cold-email-offerlab

name	Cold Email OfferLab
description	Child skill for designing or repairing the cold outreach offer before copy is written — separates the core offer from a front-end artifact, picks mode-appropriate artifacts, sizes the smallest useful yes against a T0-T3 trust ladder, and runs false-positive checks on the result.
skill_type	strategy
altitude	domain
activation	progressive
parent_id	cold_email_engagement_first_outreach
depth	1
preserve_markdown	true
legacy_paths	["cold_email_outreach.offer_lab","cold_email_outreach.offer_creation"]
path	apps/web/src/lib/services/agentic-chat/tools/skills/definitions/cold_email_offer_lab/SKILL.md

Cold Email OfferLab

Identity

Child skill for designing or repairing the cold outreach offer before copy is written — it separates the core offer from a front-end artifact, picks mode-appropriate artifacts, sizes the smallest useful yes against a T0-T3 trust ladder, and runs false-positive checks on the result. This is a strategy skill at domain altitude, a child of cold_email_engagement_first_outreach.

The north star is qualified conversations started per unit of market trust consumed: the offer is the largest lever on both halves of that ratio.

Activation

Use this child skill when the offer is missing, meeting-first, too large for cold trust, or not artifact-shaped.

When to Use:

• The user says "I want meetings" but has no front-end offer
• The current CTA is "worth a chat?"
• The campaign has low positive reply rate
• The user has an offer but no useful artifact
• The segment is new and needs offer hypotheses
• A meeting-first ask needs a permissibility ruling

Judgment

The decision spine — the rubrics, thresholds, and boundaries you reason with when constructing or repairing an offer.

Governing Source Cards

• April Dunford sales pitch structure: buyer choice, alternatives, differentiated value, proof.
• Bob Moesta demand-side sales: struggling moment, buyer progress, switching timeline.
• Rob Fitzpatrick / Mom Test: avoid compliments and hypotheticals; look for real behavior.
• Challenger Customer: support a Mobilizer with internally useful material.

Core Offer vs Front-End Artifact

The central distinction (Aaron Shepherd): "Nothing in a cold email strategy is more important than your offer." The front-end offer is a no-commitment test drive of the core service — never the core service itself.

Core offer (too big for cold)	Front-end offer (size of yes a stranger gives)
"Turn your experience into a client-generating book in 60 days"	"Free strategic book positioning audit — teardown of your existing messaging"
"Done-for-you book that unlocks speaking gigs in 90 days"	"Book topic validation — 15 min, validates your idea against your market" / "Seven-figure founder book-funnel teardown"

Shape requirements (Shepherd): free or near-free · specific deliverable (audit/teardown/sample, not "let's chat") · custom to the recipient · opens the loop to the core offer.