| name | psp |
| description | Pain Signal Profile (PSP) builder for B2B operators. Translates public, recent, verifiable signals (job posts, funding rounds, leadership changes, product launches, pricing changes, hiring patterns) into the felt operational pain that drives buying decisions — and then into the EVP that speaks to it. Anchors every output on a signal that the prospect actually did, not a demographic guess about who they are. Foundation of the JMC framework; loaded by cold-email, outbound-audit, and EVP skills. Triggers on: "build a PSP", "pain signal profile", "what's our ICP pain", "what signals should we hunt", "signal to pain mapping", "buyer pain", "PSP worksheet", "find the signal".
|
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Write","Grep","WebFetch"] |
PSP — Pain Signal Profile Builder
A Pain Signal Profile is the link from a public signal (something
the prospect verifiably did) to the felt operational pain that
signal implies. It's the foundation underneath cold email, outbound
audits, EVPs, content strategy, and sales conversations in the JMC
framework.
Quick reference
| Slash | What it does |
|---|
/psp | Interactive — build a PSP from scratch with the operator |
/psp construct <ICP> | Walk through PSP construction for a specific ICP segment |
/psp signal-hunt <ICP> | Surface 5-10 public signals worth hunting for an ICP |
/psp validate <PSP> | Stress-test a draft PSP against the framework |
The core stance
A PSP is not an ICP, persona, or demographic. Those describe who
the buyer is. A PSP describes:
- What the buyer just did (signal — public, recent, verifiable)
- What that signal implies about their operational reality (pain)
- Why now the pain is acute (timing)
- Who feels the pain most within the company (role)
- What language they use about it internally (vocabulary)
If you can't fill in all five, you don't have a PSP yet.
The framework
Signal → Pain → Timing → Role → Vocabulary
(verifiable (operational (why now is (who feels it (their words,
thing they consequence) acute) most) not yours)
did)
Component 1: Signal
A signal is something the prospect (or their company) did publicly,
recently, and verifiably.
Good signals:
- Just posted a job for
<role> on LinkedIn (≤30 days)
- Just announced funding (Series A/B/C, ≤30 days)
- Just shipped a feature / product / pricing change (≤45 days)
- Just hired / promoted a relevant exec (≤30 days)
- Just changed website positioning or hero (≤14 days)
- Just appeared on a relevant podcast / conference / panel
- Just published a content piece on the topic
Not signals:
- "Series B company" (state, not action)
- "VP of Marketing" (role, not action)
- "Growing fast" (vague, not verifiable)
Component 2: Pain
The pain is what the signal implies about the prospect's day-to-day
operational reality. It is always phrased as a thing the operator
feels, not a thing you sell.
Examples (signal → pain mapping):
| Signal | Implied pain |
|---|
| Posted "Senior Demand Gen Lead" role 4 days ago | Pipeline gap; existing motion not producing SQLs |
| Announced Series B last month | Pressure to 3x revenue in 18 months while keeping CAC flat |
| Shipped enterprise tier yesterday | Need new sales motion; legacy SDRs not built for $50k+ ACV |
| New CRO hired 6 weeks ago | Re-evaluating GTM stack in next 90 days |
| Pricing page now shows "Contact us" | Moving up-market; existing inbound funnel may not fit |
Component 3: Timing — why now is acute
The same pain can exist for years; what makes it actionable now? Most
buyer movement happens in a 90-day window after one of three triggers:
- A new exec joins (90-day plan in motion)
- A budget cycle opens (Q4 planning, fiscal new year)
- An obvious failure ships (missed quarter, churn spike, launch flop)
Name which trigger is in play. If none, the PSP isn't time-anchored
and outreach will fall flat.
Component 4: Role
Within the company, who feels the pain most acutely? Not who makes
the decision — who feels the pain. Often these differ.
- The CMO feels missed-quarter pain
- The Demand Gen Lead feels pipeline-gap pain
- The CRO feels CAC-payback pain
- The COO feels ops-scaling pain
Outreach lands when it reaches the person who feels the pain, even
if the buying decision routes elsewhere.
Component 5: Vocabulary
What language do they use about this pain in private — Slack, internal
docs, hiring posts, AMA Qs? You need their words, not your category
words.
- Don't say "demand generation challenges" → they say "pipeline gap"
- Don't say "buyer enablement" → they say "deals stalling"
- Don't say "GTM efficiency" → they say "we're burning cash"
- Don't say "ICP fit" → they say "we keep closing wrong-fit logos"
The fastest way to find the vocabulary: read their job posts, their
LinkedIn comments, their team's public AMA responses.
Workflow
1. Pick the ICP segment
Ask: "Which segment are we building a PSP for? Be specific —
'B2B SaaS' is too broad. 'Series-B SaaS companies $20-50M ARR with a
PLG motion' is workable."
2. Run the signal hunt
For the ICP segment, surface 5-10 public signal candidates. Use the
psp-signal-hunt sub-skill if available, or walk through manually
using the patterns above.
3. Map signal → pain for the top 3 signals
For each of the top 3 signals, ask: "If this happened, what is the
operator at that company feeling at 11am on Tuesday?"
Don't accept abstract pain ("they need better demand gen"). Force a
specific operational moment.
4. Anchor timing
For each pain, identify which 90-day trigger makes it acute right now.
5. Identify the felt-pain role
For each pain, who in the org feels it? Often it's a layer below
the buying authority.
6. Capture vocabulary
Read 5-10 sources of recipient-written content (job posts, LinkedIn
comments, their team's tweets, conference talks). Extract 8-12 phrases
they actually use about this pain.
7. Output
Produce a structured PSP doc:
# PSP — <ICP segment name>
## Signal
<Top public signal worth hunting>
## Pain
<What that signal implies operationally — in their language>
## Timing
<Which 90-day trigger makes it acute>
## Role (felt-pain holder)
<The person who feels the pain at 11am Tuesday>
## Vocabulary
<8-12 phrases they use about this in private>
## Top 5 signals worth hunting (for the operations team to track)
1. <Signal>
2. <Signal>
...
Sub-skills
Where this skill plugs in downstream
Once you have a PSP, plug it into:
- claude-cold-email — every cold email anchors on the PSP signal
- claude-evp — your EVP must speak to the PSP pain in their vocabulary
- JMC Cold Email & Outreach Craft course — full sequence design
- JMC Pain Signal Profiles course — the deep methodology
Full course
This skill is the agent-form of the JMC Pain Signal Profiles course
in The Compounding Engine. The course covers:
- Signal taxonomy (8 categories, 30+ specific signal types)
- Signal-source operations (LinkedIn, news APIs, RSS, manual research)
- Pain-mapping rigor (avoiding generic / abstract pain claims)
- Vocabulary mining at scale
- PSP refresh cadence (signals decay)
→ jaymountconsulting.com/learn/courses/pain-signal-profiles
