The pre-send checklist in Stage 1

Most bad first messages fail on the same few mistakes. They open with the seller. They chase. They leave a bracket nobody filled in. They run long. A senior buyer spots any of these in two seconds and stops reading.

Stage 1 checks every drafted message for them before it goes out.

What it checks

The checklist runs on each message to a prospect and returns plain-English notes. Five things trip it.

A sentence that opens with I, We, Me, My or Our, or a contraction like I'm or We've. A first name and hyphen at the very start is skipped, so the check starts with the message itself. The note reads like this.

A sentence opens with I or We. Their world leads.

A chase. Would you be open, just checking in, circling back, touching base, hope this finds you, following up. Any of those and the note says the message asks or chases, and the close should state.

A bracket. If a draft still has a placeholder in square brackets, the note says a bracket is still a bracket. A blank you couldn't fill means you don't know enough to send it yet.

Length. Every construct has a word limit. A message that runs more than ten words past its limit gets flagged with the count and what the construct allows.

The note to a former colleague has two rules of its own. It stays under 90 words, and it ends with the words Right or wrong. Miss either and the checklist says so.

Where you see it

Open the Desk and go to Going out. Every message waiting to send is there, grouped by day, with the person, the step, the door and the construct. When a message breaks a rule, an orange note sits under it. Tap Edit, fix it and save.

With review before sending on, nothing with words in it goes to a prospect until you approve it. That's the moment the checklist earns its keep. Read the note, fix the line, then approve. Invites and profile visits still go on schedule.

The ask to a mutual connection isn't checked. It plays by its own rules, and a good ask often does start with you.

Why these rules

They aren't style preferences. Each one is a tell that the message is about the seller.

A sentence that opens with I or We puts you ahead of the buyer. A chase tells them you're waiting on them. A bracket tells them a template wrote it. Length tells them you couldn't decide what mattered. In a services sale, where the buyer is betting $200K on your judgment, every one of those is a small vote against you before the first call.

The drafting prompt carries most of the same rules, so drafts are written to pass. The checklist is for what slips through, and for the edits you make yourself. Plenty of good sellers type We when they rewrite a line at the end of a long day.

Stage 1 tracks what you change before a message goes and learns which edits win. For why a person approves every send, see owning every send. For more on the habits behind the rules, see words that make you sound like a vendor and short is not the same as clear.

The point

You still own every send. The checklist makes sure the message you approve reads like it was written for one buyer, by someone who did the work.