/playbook-warm-intros

name: playbook-warm-intros
description: Build prospect lists where the prospect is already one hop from the client, and write the line that says so. Seven members, each with its own source. Current-customer alumni is the priority member - everyone who ever worked at one of the client's customers or case-study companies and has since moved on. Triggers on "warm intro", "who do we know at that account", "they used to work at our customer", "alumni of our case study company", "shared investor angle", "who is in the same city as our rep", "did they visit our site". Outputs warm_intro_line plus a per-member evidence column.

Playbook: Warm Intros

> All rules here are best practice, not law. Override any of them when the campaign calls for it; note the best practice once and move on.

**Use when:** the campaign's whole premise is that the prospect is **already one hop from the client**, and you need both the list and the line. The strongest version, and the one to build first, is *"you used to work at a company that is now our client's customer"*.

**Do not use when:** you want a second contact at an account you already email (`playbook-name-to-other-prospects`), people who engaged with a competitor's or customer's posts (`playbook-linkedin-engagement`), or companies similar to a seed set (`playbook-lookalikes`).

**One-line output:** `warm_intro_line = "you came up through Coca-Cola, who we work with now"`, rendering as `Noticed you came up through Coca-Cola, who we work with now.`

⚠️ Status: sources probed, no line graded

**This is the least proven playbook in the library, and it is written that way deliberately.**

• **Member 2's source probe passed** — 20/20 rows carried a dated matched past experience, a profile

URL and a city, and **15/20 had moved on.**

• **Member 5's source probe passed** — the investor filter returns a real result count.
• **No member has produced a graded `warm_intro_line`.**

**Everything below §3 is a build spec, not a measured path.** Treat the coverage and quality claims as unverified until you run one.

1. A family, not one playbook

A warm-intro signal is any evidence that the prospect is already one hop from the client, so email 1 can lean on a real connection instead of a cold pitch.

**Seven members share the copy shape `warm_intro_line`. They do not share a data source.** So this is one routing table plus one build recipe per member.

| # | Member | What it means | Status | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | **same-company alumni** | Everyone who **ever** worked at the case-study company and has since moved on | live, same build as 2 | | 2 | **current-customer alumni** | The prospect used to work at one of the client's **current customers** | **live, top priority, build this first** | | 3 | engagement overlap | The prospect engages with the same content the client's world does | live, but **routed to `playbook-linkedin-engagement`** | | 4 | same metro | The prospect sits in the same city as the client, a named rep, or an upcoming trip | live | | 5 | shared investor or advisor | A common investor, board member or advisor links the two companies | live | | — | ~~mutual connection~~ | A first-degree connection in common | **deleted. Do not re-add it, do not prototype it** | | 7 | event attendee | Both attended, spoke at or sponsored the same event | live as a **custom scrape every time. There is no reusable recipe and there will not be one** | | 8 | website visitor | The prospect's company already visited the client's site | live as a **per-client toggle**, not a standing integration |

Why member 1 was reframed, and why it matters

Member 1 originally meant *"overlapped in time with someone on the client's team"*. **That list is always too small, and it never once got run.**

Reframed, it means **everyone who ever worked at the case-study company and has since moved on** — which is a large, buildable list from the same source as member 2.

**The general lesson: a warm-intro definition that requires a time overlap between two specific people produces a list too small to campaign on.** Widen to "worked there at all, and left" and the same data source suddenly supports a real segment.

2. Output contract

| Field | Type | Example | Null? | |---|---|---|---| | `warm_intro_line` | string | `you came up through Coca-Cola, who we work with now` | yes, `""` | | `warm_intro_member` | enum | `current_customer_alumni` | no | | `warm_intro_evidence` | string, **QA only** | `Coca-Cola, Brand Manager, 2018-2021` | yes |

**Abstain value:** `""`.

**Keep the member field.** Seven members share one copy shape, and without it you cannot tell later which angle actually produced replies — which is the only way this family gets narrowed to the two or three members worth keeping.

⛔ Never name a real third party in copy without permission

The line says *"who we work with now"*, not *"we work with Coca-Cola"* — **unless the client has explicitly approved naming that customer.**

Naming a client's customer in cold email is the client's decision, not yours, and it is the fastest way to turn a clever campaign into an awkward phone call. **Default to the unnamed form.**

Note this is the same posture `playbook-lookalikes` takes with case-study companies, for the same reason.

3. Build member 2 first

The source is a **people search with a past-company filter** set to the client's customer or case-study companies.

What the probe confirmed on 20 rows:

• a **dated** matched past experience,
• a profile URL,
• a city,
• and **15 of 20 had moved on** — which is the population you actually want.

That last number is the one to plan from. **Roughly three quarters of "ever worked there" is "worked there and left"**, and the rest are current employees who must be excluded (they are the customer's staff, not prospects).

The exclusions this family needs

Inherit them from `playbook-linkedin-engagement`, because the shape is identical:

• **Drop anyone currently em