List Building Deep Dives

Answer:

• What made them a bad fit?
• What should have been a red flag?
• What do they have in common?

Step 3: Interview Your Team

• Sales: "Who closes fastest? Who's most excited about our product?"
• Customer Success: "Who gets the most value? Easiest to onboard?"
• Marketing: "What content resonates? What channels work best?"
• Product: "Who uses the product most effectively?"

Step 4: Document Your ICP

One-page document with must-haves, nice-to-haves, and disqualifiers (see template in SKILL.md).

Step 5: Score Your ICP

Build a 0–100 scoring system in Clay as a formula column that auto-scores every company.

30-Minute Exercise:

1. List top 10 best customers
2. Find 3 patterns they share
3. List top 5 worst customers
4. Find 2 patterns they share (anti-ICP)
5. Write ICP hypothesis in one paragraph
6. Create scoring rubric

ICP Layer Details

Layer 1: Firmographics

Data sources: Your CRM (best), LinkedIn Sales Nav, Clay enrichments, Clearbit, People Data Labs.

Layer 2: Technographics

Data sources in Clay: BuiltWith, Clearbit, 6sense, HG Insights.

Layer 3: Behavioral Signals

In Clay: Claygent for news monitoring, job change tracking, Crunchbase/PitchBook integrations, 6sense/Bombora for intent.

Layer 4: Psychographics

Research: About page, careers page, blog, Glassdoor reviews, leadership LinkedIn posts, customer case studies, Claygent for website summaries.

ICP Examples

Sales Engagement Platform

• Industry: B2B SaaS, Professional Services, Agencies
• Size: 50–500 employees, $5M–$50M revenue
• Tech: Salesforce or HubSpot CRM
• Signals: Hiring SDRs/AEs, raised Series A/B
• Psychographics: Growth-focused, outbound sales motion

HR Tech Platform

• Industry: Technology, Financial Services, Healthcare
• Size: 200–2,000 employees, $20M–$200M revenue
• Tech: Workday, BambooHR, or Greenhouse
• Signals: Hiring HR Ops, headcount expanding >15% YoY
• Psychographics: Employee experience-focused, remote-first

Marketing Automation Tool

• Industry: E-commerce, DTC Brands, B2C SaaS
• Size: 20–200 employees, $2M–$20M revenue
• Tech: Shopify, Klaviyo, or Attentive
• Signals: Launching new products, expanding to new channels
• Psychographics: Data-driven, customer acquisition-focused

Multi-Source Company Discovery: Detailed Workflows

Source 1: Clay Find Companies

1. Create new table in Clay
2. Add Source → Find Companies
3. Set filters matching ICP (industry, employees, location, technologies, funding)
4. Preview results → run source
5. Use "OR" logic for technologies to maximize coverage
6. Save filter templates for reuse

Cost: Free to search; credits for enrichment columns.

Source 2: Apollo (CSV → Clay Import)

1. Apollo.io → Company search
2. Set same ICP filters
3. Use keywords to narrow (e.g., "B2B SaaS" in description)
4. Export as CSV (always include Domain field)
5. Clay → new table → Import CSV → map columns

Cost: Free tier: 50 exports/month | Basic $49/mo (10K) | Pro $79/mo (unlimited).

Source 3: LinkedIn Sales Navigator

1. Sales Navigator → Company Search
2. Advanced filters: headcount, growth %, hiring, posted recently, technologies
3. Save as Lead List (max 2,500)
4. Export via Phantombuster ($50–100/mo) or Evaboot
5. Import to Clay

Unique filters: Headcount Growth, Posted on LinkedIn, Hiring on LinkedIn. Cost: Core $99/mo | Advanced $149/mo + export tools.

Multi-Source Merge Workflow

1. Table 1: Clay Companies (from Clay Find Companies)
2. Table 2: Apollo Companies (from CSV import)
3. Table 3: Merged — use "Write to Other Table" from both Table 1 and Table 2
4. In Table 3: dedupe by Domain
5. (Optional) Table 4: LinkedIn Sales Nav companies → write to Table 3 → dedupe again

Typical result: 40–70% more companies than single source.

Advanced Strategies

Waterfall Sourcing: Start with highest-quality source (LinkedIn with intent signals), add next source only if you need more volume.

Source by Segment: Enterprise → ZoomInfo + LinkedIn; Mid-market → Clay + Apollo; Startups → Crunchbase + Clay.

Layered Sourcing: Broad search (10K) → add intent signals (filter to 3K) → enrich and score (final 1K A-tier).

