# Playbook: Run cold outbound with agents without burning your domain

Mine real calls for language, enrich with signals, write one email per row, and keep deliverability guardrails and a human hand-off in place.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Who it's for** | B2B founders and small agencies who want agents to do the research, writing and reply triage in cold outreach. |
| **People** | Alejandro Arce, Ilya Azovtsev, Shannon Torcato |
| **Confidence** | low to medium (all results self-reported; one source is an architecture outline with no results) |
| **Last verified** | 2026-10-16 |

**Who it's for:** B2B founders and small agencies who want agents to do the research, writing and reply triage in cold outreach.

**Tools these builders use:** Claude Code, YAML rules, Postmark or SendGrid, a warmup tool, HubSpot or Pipedrive, Calendly (Alejandro Arce); Claude, Clay, Jason AI (Reply) (Ilya Azovtsev); Claude Code, Clay, Apollo, Instantly, n8n, Slack, HubSpot, Cal, HeyReach and several enrichment and signal tools (Shannon Torcato).

## The steps

1. **Prove the offer by hand first.** Alejandro's rule: get to a 10%+ reply rate manually before automating.
   *Source: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/))*

2. **Pull the language from real sales calls.** Ilya had Claude analyze 3 discovery calls and extract pain points like "net new is hard" and "inbound hit a ceiling", then write the whole sequence in the prospects' own words.
   *Source: Ilya ([teardown](/teardowns/ilya-azovtsev-claude-outbound-week/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ilya-azovtsev_i-let-claude-run-my-outbound-for-a-week-activity-7424089159763554304-1g9Z))*

3. **Define the ICP and build an enriched list.** Alejandro's Claude Code setup pulls prospects, adds recent news, hiring posts and tech-adoption signals, and validates emails with a catch-all checker, producing a 200-500 row CSV. Ilya scraped the HubSpot Partner Directory and enriched it in Clay. Shannon's list agent tiers accounts in Clay and fills missing contacts through a waterfall of providers.
   *Sources: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/)); Ilya ([teardown](/teardowns/ilya-azovtsev-claude-outbound-week/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ilya-azovtsev_i-let-claude-run-my-outbound-for-a-week-activity-7424089159763554304-1g9Z)); Shannon ([teardown](/teardowns/shannon-torcato-seven-agent-cold-email/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shannon-torcato_i-let-7-ai-agents-run-my-entire-cold-email-activity-7470141779623964672-HJZl))*

4. **Personalize from data, with examples in context.** Alejandro fills a templated structure from the enrichment data with 50+ good and bad examples in context, and anything that reads as forced gets flagged and rewritten.
   *Source: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/))*

5. **Write the follow-up rules down.** Alejandro's YAML: no open in 3 days gets a new subject line; opened but no reply in 5 days gets a value-add email; "not interested" is removed; interested gets a booking link.
   *Source: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/))*

6. **Set deliverability guardrails before sending.** Alejandro uses a dedicated domain, warms up from 10 emails a day over 2-3 weeks, sets SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and pauses automatically if bounces pass 3%. Shannon's deliverability agent warms inboxes, rotates sending accounts and pauses flagged inboxes.
   *Sources: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/)); Shannon ([teardown](/teardowns/shannon-torcato-seven-agent-cold-email/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shannon-torcato_i-let-7-ai-agents-run-my-entire-cold-email-activity-7470141779623964672-HJZl))*

7. **Let the agent run the campaign tool and watch replies.** Ilya's Claude added contacts, launched the sequence in Jason AI (Reply), monitored deliverability and flagged hot leads: "I just showed up to book the calls." Shannon's reply agent classifies each reply by intent and drafts responses with the thread context.
   *Sources: Ilya ([teardown](/teardowns/ilya-azovtsev-claude-outbound-week/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ilya-azovtsev_i-let-claude-run-my-outbound-for-a-week-activity-7424089159763554304-1g9Z)); Shannon ([teardown](/teardowns/shannon-torcato-seven-agent-cold-email/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shannon-torcato_i-let-7-ai-agents-run-my-entire-cold-email-activity-7470141779623964672-HJZl))*

8. **Hand engaged prospects to a person and the CRM.** Alejandro lets a human take over once a prospect engages. Replies create a CRM lead with the campaign source, and anyone who doesn't book within 48 hours gets a nudge.
   *Source: Alejandro ([teardown](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/), [original](https://alejandroarce.com/blog/claude-code-cold-email-automation-b2b/))*

9. **Log wins and losses back into targeting.** Shannon's learning agent logs booked meetings to the CRM, refines targeting by which segments converted and generates new angles from win and loss patterns.
   *Source: Shannon ([teardown](/teardowns/shannon-torcato-seven-agent-cold-email/), [original](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shannon-torcato_i-let-7-ai-agents-run-my-entire-cold-email-activity-7470141779623964672-HJZl))*

**Postby's suggestion:** keep a human reading replies before anything is sent back. Shannon's post says meetings get booked "without me being involved at all" and doesn't say whether drafted replies are reviewed; Alejandro hands engaged prospects to a person. Postby would follow Alejandro's version.

## Human approval points
- Alejandro: a human takes over once a prospect engages.
- Ilya: he booked the calls himself; the post doesn't describe reviewing copy before launch.
- Shannon: none described.

## Common failure points (as the builders report them)
- Alejandro names the two things that kill campaigns: poor personalization and inconsistent follow-up.
- Bounce rate: his automatic pause at 3%.

## Caveats carried over
- Alejandro: client results (450 prospects, 62 replies, 18 calls, 4 deals) are self-reported, **[UNVERIFIED independently]**. Scraping LinkedIn may conflict with LinkedIn's terms; this is his method, not an endorsement.
- Ilya: one LinkedIn post, 60 contacts, one week, no raw data. 17 calls marked "(so far)". The setup is offered via comment-for-DM. X: [UNVERIFIED].
- Shannon: an architecture outline. No results, prompts or configs. Low confidence. X: [UNVERIFIED].
- Not included as a step source: [Tim Yakubson](/teardowns/tim-yakubson-claude-code-clay-outbound/), because his workflow is gated behind a comment and we haven't seen it.

## Examples
- [How Alejandro Arce runs B2B cold email with Claude Code](/teardowns/alejandro-arce-claude-code-cold-email/)
- [How Ilya Azovtsev had Claude run a week of outbound to HubSpot integrators](/teardowns/ilya-azovtsev-claude-outbound-week/)
- [How Shannon Torcato split cold email operations across 7 agents built with Claude Code](/teardowns/shannon-torcato-seven-agent-cold-email/)