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name: cold-email description: "Write a cold sales/B2B outreach email that earns a reply. Use when asked to write a cold email, a sales outreach email, a prospecting email, or a cold email sequence to a business prospect. Produces a short, personalised email — subject, a relevant opener, one clear value-led ask, and a low-friction CTA — plus 2 follow-ups, written to be replied to, not deleted."

Cold Email Skill

Cold email works when it's short, clearly about them, and asks for one small thing. Most cold email fails because it's a feature dump that's all about the sender. This skill writes a tight, personalised email built on a real trigger or relevance hook, with a single low-friction ask — plus the follow-ups that actually drive most replies. (For job-search / networking outreach, use outreach-message; this is B2B sales prospecting.)

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• Who you're emailing — role, company, and the segment/ICP.
• The relevance hook — a real reason to contact them now (a trigger event, a specific pain in their role/industry, a mutual connection).
• What you offer — the outcome you drive for people like them (not your feature list).
• Proof — a comparable customer, a result, a number.
• The ask — ideally low-friction (a 15-min call, a relevant resource, an "open to it?" reply).

Output Format

Cold Email: [offer] → [persona]

Subject lines — 3 options, short (≤6 words), specific, no clickbait or "Quick question."

The email (≤120 words):

• Opener — the relevance hook: something true about them (trigger, pain, connection). Not "I hope this finds you well."
• Value — the outcome you drive for people in their seat, with one proof point. One or two sentences.
• Ask — one clear, low-friction request, phrased to make "yes" or even "not now" easy.
• Signature — minimal.

Follow-ups — 2 short ones (send ~3–4 days apart): a value-add nudge (a resource/insight, not "just bumping this") and a graceful breakup email ("I'll close the loop — want me to circle back next quarter?"). Most replies come from these.

Note — what to personalise per prospect (the one line that proves it isn't a blast), and the one metric to watch (reply rate, not open rate).

Deeper Materials

• references/reply-rate-calibration.md — line-by-line calibration of what actually moves reply rates, with honest expectations

Quality Checks

• [ ] Under ~120 words and skimmable on a phone
• [ ] Opens with a real, specific relevance hook about the recipient
• [ ] Frames value as the prospect's outcome, with one proof point
• [ ] Exactly one low-friction ask
• [ ] Includes 2 follow-ups (value-add + graceful breakup)
• [ ] Subject is specific and honest (no bait)

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not open about yourself ("We're a leading platform…") — lead with them
• [ ] Do not feature-dump — one outcome + one proof beats a capability list
• [ ] Do not stack asks or ask for too much ("30-min demo" cold) — make the first yes tiny
• [ ] Do not use fake personalisation ("loved your post!") — be specifically, verifiably relevant or don't claim it
• [ ] Do not skip follow-ups or make them "just checking in" — each must add a reason to reply

Based On

B2B cold-email practice — relevance/trigger-led openers, one-outcome value, single low-friction ask, value-adding follow-up cadence.