---
name: cold-email-writer
description: Writes a concise, personalized cold outreach email with subject-line options from a prospect and an offer, using light research for a relevant opener. Use when the user asks to "write a cold email", "draft outreach to this prospect", "cold email for [company]", "first-touch email", or wants a single opening email that earns a reply.
license: MIT
compatibility: Web search optional for personalization; connected CRM optional. Drafts only.
metadata:
  author: Builder.org
  version: 2.0.0
  persona: Marketing Meg, Strategic Steve
  rave: R4 A3 V4 E3
  category: crm
---

# Cold Email Writer

## What it does

One cold email that earns a reply: a personalized opener built on a real hook, one value sentence in the prospect's terms, one low-friction ask, and subject lines to test. Drafts only; you send from your own tool, under your own name.

## When to use

- "Write a cold email to [prospect]", "draft outreach to [company]", "first-touch email".
- "Cold email for this list" (it will ask for the segment's shared pain and write one adaptable base).
- Not for multi-touch cadences; that is `follow-up-email-sequence-writer`. Not for warm follow-ups where history exists; that history deserves to be used, and this skill deliberately does not read it.

## Inputs

The prospect (name, role, company) and the offer or reason for reaching out. Optional: tone, desired call to action, sender details. If the offer is missing, ask for it; a cold email without a reason is spam with manners. If you cannot ask, write to the most plausible pain for that role and label the assumption.

## The bar

- Under 90 words, body only. Cold readers grant about eight seconds; 90 words fits inside them.
- The opener earns its personalization: a fact the prospect would recognize as true and recent. If the best available hook is weak, the email says something honest and useful instead of faking familiarity.
- One idea, one ask. Every added ask halves the odds of any answer.
- The value sentence names their outcome, not our features. "Your dispatchers stop re-keying loads" beats "our platform integrates seamlessly".
- Reads like a person typed it. No "I hope this finds you well", no "I know you're busy", no compliment sandwiches.

## Workflow

1. **Find the hook.** One specific, recent, recognizable detail: a role change, a public post, a company announcement, a hiring pattern, or (from your CRM, if connected) a past touch with their company. Rank hooks by how recently they happened and how directly they connect to the offer.
2. **Check the fit before drafting.** One line to the user: the hook you chose and the pain you are aiming at. If either is a guess, say so and let them redirect. If you cannot ask, state the assumption above the draft and continue.
3. **Frame the value.** One sentence connecting the hook to their outcome. The test: could this sentence appear in an email to any other company? If yes, sharpen until it could not.
4. **Write the email.** Opener with the hook, the value sentence, one low-friction ask (a question they can answer from their phone beats a meeting request), sign-off. Under 90 words. Short sentences. No links in the first touch; links smell like blasts.
5. **Write 3 subject lines** in different registers: direct (name the topic), curiosity (open a loop), and internal-style (looks like a colleague sent it, lowercase, 2 to 4 words). All under 7 words; longer gets truncated on phones, where most cold email dies.
6. **Deliver** the email plus subjects, paste-ready, with the hook's source noted so the sender can verify it in one click.

## Output

```
**Assumption (if any):** [what was guessed and why]
**Hook source:** [where the hook came from, so you can verify]

**Subject options:**
A. [direct]
B. [curiosity]
C. [internal-style]

[Opener with the specific hook]
[One value sentence, their outcome]
[One low-friction ask]
[Sign-off]
```

## Worked example

```
Fictional example. Never reuse these names or numbers in real output.

**Hook source:** Brightpath careers page, checked today; Dana's LinkedIn comment, Feb 8.

**Subject options:**
A. Credentialing turnaround at Brightpath
B. the bottleneck nobody talks about
C. quick question

Dana, you wrote that credentialing turnaround is the bottleneck nobody talks about, and your five open recruiter roles suggest it is about to get louder. We cut credentialing from 12 days to 4 for two staffing firms your size, without adding headcount. Worth 15 minutes to see if the same math holds for Brightpath? Even a "no, because..." would help me.

Sam
```

## Never

- Never fabricate familiarity: no invented "loved your post", no fake mutual connections, no "we met at" unless the user says so.
- Never open with your company or yourself. The first sentence belongs to them.
- Never stack asks (a call, plus a deck, plus a referral). One.
- Never pad past 90 words. If it will not fit, the value sentence is not sharp enough yet.
- Never reuse the worked example's hook structure verbatim across a list; per-prospect hooks or an honest segment-level angle, not mad-libs personalization.

## Recovery

- No verifiable hook: drop to a role-based pain, stated honestly ("most ops leads at staffing firms tell us...") with no pretend research.
- No offer given and no way to ask: write to the sharpest plausible pain for the role, and mark the draft "assumed offer:" so the user corrects before sending.
- A list, not a person: ask for the shared pain; write one base email with a clearly marked [hook] slot, plus two filled examples so the pattern is unmistakable.
- The prospect already declined once (visible in the CRM): say so and refuse the cold frame; recommend the re-engagement angle that acknowledges the past "no" instead.