Outreach

Outreach Emails

Generate personalized outreach and follow-up emails for Genesys Growth that convert prospects into clients. Every email demonstrates operator expertise, references specific prospect context, and leads with value. Three modes: single-email (default), generator (build campaign prompt), runner (batch-generate from CSV).

Doctrine inherited (Step 7 — 0626 rollout)

Output complies with:

• output-tenets.md — the seven tenets
• output-simplicity.md — length caps, three-layer source placement, robot-tells ban
• outbound-research-hygiene.md — dated signals, no stale references, no prior-job hooks
• Step 6 calibration: see [[feedback_execution_doctrine_refinements_step6]]

Refinements applied to this skill:

When to run

Trigger on: "write outreach email", "cold email", "follow-up email", "post-call follow-up", "outreach sequence", "warm intro", "referral email", "re-engagement email", "build a campaign prompt", "batch-generate emails from CSV". For campaign mode (5+ prospects against same ICP), see the premium reference.

Do NOT use for marketing/nurture emails (use lifecycle-marketing), LinkedIn content (use linkedin-content), client deliverable emails, or internal comms.

Inputs

Required (at least one): prospect name/company, website URL, conversation notes, LinkedIn profile, or discovery call summary. Optional: referrer context, specific service interest, timeline/urgency. Auto-loaded: client CLAUDE.md voice section. Auto-fetched: Gmail threads, Drive proposals, Calendar history. Full input table + validation checklist in the premium reference.

Recommended for cold mode (load-bearing for the connector-opener doctrine):

• Peer customer(s): 1–2 named logos that Genesys (or the client) has worked with that are structurally similar to the prospect's company. Without this, the connector-opener falls back to generic "we work with similar firms" phrasing that tanks reply rates.
• Wedge: one sentence on why the engagement won — the workflow or capability that maps from peer customer to prospect.

If either is missing for cold mode, ask before drafting. Don't hand-wave.

For campaign-scale outreach, run /deepline-enrich first to validate emails (waterfall across 15+ providers). Single-prospect emails: Apollo MCP enrichment is sufficient.

Steps

1. Mode select. Default single-email; switch to generator for campaigns (5+ prospects, same ICP); switch to runner when applying an existing prompt to a CSV. See the premium reference.
2. Validate inputs per the premium reference Input section. If missing, ask for prospect name/company; offer Gmail search.
3. Phase 1 — Context gathering. Gmail/Calendar/Drive search → relationship timeline → email type (cold/warm/post-discovery/proposal/re-engagement). Company research: site, pricing, about, funding, LinkedIn. Detail in the premium reference.
4. Phase 2 — GTM gap analysis. Assess against Genesys ICP fit (design test, PMM test, persona pages, launch test, founder LinkedIn). Find personalization hooks (funding, hiring, posts, launches, competitor moves). Apply recency rule: 0–4 weeks primary, 4–8 cautious, 8+ skip.
5. Phase 3 — Drafting. Select structure: for cold-with-peer-customer apply the premium reference (6 structural beats + A/B Loom-vs-POC arm + locked voice rules); for post-discovery / re-engagement use templates in the premium reference. Lead with specific observation. First-person singular. Operator voice. No forbidden phrases (the premium reference). Apply .claude/rules/outbound-research-hygiene.md to every research-derived signal in the draft (no >12mo, no prior-job hooks, dated not "recently", current-company-state only, sourced numbers only). Verify word counts: cold 150 / post-discovery 250 / follow-up 100 / re-engagement 100. Generate 2–3 subject variants.
6. Self-evaluate. Specific opening? "I" not "we"? No forbidden phrases? Hook ≤4 weeks old? Mark gaps [Need to verify: X].
7. Quality gate per the premium reference (content, evidence, format checklists + anti-hallucination guardrails).
8. Format output per the premium reference (relationship context, sources, subject options, email body, word count, personalization notes, "if they reply" thread, iteration prompts).
9. Suggest chain. Follow-up sequence (no response in N days), /proposal (positive response), /company-context (deeper research).
10. If campaign mode: generator outputs a prompt artifact to {client}/sales/campaigns/{campaign-name}/; runner takes prompt + CSV, validates per-row variables, applies quality gates per row, outputs batch with skip log. Full spec in the premium reference.

What good looks like

Evaluations

• Opens with specific observation (not generic intro)
• Under word limit for type (150 / 250 / 100 / 100)
• Single, clear, low-friction CTA
• First-person singular ("I" not "we") throughout
• No forbidden phrases ("hope this finds you", "touch base", "synergy", "circle back")
• Hook recent (≤4 weeks) — skip if stale
• Subject line specific, ≤50 characters
• All claims traceable to research or conversation; gaps marked [Need to verify: X]
• Relationship context accurate; personalization notes explain specificity

Final ship gate

Run /premortem --output before ship. See /premortem skill for the 5 execution domains (will-it-resonate / will-it-convert / will-it-stay-on-brand / will-stakeholder-push-back / will-it-degrade-over-time) and output template.

Trivial-case escape: ## Premortem\nNo failure modes — trivial change satisfies the contract for genuinely trivial outputs.

Persuasion & stickiness pass

Output complies with persuasion-and-stickiness.md — Cialdini's 7 persuasion levers + Heath's SUCCESs. Deploy the 1-2 Cialdini levers that fit the reader's barrier (never all seven; every lever must be TRUE), run the SUCCESs diagnostic (Simple / Unexpected / Concrete / Credible / Emotional / Stories) over the near-final draft, then the rule's pre-ship gate.