How Totlani & Partners landed a $15K recruiting deal in 30 days with cold email

We helped Reema Totlani, founder of Totlani & Partners, close a recruiting deal within 30 days of launching her cold email campaign. The placement generated a $15,000 fee, which her agency collected.

Before working with us, Reema had spent thousands on a 90-day engagement with another lead generation agency. She told us it produced one unqualified lead.

We built the outreach around companies with open jobs that matched the roles her team could fill. Reema reviewed the opportunities, approved the ones she wanted, and took over the recruiting conversations.

Here's how the campaign worked, including the targeting we changed along the way.

Why Reema gave cold email another shot

After three months with one unqualified lead, Reema was hesitant to pay another agency.

Fair enough. She needed conversations with employers who had jobs her team could actually fill.

We agreed on what would count as a qualified opportunity. She could review a lead and reject it if it didn't fit. Accepted leads became billable when we introduced her in the email thread.

That gave her a say in the work she was paying for. It also gave us direct feedback on which prospects were worth finding more of.

We started with the roles Reema could fill

During onboarding, Reema described accounting and finance as her "bread and butter."

Her list included accounts payable through senior finance leadership, audit, tax, cost accountants, and project accountants. She also gave us additional roles her team could handle, including HR and payroll, project managers, estimators, and operations roles.

She was open to several industries, including construction, manufacturing, retail, and real estate. Banks were an exclusion.

That matters because "recruitment agency" tells you very little about who belongs in a campaign. Two firms can both recruit accountants and still want completely different clients.

We also set up a shared do-not-contact list. Reema could add existing clients and companies with active searches so the campaign wouldn't interfere with work already underway.

Before you write the email, get those rules clear. A bigger list won't help if half the employers are companies your client doesn't want to work with.

Open jobs gave us a reason to reach out

For this campaign, the signal was an open role that matched Reema's recruiting capabilities.

The workflow uses Indeed job postings and an Apify scraper to collect the details needed for outreach: the employer, job title, location, relevant requirements, and a link back to the posting.

Then we check the company and the role against the targeting rules and find the person responsible for the hiring conversation.

A job ad gives you something useful to discuss. You can explain how you can help with a role the employer is already trying to fill.

It still takes judgment. A vacancy can be outdated. The employer might be handling the search internally. A job title can look right while the requirements describe something outside the recruiter's expertise.

The posting earns a closer look. The employer's response and the client's review tell you whether there's an opportunity.

What made a response worth sending to Reema

At launch, we explained the reply criteria in her Slack channel. The employer needed to have a live job and ask for one of the following:

• A candidate's CV.
• The agency's terms.
• An explanation of how the service worked.

That gave us a practical way to review replies. Someone asking about the fee or requesting a CV has given the recruiter a next step.

Reema then reviewed the job and gave it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. An accepted lead led to an email introduction, with the employer's details and the job posting available in Slack.

Her team could get into the hiring discussion with context. They still had to agree terms, run the search, and make the placement.

An actual email from the Totlani campaign

This email was sent on October 23, 2026, from the "Totlani Partners - Live Job Leads" campaign. It's a later example of the outreach, sent after the September placement discussed here. The recipient's name has been removed.

Subject: [First name], pre-litigation assistant?

I'm connected with a Philadelphia-based pre-litigation assistant with 2 years of experience managing client files, case documentation, and litigation support for personal-injury matters.

Would it be helpful to share their resume for your review? There's no charge for resume submissions or initial interviews.

The message gives the employer a role, a location, and relevant experience. Then it asks whether they'd like to review a resume.

That is a small next step. The employer can ask for more information without agreeing to a meeting first. The final sentence also explains when there isn't a charge; it doesn't say the placement is free.

This kind of offer needs a real candidate behind it. If you're describing someone's experience, you need to be able to back it up when the employer asks.

Reema's feedback made that practical point clear. Earlier in the campaign, she flagged candidate descriptions that were too narrow, including one tied to a specific manufacturing niche. The email has to promise something the recruiting team can deliver.

We changed the targeting when the leads didn't fit

The campaign needed adjustments.

Reema asked us to remove attorney searches after six scheduled intakes resulted in no-shows. Legal assistants and legal secretaries could stay on the list.

She also clarified that maintenance and plant management roles should be in manufacturing. Hospitality roles weren't the same fit.

Broad admin searches were bringing in jobs she didn't want, so Charlie said he'd remove that category and keep specific titles she could support.

This is why we ask clients to explain a rejected lead. "Bad lead" isn't enough information to change the campaign. "We can fill this role in manufacturing, but not hospitality" gives us a rule we can use.

It also shows why booked intakes alone aren't the whole result. You need to know whether people attend and whether the search is worth taking on.

Verification and handoff were part of the work

For email verification, we use MillionVerifier to check addresses before sending. Invalid addresses come off the list, and uncertain results need review.

That check helps with the contact data. We still have to decide whether the company and role fit.

Once an employer responds, someone needs to read the reply, check it against the agreed criteria, and get the right information to the client.

For Reema, the Slack lead notice included the company, contact, email address, and job-ad link. Her approval gave us a record of the opportunities she wanted to pursue. The email introduction connected her directly with the employer.

Having that process in place meant a positive reply had somewhere to go.

From a contract and intakes to a $15,000 placement fee

On August 31, 2026, Reema wrote:

extremely happy we got a contract in on friday and have 3 intakes scheduled this week!

Those were early signs of progress. A recruiting agreement and an intake call are separate steps from a completed placement.

On September 17, she sent another update:

we have our first close from one of your leads!

When Charlie asked about the fee, she replied:

15k!

The deal closed within 30 days of campaign launch, and the $15,000 placement fee was collected. IronPeak brought in the opportunity through cold email, and Reema's team turned it into a recruiting client and a paid placement.

The useful part of this case is the full process: finding a relevant vacancy, getting a response, checking the fit, and giving the recruiter enough context to do the work. The feedback mattered too. Some roles came off the list because the conversations weren't producing useful searches.

Questions about cold email for recruitment agencies

Was this outreach to employers or candidates?

Employers. The campaign's job was to help Totlani & Partners acquire recruiting clients. Reema's team handled the candidate search and placement work.

What counted as a qualified recruiting lead?

The employer needed a live job and a relevant response, such as asking to see a CV, requesting terms, or asking how the service worked. Reema then reviewed the opportunity against her team's capabilities before accepting it.

Did IronPeak get paid only when Reema made a placement?

The campaign used a pay-per-qualified-lead model. Reema approved opportunities, and accepted leads became billable at the introduction. The $15,000 was her agency's placement fee from the employer.