Free GTM Skills / Distribution / Playbook 9
First customers and outbound
The first customers from the people the founder already knows, then a repeatable outbound motion: a verified list that matches the target customer, a sequence buyers answer, reply rules, and a clean handoff into the CRM.
Why it matters
Under ten customers is a sales problem, not a marketing problem. Nobody is finding the company yet, so the company goes and finds them. Warm network first, because it converts; built lists second, because they scale. Outbound fails on the list far more often than on the copy.
Order of operations
- Build the top 100 list from the founder's own network and send the first 20 asks this week.
- Write the list spec from the target customer; build 100 to 300 accounts; a human checks fit on every one.
- Find and verify one to three people per account; capture a cheap personalisation fact each.
- Write a five-touch sequence per segment in the company's voice.
- Set reply rules and sending rules; a person reads every reply.
- Run three weeks, read the numbers by segment and email, keep what worked, change one thing.
- Positive replies become deals in the CRM; everything else stays out.
Skills in this playbook
- Playbook1
- Play6
- Playbook
Outbound (playbook)
Routes cohort definition, copy, signals and reply handling, one cohort a week.
outbound - Play
Top 100 list
Build a list of 100 people who might know a buyer and draft the message to send them.
top-100-list - Play
Outbound list and sequence
Build a prospect list that matches the target customer, verify it, write the cold email and follow-up sequence in the company's voice, set the rules for handling replies, and hand qualified replies into the CRM.
outbound-list-and-sequence - Play
Outbound cohort
Produces the cohort definition (who, why now, the angle, the persona ladder, the size), ranked against the other candidates, and the hand-off to list building and copy.
outbound-cohort - Play
Outbound sequence copy
Produces the full sequence (every touch, subject lines, call notes) for one cohort and persona, from the context messaging and objections, with every proof point cleared.
outbound-sequence-copy - Play
Reply handling
Produces the reply classified, the drafted response or stop action, the CRM update (deal created at the first stage when a demo is booked), and the calendar overflow decision.
reply-handling - Play
Signal to outreach
Produces a resolved, ICP-checked, deduped list of signal leads with the signal attached and the right small sequence for each.
signal-to-outreach