Where to find outbound sales campaigns for payments companies in the UK

Cormac Repman
2 days ago
5 min read

The Challenge: Finding Quality Outbound Campaigns in a Crowded Market

If you're running a payments company in the UK, you've probably noticed something: everyone wants to sell to fintech right now. LinkedIn is flooded with SDRs, agencies promise the world, and most cold outreach feels like noise. The problem isn't finding outbound campaigns—it's finding *ones that actually convert*.

Here's what we've learned from managing hundreds of campaigns for payments companies: the difference between a 2% connect rate and a 15% connect rate isn't luck. It's knowing where to source real decision-makers, how to structure your sequence, and what actually works for technical buyers in the payments space.

LinkedIn: Build Your Own List or Buy a Targeted One

LinkedIn remains the most reliable source for outbound campaigns targeting payments companies in the UK. But here's the distinction most people get wrong: you're not using LinkedIn to run campaigns *on* LinkedIn. You're using it to find email addresses and phone numbers.

The outbound-ready approach: Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to build a custom list. Filter for:

Companies in "Payments," "Fintech," or "Payment Processing"

Roles: CFO, VP Finance, Head of Operations, VP Payments

Geography: UK based (this filters out a lot of noise)

Company size: depends on your ICP, but typically 50-500 people for mid-market

Export these profiles, then enrich the list with verified email addresses using MillionVerifier or Hunter.io before sending anything. We typically see a 12-18% valid email rate after enrichment, which is solid for cold lists.

The cost: Sales Navigator is roughly 80 GBP per month. Enrichment runs about 2-3p per record depending on your volume.

Phone Databases and Calling Lists

For payments companies, phone outreach still beats email. Decision-makers in payments and fintech answer their phones more than most verticals (they're used to inbound sales pressure), and a real human voice gets past the noise.

Two reliable sources for UK payments lists:

Use Companies House data combined with enrichment tools. Companies House publishes director records, which you can cross-reference with company financials. This gives you a ready-made list of actual people making procurement decisions—not abstractions.

Alternatively, buy pre-built UK fintech lists from providers like Apollo or RocketReach. These lists typically cost 500-2000 GBP depending on list size and customization, but they save weeks of manual research.

Word of warning: Most list providers oversell their "accuracy." Expect 40-50% of phone numbers to be outdated or wrong on first dial. Budget for list cleaning. We typically run a 20-30% contact-to-conversation rate with fresh, cleaned lists from reputable providers.

Trade Shows and Events

This is where people consistently miss opportunity. Industry events for payments and fintech—like Money20/20 Europe, Finovate, or regional banking conferences—still generate qualified leads.

The play: Don't go to network. Go to hunt.

Get the attendee list early (most events release partial lists 4-6 weeks before the show). Cross-reference attendees with your ICP before you even arrive. Book 15-minute calls during the event using Cal.com or Calendly. Then follow up with recorded call summaries and next steps.

Many agencies show up and work the booth passively. The ones that book 20+ calls at a single event run a pre-event campaign: targeted emails to attendees 10 days before, reminder email 2 days before, direct message on the morning of the event.

Industry-Specific Directories and Membership Bodies

UK payments companies often belong to specific trade bodies and networks: the Fintech Council, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), Innovate Finance.

Membership directories are goldmines that most outbound teams overlook.

How to use them: Many membership lists are public or available to members. You can often access these through LinkedIn or by calling the organization directly and asking to sponsor a member event (which gets you access to the roster in exchange for a small sponsorship).

Cross-reference these directories with company websites to find payment processing contacts, treasury teams, or ops leads. These are warm leads before you ever send an email—they've already self-selected into a community interested in fintech innovation.

Paid Outreach Platforms: When to Go Via Third Parties

At this stage, you'll also see ads for "done-for-you" outbound campaigns via agencies. Some are legitimate; most are overpriced.

What to evaluate: Do they own the list, or do they resell? Can they show you case studies for payments companies specifically (not just generic fintech)? What's the cost-per-booked-call versus your blended acquisition cost?

We've seen agencies charge 150-300 GBP per booked call when the actual cost of list + dialing + sales time is closer to 40-60 GBP. You're paying for convenience, not efficiency.

The metrics that matter: Average connect rate 10-15%, conversion to booked call 3-7%, typical deal cycle 60-90 days for enterprise payments.

Cold Email Sequences That Actually Work for Payments

If you're building your own campaign, cold email still works—but only if you're specific about the problem you solve.

Generic sequences like "I noticed you're in fintech, we help with revenue" get deleted. Specific angles get replies:

"We've helped [Company] reduce payment reconciliation time by 40% with [specific tool]"

"Your competitors at [Company A] and [Company B] recently adopted [solution]. Here's why"

Compliance-focused hooks: "New PSD2 requirements are creating audit gaps for teams like yours"

Structure: 5-email sequence, one outreach per week, 80% education/value and 20% ask. First email is always research-backed, not salesy.

Testing this with UK payments companies, we see 2-4% reply rates on targeted sequences (industry standard is 0.5-1%), with 15-25% of replies converting to discovery calls.

Why Most Campaigns Fail (And How to Fix It)

The reason most outbound campaigns underperform isn't the list quality or the email copy. It's the targeting. You're either chasing too broad (any finance person at any company), or you're too narrow (only VPs, or only companies over 500 people).

The money is in the middle: real decision-makers at well-funded companies who have a specific, solvable problem. That's where UK payments companies live.

If you're running outbound yourself, you have the advantage of speed and flexibility—you can test angles weekly, adjust your ICP monthly, and actually learn from your data. Most agencies run the same playbook for every vertical.

We've built Nurturance specifically for this problem. We source decision-makers at payments and fintech companies, run live cold calling teams, and book real meetings. You don't pay for activity—you pay per meeting booked. No upfront retainers, no inflated metrics, no false activity reports.

If you'd like to chat about running an outbound campaign for your payments company, or building a partnership with us, get on the calendar here. Let's find your next deal.