BDR Workflows
Your AI BDR drone finds potential partners, crafts personalized outreach, and manages partnership pipelines. Whether you’re building an affiliate network, recruiting agency partners, or landing technology integrations — these workflows show what’s possible with different integration combinations.
Required: Gmail · Optional: LinkedIn, HubSpot, Apollo, Instantly, Clearbit, Apify, Notion
Partner Discovery & Outreach
Integrations: Gmail + LinkedIn + HubSpot
The core BD workflow. LinkedIn identifies and warms potential partners, Gmail handles formal outreach, and HubSpot tracks every partnership through the pipeline — from first touch to activation.
Drone identifies potential partners
Browses LinkedIn, industry directories, and competitor partner pages to find companies that fit your partner profile — agencies, resellers, affiliates, or technology partners.
LinkedIn warms the relationship
Sends personalized connection requests referencing their business, audience, or content. Engages with their posts before any sales ask. Partnership outreach runs at 15/day max — lower cadence than sales, because partnerships are relationship-first.
Gmail sends the partnership proposal
A tailored email with a specific value proposition: revenue share percentages, co-marketing opportunities, early product access, or integration benefits. Leads with mutual value, not a one-sided ask.
Follow-up sequence over 21 days
Day 3: LinkedIn content engagement. Day 7: email with a case study or partner success story. Day 14: new angle (webinar collab, guest post swap, co-marketing). Day 21: graceful close with the door left open.
HubSpot tracks the partnership pipeline
Each partner is a HubSpot contact with a deal stage: contacted → exploring → negotiating → activated. Every interaction is logged. Your team sees which partnerships are progressing without asking.
Outcomes:
| What | Manual BD | With This Workflow |
|---|---|---|
| Partner outreach/week | 10-15 (you writing each one) | 50-75 (personalized, multi-touch) |
| Pipeline visibility | Spreadsheet or memory | HubSpot deals with full activity history |
| Follow-up consistency | Drops off after first email | 4-touch sequence over 21 days, automatic |
| Channel coordination | LinkedIn OR email (not both) | LinkedIn warms, email formalizes |
Best for: BD teams building affiliate, agency, or reseller partner programs.
Creator & Influencer Partnerships
Integrations: Gmail + Apify + Notion
Apify discovers creators across YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn at scale. Notion becomes your partnership database with engagement metrics, audience data, and outreach status. Your drone finds the right voices and gets them on board.
Apify discovers creators in your niche
YouTube Scraper finds channels by topic — pulls subscriber counts, recent video performance, and content themes. Twitter Scraper identifies accounts with relevant audiences. LinkedIn Scraper finds thought leaders.
Research stored in Notion
Each creator gets a Notion page: platform, audience size, content topics, engagement rates, and contact info. Organized by partner type (influencer, affiliate, content creator) and status.
Drone crafts personalized outreach
References their specific content: “Loved your video on [topic] — 50K views in a week is impressive. We think our product would be a great fit for your audience. Here’s what we’re offering…” Each email is specific to their platform and content.
Follow-up with new hooks
Day 7: share a different partnership angle (sponsorship vs. affiliate vs. co-creation). Day 14: offer something exclusive (early access, custom landing page, higher rev share for early partners).
Outcomes:
| What | Manual Research | With Apify + Notion |
|---|---|---|
| Creators discovered/week | 10-20 (browsing YouTube/Twitter) | 100+ (Apify scrapes at scale) |
| Research per creator | 15 min each | Automated (audience, engagement, topics) |
| Partnership database | Spreadsheet | Notion with rich profiles, sortable/filterable |
| Outreach personalization | Generic “collab?” DM | References their specific content and metrics |
Best for: Companies building influencer or creator partnership programs across YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Full BD Pipeline with Enrichment
Integrations: Gmail + Apollo + Clearbit + Instantly + HubSpot
The enterprise BD setup. Apollo finds partner contacts by role and company profile. Clearbit enriches with company data. Instantly manages outreach at scale. HubSpot tracks the pipeline. Every potential partner is researched, contacted, and tracked automatically.
Apollo finds partner contacts
Searches for Head of Partnerships, VP Business Development, or CEO at companies matching your partner profile — by industry, company size, and technology stack.
Clearbit enriches company profiles
Adds revenue, employee count, funding stage, and tech stack. Your drone knows whether a potential partner is a 10-person agency or a 500-person platform company — and tailors the pitch accordingly.
Drone composes tailored partnership proposals
Different pitches for different partner types: agencies get “white-label and earn 20% recurring,” resellers get “bundle with your product,” tech partners get “integrate and co-market.”
Instantly manages multi-mailbox outreach
Distributes partnership emails across dedicated sending accounts. Tracks deliverability and open rates per campaign. Keeps your primary inbox separate from BD outreach.
HubSpot tracks the full pipeline
Every partner flows through: contacted → exploring → negotiating → activated. Deal values, activity history, and next actions visible to your whole team.
Outcomes:
| What | Manual BD | Full Pipeline |
|---|---|---|
| Partner contacts found/week | 15-20 | 50-100 (Apollo-verified) |
| Company intel | Basic (website visit) | Revenue, funding, tech stack, headcount |
| Outreach capacity | 15/day (single inbox) | 50+/day (Instantly rotation) |
| Pipeline tracking | Spreadsheet | HubSpot with deal stages and full history |
| Partner type segmentation | Manual tagging | Auto-segmented by company profile |
Best for: BD teams running structured partner programs at scale — agencies, resellers, technology integrations.
Affiliate Network Building
Integrations: Gmail + LinkedIn + Apify + Notion
Build an affiliate program from scratch. Apify finds potential affiliates across social platforms. LinkedIn warms the relationship. Notion tracks every affiliate with their audience data, outreach status, and performance. Gmail handles the formal partnership offer.
Apify discovers potential affiliates
Scrapes Twitter for accounts discussing your product category, LinkedIn for consultants and advisors in your space, and blogs/newsletters via web scraper. Finds people who already talk about problems you solve.
Notion organizes your affiliate pipeline
Each potential affiliate gets a page: platform, audience size, content relevance, and fit score. Filterable by status (researched, contacted, negotiating, active) and audience type.
LinkedIn connection + engagement
Drone connects on LinkedIn with a warm, non-salesy message. Engages with their content for a few days before any ask. Builds familiarity first.
Gmail sends the affiliate offer
Personalized email with specific terms: commission rate, cookie duration, support provided, and what makes your program different. References their content and why their audience is a great fit.
Notion updated with every interaction
Every touchpoint logged. When affiliates activate, their Notion page becomes a performance tracker — clicks, conversions, and revenue attributed.
Outcomes:
| What | Manual Affiliate Recruiting | With This Workflow |
|---|---|---|
| Affiliates discovered/week | 5-10 (manual browsing) | 50+ (Apify across platforms) |
| Qualification | Gut feel | Audience data, engagement metrics, content fit |
| Outreach | Generic program page link | Personalized offer referencing their content |
| Tracking | Spreadsheet | Notion database with full pipeline |
Best for: Companies launching or scaling an affiliate or referral partner program.