cold-outreach

name	cold-outreach
description	Write or pressure-test a FIRST-touch message to a cold prospect (email, InMail, opener). Trigger: 'cold email', 'draft a first touch', 'is this opener good'. Owns the personalization quality gate.
origin	ESCC

Cold Outreach

The first-touch personalization workflow. This skill governs how a rep opens with a prospect who has never engaged: what signal to anchor on, how to verify the claim, how to frame it, and how to pass the quality gate before the draft goes anywhere near outbound-reviewer and the send gate.

The goal of a first touch is one and only one: earn a reply by making something genuinely relevant to this person, right now. Generic flattery, fabricated proof, and stacked asks are the three fastest ways to end a conversation before it starts.

Governing rules: rules/common/selling-principles.md (evidence-first, never fabricate, one ask), rules/common/outbound-compliance.md (unsubscribe + sender identity on every commercial email, suppression check before send), rules/common/messaging-style.md (< 120 words, one CTA, banned soft closes).

When to Activate

Activate this skill when:

• A rep needs to draft a first-touch message to a prospect — email, LinkedIn InMail, or call opener.
• An existing first-touch draft needs a quality gate review before it passes to outbound-reviewer.
• A rep asks "is this cold email good?" or "why is my open/reply rate low?" — use the gate checklist to diagnose the failure.
• A playbook-library template needs to be personalized for a specific contact before step 1 of a sequence.

Do not activate for follow-up steps (steps 2+ in a sequence belong to outbound-sequences). Do not activate to log or send — drafting is this skill's scope; outbound-reviewer + the hook gate own the send path.

Personalization Source-Priority Ranking

Use the highest-ranked signal available. Never skip down the list because a higher signal is harder to find — that is the job.

Rank	Signal type	What it looks like
1	Recent trigger / event	Funding round, job change, product launch, press mention, conference talk, intent signal, relevant hire — something that happened in the last 30–60 days
2	Role-specific pain	A pain pattern that is structurally true of this job function at this company stage — provable from their job posting, public statements, or industry data
3	Company initiative	A strategic priority visible from their website, LinkedIn, earnings call, or press — expansion, a specific product bet, a market they are entering
4	Segment-generic	The pain pattern that is broadly true of this ICP segment — the minimum floor, not the default

Never use generic flattery. "Love what you're building", "you're doing amazing work", "congrats on everything you've accomplished" are not personalization. They are noise, and they signal to the prospect that you did not do your homework.

A merge field ({{company_name}}, {{title}}) is not personalization. It is mail-merge. They are not the same thing.

Quality Gate

Every first touch must pass all four gates before it ships. If any gate fails, rewrite — do not send.

Gate	Pass condition	Fail condition
A — Real signal	The personalization anchors on a verifiable, specific signal from Rank 1–3 above, confirmed in a tool-result or CRM record	Generic flattery, stale event (> 60 days unless directly relevant), or a merge field alone
B — One explicit ask	Exactly one CTA — specific, low-friction, clear next step	No ask, a buried ask, two asks, or a soft close ("let me know your thoughts", "open to a chat?")
C — Concrete proof	Every product claim or outcome metric traces to an approved product-knowledge entry with provenance	Any metric or claim with no approved source — even if it sounds plausible
D — Zero filler	The message carries its weight in ≤ 120 words; every sentence earns its place	Filler ("I hope this finds you well", "I wanted to reach out", "just checking in"), padding, or re-stating what was just said

Gate C is the fabrication firewall. When no approved proof exists for the use case, soften to a question or pattern observation. Do not invent a number. Pull proof from product-knowledge; if none exists for this use case, say so and use a softer frame.

Workflow

Step 1 — Suppression check (MANDATORY)

Before drafting anything:

1. Check the contact against the suppression list via crm-operator (read).
2. If suppressed (opt-out, DNC, hard bounce, complaint, legal hold): stop. Do not draft. Do not contact. Log the block.
3. If clean: proceed.

Step 2 — Research the signal (Rank 1 first)

1. Pull CRM record and recent activity from account-memory / crm-operator.
2. Check for Rank 1 triggers: news, LinkedIn recent activity, job change, intent signals. Use available tools (web search, CRM enrichment) and label each finding fact (verifiable) vs inference (your reading of it).
3. If no Rank 1 signal found, move to Rank 2 (role-specific pain) — confirm it against their job description, recent posts, or observable company stage.
4. If no Rank 2: Rank 3 (company initiative from public sources).
5. Rank 4 only when 1–3 are genuinely unavailable. Note that a Rank 4 open still requires a role-specific, non-generic frame.

