The easiest growth channel is usually already in the building

When B2B teams need more pipeline, the first instinct is almost always to go find more people: start an outbound campaign, buy some data, try the newest AI tool, add another channel.

We’re doing some of that at Ziplines. But as we build out our B2B motion, I keep coming back to the idea that we should start somewhere else.

Tens of thousands of people have completed a Ziplines program, and many more started the journey without converting. A meaningful number of them now work at companies that are actively thinking about AI upskilling.

These aren’t cold leads. They know the product because they’ve been through it, a lot of them rated it highly, and some now sit in roles where they influence (or outright make) L&D decisions. Put that next to a list of 10,000 prospects who’ve never heard of you and it’s a completely different starting point.

The interesting part is that we’ve never had a well-defined motion built around this group. So the work in front of us has less to do with finding new people and more to do with turning trust we’ve already earned into a channel we can repeat.

It’s easy to get pulled toward the new AI-driven outbound tools, and some of them are worth a look, especially when your team is small and you need leverage. Before we layer on another one, though, I’m asking a simpler question: what value is already sitting inside the building that we haven’t captured yet?

For us, it’s thousands of former learners and leads who already know who Ziplines is. We’re still testing what the motion should look like, but that’s where I’m placing the bet for now.