How to create a prospecting list: Expert guidance for B2B sales success

Your prospecting list can make or break your B2B outreach. Whether you’re chasing better conversions or looking to scale high-performing campaigns, everything starts with getting the right contacts in the right companies, and engaging them at the right time.

But, as a B2B prospecting agency, we know one thing to be true: getting all these things ‘right’ definitely isn’t easy. How do you ensure your sales and marketing teams are aligned on the right approach? What are the right job roles to target? How do you accurately map your target market? The list goes on…

This guide asks and answers all those questions for you. You’re welcome. Here, we walk you through exactly how to build a bulletproof B2B prospecting list, with expert tips on how to ensure your contact database is primed to perform.

What is a sales prospecting list?

A sales prospecting list is a curated collection of potential buyers (companies and individuals) who match your ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer persona.

These contacts are the people your sales reps want to connect with because they’re likely to have:

• A genuine pain point your product or service solves
• The authority to buy
• The budget and intent to act

A good sales prospecting list forms the backbone of every successful sales prospecting strategy. It fuels your lead generation, personalisation, and outreach efforts across channels like email, LinkedIn messages, cold calling, and more.

Your list should contain accurate prospect information, including:

• Company name
• Company size and industry
• Company location
• Contact name and job title
• Business email address and/or phone number
• LinkedIn profile URL
• Key insights (e.g. funding rounds, tech stack, hiring trends)

All this contact data serves as the foundation of any sales intelligence tool or CRM system, enabling you to reach the right prospects at the right companies with the right message.

What makes a successful sales prospecting list?

Not all lists are created equal. A good sales prospect list is more than a database of names.

It should be:

• Accurate: All contact data is verified, up-to-date, and complete.
• Relevant: The prospects match your ICP and buyer personas.
• Multi-channel ready: Includes email, phone, and LinkedIn profile info.
• Segmented: Organised by job title, intent, industry, or region.
• Compliant: Built using lawful methods under GDPR, PECR, and other regulations.

Less is more. A smaller set of 100 highly targeted decision-makers will always (and we really do mean always) outperform 1,000 generic contacts from a bought list

How to build a prospect list step by step

Step 1: Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)

Before you start compiling names, ensure you are crystal clear on who you’re targeting.

Your ideal customer profile (ICP) outlines the types of businesses that:

• Have the need and budget for your solution
• Align with your use case or market niche
• Tend to convert easily and have high lifetime value

Key ICP criteria:

• Company size (employees, revenue)
• Industry or niche
• Geographic location
• Tech stack or tooling
• Buying signals (e.g. hiring sprees, funding rounds)

Defining a sharp ICP means every contact you add to your list has a higher likelihood of becoming a paying customer.

Top tip: Use insights from your existing clients to refine your ICP. Where do you get the best ROI? Who renews the longest?

Step 2: Build B2B buyer personas

While your ICP defines companies, your buyer personas focus on individual decision-makers.

A buyer persona is a detailed profile of your ideal contact:

• Job title and seniority
• Department (e.g. marketing, finance, operations)
• Pain points and priorities
• Buying motivations
• Preferred communication channels

Creating rich buyer personas helps your team:

• Personalise messaging
• Speak directly to customer needs
• Choose the right outreach tactics

Use a combination of interviews, CRM data, call transcripts, and LinkedIn research to build these personas.

Need help building your prospecting list? Our team builds compliant, hyper-targeted lists enriched with bespoke data points, so you can start selling faster.

→ Book a demo

Step 3: Segment and prioritise

Your sales and marketing messages work best when they’re tailored. That’s where market segmentation comes in.

Segment your list based on:

• Industry verticals
• Job functions
• Location
• Buyer intent (cold, warm, hot)
• Deal size potential

This enables smarter workflows, better personalisation, and better resource allocation across teams.

Pro tip: Use scoring models to prioritise prospects based on their fit and intent. Confused? Relax, we’ve got you. Read our guide on B2B lead scoring for all the intel you need.

Step 4: Choose your prospecting channels

Your prospecting list should reflect the outreach strategy you’ll use. Think strategically about which channels your target audience engages with, then ensure your list includes the right contact data (from email addresses to social handles) to support that channel mix.

1. Email

Cold email remains the highest-performing B2B prospecting channel.

With the right targeting and personalisation, it delivers:

• Scalable outreach at low cost
• Trackable performance (open, click, and reply rates)
• Opportunities to test and optimise messaging

Tip: Prioritise verified business email addresses to improve deliverability and reduce bouncebacks.

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to connect directly with decision-makers, personalise your message based on recent activity, and build trust through shared connections or mutual interests.

To build a good sales prospecting list with LinkedIn:

• Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) and buyer personas first, including company size, industry, and job title.
• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter prospects by firmographics, job function, seniority level, and location.
• Save leads into custom lists, and use tags and notes to track follow-up and conversation history.
• Utilise the Lead Recommendations feature to identify new prospects that match your criteria.
• Integrate with your CRM system (like HubSpot or Salesforce) to sync data, automate follow-ups, and enrich existing records.
• Routinely clean your list, review prospect data, and update contact details to keep your campaigns effective.

