prospect-research-to-cadence

<objective> Automate the full prospect research → outreach pipeline. Takes a company name, domain, or contact and produces enriched firmographics, personalized multi-touch email sequences, call scripts with MEDDIC hooks, and optionally loads contacts into Apollo sequences — all in one workflow. Draft + approve mode: research and drafts are generated, then paused for Tim's approval before loading sequences. </objective>

<quick_start> Single prospect: "research prospect Baylor University" → enriches org + decision-makers → drafts personalized outreach → presents for approval → loads to Apollo sequence

Batch mode: "build cadence for these 5 companies: [list]" → runs pipeline for each → presents batch draft → loads approved contacts

Trigger phrases:

"research prospect [company/domain]"
"build cadence for [company]"
"outreach for [company]"
"research-to-cadence [company]"
"enrich and sequence [list]"
"new prospect batch" </quick_start>

<success_criteria>

Company enriched with firmographics, tech stack, news, and Epiphan use case angle
3-5 ATL decision-maker contacts identified per approved title patterns (VP/Director/Dean/Chief/Provost = economic buyers; Managers flagged as GRAY for manual review)
Personalized 3-touch email sequence drafted per contact
Call script with MEDDIC discovery hooks generated
Draft presented for Tim's approval BEFORE any sequence loading
On approval: contacts created in Apollo + added to specified sequence
Golden Rules exclusions enforced (no customers, no channel, no product-usage contacts) </success_criteria>

Pipeline Stages

INPUT                    RESEARCH                 DRAFT                    APPROVE              LOAD
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Company/Domain    →  Apollo Org Enrich     →  Email Sequences    →  Tim Reviews     →  Apollo Sequence
                  →  Apollo People Search  →  Call Scripts       →  Approves/Edits  →  Contact Create
                  →  Epiphan CRM Check     →  ICP Score          →                  →  Add to Cadence
                  →  Web Research          →  Pain Hypothesis    →                  →

Stage 1: Research (Tools Used)

1a. Company Intelligence

Use these MCP tools in parallel:

Tool	Purpose	Key Data
`apollo_organizations_enrich`	Firmographics	Industry, size, revenue, tech stack
`apollo_organizations_job_postings`	Hiring signals	AV/IT roles = buying signal
`hubspot_search_companies`	Existing relationship check	Deals, lifecycle stage
`crm_search_customers`	Epiphan CRM customer match	Device count, orders, channel flag
`analytics_search_by_email`	Device registration lookup	Registered devices by contact email
Web search	Recent news	Funding, expansion, leadership changes

1a-bis. Clay Enrichment (Waterfall)

For companies/contacts where Apollo data is incomplete (missing phone, tech stack, or funding data):

Tool	Purpose	Key Data
`find-and-enrich-contacts-at-company` (Clay)	Deep contact enrichment	Phone waterfall, social profiles, employment history
`add-contact-data-points` (Clay)	Append missing data points	Phone verification, org chart depth
`find-and-enrich-company` (Clay)	Company intelligence	Technographics, hiring signals, funding

Clay acts as a waterfall fallback — it aggregates 50+ data providers. Use it when Apollo returns incomplete results, especially for phone numbers.

1b. Golden Rules Filter

STOP and skip if ANY of these are true:

```
lifecyclestage = 'customer'
```
in HubSpot
```
first_conversion
```
contains 'Pearl', 'setup', 'Connect', 'signup'
Company
```
device_count >= 1
```
in Epiphan CRM
```
engagement_overview
```
contains product usage
```
is_channel = true
```
```
hubspot_owner_id
```
IN ('82625923', '423155215', '190030668') — AEs: Lex Evans, Ron Epstein, Phillip Sandler → 90-Day Stale Exception: If
```
hs_lastmodifieddate
```
> 90 days ago → SURFACE as
```
STALE AE LEAD
```
with ATL/BTL tier + deal value. Tim reviews to re-engage, push to demo, or help close. → Ron Epstein: all leads. Lex & Phil: NA only. <90 days → still exclude.

