Choose one buyer for one pass. A broad audience produces broad messages and muddled feedback.
Write the customer record before the message
1. Name one buyer
Write the role that owns the workflow and the situation that makes the problem relevant. “Small businesses” is too broad. “The person who reconciles supplier invoices before month-end” is specific enough to investigate, but it still needs evidence from your market.
2. Record one sourced problem observation
Use an exact interview note, support ticket, public complaint, sales email or observable workaround. Save the source location and date beside the observation. Separate what the person said or did from your interpretation.
- Observed: the exact quote, action, artifact or failed handoff.
- Source: where it came from and when you captured it.
- Interpretation: the job or risk you think sits behind it.
3. Turn it into one message hypothesis
Write a message that a recipient can confirm, correct or ignore without sitting through a product pitch.
When [situation] happens, are you currently [observed workaround]? I am looking into a narrower way to [job], and I would like to understand how you handle it now.
Keep only the parts supported by the source. Do not add estimated time saved, customer counts or claims about what similar companies do.
4. Choose one channel test
Use the channel where this buyer already has context for the problem: a direct introduction, a relevant community, a reply to an existing conversation, search-led content or carefully researched outreach. Define the test by learning value and permission, not by a borrowed daily quota.
- Channel: where the buyer can reasonably encounter the message.
- Signal to watch: correction, problem detail, referral, meeting, decline or silence.
- Stop or change rule: what would make the buyer, observation, message or channel unfit.
Keep a learning log
| Date and source | Buyer and observation | Message and channel | What happened | What changes next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Link to the note or artifact | Role, situation and observed problem | Exact message version and route | Reply, correction, action or no response | Keep, revise or reject one assumption |
Do not combine several buyer types, messages and channels in the same pass. If nothing happens, the log should still tell you which assumption to revisit.
