7 Steps to Build Prospect List

A sales prospecting list is a valuable solution for your sales team to reach individuals or companies more likely to buy your product or service. These lists focus on pre-qualified prospects, increasing your chances of meaningful conversations and stronger customer relationships.

For a prospecting list to be useful, the data must be accurate, compliant, and up to date because outdated or incomplete information wastes time and energy. A good list will also help you identify the right prospects and tailor your pitch to their needs or pain points. 

Creating a prospecting list is a key step in the sales process as it helps you build a pipeline of qualified leads you can connect with, nurture, and eventually turn into loyal customers.

But how do you build a successful sales prospecting list? What should a prospecting list include?

What Is a Sales Prospect List?

A sales prospect list is a curated collection of potential customers who align with your ideal customer profile and buyer persona. This list helps you connect with prospects who are likely interested in your product or service and qualify them as leads for your sales funnel. 

It contains information on individuals or companies that meet specific criteria, such as industry, company size, job title, or location, that make them a good match for your sales efforts.

Sales prospecting can help you create more sales opportunities, improve conversion rates, and expand your customer base. Plus, it can save you time and boost your team’s efficiency.

What Should a Prospect List Include?

A complete and detailed sales contact list ensures your outreach is precise and impactful. It can help you build meaningful connections and close more deals. While basic contact and account details will form the foundation of your list, additional data like intent and technographics can help you hyper-personalize your communication.

Here are the key elements of a winning sales prospecting list:

Company Name

Knowing the company you want to target can help organize your approach. Plus, it can help you align your messaging with the company’s goals or challenges. If you’re targeting a SaaS provider, the data in your prospecting list can allow you to tailor your pitch to address their need for scalable solutions.

Industry

A good B2B sales prospecting list will always include industry information. 

Understanding the prospect’s industry can help you customize your communication based on sector-specific trends or challenges. This also helps present your product or solution in a more relevant way. 

Prospect’s Name

A prospect contact list will always include the name of the person you want to reach out to. This helps personalize your outreach since mentioning the individual’s name ensures your communication feels direct, personal, and engaging.

Example: Instead of addressing a generic “Dear Manager,” write, “Hi Sarah, I noticed your recent LinkedIn post about team growth.”

Job Title

Knowing the prospect’s role in the target company helps you target decision-makers or influencers who can drive the sales process forward. It also enables you to tailor your message to their responsibilities and priorities.

A Chief Marketing Officer might respond well to insights on boosting campaign ROI, while a procurement specialist would value cost-saving opportunities.

Email Address

Your list should always include your prospect’s complete name. This is essential for direct communication, whether for introducing your product or following up after an initial contact.

Phone Number

A phone number allows for faster, more personal conversations. As such, you should add the phone number for each of your prospects to your list. This will help you when you need to start an immediate communication or to quickly clarify details.

Buyer Intent Data

Intent data reveals valuable insights into the online behavior of your target audience. It helps you determine whether a potential buyer wants to make a purchase related to your industry. 

Did the prospect visit your website or engage with your content? If yes, it means they intend to make a purchase. Also, if a prospect downloaded your whitepaper on cost-saving strategies signals, it shows they’re looking for budget-friendly solutions.

Selling Triggers

Selling triggers are events or changes that signal a prospect might be ready for your product or service, such as funding rounds, mergers, or product launches. If a company secures new funding, it’s a great time to offer solutions that support growth.

Technographics

Technographic data in a prospecting list mentions the tools and technologies the prospect’s company uses. You can use this information to identify compatibility or highlight how your product or service fits into their tech stack.

Example: If a prospect uses Salesforce, you can emphasize how seamlessly your product integrates with their CRM.

Other Key Information

Other details like expansion plans, hiring trends, or major initiatives can give you an edge in tailoring your pitch. These insights show you’ve done your homework and care about their unique situation.

How to Build a Sales Prospecting List

What are the ways to create an effective sales prospect list? Building a sales prospecting list doesn’t have to be difficult; however, it requires a structured approach.

Here are the steps you should follow to build an effective prospect list:

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile

The first step in creating a B2B prospecting list is to define your ideal customer profile. Your ICP describes the type of company that would benefit most from your product or service. 

Consider factors like:

• What industries need your offering?
• Who do you want to target? Small startups, mid-market businesses, or large enterprises?
• Do you want to focus on prospects within a specific geographic area or country?
• What revenue range are you targeting?
• What business challenges does your ideal customer face that your product can solve?

Defining your ICP will guide you as you move forward in building your prospecting list.

2. Develop a Buyer Persona

Once you’ve defined your ICP, the next step is to build and refine your buyer persona. 

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer but focused on the individual you’re targeting within an organization. It’s actually a detailed profile that includes information about their demographics, behaviors, interests, challenges, and goals.

