When to use it
Use this cold email sequence template when you're running outbound to a defined persona or segment and need a full cadence, not a single email, and you want each touch to earn attention with a fresh reason rather than guilt-tripping a 'just following up.' It earns its keep when you have enough volume in one segment to justify a reusable frame, and a clear single offer to organize the touches around.
Do NOT generate one sequence for 'everyone', a cadence built for VP of CS and SMB founders at once will be relevant to neither. Build one per persona. And do NOT ship the output as-is: the model produces a frame with personalization gaps you must fill per prospect; an un-personalized sequence sent at scale is just polite spam with five steps instead of one.
A sequence is a series of different reasons to care, spaced over time, not the same email sent five times with escalating desperation. The teams that win at cadence vary the ANGLE (pain, proof, a useful insight, a new stakeholder lens, a graceful break-up), escalate value rather than pressure, and treat the break-up email as a feature because it reliably surfaces people who meant to reply.
The 5-touch cold email sequence template
Five touches, each with a new angle and one ask. Swap the brackets, keep the structure. This is the output shape; the prompt below generates it for your segment.
5-email outbound sequence
TOUCH 1 - Day 1 - The observation
Subject: {{specific trigger, 3-4 words}}
Hi {{first_name}}, {{one true observation about them}}. {{one-line connection to the problem you solve}}.
Ask: worth a 15-min look at how {{peer company}} handled it?
TOUCH 2 - Day 3 - The proof
Subject: how {{peer company}} did it
No pitch. One concrete result a peer got, and the single move that drove it.
Ask: want the 2-line version of how?
TOUCH 3 - Day 6 - The teardown
Subject: {{their process}}, one gap
A specific, useful observation about THEIR approach. Give value with no ask, or a very soft one.
TOUCH 4 - Day 9 - The reframe
Subject: maybe this isn't a priority
Name the status quo honestly: "if {{problem}} isn't costing you enough to fix, ignore me." Give permission to say no.
TOUCH 5 - Day 13 - The close
Subject: closing the loop
One line: "should I stop reaching out, or is this worth a look in {{quarter}}?" Make "not now" easy to send.
RULES
- Never "just bumping this to the top of your inbox."
- One ask per email. A new angle every time.
- Test plan: same list, split the touch-1 subject line, measure reply rate, not opens.The cadence is built so a "no" arrives fast and cleanly. Touch 4 and 5 exist to close the loop, not to wear someone down; that's what keeps the sequence from reading as a nag.
The prompt
Prompt, paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini
You are an outbound expert who designs sequences that get replies without being annoying. Your rule: every touch must earn its place with a NEW angle. You never write a guilt-trip bump ('just following up', 'did you see my last email'), never use hype, and never invent results.
CONTEXT
Number of touches: {{NUMBER_OF_TOUCHES}}
Time window: {{TIME_WINDOW}}
Target persona / segment: {{PERSONA}}
What we do (value prop): {{VALUE_PROP}}
The core pain we solve: {{CORE_PAIN}}
Proof points available (fictitious-OK customers, results, content): {{PROOF_POINTS}}
Desired outcome of the sequence: {{DESIRED_OUTCOME}}
Channel mix (email-only, or email + LinkedIn + call): {{CHANNELS}}
TASK
Design a {{NUMBER_OF_TOUCHES}}-touch sequence over {{TIME_WINDOW}} where each touch uses a distinct angle and one ask.
METHOD
1. Assign each touch a DIFFERENT job before writing: e.g. (1) trigger/pain, (2) give-first useful insight or resource, (3) proof/social proof, (4) a different stakeholder or angle on the problem, (5) graceful break-up. Adapt the mix to the number of touches.
2. Space the touches sensibly across the window, front-load, then widen the gaps.
3. Write each email under 100 words, one idea, one low-friction ask.
4. Mark exactly where the rep must add a prospect-specific line with [PERSONALIZE: what to add here].
5. If CHANNELS includes more than email, insert a LinkedIn or call step where it makes sense and label it.
OUTPUT FORMAT (per touch)
Touch #, Day X, Channel, Job of this touch
Subject:
Body:
[PERSONALIZE: ...]
Then end with:
TEST PLAN: if reply rate is low, what to change first and why (subject lines, touch 1 angle, cadence spacing), 3 concrete experiments in priority order.
CONSTRAINTS
- Each email under 100 words. One idea, one ask.
- No two touches may share the same angle or reuse the same hook. If you find yourself repeating, change the reason to care.
- Banned phrases: 'just following up', 'just checking in', 'circling back', 'bumping this', plus hype words (unlock, leverage, supercharge, seamless, game-changer, revolutionize).
- Use only the proof I gave you. Never fabricate a customer or number.
- Plain, human language at a 7th-8th grade level.
- If CORE_PAIN or PROOF_POINTS is thin, tell me which one and how it weakens the sequence before writing.Run it from the terminal
$# confirm the persona and touch count are set in the prompt
$grep -E 'NUMBER_OF_TOUCHES|PERSONA' prompts/sequence.md
Number of touches: 5
Target persona / segment: VP of Customer Success at growth-stage B2B SaaS
$# build a 5-touch cadence for one persona via the llm CLI
$cat prompts/sequence.md | llm -m claude-sonnet-4-6 | tee out/sequence.txt
Touch 1, Day 1, Email, Job: open on the pain
Subject: scaling onboarding
Body: [PERSONALIZE: reference their funding/hiring] Most CS leaders hit a wall when
onboarding can't keep pace with new logos. We help fix that without adding headcount.
