Prospecting idea: have an idea

It’s uninspiring (and ineffective) for a sales person to email or call a prospect to “just touch base”.
On the other hand, I’m all for sales people staying in touch.
So what’s the solution? If you must email or call, what do you say?
Here’s one idea: have an idea.
In my life, I’m sometimes a buyer and sometimes a seller. When I’m sitting on the buyer’s side of the world I realize that buyers have plenty of problems.
When I was only selling and had been prospecting hard for a long time I started to feel that buyers had no problems. After enough refusals I started to think that buyers had every base covered.
But in today’s crazy understaffed world where every executive is stretched as thin as a spaghetti noodle, buyers have problems.
More likely your prospect lives in a world similar to the one I have experienced and seen all around me. They need