A targeted prospect list is a structured output built from defined ICP criteria, enriched with company and contact data, validated before export, and formatted for the next GTM step. This guide shows GTM engineers, SDR leaders, and growth operators how to build targeted prospect lists in Claude Code using the Vibe Prospecting Plugin, covering installation, ICP filter design, the preview-before-fetch step, company-first versus contact-first logic, and the full export workflow.
How to Install the Vibe Prospecting Plugin in Claude Code
Before building a prospect list, install the Vibe Prospecting Plugin and authenticate with your Explorium account. The plugin is the tool layer that gives Claude Code access to company search, contact discovery, enrichment, matching, and export capabilities.
Installation commands
Run the login command to begin browser-based OAuth authentication:
If the output lists tools including match-business and fetch-entities, the plugin is installed and authenticated correctly. For full installation documentation, the plugin's GitHub repository includes environment-specific guides for Claude Code and other compatible environments.
Why the install step matters
The Vibe Prospecting Plugin is a Claude-native workflow layer built on Explorium's B2B data platform. Without it installed and authenticated, Claude Code can help you think through prospecting logic in conversation, but cannot fetch real company records, discover contacts, run enrichment, or export structured files. The workflow depends on the plugin tools: fetch-entities, enrich-business, enrich-prospects, match-business, match-prospects, fetch-entities-statistics, fetch-businesses-events, fetch-prospects-events, and export-to-csv. Installing the plugin first is the step that makes the rest of the workflow possible.
What This Workflow Builds
The prospect list workflow builds structured B2B lead lists from specific company and contact criteria. The plugin supports list builds up to 50,000+ records when the campaign requires scale, making it different from lighter Claude-native options suited only to small, one-off lookups.
What a usable prospect list contains
The difference between lead generation as a loose activity and lead generation as a repeatable workflow is that the workflow produces a file with rules behind it and a defined destination. If the list is going into HubSpot, Salesforce, a sales engagement tool, or a custom GTM workflow, the export structure needs to match that system's import requirements from the start.
Why Claude Code is better suited than Claude chat for list building
Claude chat helps with planning: clarifying the ICP, comparing segments, writing filter logic, and reasoning through campaign ideas. Claude Code runs the workflow: applying filters, fetching records, running enrichment, validating output, and exporting structured files. For prospecting at scale, the difference is between a useful conversation and a usable file. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin extends Claude Code with capabilities tailored for multi-step list building: filter autocomplete, stats before fetch, preview mode, full result sets, matching, enrichment, and CSV or JSON export.
Design Your ICP Filters Before Running the Workflow
The quality of the prospect list starts with the quality of the filters. A weak request gives the workflow too much room to guess. A specific request produces a list that aligns with the campaign.
What a weak filter looks like
Find SaaS leads in the US. This leaves company size, revenue, buyer role, seniority, and the type of SaaS company entirely undefined. The workflow returns a large, unfocused list that requires hours of manual cleanup before it is useful for any campaign.
What a strong filter looks like
Find US-based B2B SaaS companies with 50 to 500 employees, estimated revenue between $10M and $100M, and marketing or revenue leaders at the Director level or above. That request gives the workflow enough structure to produce a targeted, campaign-ready result.
The ICP filter framework
Organize filters into four groups before writing the workflow prompt. This structure prevents lists from becoming too broad, too narrow, or quietly useless.
Title logic needs flexibility
Companies do not name roles consistently. One company has a VP of Marketing, another has a Head of Demand Generation, and a third has a Growth Lead who owns the same buying motion. Use title groups organized by function and seniority rather than relying on a single exact title match. A marketing leadership group for a B2B SaaS campaign might include VP of Marketing, Head of Marketing, Marketing Director, Head of Growth, VP of Growth, Demand Generation Director, Head of Demand Gen, Chief Revenue Officer, and VP of Revenue. That flexibility captures real-world variation without diluting the persona definition.
Preview the Market Before Fetching Records
The preview step is one of the most valuable steps in the prospect list workflow. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin supports stats before fetch and prospect or business previews before pulling full result sets. That capability exists because the first version of your filters is rarely the best version.
What preview results reveal
A preview can reveal that the filters return too many companies, indicating the criteria are too broad and need tightening. It can reveal too few results, meaning the market is genuinely small or the filters are overly restrictive. It can also reveal the wrong types of companies or contacts, showing that the search logic needs adjustment before anything gets fetched, enriched, or exported.
Why previewing is quality control, not just cost control
If the preview returns mostly Marketing Manager titles when the campaign targets VP-level buyers, the title or seniority logic needs adjustment. If the company results mix agencies, consultancies, and SaaS vendors in the same list, the industry or company type filter needs tightening. Catching those problems at the preview stage prevents weak data from traveling downstream into the CRM, the sales engagement tool, or the SDR queue where it quietly damages campaign performance.
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Build the Company Layer First When Account Fit Matters
For most B2B campaigns where the company must fit the ICP before the contact matters, start with company discovery rather than contact search. Company-first prospecting produces a cleaner account layer that prevents building a list of contacts with the right titles at the wrong companies.