Your buyer persona should answer questions like:

• What roles do the decision-makers typically hold? Do you want to target VPs, directors, or managers?
• What specific issues does your buyer persona face that your solution can address?
• What motivates them to purchase? Are they more driven by cost, efficiency, or other factors?

3. Start Sourcing for Prospects

With your ICP and buyer persona ready, you can now start gathering data about each of your prospects. The best way to go about this is to prompt them to share information before accessing resources like downloadable materials, videos, or newsletters on your website.

The data collected might include their name, email address, phone number, job title, company name, industry, and other relevant details. Also, don’t overlook past customers because they may already be in your database and could become valuable prospects again.

Here are some additional platforms and tools you can use to collect your required data:

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms for finding prospects. You can use LinkedIn’s search filters to find people based on industry, company size, job title, and more;
• Sales Intelligence Tools: Platforms like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, and DiscoverOrg provide in-depth company and contact data;
• CRM and Marketing Automation: Leverage your existing CRM data to identify warm leads or past interactions;
• Industry Databases: Many industries have specialized databases where you can find company information and contact details.

4. List Segmentation

Once your list is complete with all the data, it’s time for segmentation. 

Besides coming from different industries, each prospect is at a different stage of the buyer’s journey and has varying engagement levels. Segmentation allows you to personalize and adapt your outreach and stay focused. 

You can segment your list depending on your prospects’ industries, company size, decision-making roles, or engagement levels. 

5. Score Your Leads

Now that your prospect contact list is almost ready, the next step is to evaluate and rank them. This is where you’ll use lead scoring. It will help you focus on the leads that are most likely to convert, ensuring your sales team prioritizes the right opportunities.

This process involves assigning a score to each lead based on factors such as their purchase intent, company size, potential account value, and other relevant criteria.

But how do you score your leads?

It is a good idea to contact the prospect via email, phone, or a meeting — either in person or online. During this initial interaction, gather details about their needs, timeline, decision-making authority within their organization, and any budget limitations that might impact their ability to make a purchase.

Based on your findings, you can then go ahead and assign scores to your leads, from 0 to 100.

6. Clean and Maintain Your List

A sales prospecting list is only as good as the data it contains. Make sure to clean and update your list regularly by:

• Removing outdated or incorrect information;
• Validating contact details to avoid bounce rates;
• Ensuring that the prospects are still relevant to your ICP;
• Keeping track of past interactions and follow-ups.

7. Use a CRM for Better Efficiency

When creating your list, you don’t have to follow a strict format. You can use tools like Excel, Google Sheets, or even CSV and VCF files. While spreadsheets are cost-effective, they are prone to errors and require more manual effort. As such, we recommend using a CRM to boost your efficiency and reduce errors.

A CRM system streamlines your list through automation. Plus, it reduces human error and saves time, besides making it simple to update and organize your prospecting list.

Prospecting List Template

Using a prospecting list template is a great way to create your list more efficiently. Here’s a simple prospecting list format to get you started:

Name	Job Title	Company	Industry	Location	Phone Number	Email	Decision Maker (Y/N)	Lead Score	Notes

You can easily create this prospecting list template Excel file, fill in your data, and update and sort your prospects. Also, you can easily customize the columns as necessary to fit your needs.

Example of Sales Prospecting List

Name	Job Title	Company	Industry	Location	Phone Number	Email	Decision Maker (Y/N)	Lead Score	Notes
Sarah Lee	CTO	TechInnovate	Tech	CA	415-123-4567	sarah@techinnovate.com	Y	85	Interested in AI solutions
Mike Harris	VP of Ops	GlobalTech	Tech	TX	512-234-5678	mike@globaltech.com	N	70	Involved in software upgrades
Rachel Adams	CEO	SoftWave	Tech	NY	646-345-6789	rachel@softwave.com	Y	80	Needs new CRM platform

How Dripify Helps in Building a High-Quality Sales Prospect List

Creating a sales prospecting list is a time-intensive task, especially when it comes to identifying and organizing leads. It’s worth noting that sales prospecting vs lead generation are two key components of an effective prospecting plan, and combining these strategies gives the best results.

The Dripify sales automation software makes building a prospect list fairly simple. It allows you to automate the process of finding prospects and implementing an effective outreach campaign. 

For example, you can use Dripify to streamline repetitive email and LinkedIn actions, such as building sequences, profile visits, connection requests, skill endorsements, and more. What this means is that you can expand your outreach while maintaining a personalized approach for each lead.

You can export your prospect data as a CSV file from Dripify for further analysis or processing. Dripify also lets you monitor interactions with prospects, helping you prioritize follow-ups.

Conclusion

Creating a sales prospecting list is a vital task for any sales professional. Follow the steps, tips, template, and examples provided above to build a successful sales prospecting list. 

Building a good sales prospect list is not easy. It requires ongoing refinement, research, and segmentation. Dripify helps you automate and optimize this process so you can focus on what matters most — closing deals.