ANONYMISED WORKED EXAMPLE — every company, person, domain, location and currency figure below has been replaced with an invented equivalent. Nothing here is a fact about any real business. It is included to show the shape, depth and honesty of a finished brief. Read it for the method, not the content.
Campaign Brief / Pilot
Get their overpaid Texas franchise tax back
A free look back over four years of filings. A number, or a straight no. We only file it if they want it claimed.
Martin's running campaigns & getting nothing back. Four reasons, in order of damage.
Six service lines. Bookkeeping, tax prep, forensic, valuation, resolution, advisory. Six pillars is zero pillars.
No named buyer. "Owner led businesses growing faster than their financial clarity" is a state of mind, not a Sales Nav filter.
No proof. Firm's two years old. Three Google reviews, no case studies, no numbers. So a case study led angle is off the table for now.
The offer is the meeting. "Book a consultation" with a stranger, in a category people only switch once a year.
The thing nobody's using: Kingsley Tax is the tax arm of Kingsley Capital Partners, an SEC registered RIA running about $[redacted]M. Neither his profile nor the site leads with it. It's the most differentiating fact about him & it's invisible.
Why this angle
There are only three things a tax guy can do for an owner. Fix a mess that already happened. Stop them overpaying from here. Or get back money they've already paid.
The third one is the easiest sell there is, because it's cash rather than a promise. Nothing to believe.
Texas franchise tax is the only pillar that clears all four tests: every entity in Texas files it, the standing is public & free to look up before we ever message, the overpayment is arithmetic rather than opinion, & claims run roughly four years back.
In my opinion that's the whole campaign. Exit planning, valuation & the ESOP work are campaign two, once there's proof to point at.
The three beats
FINDFree look back over four years of filings. No obligation.
SHOWA dollar figure in writing, or a straight no.
FILEThe amendment, only if they want it claimed back.
The ask is one document they already have. Not four questions about their comp structure.
The messages
Blank connection request. Register is Texas plainspoken, not accented - contractions throughout, "over in" not "in", understatement over emphasis. No em dashes, no emojis, and no "y'all" or "howdy" - Martin moved to Texas in Jan 2025 & a Dallas owner clocks borrowed drawl instantly.
M1 · first message79 words
Hey {{first_name}}, we're just up the road from you in Fairmont.
I was going through Texas franchise filings for {{sub_niche}} around {{area}} and {{company_name}} came up.
Plenty of folks around here overpaid this one last year and never heard a word about it. We got a {{descriptor}} over in {{nearby_town}}{{amount}} back not long ago.
Twenty minutes is all it takes me to tell you if you're owed. Want me to check yours?
Cut the second sentence of paragraph three until Martin gives us a real recovery figure. Runs at 66 words without it & still lands.
M2 · the clock69 words
Here's how the Texas refund window works. A claim's generally good for four years from the date the tax was due and payable, so each May the oldest year you could still go back to drops off for good. I've been an Enrolled Agent since 2017, one of three credentials with unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Happy to look at yours before the next one goes.
The credential sits here because M1 has no authority claim & M3 has no room for one. It's his single strongest differentiator, so it has to appear somewhere. "Before the next one goes" is what keeps the second ask honest - it's new information, not a repeat.
M3 · the takeaway13 words
Hey {{first_name}}, I'll take it you're happy you've left nothing with the state?
Deliberately under the usual 20 to 40 word floor. One line, one question, no close. It works because nobody wants to be the person who confidently left money behind, and "I'll take it" hedges the assumption so it reads as a question rather than a dig.
Targeting
The refund only exists if they actually paid. Below $2.65M revenue there's no franchise tax due, so a perfect owner operator can be a wasted send. Three hard qualifiers.
20+ employees in a cost of goods or payroll heavy trade. Sales Nav can't see revenue, so headcount plus industry is the proxy.
Entity five years old or more. Four years of filings to look back at. A 2023 company has almost nothing to recover.