Touch 2, Day 3, LinkedIn connect, Job: low-pressure presence
Note: Enjoyed [their post], working with a few CS leaders on scaling onboarding.
Touch 3, Day 6, Email, Job: give-first
Subject: first-90-day benchmarks
Body: Put together a short benchmark on first-90-day onboarding. Want it?
Touch 4, Day 10, Email, Job: proof + stakeholder angle
Subject: 30% faster, no new hires
Body: A Series C team cut time-to-value ~30% without adding CS headcount.
Touch 5, Day 14, Email, Job: graceful break-up
Subject: should I close this out?
TEST PLAN
1. If opens low: rewrite Touch 1 subject.
2. If replies low: move the benchmark to Touch 2.
3. If meetings low: soften Touch 4 ask to 'a 10-minute look'.
$# five distinct angles, no repeated hooks; fill PERSONALIZE before sending
$
Variables to swap
| Variable | What to put there |
|---|---|
{{NUMBER_OF_TOUCHES}} | How many touches in the sequence (e.g. 4-6) |
{{TIME_WINDOW}} | Over what period to spread them (e.g. 14 days) |
{{PERSONA}} | The single persona or segment you're targeting |
{{VALUE_PROP}} | What you do and the outcome |
{{CORE_PAIN}} | The main problem this audience feels |
{{PROOF_POINTS}} | Results, customers, or content you can reference (fictitious-OK, but real to you) |
{{DESIRED_OUTCOME}} | What a successful sequence produces (e.g. a booked demo) |
{{CHANNELS}} | Email-only, or email + LinkedIn + call |
Worked example
Input
Filled-in example
NUMBER_OF_TOUCHES: 5
TIME_WINDOW: 14 days
PERSONA: VP of Customer Success at growth-stage B2B SaaS
VALUE_PROP: Onboarding platform that speeds time-to-first-value
CORE_PAIN: Onboarding doesn't scale as the team grows; first-90-day churn risk
PROOF_POINTS: A Series C SaaS cut time-to-value by 30%; a short first-90-day onboarding benchmark report
DESIRED_OUTCOME: Book a 30-min demo
CHANNELS: email + LinkedInOutput
What the model returns
Touch 1, Day 1, Email, Job: open on the pain
Subject: scaling onboarding
Body: [PERSONALIZE: reference their recent funding, hiring, or a new tier] Most CS leaders I talk to hit a wall when onboarding can't keep pace with new logos, the team scales but the process doesn't. We help fix that without adding headcount. Worth a quick look?
[PERSONALIZE: one line tying their specific growth signal to onboarding strain]
Touch 2, Day 3, LinkedIn connect, Job: low-pressure presence
Note: Enjoyed [their post / their take on X], working with a few CS leaders on scaling onboarding and thought it'd be useful to connect. No pitch.
[PERSONALIZE: the post or detail you're referencing]
Touch 3, Day 6, Email, Job: give-first
Subject: first-90-day benchmarks
Body: Put together a short benchmark on first-90-day onboarding across growth-stage SaaS, useful even if we never talk. Want me to send it over?
Touch 4, Day 10, Email, Job: proof + stakeholder angle
Subject: 30% faster, no new hires
Body: A Series C team standardized onboarding and cut time-to-value ~30% without adding CS headcount, which also calmed their CFO down on tooling spend. Happy to walk through how in 30 minutes.
[PERSONALIZE: name their likely internal blocker, CFO, RevOps]
Touch 5, Day 14, Email, Job: graceful break-up
Subject: should I close this out?
Body: No worries if the timing's off, want me to circle back next quarter, or is onboarding just not a priority right now?
TEST PLAN
1. If opens are low: rewrite Touch 1 subject, test 'onboarding that scales' vs a question format. Subjects gate everything downstream.
2. If opens are fine but replies are low: move the give-first benchmark to Touch 2, leading with value before any ask often lifts reply rate.
3. If replies come but no meetings: soften the Touch 4 ask from '30 minutes' to 'a 10-minute look' to lower friction at the conversion point.Tips to get more out of it
- The model defaults to repetition, explicitly demand a new REASON to care in each touch, not just new wording. If two touches feel similar, tell it 'touch 3 and 4 are the same angle; make one of them a genuinely different lens.'
- Fill every [PERSONALIZE] tag before sending. The sequence is a frame; the personalization is what makes it land. Sending the frame raw at scale is the fastest way to burn a segment.
- Keep the break-up email, it consistently pulls replies from people who meant to respond, and the 'is this just not a priority?' framing gives them an easy, honest out that often turns into a real answer.
- Match cadence to deal size: enterprise can stretch to 3-4 weeks with wider gaps; SMB needs tighter spacing or the deal goes cold. Tell the model the segment so spacing fits.
- A/B test subject lines first and in isolation, they drive opens, and nothing in the body matters until the email is opened. The built-in TEST PLAN orders experiments for you; run them one at a time.
- For a give-first touch, the resource must be genuinely useful and ungated, or it reads as bait. If you don't have a real asset, drop that touch rather than fake one.
- Reuse the strongest touch as the basis for a single cold email (use the cold-email prompt) when you want a one-off, and reuse a sharp line as an ad hook later.
Related plays
- B2B Cold Email Templates in Your Brand Voice →The brand-voice cold email skill.
- Cold Email Personalization at Scale, From Real Research →Personalize each send from real research.
- Cold email templates by persona →Three short templates per buyer (CFO, CMO, VP of Sales, and thirteen more), written for what that persona is measured on.