Reach out

Use this skill whenever creating outreach — a cold email, a LinkedIn message, a follow-up, or a multi-step sequence — for a company, a contact, a list, or a signal.

How to use it

Claude Code
  1. Run the line below. It pulls the whole folder into ~/.claude/skills/reach-out.
  2. Describe your job in plain words. Claude Code follows the skill from there.
Claude Code — installs the whole folder, not just SKILL.md
npx degit swan-gtm/gtm-skills/skills/ido-goldberg/reach-out#main ~/.claude/skills/reach-out

For one project only, change the path to .claude/skills/reach-out.

Claude (web or desktop app)
  1. On this page open ⋯ → Download .md.
  2. Save it as SKILL.md in a folder, zip the folder, then Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload a skill.
  3. Pick the file and Save. Claude shows the name and description and runs a security scan.
  4. Check the skill is switched on.
  5. Start a new chat and describe your job in plain words. The AI follows the skill from there.
ChatGPT or another app
  1. ChatGPT: make a Project and paste it into Instructions.
  2. Neither? Paste it at the top of a new chat — it works for that chat.
Not working?
  • Check which app you pasted it into — the steps above name the right one.
  • Some skills need the paid tier of Claude or ChatGPT.
Step-by-step guide with screenshots · Ask in the forum

Paste into Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.

Source of Reach out

Show the full text80 lines
nametitledescriptioncategory
reach-outReach out| Use this skill whenever creating outreach — a cold email, a LinkedIn message, a follow-up, or a multi-step sequence — for a company, a contact, a list, or a signal. Use it even when the user doesn't say "outreach": any request to write to, contact, message, or get in front of a prospect or account goes through here. Covers picking the hook, matching the org's voice, choosing the sequence shape, and staging everything for approval. Trigger phrasings: "reach out to", "draft outreach", "email this company", "message this prospect", "follow up with", "build a sequence", "contact these visitors". Also use it for strategic outreach questions ("how should our cold emails sound", "what cadence should we run") — the output is then a point of view grounded in the org's saved voice, not a sequence.Outreach

Produces a staged outreach sequence awaiting the user's approval, with the reasoning attached: who, why now, what hook.

The motion table — this org's, not the skill's

This table is the org's motion library. It starts seeded and is meant to be edited — rows get added, renamed, and replaced as the org's motions take shape. Open the matching reference before drafting; follow its don'ts over generic instinct.

Situation Reference
Named company, named contact, or a small account set references/targeted.md
An identified website visitor references/website-visitor.md
A recurring or scheduled list run, cold volume references/cold-list.md
Someone engaged with a post or profile on LinkedIn references/linkedin-engagement.md
Funding, hiring spree, leadership change, product launch references/company-signals.md
Form fill, content download, demo request, MQL, signup references/inbound-hand-raiser.md
Webinar or conference registrants, attendees, no-shows references/event-follow-up.md
Third-party intent data — category research, review-site activity references/intent-signals.md
The user gives feedback, wants outreach to sound or perform better, announces a strategy shift, or asks to set up the voice references/improve-outreach.md

No row matches (win-back, referral, reply handling) → run the procedure below and say so in the reasoning. A recurring motion with no row → propose creating its reference page and adding the row.

references/improve-outreach.md is how this skill becomes the org's: it says where every kind of feedback gets recorded. Open it whenever the user reacts to a draft — feedback that isn't written down is retraining that never happened.

This org's voice and rules

Nothing recorded yet. Org-wide rules from user feedback live here, one do/don't per line with its condition when it has one. These outrank everything below except the user's live instruction.

Anchor on the hook

Every message needs a reason it goes to this person now. Hook ladder: trigger event > relationship > their own content > company initiative > persona pain (usable, but say so in the reasoning). No hook → push back before drafting. NEVER invent a signal.

The hook informs the angle; it rarely appears in the copy. Tracking-type signals — website visits, intent data, profile views — NEVER appear in the message. A public event may be referenced once, later in the message, as an observation with its implication — NEVER as the opening sentence, never as a congratulation. Leading with someone's funding round or new hire is the clearest tell that a machine wrote the message.

Voice

Approved sends accumulate automatically as style examples. Examples carry the voice; this skill carries the strategy — when they contradict, the skill is right, because examples can't be unsaved and lag every course change. Imitate an example's tone and rhythm, never a choice that breaks a rule. NEVER imitate copy from skill text or another org. No examples yet? Draft anyway from what's loaded — ICP pains, value prop, personas — plainly and shortly, tell the user the voice is provisional, and offer the voice setup flow in references/improve-outreach.md. If a contradiction keeps recurring, run that page's course-correction flow.

Draft
  • Opener, email: the hook's implication, in the contact's frame. One sentence. The event or signal itself never opens the message.
  • Opener, LinkedIn: say who you are and what you want in the first line. A DM has no room for a warm-up observation — it reads as preamble and gets skipped.
  • Body: one researched detail max, reacted to rather than exhibited. One proof point max — attributed, sized to the company. Never a feature list, never an invented customer or stat. On LinkedIn, drop the proof point and the hard numbers entirely; the register is a message between two people, not a pitch.
  • CTA: one ask, and make it the smallest real thing that could land this week — a short list to run, one account to check, a sample to review. Offering to do concrete work, or asking for the raw material to do it, beats asking for time.
  • Pitch at the reader's altitude: C-level hears risk and strategy, VP hears performance, director hears operational pain.
  • Shape per email: signal → proof → ask (fresh trigger); problem → cost → fix (only when the pain is documented in the ICP); before → after → bridge (easy-to-picture change).
  • Draft in the language the org sells in — a wrong-language sequence is an error, not a style choice.
Cadence

The org's recorded cadence always wins; default: 3–5 steps, days ~0/3/7/14, single channel unless the motion says otherwise, never referencing one channel from the other. Every follow-up is shorter than the last, stands alone, and brings a genuinely new angle — new proof, sharper insight, useful asset, peer story — or gets skipped. Last touch: a 25–50 word breakup, door open, no new pitch — and once sent, honored. Multi-thread only for large accounts (~200+ employees), committee signals, or on request — different angle per contact, never the same email twice into one company.

The final gate

Run on every message before staging; a failed check means rewrite, not tweak:

  1. Delete the opener — still makes sense? The personalization is decoration; rebuild around the hook.
  2. Does the close contain the word "worth"? Rewrite it. "worth 15 minutes", "worth a quick look", "worth a conversation" — anyone who receives outbound has read them a hundred times, and they cost replies. Ask for the thing itself instead.
  3. Does sentence one name a funding round, a launch, a hire, or any other event? Rewrite — open with what it means for them, not with the news.
  4. Could this go to anyone else this week? Then it's a blast in costume.
  5. One CTA. 60–110 words, follow-ups shorter. Subject 2–5 words, lowercase, internal-looking. More "you" than "I/we".
  6. Email: is the proof a number or a name? "Helps teams like yours" is not proof.
  7. Read as the recipient with a full inbox: any reason to reply beyond politeness?
Stage

Check for an existing unsent sequence to the contact — edit, don't duplicate. Stage for manual approval with the reasoning: who, why now, what hook, which reference. NEVER auto-send unless the user says so in this conversation. NEVER attach files; link instead. A channel missing its contact data gets fixed or dropped.

What good looks like

A first-run draft — new org, zero examples — approved with a tweak, not a rewrite: a hook that fits nobody else this week, substance traceable to the org's ICP and value prop, nothing that smells like a template. Watch for: the proof point swelling into a feature list, the CTA collapsing into a calendar link, a segment blast dressed as personalization, and feedback evaporating instead of landing in the skill.

