prospecting

Start by defining your ICP with firmographic fit, buying signals, and disqualifiers, then source 2-3x your target count from tools like Apollo or ZoomInfo. Qualify each candidate against the checklist with source URLs, verify emails before adding them, and score leads as Hot, Warm, Cold, or Skip.

Apollo works for firmographic and contact discovery, Clay for multi-source waterfall enrichment, Crunchbase for funding signals, and BuiltWith or Wappalyzer for tech stack qualification. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator manually for decision-maker mapping and Truelist to validate email deliverability before outreach.

Search Google Maps manually for your target category and area, then cross-check each business name plus city in a web search to confirm website status. Classify results as no site, social only, weak site, or has site, and prioritize no-site and social-only businesses as hot prospects.

No, bulk scraping LinkedIn or Google Maps violates their terms of service and risks permanent account bans. Use browser-assisted manual research for discovery, capture source URLs and dates for every contact, and rely on licensed providers like Apollo or ZoomInfo within their contract terms.

Bounce rates above 2% damage sender reputation and are hard to recover from, while data from Apollo or ZoomInfo is often only 60-80% accurate. Run every address through a validator like Truelist and exclude invalid emails before adding contacts to an outreach list.

Use the demand-signal branch: mine public forums, reviews, GitHub issues, and job posts for explicit pain, workaround, and switching signals rather than filtering contact databases. Score prospects on a 0-100 demand-fit rubric and require a cited public signal for every shortlisted prospect.