Module 2: Finding Prospects
You cannot sell to everyone, and trying to is why most outreach fails. This module teaches you to find the right people — search like a sniper, spot the buying signals that reveal who is ready, and build a prioritized prospect list.
Search like a sniper
LinkedIn's search is a precision instrument that most people use like a blunt object — typing a job title, scrolling, and connecting at random. The sniper approach starts before you ever open search: define exactly who you are looking for. Job titles (list three to five variants, because titles vary). Industries. Company size range. Geography, if it matters to your offer. Write these down. Vague targeting produces vague results.
Now use the filters with intent. LinkedIn lets you filter by title, company, industry, location, and more — stack them to narrow a million results to a few hundred real prospects. Learn basic boolean: quotes for exact phrases ("customer success manager"), OR between title variants, NOT to exclude what you do not want, AND to combine. One well-built search string beats an hour of scrolling. Save your best searches so you can re-run them weekly for fresh prospects.
The cardinal rule: quality over quantity, always. One hundred precisely right prospects will outperform one thousand loosely related connections on every metric that matters — reply rate, call rate, close rate. A sniper with a hundred targets beats a machine gun with a thousand. Your list is the foundation everything else in this course stands on.
Build brief
Define your three search filters precisely: which job titles (list variants), which industries, which company sizes? Then write one boolean search string you will run this week.
Saved
Buying signals
Not all prospects are equal. A buying signal is any observable sign that someone is more likely to need what you sell, right now. The sellers who win are not the ones with the biggest lists — they are the ones who can tell who is ready. Learn to read the signals and you stop wasting warm-up effort on people who will never buy.
The strongest signals, in rough order: a job change (new role means new budget and new priorities — the first 90 days are the window); company growth (funding announcements, hiring sprees, expansion — growth creates the problems you solve); engagement with competitor content (they are actively researching your category); posts about the problem (a prospect complaining about the exact pain you fix is raising their hand); and profile views of your profile (they already found you — curiosity is a signal).
Build a simple triage: Tier A prospects show two or more signals — warm these first, they are ready now. Tier B prospects match your ideal profile but show no signals yet — warm them steadily, they are next quarter's pipeline. Tier C is everyone else who fits loosely — light touch, long game. Work Tier A daily, Tier B weekly, Tier C monthly — and never treat them the same.
Buying signals, ranked by strength
Build brief
List five buying signals specific to YOUR offer. What does a ready-to-buy prospect look like in your world — what changed for them, what are they posting, what are they hiring for?
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Build your list
A prospect list that lives in your head is not a list — it is a wish. Build it in a spreadsheet where you can see it, sort it, and work it. Your columns: name, company, title, LinkedIn URL, tier (A/B/C), buying signals observed, status (identified / warming / connected / engaged / call booked), last touch date, and next action. This sheet becomes your command center for the entire course — Modules 3, 4, and 5 all run off it.
Your starter target: 100 names. That sounds like a lot until you break it down — twenty names a day for five days, using the search and signal methods from the last two lessons. One hundred is the right size because it is large enough to produce a real pipeline and small enough to warm up personally. You cannot meaningfully engage with a thousand people; you absolutely can with a hundred.
Then practice list hygiene: review the sheet monthly. Remove people who changed roles out of your target, companies that shut down, prospects who asked to be left alone. A clean list of eighty beats a stale list of two hundred. The list is a living document, not a trophy — prune it like a garden and it keeps producing. With your hundred names tiered and tracked, you are ready for Module 3: the warm-up.
Build brief
Start your list right now: write down 20 prospect names with company and title. Mark each one A, B, or C tier based on the signals you can already see.
Saved
Elena has 2,000 LinkedIn connections but zero pipeline. She messages a few people every week and hears nothing back. What is the core problem?
Your turn: Set up your prospect list columns (name, company, title, URL, tier, signals, status, last touch, next action) and add your first 20 names with tiers assigned.
Saved.
Your next 24 hours
Run one boolean search, save it, and add 20 tiered prospects to your spreadsheet today. For each Tier A prospect, note the specific buying signal you observed. The list starts now.
Steal this template
THE PROSPECT LIST TEMPLATE
Columns: Name | Company | Title | LinkedIn URL | Tier (A/B/C) | Buying signals | Status | Last touch | Next action
Status values: identified → warming → connected → engaged → call booked → client
☐ 100 names minimum
☐ Every Tier A has a documented signal
☐ Reviewed and pruned monthly
Cheat sheet
- Define your target precisely: job title variants, industries, company size — before you search.
- Boolean basics: quotes for exact phrases, OR for variants, NOT to exclude, AND to combine.
- Buying signals ranked: job change, posting about the problem, company growth, competitor engagement, profile views.
- Tier your list: A (signals, ready now), B (fits, no signals yet), C (loose fit, long game).
- 100 names is the starter target — large enough for pipeline, small enough to warm personally.
- List hygiene monthly: prune dead leads. A clean 80 beats a stale 200.