Apollo + Clay Template: 6-Table Workflow

Table 1: Apollo Companies (CSV Import)

• Import CSV from Apollo export
• Key fields: Company name, domain, industry, employee count, revenue, location

Table 2: Clay Companies (Native Search)

• Clay "Find Companies" source
• Match Apollo search criteria

Table 3: Merged & Deduped Companies + Enrichment

• "Write to Other Table" from Table 1 and Table 2 into Table 3
• Dedupe by company domain
• Add: company tiering logic (formula/AI), scoring, additional enrichment

Step-by-step merge:

1. Create blank Table 3 ("Merged Companies - Deduped")
2. In Table 1: Add "Write to Other Table" column → select Table 3 → map fields → run all rows
3. In Table 2: Add "Write to Other Table" column → select Table 3 → map same fields → run all rows
4. In Table 3: Select Domain (or Company Name) column → click DeDupe → Value → delete duplicates
5. Add enrichment columns (tiering, scoring, qualification)

Pro tips:

• Field mapping must be consistent across both source tables
• Use run conditions to only write qualified companies
• Re-running Write to Table will auto-update Table 3

Table 4: Apollo People

• Import domains from Table 3 (filtered for qualified companies)
• Apollo people search: job titles, seniority, departments

Table 5: Clay People

• Same domains from Table 3
• Clay "Find People" source with matching criteria

Table 6: Merged & Deduped People (Final Output)

• Import from Table 4 and Table 5
• Dedupe by email (primary) or name + company domain
• Final enrichment: email validation, phone waterfalls, personalization data, AI messaging
• Output: final list ready for outreach

Local Prospecting

For clients selling to local businesses (gyms, clinics, logistics, real estate, etc.) that don't appear in Apollo/LinkedIn.

Option A: Openmart + Clay (US-based)

1. Use Openmart to find local leads by category/location
2. Export → clean CSV
3. Import to Clay → enrich (email, website, LinkedIn, owner/decision-maker)

Option B: Google Maps Scraping via Clay

1. Clay's Google Maps integration → search by type + location
2. Pull: name, website, address, phone
3. Enrich: email, LinkedIn, ownership data

Option C: Directory Scraping

1. Find niche directory (Clutch.co, local chambers, industry associations)
2. Use Instant Data Scraper Chrome extension
3. Export CSV → import to Clay → enrich
4. If domain missing: use Claygent to find company website from name

See outbound-list-building-directories.md for curated industry-specific directories.

TAM Scoping via DiscoLike

When to use: When Apollo, Clay, and LinkedIn aren't finding your targets.

What it does: Discovers lookalike websites based on keywords and tech tags — not limited to LinkedIn data.

Pros:

• Finds net-new companies outside typical B2B databases
• Search based on one or multiple sites (like Ocean.io)
• Filter by country or language

Cons:

• No built-in firmographic data (or very limited)
• Higher enrichment cost (~1 credit per row to qualify)

Tips:

• If too many results: tweak similarity variance and company start date
• Helps avoid missing high-potential lookalikes due to volume caps

Contact Enrichment Best Practices

Email Waterfalls

Use 3–5 providers sequentially — if provider 1 misses, try provider 2, etc.

• LeadMagic, Prospeo, Findymail for personal emails
• Catch-all/generic as fallback
• Always validate to remove bounces

Phone Waterfalls

Same principle for direct dials and mobile numbers — multiple providers for coverage.

Data Provider Performance

Review Clay's data provider tests for provider performance by specific regions and use cases.

Deduplication Strategy

1. Company level: Dedupe by domain BEFORE finding people (saves credits)
2. People level: Dedupe by email after merging sources
   • Alternative: dedupe by full name (saves credits, small risk of false dedupes)
3. Sequencer safety net: Enable "Skip lead if in Workspace" in Instantly/Smartlead/etc.

Common ICP Mistakes

• Too broad: "Any company with 10+ employees" — can't afford to target everyone
• Too narrow: "Only fintech in SF with exactly 150 employees" — TAM too small
• Based on assumptions, not data: Talk to customers, analyze CRM
• Static ICP: Markets change, revisit quarterly
• Ignoring anti-ICP: Knowing who NOT to target is equally important
• No scoring system: Without scoring, every lead looks the same

Tools Quick Reference

Data Sources

• Clay Find Companies (built-in)
• Apollo (apollo.io, free tier available)
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($99/mo, 30-day trial)
• ZoomInfo (enterprise, $15K–$30K/year)
• Crunchbase ($29–$99/mo)

Export/Scraping

• Phantombuster (LinkedIn scraping)
• Evaboot (LinkedIn Sales Nav export)
• Instant Data Scraper (Chrome extension, free)
• Apify (web scraping)
• Claygent (built-in AI web research)

Enrichment in Clay

• Clearbit — firmographics, technographics
• BuiltWith — tech stack data
• People Data Labs — company data
• Crunchbase — funding data
• Claygent — custom research (values, news)

Data Quality

• Clay deduplication (built-in)
• Email validation providers (LeadMagic, Prospeo, Findymail)
• Clay formulas — custom scoring logic
• AI columns — evaluate fit based on criteria

Built by ColdIQ & Ivan Falco. For questions on implementation or anything not covered here, reach out to Ivan directly on LinkedIn.