An industry where the calculation actually moves the number. In a low cost of goods, low payroll business the four methods land close together & there's no refund to find.
Segments, ranked by likely money
Segment
Why the money's there
1
Staffing & recruiting
Compensation is nearly all of revenue, so revenue minus compensation crushes the 70 percent method. Most predictable overpayment in Texas.
2
Wholesale & distribution
Two ways to have overpaid. They get the half rate at 0.375 percent & carry high cost of goods. Filing at 0.75 by mistake is a clean 50 percent overpayment.
3
Construction & trades
Materials plus subs make cost of goods large. Densest owner operator pool in DFW.
4
Auto dealers & collision
Retail half rate plus very high cost of goods. Small population, high value each.
5
Manufacturing
High cost of goods, often high payroll too, so two of the four methods beat the default.
6
Trucking & logistics
Heavy payroll plus fuel & equipment.
Deprioritise professional services, medical, dental & agencies. Low cost of goods, and the compensation deduction is capped per person, so the methods converge & the refund is small.
Sales Navigator - four searches, not one
Splitting by segment keeps each scrape workable, lets the highest-refund segments run first, and gives each one a different reason the refund exists for the copy to lean on. Pool sizes measured from the prospecting database on 12 Aug: owner-level titles, DFW, 11-200 headcount, by NAICS.
Search
Pool
Why the refund is there
A
Staffing & recruiting Run first
347
Compensation is nearly all of revenue, so revenue-minus-compensation crushes the 70% method. Most predictable overpayment in Texas.
B
Wholesale, distribution & auto
296
Two ways to have overpaid. They qualify for the half rate at 0.375%, and they carry high cost of goods. Filing at 0.75% by mistake is a clean 50% overpayment.
C
Construction & trades
630
Materials plus subcontractors make cost of goods large. Densest owner-operator pool in DFW.
D
Manufacturing & logistics Run last
1,076
High cost of goods, often high payroll too, so two of the four methods beat the default.
Raw pool 2,349, sendable ~300-400. Three haircuts come off it: the database's industry-code mapping is loose and mis-files companies, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a different index, so these size the opportunity rather than predict its counts, and the Comptroller pass plus the five-year entity rule cut it again. Do not stretch geography to make the number bigger.
SHARED ACROSS ALL FOUR SEARCHES
GEOGRAPHY Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
TITLES Owner · Founder · Co-Founder · President · CEO ·
Managing Partner · Managing Member
SENIORITY Owner / Partner · CXO
HEADCOUNT 11-50 · 51-200
TENURE 6-10 years · More than 10 years
(add 3-5 years for search A only, staffing turns over faster)
EXCLUDE CFO · Chief Financial Officer · Controller ·
(NOT) VP Finance · Finance Director · Director of Finance
A company with a real finance function is not the buyer,
and that person is a blocker. At this size the owner IS
the finance function.
THEN CHANGE ONLY THE INDUSTRY BLOCK
A Staffing and Recruiting · Human Resources Services
B Wholesale · Wholesale Building Materials · Wholesale Machinery ·
Wholesale Food and Beverage · Wholesale Motor Vehicles and Parts ·
Retail Motor Vehicles · Vehicle Repair and Maintenance
C Construction · Building Construction · Specialty Trade Contractors ·
Civil Engineering · Building Equipment Contractors
D Machinery Manufacturing · Fabricated Metal Products ·
Food and Beverage Manufacturing · Plastics Manufacturing ·
Industrial Machinery Manufacturing · Truck Transportation ·
Freight and Package Transportation · Warehousing and Storage
Sales Nav's industry list is a fixed picker and LinkedIn has changed
the taxonomy more than once. If a name is not in the dropdown, take
the nearest match and record which you used.
SAVE AS KINGSLEY-A-STAFFING · KINGSLEY-B-WHOLESALE ·
KINGSLEY-C-CONSTRUCTION · KINGSLEY-D-MFG-LOGISTICS
The segment letter rides with every lead through to Airtable.
