The 15-Minute Prospect Audit: Check Before You Cold Email
PitchPilotMost cold emails fail before the send button: the sender knows nothing about the prospect that couldn't be copied from a template. This is the exact 15-minute audit we run before writing a single line.
Minute 0-3: what changed in their world
Google the company name plus the current month. You are looking for one citable event from the last 90 days: a funding round, a product launch, a new office, a key hire, a partnership. One sentence in your email that references this event lifts reply rates more than any subject-line trick, because it proves the email was written today, for them.
Minute 3-6: what they are saying themselves
Check the founder's or decision-maker's recent posts (LinkedIn, X, a company blog). Quote or paraphrase one specific claim they made. "You mentioned your SDR team spends Mondays building lists" beats "I loved your recent post" every time. Generic praise reads as automation; specific quotes read as a human who read the thing.
Minute 6-9: are they even hiring for your problem?
Open their careers page. A company hiring an SDR, a sales rep, or a growth marketer is literally announcing an outreach problem. If there is no such opening and no obvious growth motion, your pitch lands on a desk with no budget line for it.
Minute 9-12: verify the mailbox before you send
- Find the email pattern from public addresses on their site (press@, careers@) - most companies use firstname@ or first.last@. Send to the pattern that actually exists, never guess.
- Never send to info@, sales@, support@ or hello@ as a first touch. These are spam-trap honey pots; your sender reputation pays for that mistake.
- Check the domain has working MX records (a 10-second dig). Dead domain = dead lead, and a bounce from it dents your deliverability.
Minute 12-15: the 3-facts test
Before writing the email, write down three facts about the prospect that are not on their homepage. If you cannot produce three, you have not qualified the lead - you have found a name. Emails without these facts are the ones that get deleted.
Bonus: check yourself before the sequence starts
Your own domain matters as much as their inbox. Verify your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records before the first send of any sequence - we keep a free 2026 deliverability checklist for exactly this: https://telegra.ph/Cold-Email-Deliverability-Checklist-2026-Spam-Filters-SPF-DKIM-DMARC-09-02
Running this audit by hand works, but it eats an hour per ten prospects. The PitchPilot AI Outreach Kit ($19, instant download) ships 50 prompts that automate the research steps above, 15 fill-in templates and 4 full sequences for founders, freelancers and agencies - a plug-and-play system, no subscription. Also on itch.io.