Academy 1: W2 Career · Stage 2 · Module 9
Prospecting Fundamentals
How to define your Ideal Customer Profile, find qualified leads efficiently, research them in 5 minutes, and build a list that makes everything downstream easier.
What You'll Walk Away With
A repeatable prospecting system — how to define your Ideal Customer Profile, find qualified leads efficiently, research them in under 5 minutes, and organize a list that fuels your outreach for weeks. This is the work that makes everything else in the SDR role possible.
From Katherine
Prospecting feels like the least glamorous part of sales. There's no dopamine hit of a closed deal, no exciting phone call — just research and list-building. But here's the truth: the SDRs who build the best lists win. You can have perfect cold email templates and great phone presence — and still fail if you're calling the wrong people.
Prospecting is the foundation. Get it right and everything downstream gets easier.
— Katherine Rodriguez
What Is Prospecting?
Prospecting is the process of identifying people who might be a good fit for what you're selling — before you reach out to them. An SDR's job is not to sell. It's to find qualified potential buyers and get them to a meeting. Prospecting is step one of that pipeline.
Good prospecting means reaching out to the right people, with the right context, at the right time. Bad prospecting means calling anyone on a list hoping someone is interested. The first approach builds a career. The second approach builds a bad reputation.
Define Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
Before you prospect, you need to know who you're looking for. Your ICP is a description of the type of company and person most likely to benefit from — and buy — what you're selling. At most companies, the ICP is defined for you. But understanding how it works means you can apply it intelligently instead of blindly.
ICP Components — Company Level
1
IndustryWhich sectors does your product serve best? SaaS companies often target technology, healthcare, finance, or professional services. Know your vertical.
2
Company SizeEmployees, revenue, or both. A 10-person startup needs different solutions than a 500-person enterprise. Your product fits somewhere on that spectrum.
3
Growth StageStartup (0–50), growth-stage (50–500), enterprise (500+). Growth-stage companies often have budget to spend and pressure to scale — prime prospecting territory for SDRs.
4
Trigger EventsRecent funding, new leadership, team expansion, product launch — events that signal a company is likely buying. A company that just raised Series A is often actively purchasing tools and hiring people to use them.
ICP Components — Person Level (The Buyer Persona)
1
Title / RoleWho actually buys and uses the product? VP of Sales? Head of Marketing? Founder? Know who has budget authority vs. who is the user vs. who is an influencer in the decision.
2
Pain PointsWhat problem is this person trying to solve? What keeps them up at night? Prospects respond to outreach that demonstrates you understand their world — not just your product.
3
Communication PreferenceAre they active on LinkedIn? Do they respond to email? Some buyer personas almost never pick up cold calls. Knowing this shapes your outreach channel strategy.
The 5-Minute Prospect Research Method
You don't have 30 minutes per prospect. You have 5. Here's how to extract what you need to personalize your outreach without falling down a research rabbit hole:
5-Minute Research Checklist
1
Minute 1 — LinkedIn ProfileTheir current role, how long they've been there, what they post about, career background. One relevant detail = one personal hook.
2
Minute 2 — Company LinkedIn PageRecent posts, team size, location, industry, open jobs. A company hiring aggressively is a company with budget and growth pressure.
3
Minute 2 — Company Website HeadlinesHomepage headline, "About" page, recent blog posts or press releases. What problem do they say they solve? What's their value proposition?
4
Minute 4 — Google "[Company] news" or "[Company] funding"Any recent announcements. Funding rounds, acquisitions, new products, leadership changes. These are your opening line triggers.
5
Minute 5 — Write Your One Personal InsightOne sentence. The specific thing you found that connects to why you're reaching out. This goes in your outreach. Everything else you researched was context for making this one sentence authentic.
Where to Find Prospects
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator — The gold standard for B2B prospecting. Filter by industry, title, company size, geography, and activity. Most companies pay for it for their SDRs.
- Apollo.io — Free tier available. Great for finding email addresses and phone numbers tied to LinkedIn profiles. Used widely by SDR teams.
- LinkedIn (free) — Advanced search, company pages, people who engaged with posts. Slower than Sales Navigator but completely free.
- Crunchbase — For finding recently-funded companies. Filter by funding round, date, industry. A just-funded company is often a buying company.
- Job boards — Companies hiring for the roles that use your product are companies that need your product. If you sell sales software and a company is hiring 5 SDRs, they need your tool.
Prove You Got It
Pick any B2B SaaS company you'd want to work for. Using only LinkedIn and Google, find three people at that company who hold titles relevant to an SDR role (Sales Manager, VP Sales, Head of BDR). For each one, note the one personal hook you'd use in outreach. That's your first prospect list.
Say It Out Loud
"Prospecting isn't guesswork. It's targeting — and I know exactly who I'm looking for."