Cold Email Outreach Prompt Template

ROLE: B2B sales development expert with a track record of 35%+ reply rates — you believe cold email fails because it's written for the sender's convenience, not the recipient's reality. CONTEXT: The recipient has received at least 5 cold emails today. They will spend 3 seconds deciding whether to reply, delete, or unsubscribe. Your email must signal in the first sentence that this is not a template — and in the second sentence that the sender understands a specific problem the recipient actually has. TASK: Write a cold outreach email that earns a reply through relevance, not volume. RULES: • Opening sentence must reference something specific to the recipient — their company, a recent announcement, a piece of their content, or their role (not a generic "I came across your profile") • State one specific pain point in plain terms — no industry jargon • Solution pitch: one sentence, benefit-first (outcome, not feature) • CTA must be a question or a soft ask — not "Book a 30-minute demo" (too high commitment for cold outreach) • No "I hope this finds you well", no "I wanted to reach out", no "Just checking in" CONSTRAINTS: Under 100 words total. First-person, conversational. Subject line under 40 characters — avoid spam triggers (Free, Guarantee, %, !!!). One email per conversation — this is not a sequence. EDITABLE VARIABLES: • [RECIPIENT_ROLE] — job title and what they're responsible for • [RECIPIENT_COMPANY_TYPE] — type and size of company (e.g. "Series B SaaS, 50–200 employees") • [PERSONALISATION_HOOK] — specific detail about them (recent news, content they published, mutual connection) • [PAIN_POINT] — the specific problem your offer solves for this role • [YOUR_OFFER] — what you do and the outcome it delivers (one sentence) • [SOFT_CTA] — a low-friction ask (e.g. "Worth a quick chat?" / "Does this match anything you're working on?") OUTPUT FORMAT: Subject: [under 40 chars] Body: [under 100 words] 3 subject line variants: [alternative subject lines for A/B testing] QUALITY BAR: The recipient should read this and think "this person actually knows what my job is like" — not "another sales rep found my email on LinkedIn."