OPERATING PRINCIPLE: Tim is NET-NEW first, but can re-engage STALE AE leads (90+ days inactive) to recover pipeline value.

1c. Contact Discovery

Use

apollo_mixed_people_api_search

with filters:

Titles (ATL-only): VP, Director, Dean, CIO, CTO, CFO, Provost, Superintendent, Court Administrator, City Manager, Senior Pastor
Gray Zone Titles (flag for review): Manager (AV/Facilities/IT) — include ONLY if Apollo confirms reports to Director+ AND has delegated budget >$25K
Exclude (NEVER ATL): Warehouse Manager, Network Manager, Systems Administrator, AV Technician, Graphic Design Instructor, Program Administrator, Web Designer, Classroom Support, Lab Coordinator, Maintenance, Building Engineer, Multimedia Services Manager, Video Production Specialist, Streaming Crew
Seniority: director, vp, c_suite
Departments: IT, engineering, operations, education
Limit: 3-5 contacts per company

For each contact, run

apollo_people_match

to get verified email + phone.

ATL/BTL Classification (applied to each discovered contact)

Classify each contact using approved title patterns (CLAUDE.md § ATL/BTL Classification v1.0):

ATL: Chief, VP, Director, Dean, Provost, Superintendent, Court Administrator, City Manager, Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor
BTL: Technician, Specialist, Coordinator, Support, Administrator (Systems/Network/Database), Engineer (AV/Network/Systems), Operator, Instructor/Professor/Faculty, Designer, Assistant, Clerk (non-Court Admin), Volunteer, Intern, Student, Resident, Help Desk
NEVER ATL: Warehouse Manager, Network Manager, Systems Administrator, AV Technician, Graphic Design Instructor, Program Administrator, Web Designer, Classroom Support, Lab Coordinator, Maintenance, Building Engineer, Multimedia Services Manager, Video Production Specialist, Streaming Crew
GRAY: Manager (AV/Facilities/IT) — ATL only if reports to Director+ AND has delegated budget >$25K. Flag for Tim's manual review before sequence load

Tag each contact:

atl_btl_tier = 'ATL' | 'BTL' | 'GRAY'

Only ATL contacts are auto-approved for sequence loading. GRAY contacts require Tim's explicit approval. BTL contacts are deprioritized (included in batch but called last).

For contacts where

apollo_people_match

returns no phone number, fall back to Clay's

find-and-enrich-contacts-at-company

for phone waterfall.

Phone Verification Priority

ALWAYS attempt phone verification. Tim needs 50+ daily dials. Every contact loaded into a sequence MUST have a verified phone number. Priority order: Apollo phone → Clay waterfall → skip if no phone found (flag for manual research).

1d. ICP Scoring

Score the prospect using Tim's ICP verticals:

Vertical	Score
Higher Ed	90
Courts/Legal	85
Government	80
Corporate AV	80
Healthcare	75
Houses of Worship	70
K-12	65

Boost +5 for: hiring AV roles, recent facility expansion, CMS mentioned in tech stack Boost +10 for: Extron/Matrox replacement signal (competitors exited market)

Stage 2: Draft Outreach

Email Sequence (3-touch)

Load

reference/email-templates.md

for templates. Customize with:

Touch 1 (Day 0): Pain-forward, reference specific news/signal, single CTA (15-min call)
Touch 2 (Day 3): Value prop with peer social proof (similar vertical), ask different question
Touch 3 (Day 7): Breakup email with resource offer (case study or guide)

Rules:

Under 100 words per email
No "I hope this finds you well"
Lead with THEIR problem, not Epiphan features
Reference a specific trigger (job posting, news, tech stack gap)
CTA = specific time ask ("15 minutes this Thursday?")