1---
2name: "reach-out"
3title: Reach out
4description: |
5 Use this skill whenever creating outreach — a cold email, a LinkedIn message, a follow-up, or a multi-step sequence — for a company, a contact, a list, or a signal. Use it even when the user doesn't say "outreach": any request to write to, contact, message, or get in front of a prospect or account goes through here. Covers picking the hook, matching the org's voice, choosing the sequence shape, and staging everything for approval. Trigger phrasings: "reach out to", "draft outreach", "email this company", "message this prospect", "follow up with", "build a sequence", "contact these visitors".
6 
7 Also use it for strategic outreach questions ("how should our cold emails sound", "what cadence should we run") — the output is then a point of view grounded in the org's saved voice, not a sequence.
8category: Outreach
9---
10 
11Produces a staged outreach sequence awaiting the user's approval, with the reasoning attached: who, why now, what hook.
12 
13### The motion table — this org's, not the skill's
14 
15This table is the org's motion library. It starts seeded and is meant to be edited — rows get added, renamed, and replaced as the org's motions take shape. Open the matching reference before drafting; follow its don'ts over generic instinct.
16 
17| Situation | Reference |
18|---|---|
19| Named company, named contact, or a small account set | `references/targeted.md` |
20| An identified website visitor | `references/website-visitor.md` |
21| A recurring or scheduled list run, cold volume | `references/cold-list.md` |
22| Someone engaged with a post or profile on LinkedIn | `references/linkedin-engagement.md` |
23| Funding, hiring spree, leadership change, product launch | `references/company-signals.md` |
24| Form fill, content download, demo request, MQL, signup | `references/inbound-hand-raiser.md` |
25| Webinar or conference registrants, attendees, no-shows | `references/event-follow-up.md` |
26| Third-party intent data — category research, review-site activity | `references/intent-signals.md` |
27| The user gives feedback, wants outreach to sound or perform better, announces a strategy shift, or asks to set up the voice | `references/improve-outreach.md` |
28 
29No row matches (win-back, referral, reply handling) → run the procedure below and say so in the reasoning. A recurring motion with no row → propose creating its reference page and adding the row.
30 
31`references/improve-outreach.md` is how this skill becomes the org's: it says where every kind of feedback gets recorded. Open it whenever the user reacts to a draft — feedback that isn't written down is retraining that never happened.
32 
33### This org's voice and rules
34 
35Nothing recorded yet. Org-wide rules from user feedback live here, one do/don't per line with its condition when it has one. These outrank everything below except the user's live instruction.
36 
37### Anchor on the hook
38 
39Every message needs a reason it goes to this person now. Hook ladder: trigger event > relationship > their own content > company initiative > persona pain (usable, but say so in the reasoning). No hook → push back before drafting. NEVER invent a signal.
40 
41The hook informs the angle; it rarely appears in the copy. Tracking-type signals — website visits, intent data, profile views — NEVER appear in the message. A public event may be referenced once, later in the message, as an observation with its implication — NEVER as the opening sentence, never as a congratulation. Leading with someone's funding round or new hire is the clearest tell that a machine wrote the message.
42 
43### Voice
44 
45Approved sends accumulate automatically as style examples. Examples carry the voice; this skill carries the strategy — when they contradict, the skill is right, because examples can't be unsaved and lag every course change. Imitate an example's tone and rhythm, never a choice that breaks a rule. NEVER imitate copy from skill text or another org. No examples yet? Draft anyway from what's loaded — ICP pains, value prop, personas — plainly and shortly, tell the user the voice is provisional, and offer the voice setup flow in `references/improve-outreach.md`. If a contradiction keeps recurring, run that page's course-correction flow.
46 
47### Draft
48 
49- Opener, email: the hook's implication, in the contact's frame. One sentence. The event or signal itself never opens the message.
50- Opener, LinkedIn: say who you are and what you want in the first line. A DM has no room for a warm-up observation — it reads as preamble and gets skipped.
51- Body: one researched detail max, reacted to rather than exhibited. One proof point max — attributed, sized to the company. Never a feature list, never an invented customer or stat. On LinkedIn, drop the proof point and the hard numbers entirely; the register is a message between two people, not a pitch.
52- CTA: one ask, and make it the smallest real thing that could land this week — a short list to run, one account to check, a sample to review. Offering to do concrete work, or asking for the raw material to do it, beats asking for time.
53- Pitch at the reader's altitude: C-level hears risk and strategy, VP hears performance, director hears operational pain.
54- Shape per email: signal → proof → ask (fresh trigger); problem → cost → fix (only when the pain is documented in the ICP); before → after → bridge (easy-to-picture change).
55- Draft in the language the org sells in — a wrong-language sequence is an error, not a style choice.
56 
57### Cadence
58 
59The org's recorded cadence always wins; default: 3–5 steps, days ~0/3/7/14, single channel unless the motion says otherwise, never referencing one channel from the other. Every follow-up is shorter than the last, stands alone, and brings a genuinely new angle — new proof, sharper insight, useful asset, peer story — or gets skipped. Last touch: a 25–50 word breakup, door open, no new pitch — and once sent, honored. Multi-thread only for large accounts (~200+ employees), committee signals, or on request — different angle per contact, never the same email twice into one company.
60 
61### The final gate
62 
63Run on every message before staging; a failed check means rewrite, not tweak:
64 
651. Delete the opener — still makes sense? The personalization is decoration; rebuild around the hook.
662. Does the close contain the word "worth"? Rewrite it. "worth 15 minutes", "worth a quick look", "worth a conversation" — anyone who receives outbound has read them a hundred times, and they cost replies. Ask for the thing itself instead.
673. Does sentence one name a funding round, a launch, a hire, or any other event? Rewrite — open with what it means for them, not with the news.
684. Could this go to anyone else this week? Then it's a blast in costume.
695. One CTA. 60–110 words, follow-ups shorter. Subject 2–5 words, lowercase, internal-looking. More "you" than "I/we".
706. Email: is the proof a number or a name? "Helps teams like yours" is not proof.
717. Read as the recipient with a full inbox: any reason to reply beyond politeness?
72 
73### Stage
74 
75Check for an existing unsent sequence to the contact — edit, don't duplicate. Stage for manual approval with the reasoning: who, why now, what hook, which reference. NEVER auto-send unless the user says so in this conversation. NEVER attach files; link instead. A channel missing its contact data gets fixed or dropped.
76 
77## What good looks like
78 
79A first-run draft — new org, zero examples — approved with a tweak, not a rewrite: a hook that fits nobody else this week, substance traceable to the org's ICP and value prop, nothing that smells like a template. Watch for: the proof point swelling into a feature list, the CTA collapsing into a calendar link, a segment blast dressed as personalization, and feedback evaporating instead of landing in the skill.
80 

Discussion

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