For those who don't know how to sell yet, my honest advice:

  1. Learn.
  2. While you're learning, have a nascent sales flow always running in the background.

This playbook is the deep dive on point 2. Here's the four-part setup I've put together for Other Shapes while I'm learning the conversion side properly.

I'm not there yet on the selling skill itself. Books, calls, coaching, that's the work in front of me this year. But I needed pipeline in the meantime, so I built it.

<aside> 💡 Sales is two games: volume and conversion. Get the volume running first so the skill can catch up while the inbox starts filling. The two tracks grow in parallel.

</aside>

You're not meant to copy all four. I started with one, added the next a week later, and the whole engine took me about a month to assemble.

Below is the actual setup, including the templates I'm sending right now.

1. Templated cold email

Every morning, 30 cold emails go out from me to small agencies that match my ideal customer profile. Same message every time, with only the first name and company name swapped in. No per-lead research. The work gets done by volume and clarity rather than bespoke wording.

The message is light: who I am, what I build, a specific outcome, and a soft ask for 15 minutes. Anyone interested replies. The rest cost me nothing.

My opener:

Subject: quick one, {{firstName}}

Hey {{firstName}},

I build small AI agents that handle the repetitive work for businesses. Things like lead generation, inbox replies, content, or anything specific you'd want automated. Most clients save 5-15 hours a week.

Worth a 15-min call to see if it'd help at {{companyName}}?

Jermaine

My follow-up, three days later:

Hey {{firstName}},

Bumping this up. Happy to send a demo if easier than a call.

Jermaine

<aside> ⚠️ Don't send templated cold from your main inbox. A spam complaint can blacklist your real domain. I set up a separate sending email and warmed it for a couple of weeks before sending anything live.

</aside>

Tools I use: