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Cold Outreach Sales And Growth Child

Cold Email ICP And Signal Design

Before an agent writes cold outreach, it needs to prove the recipient, timing signal, segment, committee map, and disqualifiers are coherent. This skill turns vague target lists into approved segment definitions or refuses to ship.

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Sources

6

Refs

1

Steps

9

Outputs

3

What It Does

Use it when the job needs a real procedure.

The target list is broad, mixed, or based only on job titles.

The user cannot explain why this person should receive outreach now.

Reply data would be hard to interpret because the segment is too noisy.

The offer may be good, but the recipient or timing thesis is weak.

A B2B segment has no committee map and a single-contact strategy.

Outputs

segment mapsignal thesisdisqualifiers

The page is for humans first. The files in the rail make the same procedure available to agents.

Try It

Start with one of these prompts.

Help me define the ICP, buying signal, and disqualifiers for this outbound campaign.

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Audit this target segment before I write cold outreach.

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Procedure

The operating path

  1. 1

    Fill one row of the ## Persona × Signal × Reason-Now Schema below. One persona, one narrowing signal, one reason-now sentence. Reject mixed-persona lists at this step — a second persona or second signal is a second row, which is a separate campaign.

  2. 2

    Score the signal with the inline ## Signal Scoring Rubric. If the signal is trigger-based, or two candidate signals compete, use the deeper signal taxonomy when it is available in the current runtime; otherwise classify from the inline rules before scoring. Do not start list-building below a total of 5.

  3. 3

    Run the MVS check — Common Needs, Dominability, Viability with MVP (Underscore VC / Skok). Reject segments that fail any of the three.

  4. 4

    Map the buying committee. For multi-stakeholder B2B, return the role map table: Champion, Economic Buyer, User, Blocker, Adamson class tags, Golden Path, first outreach target. Use the deeper committee map when it is available in the current runtime. For single-stakeholder modes (founder-to-founder, recruiting, PR, customer research), use collapsed role shapes — no full map needed.

  5. 5

    Verify the timing thesis. Cross-check the trigger with the three-taxonomy rule in the signal taxonomy reference (Holland sub-type vs Elias family vs Maurya switching type). If they disagree, the trigger is ambiguous — re-test before approving.

  6. 6

    Name the buyer-progress thesis (Moesta): what struggle, current workaround, or desired progress makes this signal matter now. This is the substance behind the reason-now column.

  7. 7

    Tier the segment (Mark Roberge): Green (PMF measured), Yellow (experiment only), Red (do not write). Reject Red segments. Run Yellow segments only as one-variable experiments.

  8. 8

    Run the inline ## Disqualifier Kill-List. Any NO in the hard-kill table blocks campaign mode and sends the segment back to research. Any NO in the downgrade table converts the campaign to a low-volume one-variable experiment.

  9. 9

    Return the four artifacts and the verdict per the output contract: persona×signal×reason-now row, signal scorecard, kill-list results, committee map.

Boundaries

What the skill refuses or checks carefully

Do not approve a mixed-persona list.

Do not treat title match as timing.

Do not invent buying signals or stack inferred triggers.

Do not start list-building below a scorecard total of 5.

Do not declare a segment ready if reply data would be illegible on a 25-50 person batch.

Do not approve a multi-stakeholder B2B segment without a committee map.

Examples

Runtime examples

User has a list with mixed personas

  • The persona×signal×reason-now schema rejects the row at step 1; MVS fails Common Needs.
  • Return a split proposal: separate Persona A and Persona B into two rows / two segments.
  • Recommend running the strongest sub-segment first.

User has a clear ICP but no signal

  • Run the inline scorecard. Score 0-2 on every dimension.
  • Verdict: do_not_send.
  • Recommend a research pass to find a Bridgebound trigger before campaigning.

User has a strong trigger but no committee map for a B2B segment

  • Approve the signal.
  • Block on kill-list questions 15-19. Return the role map table from the committee-map rules available in the current runtime.
  • Request the committee shape before approving campaign-mode outreach.

Related Skills

Follow the thread

Cold Outreach

Cold Email Engagement-First Outreach

A source-lineaged root combo skill for planning, drafting, auditing, and rewriting cold outreach. Distilled from seven cold-email source analyses into one master playbook for high-volume campaigns, strategic accounts, single-target relationship outreach, reply revival, investor fundraising, founder-led outreach, recruiting, PR, partnerships, and customer research.