Use tools like:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator to target by job title, company size, and industry.
• InMail* and connection requests to begin one-to-one conversations based on activity, shared networks, or intent signals.

*The high volume of outreach on LinkedIn poses challenges for standalone InMails. At Sopro, our multi-channel prospecting approach combines email, website tracking, and buyer intent data to trigger connection requests and InMails with the right context and timing, maximising engagement and avoiding spam fatigue.

3. Direct mail & gifting

Increasingly effective for high-value accounts. 18% of companies prefer being contacted by post, especially for strategic ABM plays. Ensure your list includes postal addresses when relevant.

4. Social media prospecting

75% of B2B buyers use social media to inform purchasing decisions, and most of us spend over 2.5 hours a day scrolling.

Alongside cold email and direct outreach, platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer powerful routes for prospect research, brand awareness, and social retargeting.

• Facebook: 66% of sales reps use it to research buyers and businesses
• Instagram: 51% of salespeople use it for discovering new leads and trends

While not always used for direct messaging, these platforms offer insights and ad-based outreach that complement more direct tactics, such as email and LinkedIn.

5. SMS and WhatsApp

These channels have exceptionally high open rates and can cut through inbox noise. Use with caution and only in compliance with applicable privacy laws.

Typically, we find messaging like this best for warm outreach or follow-ups rather than cold prospecting. Engage via email first, then move conversations over to WhatsApp once the ice is broken.

Step 5: Source your prospect data

Now comes the heavy lifting: finding the data to match your ICP and personas.

Option 1: Build manually

Scrape LinkedIn profiles, research companies, and manually enter data. This offers high control but low scale.

Best for:

• Hyper-targeted lists
• ABM campaigns
• Solo reps or small teams

Option 2: Use B2B data tools

Tools like:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator – for targeting and saving leads
• ZoomInfo / Cognism – for verified contact data
• Evaboot – for scraping and cleaning Sales Nav data
• Wappalyzer / BuiltWith – for tech stack intelligence

These tools help automate and enhance your list-building efforts.

Option 3: Work with a prospecting partner

Outsource to B2B lead generation specialists like Sopro, who use proprietary tech and expert teams to:

• Build compliant, hyper-relevant prospect lists
• Validate data with multiple verification layers
• Track buyer intent signals

Entrusting your prospecting to the right professionals can provide a comprehensive database, streamlining your process and enhancing results.

With 160+ data points available per contact, Sopro helps brands target smarter and sell more.

Step 6: Ensure GDPR and global compliance

Compliance isn’t optional. It’s essential.

Depending on where your prospects are located, you’ll need to follow different rules:

• UK/EU: GDPR and PECR
• US: CAN-SPAM, CCPA, TCPA
• Canada: CASL

To stay compliant:

• Use legitimate interest as a legal basis (where applicable)
• Only store necessary data
• Honour opt-outs immediately (when someone does ask you to stop contacting them, stop)
• Keep a clear, accessible privacy policy
• Regularly audit your data

In B2B communications, you are not required to explicitly seek permission before contacting someone. GDPR, for example, states you can send direct marketing communications if a ‘legitimate interest’ is involved. Read our post on GDPR and sales prospecting emails.

Don’t want to juggle tools and spreadsheets? Let Sopro build your list from scratch: fully verified, fully compliant, and ready to convert.

→ Book a demo

Step 7: Validate and clean your list

Even the best prospect lists decay fast. Roles change, people move jobs, and emails bounce.

Every contact list should be:

• Verified to reduce bounce rates
• De-duplicated to avoid annoying prospects
• Enriched with the latest data
• Refreshed regularly, ideally every 3-6 months

Step 8: Plug into your CRM or outreach platform

Once your data is clean, it’s time to plug it into your CRM or automation tool. This ensures seamless handover to sales or marketing and enables:

• Outreach tracking
• Lead scoring
• Campaign personalisation
• Pipeline reporting

Step 9: Activate your list with smart campaigns

Building a list is just the beginning. The magic happens when you activate it.

Use your prospecting list to fuel:

• Cold email campaigns with smart personalisation
• LinkedIn connection requests based on intent
• Social media retargeting for account awareness
• Direct mail and gifting for strategic ABM plays

Campaign examples:

• Intent-based LinkedIn outreach
• Warm call follow-ups triggered by web visits
• Hyper-personalised social ads to micro-segments

Outreach should be timely, relevant, and aligned with the buyer journey.

Step 10: Track performance and iterate

Measure what matters:

• Open and reply rates
• Call-to-meeting ratios
• Conversion rates per segment
• Pipeline velocity by source

Use these insights to refine:

• Your ICP
• Your outreach messaging
• Your data sources

A great prospecting list is never done. It’s a living, breathing asset that improves with every campaign.

Ready to build a smarter B2B prospecting list?

At Sopro, we’re more than just a B2B email marketing agency. We won’t just help you find leads – we help you find the right ones.

Our team builds accurate, up-to-date, and fully compliant prospecting lists that match your ideal customers. No guesswork, and definitely no spreadsheets full of dead leads.

Then we turn that data into real conversations using smart, multi-channel campaigns that actually get replies.

You get a pipeline full of qualified leads. We do the heavy lifting.

Let’s talk about building your perfect prospecting list. Book a demo now.