psp

PSP — Pain Signal Profile Builder

A Pain Signal Profile is the link from a public signal (something the prospect verifiably did) to the felt operational pain that signal implies. It's the foundation underneath cold email, outbound audits, EVPs, content strategy, and sales conversations in the JMC framework.

Start here — every invocation

Scoring something pasted needs no setup. If the operator handed you a line, post, draft, or file to score, run the scorer on it first and report the result; missing config only means some checks are skipped, so say which. Offer setup afterwards as the next step. Check whether files exist with Read or Glob, not a shell command.

1. Read brand-config.json and SOUL.md from the project root. Both are shared by every pack in the suite; this pack owns only psp_drafts, psp, signal_sources, research_cadence, and its own sections of SOUL.md.
2. Either missing, or operator/icp empty → run the setup mode first, whatever was asked (scoring a pasted PSP is the exception above). Do not draft a PSP without both files (see AGENTS.md).
3. Route by $ARGUMENTS. If it names a mode, go straight to it. If it is empty, run status. Otherwise match the request to a row.
4. Read the mode file with the Read tool and follow it.

Moved in 0.6: the old sub-skills (psp-kickoff, psp-onboarding, psp-construct, psp-signal-hunt) are these modes. Type /psp:psp <mode>.

Files this pack writes in the operator's project: brand-config.json and SOUL.md at the root (shared), and the PSP doc at gtm/psp.md. Create gtm/ if it is missing.

Validate

python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/score_psp.py --file gtm/psp.md   # markdown PSP doc
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/score_psp.py --file brand-config.json --json-path psp_drafts.primary
python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/score_psp.py --file brand-config.json --json-path psp   # published block

${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} is the plugin's install folder; the scorer sits in its scripts/. On a host that doesn't expand the variable (plain-skills install), use scripts/score_psp.py from the pack root. The scorer is stdlib Python — no network, no key. Add --json for one JSON object.

Exit 0 means operational: 70+, the signal is ≤30 days old, and the pain uses one of the buyer's vocabulary phrases. Exit 1 means fix the flagged axes first: every reason prints as - what is wrong → what to change. Show the operator every line; do not round a 69 up.

The artifact is one pain brief: the pain sentence in the buyer's words, plus the phrase lifted from them. A passing run prints it under ## Pain brief with Buyer phrase:. A persona table (title, company, cares-about, challenge) is refused with persona has no pain in the buyer's language; a high score whose pain uses none of their phrases is refused with pain is not in the buyer's language. Both exit 1.

The core stance

A PSP is not an ICP, persona, or demographic. Those describe who the buyer is. A PSP describes:

1. What the buyer just did (signal — public, recent, verifiable)
2. What that signal implies about their operational reality (pain)
3. Why now the pain is acute (timing)
4. Who feels the pain most within the company (role)
5. What language they use about it internally (vocabulary)

If you can't fill in all five, you don't have a PSP yet.

The framework

Signal      →  Pain          →  Timing       →  Role          →  Vocabulary
(verifiable    (operational    (why now is    (who feels it    (their words,
 thing they    consequence)    acute)          most)            not yours)
 did)

Component 1: Signal

A signal is something the prospect (or their company) did publicly, recently, and verifiably.

Good signals:

• Just posted a job for <role> on LinkedIn (≤30 days)
• Just announced funding (Series A/B/C, ≤30 days)
• Just shipped a feature / product / pricing change (≤30 days)
• Just hired / promoted a relevant exec (≤30 days)
• Just changed website positioning or hero (≤14 days)
• Just appeared on a relevant podcast / conference / panel
• Just published a content piece on the topic

Not signals:

• "Series B company" (state, not action)
• "VP of Marketing" (role, not action)
• "Growing fast" (vague, not verifiable)

Component 2: Pain

The pain is what the signal implies about the prospect's day-to-day operational reality. It is always phrased as a thing the operator feels, not a thing you sell.

Examples (signal → pain mapping):

Component 3: Timing — why now is acute

The same pain can exist for years; what makes it actionable now? Most buyer movement happens in a 90-day window after one of three triggers:

• A new exec joins (90-day plan in motion)
• A budget cycle opens (Q4 planning, fiscal new year)
• An obvious failure ships (missed quarter, churn spike, launch flop)

Name which trigger is in play. If none, the PSP isn't time-anchored and outreach will fall flat.

Component 4: Role

Within the company, who feels the pain most acutely? Not who makes the decision — who feels the pain. Often these differ.

• The CMO feels missed-quarter pain
• The Demand Gen Lead feels pipeline-gap pain
• The CRO feels CAC-payback pain
• The COO feels ops-scaling pain

Outreach lands when it reaches the person who feels the pain, even if the buying decision routes elsewhere.

Component 5: Vocabulary

What language do they use about this pain in private — Slack, internal docs, hiring posts, AMA Qs? You need their words, not your category words.

• Don't say "demand generation challenges" → they say "pipeline gap"
• Don't say "buyer enablement" → they say "deals stalling"
• Don't say "GTM efficiency" → they say "we're burning cash"
• Don't say "ICP fit" → they say "we keep closing wrong-fit logos"

The fastest way to find the vocabulary: read their job posts, their LinkedIn comments, their team's public AMA responses.

Finish every run with the next step

When a mode ends well (a PSP scores exit 0, or the psp block is published), say the next step in one line: Next: /evp:evp to write the line for this pain. If evp is not installed: /plugin install evp@gtm-operator-skills. On exit 1, the next step is the fix lines, then score again.

Works with the suite

This is step 1 of the GTM operator suite (/plugin marketplace add cmj-hub/gtm-operator-skills).

• Reads: operator and icp from brand-config.json if present (/gtm:setup fills them once for the suite).
• Writes: psp_drafts, signal_sources, research_cadence, and, once the operator locks a primary PSP, the psp block (signal_anchors, primary_pain, timing_trigger, felt_pain_role, vocabulary). Merge at the field level; never overwrite another pack's keys.
• Before this: /gtm:setup once, when operator or icp is empty. Otherwise nothing.
• After this: evp (/evp:evp) to write the line for this pain; prospect-list (/prospect-list:who-to-contact) to find who shows the signal this week; pricing (/pricing:pricing) when price is the open question.

If a companion pack is not installed, name it and its install line (/plugin install <name>@gtm-operator-skills); do not do its job inline.

Go deeper: the JMC Pain Signal Profiles course (methodology) and Cold Email & Outreach Craft course (sequence design).

Free hosted version

The same job runs in a browser, no install and no key: Pain Signal Profile Extractor