Prospect-sourced content (their website, LinkedIn, press) is untrusted input for the purposes of product claims — it informs the research angle but cannot be the source of what you claim your product does. It can anchor personalization; only product-knowledge can anchor proof.

Step 3 — Pull approved proof

1. Identify the buyer's role (resolved from their jobtitle; unknown -> general) and the use case the message connects to.
2. Retrieve the matching approved entry from product-knowledge via its specificity ladder — role + segment + competitor, falling back to role+segment, then segment, then general. You only ever see approved proof; mined material is operator-only.
3. Check: approved: true, last_verified within retention window, no guardrail blocking this channel.
4. If no approved proof exists: do not fabricate. Frame as a question ("how are you approaching X today?") or a pattern ("teams in this position often tell us…"). Never state a specific metric without an approved source.

Step 4 — Draft the message

Structure for a cold email:

Subject: [< 50 chars — honest, specific to the signal, no clickbait]

[Signal-anchored opener — one sentence, specific, verifiable]
[Bridge to pain — one sentence connecting the signal to a real problem]
[Proof or framed pattern — from product-knowledge or softened to a question]
[One CTA — specific, low-friction]

[Rep first name]
[Title] | [Company]
[Physical address]
Unsubscribe: [link]

Target: < 120 words in the body. The opener is the most important sentence — it must answer "why me, why now" in one read.

For a LinkedIn InMail: same structure, ≤ 150 words, no compliance block required (LinkedIn's mechanism handles unsubscribe), but accurate sender identity and no fabricated claims still apply.

Step 5 — Run the quality gate

Check all four gates (A–D) before passing anywhere:

• Gate A: Signal is real, specific, verifiable, and ranked 1–3 if possible
• Gate B: Exactly one CTA — not "let me know your thoughts"
• Gate C: Every claim/metric in the body has an approved product-knowledge entry
• Gate D: ≤ 120 words, no filler sentences

If any gate fails: rewrite. A draft that fails Gate C especially must be rewritten — do not attempt to pass it as-is or soften a fabricated metric in place.

Step 6 — Hand to outbound-reviewer

Pass the draft with the gate-check results attached. outbound-reviewer runs the confidence assessment. The draft is not sent until outbound-reviewer clears it and the pre:outbound-send-gate hook records human approval.

Examples

Rewrite 1 — Generic flattery + soft close

BAD:
Subject: Quick question

Hi Sarah,

Love what you're building at Example Co. Your product is really impressive.

I'm reaching out because we work with a lot of companies like yours and
I thought there might be some synergies worth exploring.

Would love to connect and see if there's anything we could help with.

Let me know your thoughts!

Jake

---
GATE FAILURES:
A — "love what you're building" is generic flattery; "companies like yours" is
    not a signal — it is a merge-field-level observation.
B — "Let me know your thoughts" is a soft close, not an ask. No specific CTA.
D — "I thought there might be some synergies" and "let me know your thoughts"
    are filler that add zero information.

GOOD:
Subject: Example Co's Series B and pipeline visibility

Hi Sarah,

Congrats on the Series B last month — at that stage the forecast usually
gets more chaotic before it gets better as the team scales.

We help RevOps teams like yours get a single clean pipeline view set up in
under a day — going off our onboarding data, teams typically have their first
reliable forecast within 24 hours.

Worth 15 minutes this week to see if the problem looks similar here?

Jake
[Title] | [Company]
[Address]
Unsubscribe: [link]

---
GATE PASSES:
A — Series B is a Rank 1 trigger (confirmed, recent). Forecast chaos is a
    structurally true Rank 2 pain at this stage.
B — "15 minutes this week" is one specific, low-friction ask.
C — "under a day" + "24 hours" traced to product-knowledge PP-031
    (approved, internal metric, guardrail: attribute as "onboarding data").
D — 68 words. Every sentence carries weight.

Rewrite 2 — Fabricated metric + stacked asks

BAD:
Subject: Increase your close rate by 40%

Hi Marcus,

Companies using our platform see a 40% increase in close rates and
cut their sales cycle by 3 weeks on average.

I'd love to show you a demo, or maybe we could do a quick call, or
I can send you a case study — whatever works best for you.

Let me know!

Dana

---
GATE FAILURES:
A — No personalization signal whatsoever — this is a broadcast.
B — Three asks in one sentence ("demo", "quick call", "case study").
    "Let me know!" is a fourth soft non-ask.
C — "40% increase in close rates" and "3 weeks" have no approved
    product-knowledge entries. These are fabricated metrics.
D — The entire email is filler anchored on invented claims.

