# Predictable Revenue

> Outbound sales process and Cold Calling 2.0 — an AI agent skill based on *Predictable Revenue* by Aaron Ross.

Published 2026-02-19 · Updated 2026-08-17 · Sales & Persuasion · Free and MIT-licensed
Canonical: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/predictable-revenue/
Source: https://github.com/wondelai/skills/tree/main/predictable-revenue

**Install:** `npx skills add wondelai/skills/predictable-revenue --global`

## What is the Predictable Revenue skill?

Predictable Revenue is a free AI agent skill built on Aaron Ross’s book, the outbound system behind Salesforce’s growth. It has your agent split prospecting from closing, define exactly who to target, write Cold Calling 2.0 referral emails that ask for a name rather than a meeting, and run the pipeline arithmetic backwards from a revenue goal.

## Key concepts from Predictable Revenue your agent applies

- **Cold Calling 2.0** — Replace cold calls with targeted cold emails to generate referrals to the right decision maker.
- **Role Specialization** — Separate inbound, outbound, and closing roles — SDRs qualify, AEs close, CSMs retain.
- **Ideal Customer Profile** — Define your best-fit customers precisely so every outbound touch targets the right accounts.
- **Pipeline Metrics** — Track response rates, meetings booked, opportunities created, and close rates at each stage.
- **Cadence Design** — Structure multi-touch outreach sequences across email, phone, and LinkedIn over 2-4 weeks.

## When to use Predictable Revenue — and when not to

Reach for it when:

- Revenue is lumpy, and every good month traces back to something that happened to you rather than something you did.
- Your best closers spend half of every week prospecting, and both halves are being done badly.
- You have a number for next year and no idea how many emails or reps it actually implies.
- Cold emails go out and nothing comes back, because they pitch a decision-maker who never asked for a pitch.

Reach for something else when:

- Traffic already arrives and fails to convert — CRO Methodology works the site, not the pipeline feeding it.
- You’re not yet sure the offer justifies a meeting; fix that with $100M Offers before paying people to book them.
- Prospects reply confused about what you are — Obviously Awesome sorts the positioning first.
- You want growth that compounds without adding headcount — Contagious and Cold Start Problem work that side.

## About Aaron Ross

Built the $100M outbound engine at Salesforce. Aaron Ross built the outbound sales process at Salesforce.com that generated $100M in recurring revenue. His Cold Calling 2.0 methodology has been adopted by thousands of B2B sales teams worldwide.
The book: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25941699M/Predictable_Revenue

## Example prompts

- Design a Cold Calling 2.0 email sequence for my B2B product using predictable-revenue skill _(Outbound sales)_
- Create an Ideal Customer Profile for my SaaS company using predictable-revenue skill _(Targeting)_
- Set up SDR metrics and KPIs for our outbound team using predictable-revenue skill _(Sales ops)_
- Build a 14-day multi-channel prospecting cadence using predictable-revenue skill _(Sales process)_

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I install the Predictable Revenue skill?

Run `npx skills add wondelai/skills/predictable-revenue --global`. It takes about 30 seconds and needs no account. The Predictable Revenue skill then works in Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw and Hermes Agent — anything that reads the open agentskills.io format — and your agent loads it on its own when a task calls for it. It is free and MIT-licensed, and the source is at https://github.com/wondelai/skills.

### Which book is the Predictable Revenue skill based on?

It packages *Predictable Revenue* by Aaron Ross — built the $100M outbound engine at Salesforce. The skill distils the book's method into instructions your agent follows while it works, covering cold calling 2.0, role specialization and ideal customer profile. It sits in the Sales & Persuasion part of the library.

### What is Cold Calling 2.0 in practice?

You stop pitching the decision-maker and start emailing around them. A few lines, no attachment, no deck: here’s the problem we solve, who owns that at your company? The reply you want is a name. Internal referrals convert far better than a cold approach to the same person, and the email is short enough to forward without editing — which is the whole design. The skill writes these and the follow-up cadence around them.

### How does this differ from the 1-Page Marketing Plan skill?

Scope. The 1-Page Marketing Plan maps the entire customer journey across nine squares and tells you which one is empty; outbound is a single square in it. Predictable Revenue goes deep on that square: lead types, role specialisation, targeting, sequences, handoffs, and the metrics between each stage. Start with the plan if you don’t know where the gap is; start here if you already know the gap is pipeline.

### Do I need to read Predictable Revenue first?

No, and there’s an argument for the skill either way. The book is from 2011, so its tooling references have aged even though its structure hasn’t — the specialisation argument, the Seeds/Nets/Spears split and the referral email are as true now as then. The skill carries the structure and skips the dated apparatus. Read the book for the Salesforce origin story and the detail on how the roles were actually staffed.

### Does any of this apply to a solo founder or a five-person team?

Partly. Role specialisation assumes headcount you may not have — at small scale you separate the roles in your calendar instead, blocking prospecting so it can’t be eaten by closing. The bigger caveat is deal shape: outbound pays off on considered B2B purchases with an identifiable buyer, and rarely on low-price self-serve products, where the same effort belongs in the funnel rather than in a sequence.

## Related

- All Sales & Persuasion skills: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/sales/
- $100M Offers: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/hundred-million-offers/
- Negotiation: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/negotiation/
- Influence Psychology: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/influence-psychology/
- CRO Methodology: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/cro-methodology/
- Monetizing Innovation: https://skills.wondel.ai/skills/monetizing-innovation/