What Sales Nav cannot filter
Three of the campaign's hard qualifiers are not LinkedIn attributes, so they run after the scrape. Revenue above $2.65M is proxied by headcount in a COGS or comp-heavy trade. Entity age comes off the Comptroller record, not person tenure. Franchise tax standing is not on LinkedIn at all.
POST-SCRAPE PASS
1 SCRAPE Export each search. Keep the segment letter on every row.
2 INDUSTRY SANITY Eyeball company name and domain against the segment.
The database and LinkedIn both mis-file. Drop the misfits.
3 COMPTROLLER Free, no login. Taxable Entity Search by legal name or
11-digit taxpayer number. Record status, taxpayer
number, registered agent, registration date.
4 AGE GATE Registered less than ~5 years ago -> DROP.
Nothing meaningful to look back at.
5 ROUTE Active -> the refund message
Forfeited -> the urgent branch, always outranks it
No record -> DROP
6 SUPPRESS Anyone already a client or prospect of either Kingsley
entity. Get that list from Martin before step 1.
Step 3 is the campaign, not admin. The lookup is both the routing key and the proof Martin did the work before asking for anything. His three staff can run it at volume, and it is free.
Volume: 300 to 400 leads, 25 to 30 connection requests a day. Success is 8 to 12 conversations, not 100 replies. Don't stretch the geography to hit a lead count - the drive time claim is the edge.
Personalising
Every lead gets a free Comptroller lookup before we message. That's the campaign. It's both the routing key & the proof he did the work before asking for anything, and his three staff can run it at volume.
STEP 1 Sales Nav title, geography, headcount, industry, tenure
STEP 2 Comptroller Taxable Entity Search, free, no login
Active -> refund message, this brief
Forfeited -> urgent message, separate branch
No record -> drop, the lookup failed
Slot fill rules
{{sub_niche}} their business type in two to five words. "Commercial mechanical contractors", not "business owners".
{{area}} their submarket named the way a local names it. Southlake, Coppell, the Alliance corridor. Never "DFW".
{{nearby_town}} a town near the lead, not near Martin. Otherwise the proof reads as a stock line.
{{descriptor}} a vague category plus a size hint. Never a real client name.
{{amount}} gated. See below.
"Just up the road from you in Fairmont" is only true inside about 25 minutes. Beyond that, drop the line & open on the franchise filings sentence.
Before it sends
Five things have to be true. The first two can stop the campaign.
RIA complianceMartin's title ties him to Kingsley Capital Partners, an SEC registered investment adviser. Outbound carrying that title may fall under the adviser's marketing & recordkeeping rules, including archiving the DMs. Confirm with Martin and their compliance function. This is a licensing question, not a copy question.
Where the documents landThese messages invite strangers to send tax returns. Someone decides where those go, who touches them, & whether an engagement letter is needed before the first one arrives.
The {{amount}} figureAsk him straight: "Have you ever recovered franchise tax for anyone, and what was the number?" He's said publicly he finds errors on returns inherited from other firms, so it may already exist. Until he answers, cut the proof sentence.
Two facts he signs offHis Enrolled Agent licence is current, & he'd defend the "each May" framing out loud. The four year window and the 15 May report date aren't the same anchor.
SuppressionNo lead on the list is already a client or prospect of Kingsley Tax or Kingsley Capital.
What I'd fix on his profile
The DM sends people to his profile, & right now the profile undoes the DM. Three moves, all prerequisites.
Name the buyer & the geography. DFW owner operators in a revenue band beats "owner led businesses".
Lead with the RIA. One team handles the tax decision & where the money goes afterwards. No solo DFW CPA can say that.
Flip the EA from apology to weapon. His posts half defend being an EA rather than a CPA. By law only a JD, CPA or EA has unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS, & he's held it since 2017.
Fastest route to real proof: three anonymised "what we found" write ups from returns he's already reviewed. No client names, no invented figures. That's his case study in two weeks, & it unlocks campaign two.