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Saniya Sood
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Published October 8, 2026 · Updated November 11, 2026
The answer in 60 words: people who worked where you worked are now sitting in buying seats elsewhere, and a shared era beats any cold opener. This play prefills your past companies and the titles you sell to as editable pills, builds the Sales Navigator search itself or takes yours, qualifies by where each person landed so only fits continue, and opens with the common ground. One run, LinkedIn only.
This article describes the play exactly as published on joinvalley.co/playbooks on October 8, 2026. Valley makes the product, so read it as the maker's own guide, not a review.
Valley is an AI outbound platform that finds the people most likely to buy from you - from live buying signals, natural-language search, or your own lists - qualifies them against your ICP, researches each one, and sends personalized messages across email and LinkedIn that get 15-45% reply rates, against a category average of about 2%.
► Run this play on your own ICP: 7 days free, every feature on
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
Who this play finds, and why they reply
Former colleagues are the warmest list most sellers never build, because building it is tedious: every past company, every title, a Sales Navigator search for each. The play's first step removes the tedium. Valley prefills where you have worked and the titles you sell to, builds the search, and you edit the pills if it guessed wrong.
Qualification is by destination, not by friendship. Only the former colleagues now at companies that fit your ICP continue, so the list is buyers you share history with, not everyone you once shared an office with.
How the play runs
The flow, as the product shows it: Past-company search › Qualify fit › LinkedIn.
Valley builds the search for you (AI step). It prefills where you have worked and the titles you sell to as editable pills, then builds the Sales Navigator search itself. Or paste your own.
Qualifies where they landed (AI step). Only the ones now at companies that fit.
Opens with the common ground. A shared era beats a cold opener.
Before you launch
Bring your Sales Navigator search URL.
Setting | Value |
|---|---|
Audience | High + medium fit |
Cadence | One-time |
Cadence tag | One-time |
Sending channel | LinkedIn only |
Review the audience, message and sending settings before starting. The channel shown is the sending channel for this play, not the source of its prospects.
Give your sales team
an unfair advantage.
What the message says
A shared era beats a cold opener, in the play's words. The message opens with the common ground, the company and the time, and the research step adds what the person is doing now and why your product fits where they landed.
It is a one-time run. Re-run it when you have moved jobs or your ICP has changed.
When this is the wrong play
You want introductions through them, not sales to them. Ask your network for intros is the referral play.
They are already first-degree connections you want to nurture. Engage your first-degree network is the slow drip.
You do not have Sales Navigator. The play builds a Sales Navigator search; without it, upload a CSV of the people instead.
Edit the pills before the search runs. Valley prefills your past companies and the titles you sell to, and the two edits most people make are removing a company they were at for a month and adding the adjacent titles their buyers actually hold. The search is only as good as the pills, and the qualification step cannot recover a title you never searched for.
Related plays
Ask your network for intros: A warm, low-pressure referral ask to first-degree connections who know your buyers.
Engage your first-degree network: A slow, personal drip to people already in your network.
Hyper-relevant messaging to a Sales Nav audience: Paste the search. Valley qualifies, researches, and writes for every person in it.
Open the play itself: Reach ex-colleagues at new companies on the Valley playbook library, or browse all 58 plays.
Related: LinkedIn Testimonial Posts · LinkedIn Company Page Followers · How to Reach Everyone Engaging a Competitor's Product Launch Post · Valley pricing
See also: Competitors' LinkedIn Company Followers: How to Pull Them and Reach the Best Fits · LinkedIn Profile Views: How to Message the Viewers Who Fit Your ICP · LinkedIn Lead Magnet Posts: How to Reach the People Who Commented for the Asset
► Book a demo: see how Valley would find, research and message your buyers
FAQ
How do I find former colleagues who are now potential customers? Valley prefills your past companies and the titles you sell to, builds the Sales Navigator search, and keeps the people now at companies that fit your ICP.
Do I need Sales Navigator? The play builds a Sales Navigator search, or takes one you paste.
Who gets the message? Former colleagues now at companies that fit your ICP.
What does the message say? It opens with the shared history, then what your product does for where they are now.
Is it one-time? Yes.
How do you find warm leads instead of buying cold lists? Start from people who already have a reason to listen: former colleagues, first-degree connections, people who viewed your profile or engaged your posts, and companies showing buying signals. Each gives the message real common ground, which a bought list cannot, and former colleagues are often the warmest of all. The other sources are covered in how to get warm leads and warm outbound.