What the company discovery layer produces
Company discovery uses filters including industry, location, headcount, revenue, company type, domain availability, and exclusions to produce a verified account layer. Each company in the output carries a domain, industry, headcount range, revenue range, and location. That account layer becomes the input for the contact discovery step rather than allowing both searches to run in parallel without coordination.
Start with contacts when the buyer role matters more than the account profile. A campaign targeting a specific functional role across many industries, or a niche role that is concentrated in certain company types regardless of size, may perform better with contact-first logic. Use the preview step to check whether the resulting company mix is acceptable before committing to the full fetch.
Add the Right People Inside Each Target Account
Once the company list is confirmed, move to prospect discovery within those accounts. The goal is to find the right people based on function, seniority, and title, not to collect every available contact at each company.
For most outbound lists, two to three strong contacts per account produces better results than ten loosely relevant names. Coverage with quality beats coverage with volume when the goal is outreach that converts.
Enrich the List Before Export
Discovery produces records. Enrichment makes them usable. For prospect list building, enrichment should focus on the fields needed for outreach, CRM import, or sales review, not on every available data point.
Priority enrichment fields
Enrich the fields the team will actually use. Exporting 47 columns because the workflow can return them slows down the CRM import, creates mapping confusion, and makes the file harder to review. A cleaner export is easier to trust and faster to import.
Validate the List Before Exporting
Do not move a prospect list directly from enrichment to export. A validation step before the final export catches problems that create friction downstream in the CRM or the sales engagement tool.
Validation checks to run before export
Split the validated output into two groups: ready-to-export records with required fields complete and strong ICP fit, and needs-review records with partial matches, missing fields, or unclear fit. That split protects campaign quality and stops weak records from entering an outreach sequence where they damage deliverability and make the messaging look like the problem.
The Full Example Workflow for a B2B SaaS Prospect List
Here is a complete, structured workflow prompt you can adapt for your own list-building campaign:
Goal: Build a targeted outbound prospect list.
Company filters:
- Country: United States
- Industry: B2B SaaS
- Headcount: 50 to 500
- Revenue: $10M to $100M
Contact filters:
- Function: Marketing, growth, revenue
- Seniority: Director, VP, C-suite
- Titles: VP Marketing, Head of Growth, Demand Generation Director, CRO
- Contacts per company: 2 to 3
Required fields:
- Company name, domain, industry, headcount, revenue range
- Contact name, title, work email, LinkedIn URL
Workflow:
1. Preview sample companies and contacts.
2. Flag filters that are too broad or too narrow.
3. Fetch approved results.
4. Enrich missing company and contact fields.
5. Remove duplicates and off-target records.
6. Export as CSV for CRM import.
The export should match the destination system's import requirements. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin supports CSV and JSON exports, making it practical for CRM imports, sales engagement tools, and custom GTM workflows.
For CRM import, add the fields the import tool expects: lead source, campaign name, owner assignment, lifecycle stage, segment, and import date. These metadata fields ensure the records route correctly after import without requiring manual field population by whoever processes the file.
Common Variations for Different GTM Teams
The same prospect list workflow adapts to different sales motions without changing its core structure. The ICP filters, contact criteria, and export schema adjust based on how the team sells.
Sales-led prospecting list
Use this variation when SDRs need people to contact now. Prioritize contact fit, work email availability, and enough company context to support personalized outreach without requiring extensive research before the first message. The output typically goes into a sales engagement tool or a CRM campaign sequence. Two to three strong contacts per account with confirmed emails and titles is the target output quality for a sales-led list.
Account-based campaign list
Use this variation when account fit matters more than individual contact volume. Start with account criteria: industry, company size, revenue, geography, or technology profile. Add two to three decision-makers per account across the relevant buying functions. This approach works well for ABM motions, field marketing events, and named-account outbound programs where the account relationship matters as much as the individual contact.
Territory-based prospect list
Use this variation when sales teams work by geographic region or named-account ownership model. Segment the list by country, region, state, or metro area before export. Add CRM fields including territory, owner assignment, and segment before the import so the file routes correctly without creating duplicate records or ownership conflicts in the CRM. Territory-based lists are most useful when the export feeds directly into a CRM import that triggers routing automation.
Event or offer-specific list
Use this variation when the campaign centers on a specific event, product launch, partnership announcement, or pain point. Build the list around companies likely to care about the topic, then find the roles closest to the problem rather than running a generic ICP search. This approach produces a shorter, more focused list that outperforms broader lists when the messaging is specific and the event or offer has a defined audience.
Operational Tips That Improve List Quality
Well-designed workflows produce better prospect lists consistently. Use these rules before each export run.
The biggest mistake is treating the first output as the final list. A better workflow provides room to inspect the result, refine the filters, and then export. That is the practical advantage of using Claude Code with the Vibe Prospecting Plugin for B2B list building: the workflow is adjustable before it becomes a file in someone's CRM.
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