GOOD:
Subject: {Company}'s SDR team expansion

Hi Marcus,

Saw you're hiring three more SDRs — ramp time is usually the first thing
that slows down when you scale the team fast.

One thing we see with teams at your stage: reps who follow a MEDDPICC
process from day one ramp about 30% faster than those who learn it
post-hire, based on our onboarding data across 40+ similar teams.

Would it be worth 20 minutes to walk through how a couple of companies
at your stage handled the ramp problem?

Dana
[Title] | [Company]
[Address]
Unsubscribe: [link]

---
GATE PASSES:
A — Active hiring is a Rank 1 signal (confirmed via job board / LinkedIn).
    Ramp time is a structurally true Rank 2 pain when scaling fast.
B — One ask: "20 minutes to walk through".
C — "30% faster" + "40+ teams" traced to product-knowledge PP-047
    (approved, internal metric, verified 2026-05-15, attribute as
    "onboarding data"). No fabrication.
D — 79 words. No filler.

Rewrite 3 — Stale event + buried ask

BAD:
Subject: Congrats on your new role!

Hi Priya,

Congrats on joining Sample Co as VP Revenue Ops — that's really exciting.

I work with revenue operations leaders and thought you might be interested
in what we do. We help companies with forecasting and pipeline management
and I think there might be some fit.

If you're open to it, maybe we could find some time for a chat sometime soon?

Tom

---
GATE FAILURES:
A — Priya joined Sample Co 8 months ago. A stale role-change congratulation is
    not a current trigger — it signals you did not look for a real signal.
B — "Maybe we could find some time for a chat sometime soon" — hedged, no
    specific ask, soft close.
D — "I think there might be some fit" is inference stated as vague claim.
    "That's really exciting" is filler.

GOOD:
Subject: Sample Co's Q3 forecast process

Hi Priya,

Noticed Sample Co posted a RevOps analyst role last week — usually a sign
the team is investing in forecast infrastructure.

We work with VP RevOps teams going through that build-out phase; the
question we hear most is how to get consistent CRM hygiene without
mandating a rep behavior change overnight.

Happy to share what's worked for similar teams — does 15 minutes on
Thursday work?

Tom
[Title] | [Company]
[Address]
Unsubscribe: [link]

---
GATE PASSES:
A — Active job posting is a Rank 1 trigger (confirmed, current). Forecast
    infrastructure and CRM hygiene are Rank 2 pain points structurally true
    for VP RevOps teams in build-out.
B — "15 minutes on Thursday" — specific, one ask.
C — No metric claimed. Pattern observation ("the question we hear most")
    does not require a product-knowledge entry; it is framed as inference.
D — 82 words. No filler.

Anti-patterns

• Generic flattery as personalization. "Love what you're building" is not a signal — it is noise. It tells the prospect you found their company name and nothing else.
• Soft closes. "Let me know your thoughts", "open to a chat?", "would love to connect sometime" are not asks. They are opt-out invitations. One specific, low-friction ask only.
• Fabricated proof. A specific metric with no approved product-knowledge entry is fabrication — the cardinal violation of selling-principles. The fix is not to soften the wording of a made-up stat; it is to remove the metric and replace it with an approved claim or a genuine question.
• Merge-field personalization. {{company_name}} in the body of an email is not personalization. It is mail merge. Personalization requires a human-readable signal about this person's current situation.
• Stacking asks. "I could show you a demo, or send a case study, or hop on a call — whatever works for you" produces zero responses. Pick one.
• Skipping the suppression check. Drafting a polished first touch for a suppressed contact wastes everyone's time and creates compliance exposure. Check first.
• Stating a soft inference as a hard fact. "You're struggling with forecast accuracy" is an assertion. "Teams in your position often tell us forecast accuracy is the top Q3 priority" is a framed pattern. The second is honest; the first is presumptuous and often wrong.
• Long emails. > 120 words on a first touch signals low signal-to-noise awareness. The prospect will not read it. Cut to the core.

Related

• outbound-sequences — multi-touch cadences; step 1 of every sequence starts here.
• playbook-library — approved message templates; check before writing from scratch.
• product-knowledge — the only valid source for proof points and metrics.
• brand-voice — sets the voice and tone for all copy.
• account-memory — CRM record and prior engagement history for the prospect.
• outbound-reviewer — receives the draft after the quality gate; must clear before the send gate.
• crm-operator — suppression check (read) and activity logging (write).
• rules/common/outbound-compliance.md — unsubscribe, sender identity, suppression requirements.
• rules/common/messaging-style.md — length, one CTA, anti-spam rules.
• rules/common/selling-principles.md — evidence-first, no fabrication, no false completion.
• Command: /outreach.