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Bruno Ashford @brunoashfordSubscribeModule 8 · Lesson 8.1 · 12 min
Lead Research and Prospecting
Build targeted lead lists and research each lead properly before the first contact.
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1Define who you are hunting
Before any list, make sure CLAUDE.md has a sharp ideal customer profile: industry, size, location, trigger events that signal need, and who signs the cheque. Vague profiles produce vague lists.
2Build a starting list from public sources
Ask for a list of candidate companies that match the profile, with sources. Treat the list as a draft, and remove anything that does not fit before researching further.
Using the ideal customer profile in CLAUDE.md, find 20 companies in [city or region] that fit. For each: company name, website, why they fit (one line), and the source link. Save it as leads/prospects-[date].csv with columns company, website, fit_reason, source. Public information only.3Research each lead with the specialist
Send the list to your SDR researcher. Ask for batches in parallel to save time. Each lead gets a note with a fit score, recent trigger events and one specific opening observation.
Use the sdr-researcher subagent to research every company in leads/prospects-[date].csv. Run them in parallel batches of 5. Return a table sorted by fit score with: company, fit score, best trigger event, suggested opening observation, and the research file path.4Kill the weak leads early
Contact only fit scores of 4 and 5 this week. Leads scoring 3 go to a nurture list. Leads scoring 1 and 2 are removed. Fewer, better conversations beat more, worse ones.
5Respect the rules of your market
Outreach rules differ by country and channel. In the UK, for example, PECR and UK GDPR affect marketing emails to individuals, and in the US, CAN-SPAM sets rules for commercial email. Keep your AI to public business information and check your outreach approach with your own legal adviser.
Every sales trainer says the same thing: research the prospect before you reach out. Almost nobody does it, because proper research takes 15 to 20 minutes per lead and there are 40 leads on the list. So the team sends generic messages, gets a 1 percent reply rate, and decides cold outreach does not work.
Your SDR researcher subagent changes the maths. It researches a lead in the time it takes you to make a coffee, cites every source, and saves a note your team can use on the call. Research stops being the step everyone skips and becomes the step that happens every time.
Key points
- A sharp ideal customer profile in CLAUDE.md is the foundation.
- The researcher cites a source for every fact and never guesses.
- Contact the strongest fits first; nurture or drop the rest.
- Stay with public business information and follow your market's rules.
Avoid
- Researching 200 leads nobody will contact this month.
- Trusting research without clicking a single source.
- Scraping personal data you have no business reason to hold.
A commercial cleaning company targeting dental and medical practices used to buy lists and send the same email to all of them. Now the researcher finds practices that opened a new location or posted hiring ads in the last six months, a clear sign of growth. The sales rep receives 15 researched leads each Monday with a specific opener for each. The rep spends the hours saved on calls instead of on Google.