setup-questionnaire.md
The intake that turns a client's offer into cold email we can actually write. Fill this in with the client (a call works better than a form) before drafting any copy. The single most valuable answers are in blocks 3, 4, and 5: the buyer's own words, the value you can give them for free, and your real proof. Generic copy almost always traces back to skipping those — and an email with nothing to give traces back to skipping the value question.
How to use it: run through the blocks, capture answers verbatim where possible (especially quotes), and don't pad gaps with guesses. A "we don't know yet" is a finding, not a failure — it tells us what to validate before we send at volume.
1. Company & offer
- In one sentence, what do you sell and who is it for?
- What does the buyer actually get (the outcome), not the feature list?
- What's the offer in this campaign? (book a call, demo, free audit, intro, pilot, content)
- What's the price band / deal size, and is this a single-buyer or committee sale?
2. Who we're targeting (ICP + personas)
- Describe the ideal account: industry, size, region, and any disqualifiers.
- What signals tell us an account is a strong fit vs. a waste of time?
- List each persona we'll message. For each:
- Title(s) and where they sit in the buying process (champion, economic buyer, blocker, end user).
- What they're measured on / what makes them look good internally.
- How much they already understand the problem we solve (unaware to most aware).
3. The problem (voice of customer) — don't skip this
- What's the painful, expensive, or annoying problem we remove? Be concrete.
- How do buyers describe this problem in their own words? Paste real quotes from calls, reviews, support tickets, or sales notes.
- What are they doing about it today (the status quo / workaround we replace)?
- What does it cost them to keep doing nothing? (time, money, risk, missed revenue)
- What's the "trigger moment" when this pain becomes urgent enough to act?
4. Outcomes & the value we can give — don't skip this
- What measurable result do customers get? Give a number or a range if you have one.
- How fast do they see it (time-to-value)?
- What's the "after" state in the buyer's words — what does success feel like for them?
- What can we give this reader for free in the first email — something useful even if they never reply? Pick what we can make most specific:
- An insight: a pattern or shift we see across companies like theirs they may not have connected to their own situation.
- An observation about them: something we can actually notice (job posts, a launch, their docs, a product change) that hands them a useful read on their own situation.
- A benchmark: a real number they can measure themselves against. (Only if it's true.)
- A resource: a teardown, template, checklist, or short guide we can give ungated.
- A mini-audit: a small piece of the work already done for them (three gaps spotted, one example drafted, one workflow mapped).
- Could we do a tiny piece of the work up front to prove competence and give a gift in one move? What would that look like at scale?
5. Proof & differentiation — don't skip this
- Name 2-3 comparable customers we can reference (logos, or "a company like X").
- Best concrete result / case study, with the number. (e.g., "cut onboarding time 40% for [named customer].")
- Why you over the obvious alternative or competitor? One sharp line.
- Any credibility we can borrow: investors, partners, press, certifications, notable team background.
6. Signals / why-now triggers
- What events make outreach timely for this buyer? (funding, hiring, job change, launch, tech install, conference, regulation, content they posted)
- Which of these can we actually detect at scale (Clay, LinkedIn, job boards, news)?
- Any time-sensitive hook for this specific campaign? (event, deadline, season)
7. Objections & landmines
- Top 3 objections / reasons buyers say no or go silent.
- What's not true about us that prospects often assume? (misconceptions to preempt)
- Any topics, claims, or phrasings we must avoid? (legal, brand, compliance, competitor jabs)
8. Sender & sending constraints
- Who is the email from? (founder, AE, the client's name on a warmup domain)
- Is this audience cold, warm/1st-degree, or referred? (changes the whole tone)
- Volume and tooling: how many sends, and on what stack? (Apollo, Clay, HubSpot, Smartlead, Instantly, etc.)
- Deliverability constraints: domain warmth, daily sending limits, link/image rules. (First touches should be link-light and plain-text.)
9. Tone & brand
- How should the sender sound? (formal to casual, expert to peer, dry to playful)
- Any words/phrases the brand always uses, or never uses?
- Sample of writing we should match (a past email, the founder's voice, a doc).
- Formatting rules: no em dashes, short paragraphs, active voice, one CTA.
10. Current state & benchmarks
- What outreach have you run before, and what happened? (reply rate, positive replies, meetings)
- Best and worst performing messages so far — paste them if you have them.
- What's the realistic target for this campaign? (replies, meetings, pipeline)
- How will we measure success, and where does the data live? (CRM, sequencer, spreadsheet)
11. Assets & access
- Links: website, best case study/one-pager, pricing, demo, calendar/booking link.
- Lead list status: do we have the list, or do we need to build it? (and in which tool)
- Who approves copy, and what's the turnaround? (so the cadence doesn't stall on review)
Minimum viable set (if you only get 5 minutes)
- The persona (block 2)
- The problem in their words (block 3)
- One thing we can give them for free in email one (block 4)
- One real proof point with a number (block 5)
- The why-now signal (block 6)
With those five — and whether the audience is cold or warm (block 8) — we can draft a value-first first touch. Everything else makes it sharper and the sequence deeper.