--- name: lead-list-builder description: "Use this skill when you need a B2B lead list for outbound: \"build me a list of 500 heads of operations at logistics companies\", \"find leads for this campaign\", \"who should we target next\". Turns an ICP into precise account and contact filters, builds the list in layers, verifies contacts, removes customers, open deals and opt-outs, and segments the result so each segment can get its own message. Produces a clean, segmented, campaign-ready list with a coverage report." license: MIT metadata: title: Lead list builder category: prospecting tags: "SDR, Founders, Sales, RevOps" author: prosyo version: "1.0.0" keywords: "build b2b lead list, lead list building, prospect list, claude lead generation skill, targeted lead list" inputs: "ICP, Target titles, Campaign goal and size" outputs: "Segmented lead list, Filter recipe, Exclusion report, Coverage report" --- Use this when a campaign needs people to contact. It produces a list that is small enough to personalise, clean enough to protect your domains and segmented enough that every message can be specific. ## Inputs - The ICP: must-haves, disqualifiers, triggers. - Target titles for the buyer and the champion. - Campaign size and goal. A 200-contact Tier 1 play is built differently from a 3,000-contact test. ## The play ### 1. Write the filter recipe before searching Translate the ICP into filters, in two layers: - **Account filters**: industry, headcount band, region, technologies, growth or hiring signals, keywords in the company description. - **Contact filters**: title keywords, seniority, function, tenure, region. Write exclusions explicitly: competitors, partners, agencies that match on keywords, subsidiaries of current customers. Read [references/filter-recipes.md](references/filter-recipes.md) for title-keyword patterns and the exclusions people forget. ### 2. Build accounts first, then people Pull accounts, review a random 30, fix the filters, then pull contacts. Skipping the account review is how lists fill with vendors, students and recruiters who match a keyword. ### 3. Pick 1-3 contacts per account Buyer plus champion is the default. More than three per account in the same week reads as spam inside the company. ### 4. Verify and clean Verify emails, drop catch-all domains for cold email unless volume is tiny, remove role addresses (info@, sales@), normalise names and titles, and confirm current employment for Tier 1 contacts. ### 5. Exclude Remove current customers, open opportunities, anyone contacted in the last 90 days, opt-outs, and personal email addresses. ### 6. Segment Split by the one variable that most changes the message: usually persona, sometimes industry or trigger. Each segment gets a name and a size. Segments under 50 contacts are fine for Tier 1; for tests, aim for 150-300 per segment so results mean something. ## Output format ``` Recipe: + - Accounts: N | Contacts: N | Per account: avg X Removed: N invalid, N catch-all, N customers, N open deals, N recent, N opt-outs Segments: - N contacts - message angle Coverage: <% of SAM this list represents, what is left for the next campaign> Columns: first name, last name, title, company, domain, email, email status, LinkedIn URL, segment, source, trigger ``` ## What good looks like - A spot-check of 20 random rows finds at most one bad fit. - Every row carries the segment and the trigger, so the writer never has to guess why someone is on the list. - Bounce rate after sending stays under 2%. - The list builder knows when to stop: 400 great contacts beat 4,000 loose ones. - The common mistake is filtering on title alone. "Operations Manager" at a 12-person agency and at a 2,000-person logistics firm are different buyers. ## Rules - MUST review a random account sample before pulling contacts. - MUST verify emails and remove customers, open deals and opt-outs before handoff. - NEVER include personal email addresses for cold B2B outreach. - NEVER scrape or buy data from sources the user cannot use lawfully in the target region. ## Example prompts - "Build a list of 400 VPs of Operations at US 3PLs with 50-500 employees, split by sub-industry." - "Turn our ICP into a filter recipe and tell me how many accounts it should return." - "Clean this 2,000-row list and segment it for three campaigns." --- # Filter recipes ## Title keyword patterns Titles are messy. Use include and exclude keyword sets rather than exact titles. | Persona | Include | Exclude | | --- | --- | --- | | Sales leader | VP Sales, Head of Sales, Chief Revenue, CRO, Sales Director | Assistant, Intern, Coordinator, "Sales Operations" (separate persona) | | SDR leader | Sales Development, SDR Manager, BDR Manager, Head of SDR | Representative, Associate | | RevOps | Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, RevOps, GTM Operations | Analyst (unless targeting users) | | Marketing leader | CMO, VP Marketing, Head of Marketing, Head of Growth, Demand Generation | Coordinator, Specialist, Intern | | Operations | COO, VP Operations, Head of Operations, Director of Operations | Operations Assistant, Clerk | | Founder | Founder, Co-founder, CEO (at under 50 employees) | Founder of unrelated side businesses (check the company) | Seniority filters alone miss titles like "Head of"; keyword includes catch them. ## Exclusions people forget - **Lookalike vendors.** Searching "payroll" returns payroll software companies, not companies with payroll pain. - **Agencies and consultants** who describe themselves with your buyer's keywords. - **Subsidiaries and parents** of current customers. - **Former customers** who churned in the last 6 months (route to a win-back play instead). - **Recruiters and job seekers** whose headlines contain the target title. - **Students and "aspiring" profiles.** - **Investors** at firms with your target industry in their description. ## Size bands that behave differently | Headcount | Typical buyer | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | 1-10 | Founder | Fast, price-sensitive, decides alone | | 11-50 | Founder or first functional leader | Buyer is often also the user | | 51-200 | Functional leader (VP, Head of) | First process and tool decisions | | 201-1,000 | Director plus VP sign-off | Committee forms, procurement appears | | 1,000+ | Committee | Security review, long cycles, multi-threading required | ## Recipe example ``` Accounts: industry = logistics, 3PL, freight forwarding headcount 50-500 region = US, Canada hiring: any open role containing "operations" or "warehouse" in last 60 days exclude: description contains "software", "platform", "SaaS" Contacts: include VP Operations, Director of Operations, Head of Operations, COO exclude assistant, coordinator, intern max 2 per account Expected: about 1,100 accounts, about 1,700 contacts before cleaning ```