B2B Outbound Prospecting

Use this skill only after applying the 00-email-marketing-guardrails skill (../00-email-marketing-guardrails/SKILL.md).

What and why

B2B outbound is direct commercial outreach to a business contact; it is not automatically permission-based and must pass jurisdiction-specific legal and platform checks before use. [ICO-03][FTC-01]

When and where

• Determine whether the address belongs to a corporate subscriber or an identifiable individual and document the lawful basis, source, purpose, and jurisdiction before sending. [ICO-03][ICO-04]
• Do not treat CAN-SPAM compliance as proof that outreach is lawful everywhere, and do not use bought, scraped, or unverifiable lists. [FTC-01][ICO-04][MC-LISTS-01]
• Use a real person or clearly identified business sender, an accurate subject, and a functioning reply path. [FTC-01]

How

• Segment narrowly by industry, role, company context, and a verified business trigger; explain why the message is relevant to that recipient. [HUB-B2B-01]
• Lead with a concrete problem, useful observation, or resource, then ask for one low-friction next step; do not manufacture familiarity or use deceptive Re:/Fwd: framing. [FTC-01][HUB-B2B-01]
• Use a small number of value-adding follow-ups, with two to five as a broad ceiling to test rather than a mandate; stop immediately on reply, objection, opt-out, or ineligibility. [MC-FOLLOW-01][ICO-03]
• Include a clear opt-out and maintain a do-not-contact list even where corporate-email rules are less strict. [ICO-01][ICO-03][FTC-01]
• Measure positive reply rate, meetings, qualified opportunities, pipeline sourced/influenced, deal velocity, opt-outs, complaints, and domain reputation. [HUB-B2B-01][GMAIL-03]