Call Script

Generate MEDDIC-structured call script:

OPENER (15 sec): Reference email + trigger signal
PAIN PROBE (60 sec): "What's your current setup for [use case]?"
METRICS: "How are you measuring [quality/uptime/cost]?"
ECONOMIC BUYER: "Who else would need to sign off?"
DECISION CRITERIA: "What would you evaluate?"
CHAMPION TEST: "If this made sense, would you be open to a quick demo?"

Deliverable Format

Present draft as structured output:

═══════════════════════════════════════════
PROSPECT RESEARCH: [Company Name]
ICP Score: [XX/100] | Vertical: [vertical]
═══════════════════════════════════════════

COMPANY INTEL:
- Industry: [...]
- Size: [...] employees | Revenue: [...]
- Tech stack: [...]
- Trigger signal: [...]
- Epiphan angle: [...]

CONTACTS (ready for sequence):
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. [Name] — [Title] [ATL/GRAY/BTL]       │
│    Email: [...] | Phone: [...]           │
│    LinkedIn: [...]                        │
│    Personalization hook: [...]            │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

EMAIL SEQUENCE:
Touch 1: [subject] → [body]
Touch 2: [subject] → [body]
Touch 3: [subject] → [body]

CALL SCRIPT:
[MEDDIC-structured script]

═══════════════════════════════════════════
APPROVE? (y/edit/skip)
═══════════════════════════════════════════

Stage 3: Approve

Present draft to Tim using AskUserQuestion tool
Options: "Approve & Load", "Edit first", "Skip this prospect"
If edit: Tim provides changes, re-draft, re-present

Stage 4: Load to Apollo Sequence

On approval:

Create contacts in Apollo via
```
apollo_contacts_create
```
:
- first_name, last_name, email, organization_name, title
Find target sequence via
```
apollo_emailer_campaigns_search
```
:
- Search by sequence name Tim specifies (or default active sequence)
Add to sequence via
```
apollo_emailer_campaigns_add_contact_ids
```
:
- Pass contact IDs + sequence ID
- Confirm enrollment count
Optional: Create Gmail draft via
```
gmail_create_draft
```
:
- For high-ICP prospects (score 80+), also create a direct Gmail draft

</workflow> <dependencies> ## Required MCP Tools - **Apollo MCP:** organizations_enrich, organizations_job_postings, mixed_people_api_search, people_match, contacts_create, emailer_campaigns_search, emailer_campaigns_add_contact_ids, email_accounts_index (resolve `send_email_from_email_account_id` when loading contacts into sequences) - **Clay MCP:** find-and-enrich-contacts-at-company, find-and-enrich-company, add-contact-data-points (waterfall enrichment fallback for phone numbers and deep firmographics) - **Epiphan CRM MCP:** crm_search_customers, analytics_search_by_email, hubspot_search_companies, hubspot_search_contacts - **Gmail MCP:** gmail_create_draft (for high-ICP direct outreach) - **Web Search:** For news, trigger signals

Sibling Skills Referenced

```
sales-revenue-skill
```
— Email templates, lead scoring tiers, MEDDIC framework
```
hubspot-revops-skill
```
— Golden Rules filter logic, HubSpot query patterns
```
research-skill
```
— Competitive intelligence, firmographic research patterns
```
CLAUDE.md § ATL/BTL Classification v1.0
```
— Approved title keyword patterns for ATL/BTL/Gray classification (2026-03-17) </dependencies>

Emit Outcome Sidecar

As the final step, write to

~/.claude/skill-analytics/last-outcome-prospect-research-to-cadence.json

json

{"ts":"[UTC ISO8601]","skill":"prospect-research-to-cadence","version":"1.0.0","variant":"default",
 "status":"[success|partial|error]","runtime_ms":[estimated ms from start],
 "metrics":{"prospects_researched":[n],"emails_drafted":[n],"sequences_loaded":[n],"atl_count":[n],"icp_avg_score":[n]},
 "error":null,"session_id":"[YYYY-MM-DD]"}

Use status "partial" if some stages failed but results were produced. Use "error" only if no output was generated.