Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Prospecting agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The Prospecting skill is a set of instructions that teaches an AI agent to find, qualify and rank people or businesses to sell to. It is for founders, sales teams and local businesses that need a first target list. After this guide you will know how to install the skill, how to ask for a list in plain language, and which safety rules the agent follows.
Prospectingcoreyhaines31/marketingskills · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Get the prospecting skill ZIP from our page.
- 2Install the skill. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into .claude/skills/ in a project, or upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps.
- 3Prepare your data tools. Confirm which data tools you can access, such as Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay, Google Maps or Sales Navigator, since some may need paid accounts.
- 4Make your request. Describe the audience, the area or industry, and the signal you care about in plain language, such as 'find local dentists in one city with no online booking'.
- 5Review the ranked list. Check each Hot, Warm, Cold or Skip label against the cited sources and confidence levels before you act on it.
What the prospecting skill makes the agent do
When you want to find businesses or people to sell to, the skill makes the agent work through a structured process. It starts by defining your ideal customer, then gathers a longer candidate list, checks each candidate against that definition with cited sources, and ranks the results.
The skill covers list building, buying signals, enrichment, email verification and account research. Each candidate is scored as Hot, Warm, Cold or Skip, and Tier 1 accounts get a sourced research brief before any outreach.
- Defines an ideal customer profile with pass/fail criteria before searching
- Builds a candidate list two to three times larger than the final list
- Attaches a source URL to each qualification and labels confidence as High, Medium or Low
- Verifies emails before they reach a sequence
How to install the prospecting skill
Download the ZIP for the skill from our page. Then choose one of the two install locations below.
For a personal install, unzip the download into ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, unzip it into the project's .claude/skills/ folder. You can also upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Single project: unzip into .claude/skills/ inside the project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
~/.claude/skills/Choose the right branch for your audience
The skill forks at intake into one of four branches. It picks one based on who you are selling to. If your audience is a hybrid, the agent picks the dominant branch and pulls in qualification signals from the other.
Each branch has its own reference guide that the agent reads when it needs detail.
- SaaS: other SaaS or digital businesses, using tech stack match and growth signals
- B2B: non-SaaS services, manufacturers, enterprises and mid-market firms, using industry, size, geography and buying signals
- Local SMB: local shops, gyms, restaurants, clinics, salons and services, using Google Maps and local directories
- Demand-signal: early-stage teams looking for first customers, design partners or beta users from cited public pain signals
How to trigger the skill with natural requests
You do not need special syntax. Describe what you want in plain language. The skill is triggered by requests about finding, qualifying or building a list of prospects, and by phrases such as 'build a prospect list', 'find leads', 'find local businesses', 'find my first customers', 'design partners', 'buying signals' and 'research this account before I reach out'.
If you already have a product marketing context file at .agents/product-marketing.md, the agent reads it first and asks only for details it does not already have.
- Name the audience and the area, for example 'find local gyms in one city'
- Give the offer and the buyer role, for example 'find operations managers at B2B services firms'
- Mention the signal you care about, for example 'job change alerts' or 'signal-based outbound'
What the skill needs and safety notes
The skill makes network requests and does not run scripts. The guides refer to data tools such as Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay, Google Maps and Sales Navigator, and some of these may need paid accounts. Check which tools you can access before you start.
The skill follows several hard rules. It never scrapes LinkedIn. You define audiences in Sales Navigator and pull contacts from licensed data. It verifies every email before the address goes into a sequence, and it applies a set policy to catch-all domains. Outreach copy, sending and replies are handled by a separate cold-email skill.
- Runs scripts: no
- Uses network: yes
- Never scrape LinkedIn; use licensed data sources
- Verify emails before they reach a sequence, and again within 7 days of sending if the list sat
- Keep a suppression list and track source for every contact
- The compliance guide is operational guidance, not legal advice; ask a privacy attorney for high-volume programs or EU/UK contacts
Tips for a better prospect list
Smaller and verified beats larger and messy. The skill is built around that idea: 25 verified leads are more useful than 250 mostly-junk ones. Give the agent a clear ICP with disqualifiers, so it can cull candidates early.
Ask for the evidence, not just the names. Each qualification should include a source link, so you can check the claim before you reach out.
- Write disqualifiers as well as targets
- Ask for confidence levels with each lead
- Use the account tiers: Tier 1 gets a full brief, Tier 2 gets one sourced hook per contact, Tier 3 gets the segment brief only
- Keep copy and sending requests for the cold-email skill
What people use it for
- A founder builds a first outbound target list of SaaS companies that match a defined tech stack and recent growth signals.
- A local business finds new customers in a specific area and category, starting from Google Maps and cross-checked with directories and business websites.
- An early-stage startup looks for its first design partners or beta users by finding cited public complaints or signals about the problem it solves.
- A sales team researches a Tier 1 account and gets a sourced brief before writing outreach.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the prospecting agent skill?
Download the ZIP from our page. Then unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder. You can also upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Is the prospecting skill free and what licence does it use?
The skill is licensed under MIT. Some of the data tools it refers to, such as Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay or Sales Navigator, may need paid accounts, so check your own access to those.
What does the prospecting skill need to run?
It needs network access and access to the data tools referenced in its guides, such as Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay, Google Maps or Sales Navigator. It can also read an optional product marketing context file at .agents/product-marketing.md. It does not run scripts.
Can the prospecting skill scrape LinkedIn?
No. The skill says never to scrape LinkedIn. It tells you to define audiences in Sales Navigator and pull contacts from licensed data sources instead.
Does the prospecting skill send cold emails?
No. Outreach copy, sending setup, LinkedIn, cadences and replies are handled by the separate cold-email skill. The prospecting skill covers finding, qualifying, enriching, verifying and researching accounts.
How is the prospecting skill different from the competitor-profiling skill?
Prospecting finds and ranks people or businesses to sell to. The competitor-profiling skill is the separate skill for researching competitors. The source does not compare the two in further detail.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you are building a first outbound list, want a local business target list, or need first design partners and will work from public signals. Pick something else if you need to scrape LinkedIn, run a cold email campaign, or research competitors, since those tasks belong to other tools or skills.
Download the skill