This morning, Sue Carruthers appeared in Honch. She has just started a new role as Chief People Officer at Indigo.

If you sell to HR leaders, you have seen this many times before. A new title. A new company. Another alert in your CRM.

Most teams will treat this as a green light to send something. Almost all of them will be ignored.

Why Sue Is One of the Hardest Buyers to Reach

Sue is not hard to reach because she is closed minded. She is hard to reach because she is a senior HR leader and she has seen it all before.

She sits at the intersection of change, dealing early with growth, restructuring, wellbeing, compliance and rising employee expectations.

What Sue Is About to Receive

Sue is only a few weeks into her role, but her inbox is about to fill up fast. She will receive:

• “Congrats on the new role” emails
• AI generated “personalised” messages she will see through in seconds
• HR providers from every corner of the market promising to help her make an immediate impact

Most of them will look different. Almost all of them will feel the same.

Templated. Automated. Broadcast.

Sue does not skim these messages. She deletes them.

So How Do You Get on Sue’s Radar?

A new appointment or CRM record becomes much more interesting when you add context. Here are a few things that Honch tells us about Indigo:

• The company has been expanding operations across Europe, with a more recent move into the US
• Revenue grew 15% year on year to £120m in 2025. They are growing and they have budget
• HR has been under pressure keeping up with that growth, investing in talent management, D&I, wellbeing and leadership development
• A new CEO joined in June last year
• Employee sentiment is broadly positive, but feedback highlights workload pressure and delays in pay reviews

Suddenly, Sue is more than a new CRM record or line on a spreadsheet. She is stepping into a complex moment at an exciting business with competing pressures.

How You Would Approach Sue If You Actually Wanted a Reply

If Sue was a prospect you genuinely cared about, you would not rush. You would:

• Acknowledge the pace of change she is inheriting
• Recognise the pressure on HR teams during growth
• Avoid selling, pitching, or posturing
• Write as a peer, not a vendor

You would write one good email. You would follow up thoughtfully and intelligently.

Of course you would. But the problem is scale.

However much work you put into trying to speak to Sue, there is still a chance you will be ignored. Which means you need to do this well for 50-100 people today, not one.

There are thousands of HR leaders like Sue. You just can't do this manually if you're going to realistically hit your targets this year.

This Is Where Bernard Changes the Equation

Bernard is not a writing tool. He is a specialist HR AI assistant, trained alongside our clients to think the way they do when selling to HR leaders.

For Sue, Bernard is working with:

• Indigo’s growth and expansion plans
• HR investment signals
• Leadership changes
• Public sentiment and employee feedback
• The wider business context from the last 18 months

This allows him to decide what matters, not just write something that sounds good.

What Bernard Might Say to Sue

Here is the kind of thing Bernard might mention when approaching Sue:

I noticed you’ve joined Indigo at a point where the business is scaling across multiple regions while HR teams are being asked to support growth without losing consistency or trust. That combination often puts people leaders under pressure early on, particularly where workload and capability are already stretched.

‍

Sue might reply. She might not. But she will read it.

And next week, she will receive an equally well researched follow up.

Now Let’s Talk About The Other 600 HR Leaders Who've Started Roles This Week

This is not a one off and you can multiply this process easily.

If you spent an hour researching Indigo and writing the perfect approach to Sue, your chances of a reply would be high.

Now imagine doing that hundreds of times a day, without cutting corners or sounding automated.

That is what Bernard does.

Why This Works for HR Buyers

HR leaders are open to new ideas. They are just intolerant of noise.

They engage when:

• Timing is right
• Context is understood
• Tone respects the responsibility they carry
• The approach feels genuinely personal

You cannot fake that with volume. You can build it with Bernard.

See Your Version of Sue

This only really lands when you see it with your prospects, your written style and your company's messaging.

In a demo, we train Bernard on your product, your tone, and your market. Then we pull up live HR leaders and show you exactly how he would approach them.

If you like what you see, you try it.
If it performs, you become a client.

If you sell to HR leaders, you should see what Bernard would write to your next Sue.

Let's chat?

Honch and Bernard are being used by revenue teams across the sector at companies including Salary.com, People Puzzles, Sage, Peninsula, Aon, IRIS Software, 10X Managers, The Happiness Index, The Access Group, Ciphr, REBA, Bright Horizons, Hertility, AdviserPlus, Best Companies, Benefex, Health Assured, Hussle, Octopus Electric Vehicles and Hibob.