How to write a lead search that actually works

The biggest thing that decides how good your leads are is the sentence you start with.

Vague in, vague out. Specific in, useful out.

Name four things

A good brief names the sector, the location, the company size and the exact roles you want.

Works: "Purchasing decision makers at independent UK pet retailers. Max 2 people per company."

Doesn't work: "People in the pet industry."

Search for people, not fuzzy groups

Some groups sound like companies but aren't. University incubators are a good example. They sit inside universities, they often don't have their own LinkedIn pages, and the people who run them have all sorts of job titles.

So search for the people instead: "People at UK universities with startup incubator or enterprise manager in their headline."

Bring your own lists

If you already know a good directory, use it. Award winners, recently funded startups, Product Hunt launches, a trade association's member list. These make great starting points because someone has already done the first filter for you.

Check the search terms

Before you approve a search, read the terms it's using. If they look wrong, say so. Thirty seconds here saves you an hour of bad leads later.

One campaign at a time

Keep each search to its own campaign. Mixing pet retailers and angel investors in one go just muddles the results.

Three briefs that work well

• "Find purchasing decision makers at independent UK pet retailers. Max 2 people per company."
• "Find founders of B2B SaaS startups that launched on Product Hunt in the last 3 months."
• "Find editors and assistant editors at small and mid-sized UK book publishers."

Truffle Hound is built around this way of working. If fewer than 1 in 10 companies from a source fit, it tells you, so you can change the source instead of pushing on. Sign up for early access on the homepage to try it.