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crawford-method

crawford-method

github.com/cold-iqMarketing & growth347 installsUpdated 2w ago
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About crawford-method

crawford-method is a marketing methodology skill for building prospect lists around buyers’ real situations and writing targeted emails. It combines data-based tension heuristics, two message types, and a structured email architecture, without making API calls itself.

Key features

  1. 01Identify buyer situations with data heuristics
  2. 02Choose between PQS and PVP messaging
  3. 03Use the Tension Triangle to find need
  4. 04Apply a seven-part email architecture
  5. 05Build lists around tension, not firmographics

Use cases

  1. 01Plan outreach lists from existing customer situations
  2. 02Turn public data into email insights
  3. 03Write emails for specific buyer situations

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/cold-iq/coldiq-marketplace-skills --skill crawford-method

After installing, type/crawford-methodin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

The Crawford Method

"The list is the message. If you have a good list, you have a good message."

Targeting IS messaging. Build the list on data heuristics that reflect the buyer's real situation, then describe that situation back to them. This skill is methodology; it sources its tension heuristics from ColdIQ endpoints (see callouts) but writes no API calls of its own.

Two message types

  • PQS — Pain-Qualified Segment: 2–5 public heuristics identify prospects in the same painful situation as an existing customer; tell the story of how your customers navigated it. Formula: name the obvious choice → why your customers made the non-obvious choice → the benefit.
  • PVP — Permissionless Value Prop (always superior): synthesize 3–5 public data sources into a non-obvious insight that is independently valuable. Acid test: would the recipient pay to receive this even if they never buy? If yes → PVP. Use PVP whenever you can.

The Tension Triangle

Tension = a specific, data-provable, time-bound situation that makes them need you NOW. Not a single signal — multiple data points pulling against each other.

  • Heuristic 1 — a unique, data-provable characteristic
  • Heuristic 2 — a second characteristic that PULLS AGAINST the first
  • Growth amplifier — funding / headcount / revenue growth that increases the pull
  • Existential data point — the metric that separates good-fit from bad-fit (sweet-spot range)

Source these heuristics from public data via ColdIQ: → GET /v1/signalbase/funding-signals · ? cr · signalbase.funding_signals (unverified) — funding amplifier → POST /v1/limadata/jobs · 2 cr · limadata.jobs — hiring / no-SDR heuristics → POST /v1/limadata/research/ai-search · 0.3 cr · limadata.research.ai_search — filings, regulation, public events → POST /v1/limadata/enrich/company · 1 cr · limadata.enrich.company — growth, tech, firmographic heuristics

7-component email architecture

  1. Visceral emotional opening — a moment they've physically felt, not a fact.
  2. Connection to existing behavior — frame the offer as an extension of what they already do.
  3. The insight (contrarian) — "Most people think X, but it turns out Y." Must pass the recognition + articulation tests.
  4. Social proof / authority (light) — one line, founder credentials not company stats.
  5. Information gap — enough to create curiosity, never enough to answer everything.
  6. Qualification as disqualification — a threshold that excludes non-fits.
  7. Soft CTA (ask for truth, not time) — "Am I close, or is it different at {{companyName}}?" NEVER "Do you have 15 minutes?" / "Book a time."

11 rules (condensed)

Never mention your product in step 1 · write about their situation not your solution · target on events not roles · use Cialdini systematically · create information gaps · use their language · sell against incumbent behavior not competitors · acknowledge multiple solutions exist · one perfect email > ten mediocre · data-driven > surface personalization · quantify the meeting in dollars.

Gold-standard example (PVP — Texada)

Earl, your CAT 365 excavator seems to be not on the move right now.
They just filed a large construction project for 123 Main Street — half a mile from you.
AI says it'll likely need your tool for ~six weeks.
Public rental rates put that at about a $170,000 job.
Here's the foreman, their email, their phone. Hope this was useful.

Independently valuable, no product mention, three public sources synthesized, quantified — the message IS the demo.

The process (zero → finished email)

  1. Understand best customers (call transcripts: what was their situation when they bought?).
  2. Extract tension (H1, H2, growth amplifier, existential data point).
  3. Find the data sources — can you get the heuristics programmatically? (filings, jobs, tech, ad libraries, funding — source via the ColdIQ endpoints above).
  4. Build the list on tension, NOT firmographics.
  5. Write backwards: define the perfect message, then find the data that makes it true.
  6. Choose PQS or PVP. 7. Apply the 7-component architecture. 8. Run the quality checklist.

Anti-patterns

"I noticed" openings · "companies like yours" · "do you have 15 minutes" · features dump · surface personalization (location, mutual connections, LinkedIn posts) · horizontal targeting · over-sequencing (max 2–3 touches, each adding new information).

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