solution solves. It explains why prospects should care, not just that you did your homework.
Take the example of Slalom, a 12,000-person IT services firm competing with Accenture for enterprise transformation projects.
Surface-level research approach: "I see you're hiring SDRs and expanding globally."
Buying context approach—three strategic angles:
- Instant Expertise Angle: Your teams specialize in AI, data, and cloud across complex industries. That means reps need instant fluency in technical domains—EMR systems, HIPAA compliance, capital markets regulations. You can't wait weeks to train on new verticals when opportunities emerge.
- Demand Creation Angle: Competing with Accenture means moving beyond reactive RFP responses. You need to proactively target companies increasing AI budgets, engaging them before the RFP stage when you're differentiated, not commoditized.
- Efficiency at Scale Angle: A 12,000-person firm with "fiercely human" positioning can't manually research each prospect while maintaining personalization quality. The scale requirement and brand promise are in tension without automation.
These aren't facts about Slalom. They're insights about why Slalom would care about a specific solution to specific problems.
How This Changes Conversations
Traditional research proves you can find information. Buying context proves you understand their situation.
When you lead with "I saw you're hiring SDRs," the prospect thinks: "So is everyone. What do you want?"
When you lead with "Your expansion into LATAM markets means reps need instant expertise in regional compliance frameworks," the prospect thinks: "This person understands our challenge."
One approach positions you as a vendor who Googled them. The other positions you as an advisor who understands their situation. The first kills conversations. The second opens doors.
Why Congrats on Your Funding Emails Don't Work (And What Does)
Congrats on the funding = proof you can Google.
Your growth means you need X = actual relevance.
The difference between these two approaches isn't just style. It's the difference between research and buying context—and it determines whether prospects engage or delete.
The Performative Personalization Problem
Everyone has access to the same public data. Funding announcements. Employee growth. New executive hires. Product launches.
But access to information doesn't create urgency. Twenty vendors send the same congrats on Series B email. They all make generic assumptions about what the news means. None of them demonstrate understanding of the actual business challenge.
Prospects see through it immediately. The template is obvious despite the personalization tokens. Credibility is lost in the first sentence. The email is deleted before reaching the value proposition.
This is performative research—proving you found information without demonstrating you understand what it means.
What Buying Context Actually Means
Buying context connects company signals to specific problems your solution solves. It explains why prospects should care, not just that you did your homework.
Take the example of Slalom, a 12,000-person IT services firm competing with Accenture for enterprise transformation projects.
Surface-level research approach: I see you're hiring SDRs and expanding globally.
Buying context approach—three strategic angles:
- Instant Expertise Angle: Your teams specialize in AI, data, and cloud across complex industries. That means reps need instant fluency in technical domains—EMR systems, HIPAA compliance, capital markets regulations. You can't wait weeks to train on new verticals when opportunities emerge.
- Demand Creation Angle: Competing with Accenture means moving beyond reactive RFP responses. You need to proactively target companies increasing AI budgets, engaging them before the RFP stage when you're differentiated, not commoditized.
- Efficiency at Scale Angle: A 12,000-person firm with fiercely human positioning can't manually research each prospect while maintaining personalization quality. The scale requirement and brand promise are in tension without automation.
These aren't facts about Slalom. They're insights about why Slalom would care about a specific solution to specific problems.
How This Changes Conversations
Traditional research proves you can find information. Buying context proves you understand their situation.
When you lead with I saw you're hiring SDRs, the prospect thinks: So is everyone. What do you want?
When you lead with Your expansion into LATAM markets means reps need instant expertise in regional compliance frameworks, the prospect thinks: This person understands our challenge.
One approach positions you as a vendor who Googled them. The other positions you as an advisor who understands their situation. The first kills conversations. The second opens doors.
Implementation at Scale
The manual approach to developing buying context takes hours per account. Deep research into company strategy. Analysis of competitive positioning. Mapping pain points to capabilities. Articulating role-specific outcomes.
It's the right approach—but it doesn't scale across your entire total addressable market.
Strama delivers this in seconds. Multiple strategic angles from one company. Value mapping to specific pain points. Intelligence that explains relevance, not just proves research.
The personalization maintains your authentic voice. The buying context scales across hundreds of accounts. And the quality matches what your best manual work achieves.
Stop Proving You Can Research
Start proving you understand.
Research tools give you facts. Buying context gives you reasons prospects should care. The companies succeeding with cold outbound aren't sending more emails—they're sending relevant emails.
And relevance doesn't come from funding announcements. It comes from understanding why those announcements matter to the prospect's specific challenges.
FAQ
Q: How does Strama generate multiple strategic angles for one company?
A: The system analyzes company information across dimensions—competitive positioning, growth patterns, market dynamics, operational challenges, and strategic priorities. Instead of one generic insight, it identifies multiple relevant angles based on different aspects of their business context. This gives you flexibility to choose the most relevant approach for each prospect.
Q: Does this work for smaller companies without much public information?
A: Yes. Buying context isn't about data volume—it's about data interpretation. Even smaller companies have signals: their industry, size, growth stage, competitive landscape, and typical challenges. The system connects these signals to your solution's value props, creating relevant context even when public information is limited.
Q: How do I know which strategic angle to use?
A: All generated angles are relevant—they're based on real company characteristics. Choose based on the specific contact's role and priorities. For a VP of Sales, use demand creation angles. For an operations leader, emphasize efficiency at scale. The system provides options; you select based on who you're contacting.
Q: Is this just AI-generated content that sounds robotic?
A: No. Strama learns your voice from actual emails you've sent. The buying context insights are generated, but they're delivered in your authentic style. The result sounds like you—not like obvious AI—because the system is trained on how you actually communicate.
Q: What makes this different from other AI personalization tools?
A: Most AI personalization tools fill in templates with data points (Congrats on your funding round). Strama generates strategic insights that explain why prospects should care (Your funding for LATAM expansion means X challenge, which we solve with Y capability). The difference is between data insertion and context creation.