Personalized first touch

Purpose

A first message works when the reader can see that someone looked at their situation. A template works when nobody did. This skill writes one first message per contact, grounded in what is verifiable about that person and their company, and chooses how much personal detail to use. Personal details are a last resort for relevance, not a display of research.

When to use

• A contact has a reason to be approached, such as a signal, a referral, or a fit.
• A message is needed for a named person, not a segment.

Route elsewhere when:

• The question is which contacts to approach. Use prospect-list-building.
• The question is whether the offer is strong enough. Use cold-offer-architect.
• The question is the rules for every SDR message. Use sdr-outbound-rules.

Inputs

• The contact's name, company, and email or profile.
• What the team sells, in one sentence.
• The trigger, if one is known.
• The deal size band, which sets how much personalization the message should carry.

Procedure

1. Verify the contact first. Confirm the person is still in the role and at the company. Note any change in title or tenure. If the person has left, do not write, and ask for the current contact.
2. Pull the live signals for the contact and the company from the last three months: executive moves, funding, hiring in the relevant function, and a stated priority or public post.
3. Choose the bucket, from the strongest available:
   • Self-authored content the contact has published or presented.
   • Content they have engaged with, such as posts they commented on or shared.
   • Their own description of their role or priorities.
   • Professional background, such as tenure in the role, or a recent move.
   • Company-level events, such as a launch, a funding round, or a hiring push.
   • Personal interests, used only lightly and only when nothing professional is available.
4. Choose the hook:
   • Strong hook: a verbatim reference to something the contact said or wrote. Use it for large deals or competitive situations. It needs the exact wording.
   • Lite hook: a conceptual reference to a theme they are working on. Use it for volume outreach or when nothing is quotable.
   • Signal hook: a stacked or recent event at the company. Use it when the signals are strong and recent.
   • Role hook: their role and the outcome it is measured on. Use it when nothing else is verifiable.
5. Connect the hook to relevance in one sentence: why this matters to someone in their role, in the team's own voice.
6. Calibrate length and ask by seniority. Senior contacts get shorter messages, an outcome first, and one direct ask. Other contacts can carry a little more context. Every message has one ask.
7. Check it. The hook must be true and checkable. Remove any personal detail that would feel intrusive to a stranger. If the message would work for any other contact at the company, rewrite it.

Output

• The verified contact status, with any change noted.
• The signals used and their dates.
• The bucket and hook chosen, and why.
• The message, with its single ask.

Quality bar

The contact is verified before writing. Every hook is verbatim or traceable to a dated source. Personal detail is used only where it is relevant and not intrusive. The message fails if it would work for anyone else. Watch for messages to departed contacts, invented details, and personal interests used as the opening line.