Course resource
Cold Pitch Script
Reaching people who have not heard of you, without becoming the thing everyone deletes.
The structure
Four parts, in this order. Built on PCTC — persona, context, task, constraints — applied to a conversation rather than a prompt.
- The specific observation. Something real about them, that took research.
- The connection. Why that creates a problem you happen to solve.
- The proof. One concrete result, with a number.
- The small ask. Something that costs them under five minutes.
The script
[OBSERVATION — one sentence, specific to them]
[CONNECTION — one sentence linking it to a cost or friction]
[PROOF — one sentence with a real number from real work]
[ASK — small, specific, easy to decline]
Worked example:
You're hiring a third ops coordinator, and your careers page says the role is mostly "processing incoming requests and routing them".
That's usually the point where routing starts eating a full day a week across the team.
I built a triage workflow for a similar-sized team that cut their median response time from four hours to twenty-five minutes, without adding headcount.
Worth a fifteen-minute call to see whether the same shape fits? If not, no problem — I'll leave it there.
Under 90 words. Every sentence does one job.
The research step first
Here is what I found about [COMPANY] — their site, job ads, recent posts:
[PASTE]
1. What is changing for them right now?
2. What problem does that plausibly create?
3. Which of my services connects to it?
4. What is the single most specific thing I could reference to show
I actually looked?
Use only what I pasted. If there is no genuine angle here, say so rather
than inventing one.
That last instruction is the important one. If there is no real reason to contact them, do not. The absence of an angle is information — move to the next prospect.
The generation prompt
Write a cold outreach message to [PERSON, ROLE] at [COMPANY].
Specific observation: [FROM RESEARCH]
Problem it creates: [YOUR READ]
My relevant result: [REAL NUMBER FROM YOUR WIN LOG]
The ask: [FIFTEEN-MINUTE CALL / A REPLY / AN INTRODUCTION]
Rules:
- Open with the observation, not with me
- Under 90 words
- One ask, and make it easy to decline
- No "I hope this finds you well", "I wanted to reach out", "quick question"
- Do not compliment them generically
- Do not invent any result — use only the number I gave you
What kills a cold pitch
Generic opening. "I came across your company" means you did not.
Leading with yourself. The first sentence is about them or it is deleted.
No number. "I help businesses save time" is unfalsifiable and reads as nothing.
A big ask. "Do you have 30 minutes to discuss your AI strategy?" is a meeting they have to justify. Fifteen minutes to look at one specific thing is not.
Fake personalisation. Wrong details are worse than none. Verify every fact.
No easy out. Making it hard to say no makes it easier to say nothing.
The follow-up sequence
Most replies come from follow-ups. Most people send one message.
| Day | Message | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | The pitch | 90 words |
| 4 | New angle — a relevant example, not a bump | 60 words |
| 11 | Something useful with no ask attached | 80 words |
| 21 | The easy out | 50 words |
| — | Stop |
The easy out:
Guessing this isn't a priority right now — completely fine. I'll stop here. If it becomes relevant later, you know where I am.
This gets more replies than any amount of persistence, and the replies are honest.
Then stop
Four messages. Then genuinely stop. Add them to a list and contact them only when something actually changes — they announce something, they hire for something relevant, they post about the problem.
Continuing past four converts a prospect into someone who will never reply to you.
Compliance
- Their contact details were obtained legitimately
- B2B cold outreach is permitted in their jurisdiction and mine
- There is a clear way to opt out, and I honour it immediately
- I am identifiable — real name, real business
- I am not using a scraped or purchased list
Rules differ by country and are stricter for individuals than for businesses. Check before you start, not after a complaint.
Tracking
| Sent | Replies | Positive | Calls | Won | What worked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Track reply rate, not open rate. Opens are unreliable and measure nothing you care about.
A realistic benchmark for well-researched, genuinely specific outreach is a 10–20% reply rate. If you are below 5%, the problem is relevance, not volume — and sending more will make it worse.