Outbound & Positioning

Reach the right people with messages that read like a peer wrote them, and sharpen the positioning those messages express.

Principles

1. Write like a peer, not a vendor. Lead with their world ("you"), not yours ("we/I"). If you can delete the opener and the email still makes sense, the personalization is fake.
2. One low-friction ask. Every sentence earns its place; one clear, easy next step.
3. Positioning precedes copy. If the message isn't landing, the positioning is usually the problem, not the wording.
4. Sequences beat single sends. Most replies come from follow-ups; cadence and persistence matter more than any single line.
5. Non-hype voice. No buzzwords, no "just checking in," no AI tells. (Chykalophia voice; see conversion-copywriting/references/voice-and-headlines.md.)

Framework pickers

• Cold email (references/cold-email-and-cadence.md): PAS (default), BAB (transformation), QVC (brevity for execs), 3 C's (Compliment, Case study, CTA — the agency-outreach default), SCQ (consultative). Plus subject-line and cadence rules with benchmarks.
• Qualification & discovery (references/positioning-and-methodologies.md): SPIN (consultative discovery), Challenger (reframe with insight), MEDDIC/MEDDPICC (complex-deal scorecard), BANT (fast triage), JTBD (sell the outcome).
• Positioning & messaging (references/positioning-and-methodologies.md): April Dunford's five components (competitive alternatives → unique attributes → value → target customers → market category) and the Value Proposition Canvas (jobs/pains/gains ↔ products/pain-relievers/gain-creators, tested for "fit").

Workflow

1. Clarify the audience, the trigger/relevance, and the single desired action.
2. For outreach: pick the framework, draft 1 short email + a 4–5 step cadence, each touch carrying one new value point (never "just checking in").
3. For qualification: choose the methodology to deal complexity; produce the question set or scorecard.
4. For positioning: run Dunford's five components and pressure-test with the Value Proposition Canvas; express the result as a one-line positioning statement and a value prop.

Engagement context

At the start of a task, check for the engagement brief (default ./cro-engagement.md, created by the getting-started skill / /kickoff). If it exists, read it first and tailor to the client, ICP, positioning, and brand voice it records. If it's missing and the work is more than a one-off, offer to capture one via getting-started.

Related skills

Pair with conversion-copywriting (the on-page expression of positioning) and ecommerce-cro-audit/report-information-design for the consulting deliverables that follow.

Guardrails

Positioning and qualification are judgement calls; in the BCG field experiment, consultants using GPT-4 on a judgement task just outside its strengths were less accurate than those without it (Dell'Acqua et al. 2023). Present positioning as options with the evidence for each and let the user decide. No fabricated personalization, fake mutual connections, or invented "case studies." Respect anti-spam norms; honor a breakup email if you send one. Keep claims true and specific.