---
name: outreach-themes
description: Turn sales and client call transcripts into an outbound working brief. Extracts the recurring themes buyers actually talk about, writes a one-paragraph thesis, picks a benchmark brand that proves the thesis, builds outreach angles for a target list of named brands, and maps every brand to the theme that fits it best. Use this whenever someone has call recordings, transcripts, discovery notes, or customer interviews and wants outreach angles, account-based messaging, a target-list brief, "what should we say to these accounts," "find the themes in these calls," "build a brand-by-theme map," or "turn these calls into outbound." Use it even when they only paste transcripts and a list of company names and say "do the thing."
---

# Outreach Themes

Buyers tell you what they want in calls. Then everyone goes and writes cold email about something else. This skill closes that gap. Calls go in, a working brief comes out: thesis, themes, benchmark, angles, and a brand-by-theme map the team can actually work from.

## Inputs you need

1. **Transcripts.** Sales calls, discovery calls, client check-ins, customer interviews. Three is a floor. Eight to fifteen is where patterns get honest.
2. **A target list.** Named brands or companies the user wants to reach. Five to twenty-five works. If they give you fifty, ask which fifteen matter most.
3. **What the sender sells.** One or two sentences. If it's missing, infer it from the transcripts and state your inference at the top of the brief so it can be corrected.

If any of the three is missing, ask once, then proceed with what you have and label the gaps.

## The process

### Step 1: Mine the transcripts

Read every transcript fully before writing anything. On the first pass, pull out every moment where a buyer:

- names a problem in their own words
- describes what they tried that didn't work
- explains what success would look like
- reveals a belief about their customer or market
- pushes back on the seller

Keep the buyer's language. "We keep acquiring people who churn at month two" is a theme. "Retention challenges" is a category label and it's useless for outreach.

Then cluster. A theme is a pattern that shows up in at least two calls from different buyers. One buyer's pet peeve is an anecdote, not a theme. Aim for three to five themes. Four is the sweet spot. Six means two of them are the same thing wearing different hats.

For each theme, capture:
- **Name** (two to five words, in the buyer's register, not the seller's)
- **The buyer quote** that best carries it (verbatim, anonymized)
- **The mistake** most brands make about it
- **The counter-move** the sender offers

Read `references/theme-extraction.md` when the transcripts are long, messy, or the themes are refusing to separate.

### Step 2: Write the thesis

One paragraph. Four to six sentences. It names the thing every brand on the list is getting wrong and states the reframe. The test: a stranger on the target list should read it and feel slightly caught.

A thesis is not a value proposition. "We help subscription brands grow" is a value proposition. "Growth is recruiting strangers, and subscription was built for believers" is a thesis. The thesis makes the themes cohere. If a theme doesn't hang off the thesis, either the thesis is too narrow or the theme belongs in a different brief.

Highlight the single sentence that would work as the first line of a cold email. That sentence gets reused everywhere.

### Step 3: Pick the benchmark

Choose one brand (from the target list or from the wider market) that visibly does the thesis right. It becomes the comparison point in every angle: "IM8 does X. You're doing Y." The benchmark should be a brand the targets already respect or envy. Nobody wants to be told they're worse than a company they've never heard of.

Write a short benchmark section: what they do, why it proves the thesis, and one or two observable details (a landing page move, a pricing structure, a retention mechanic) that a target can go verify in five minutes.

If no brand on the list qualifies, say so and pick one from outside it. If the user names one, use theirs.

### Step 4: Build the brand-by-theme map

This is the core artifact. Every brand on the target list gets one row. Every row has:

| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Brand | Name, category, rough size if known |
| Primary theme | The one theme that fits this brand best. One, not two. |
| Secondary theme | Optional. Only if it's a real second fit. |
| Evidence | One observable fact that makes the theme fit. Something from their site, their ads, their pricing, their reviews, a news item. Not a guess. |
| Angle | One or two sentences. What you'd say to this brand, in this theme, against the benchmark. |
| Opener | The first line of the outreach, written out. |

Research each brand before assigning a theme. A theme assigned without evidence is a guess and the reader will know. If web access is available, check the brand's homepage, pricing page, and any recent press. If it isn't, say the row is unverified.

Cap themes at roughly even distribution. If eleven of twelve brands land on the same theme, the themes are wrong, not the brands.

### Step 5: Write the angles

For each theme, write one reusable angle block:

- **Who this is for** (what kind of brand on the list)
- **The observation** (what you noticed about them, template form with a slot for the evidence)
- **The reframe** (the thesis applied to their situation, one line)
- **The benchmark contrast** (what the benchmark does instead)
- **The ask** (one specific next step, small)

The per-brand opener in the map is this block collapsed to one sentence with the evidence filled in.

### Step 6: Account facts

Close the brief with a facts sheet for the target list: founded, estimated revenue, model (subscription, retail, D2C, hybrid), platform if visible, funding if known, anything you saw that would change the angle. Mark every unverified item. This section exists so the person doing outreach doesn't have to re-research.

## Output format

Deliver a single working brief with these sections, in this order:

1. **Header**: sender name, "Outbound Working Brief," and a headline that is the thesis compressed to five to eight words in all caps
2. **The Thesis**
3. **The Themes** (three to five, each with name, buyer quote, mistake, counter-move)
4. **The Benchmark**
5. **Brand × Theme Map** (the table)
6. **Angles** (one block per theme)
7. **Account Facts**

Default to a designed HTML page if the environment can render one, otherwise Markdown. See `references/brief-format.md` for the layout and the writing rules that keep this from reading like a consultant's deck.

## Writing rules

- Buyer language beats category language every time.
- No em dashes. Commas or parentheses.
- Every sentence has a subject and a verb.
- Do not announce a point before making it. No "Here's the thing." Just say the thing.
- Contractions are fine. Hedging is not. If you don't know, mark it unverified and move on.
- Angles are sharp, not rude. The reader should feel seen, not insulted.

## What good looks like

The brief passes when a salesperson who never heard the calls can pick any brand on the map, read the row, and send a credible first email in under ten minutes. If they'd still need to go research the brand or figure out what to say, the map isn't done.