How To Build a Sales Prospecting List (Tips, Example & FREE Templates)

Want to close more deals? Start with a quality prospecting list.

Over the past 6 months, my outbound sales team closed 2x more deals and grew revenue by 350%. 

No, we didn’t rely on luck or any shortcuts. 

So, what changed? 

We started building targeted and segmented prospect lists with verified names, emails, and LinkedIn profiles of the right-fit buyers. This enabled us to 

• Adopt a systematic and strategic approach for outreach campaigns
• Qualify and prioritize leads accurately
• Convert prospects into customers faster

Here’s the thing—
The success of your entire outbound sales strategy depends on this one foundation: a solid prospecting list.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through:

• How to build a sales prospecting list from scratch
• Real example of a winning list
• FREE templates you can plug into your workflow today

Let’s get into it!

What is a Prospecting List in Sales?

A sales prospecting list is an organized collection of potential buyers who fit your ICP.
It includes their names, contact information, job titles, and other relevant details your team can use to personalize and prioritize their outreach efforts.

A well-built prospecting list helps you:

• Target the right people
• Personalize your messaging
• Improve conversion rates
• Spend less time chasing unqualified leads

In short, it’s not just a contact list—it’s the foundation of a successful outbound strategy.

How to Get Prospecting Lists?

If you want to build a sales prospecting list quickly, the best way is to use a reliable tool that gives you access to quality leads.

Most sales teams today don’t build lists manually. 

They utilize data tools that automate the process, saving them hours each week.

One such tool we use at our company is Saleshandy.
It is an AI-powered cold outreach platform that helps you manage prospecting and outreach from a single place.

Here’s how you can create a prospect list with Saleshandy in a few minutes.

• B2B Database
  Get access to 700M+ verified contacts. You can filter by job title, industry, location, company size, and more, whatever matches your ICP. 
• LinkedIn Chrome Extension
  While scrolling through LinkedIn, simply click the extension to pull your prospect’s contact details instantly.
• Just enter your ICP in a simple prompt, and the AI generates a ready-to-use list of matching leads.

Next? 

• You can export the prospects into your CRM 
• Download the generated list as a CSV file

What do we do?
We usually skip all that and send the prospects straight into our cold email campaigns, because Saleshandy lets us directly add prospects to our outreach sequences.

This alone saves us a lot of time (and money 😅) we’d otherwise spend downloading and uploading leads into another tool.

That said, if you’d rather want to build your prospecting list manually, follow these steps 👇🏼

4 Simple Steps to Build a Sales Prospecting List

Here’s how to build a sales prospecting list in 4 steps:

Step 1: Define your prospects (ICP + Buyer Persona)
Step 2: Collect accurate data
Step 3: Organize your list properly
Step 4: Score and prioritize leads

Let’s break down each step in detail.

Step 1: Define Your Prospects

Before you start building  your list, get clear on two things:

• What value does your product or service actually offer
• What pain points will it solve

Once you’re clear on that, it becomes easy to define who your prospects should be.

To identify the right prospects, you need to create two things:

1. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

This is the type of company that’s the best fit for what you’re offering. Not everyone needs your product—your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) helps you focus on only those who do.

Use this template to create your ICPs List 👇🏼

👉🏼 Click here to get this ICP Creation Template

2.  Buyer Persona

These are the individuals within those companies who make or influence purchasing decisions. You need to know who to reach out to, because sending your pitch to the wrong person is a waste of time.

Create your buyer persona with this template 👇🏼

👉🏼 Click here to get this buyer persona template

Step 2: Collect Your Prospect’s Information

Now that you’ve defined who you want to target, it’s time to find those people.

You can use tools and sources like:

• Business databases
• Email finder tools
• Phone number finders
• Market intelligence tools ( Crunchbase)
• LinkedIn & Twitter
• Trade journals or niche publications
• Competitor websites and case studies

And look for companies and individuals that match the ICP and buyer personas you created in Step 1.

What Data Should You Collect for Your Prospecting List?

For each prospect you add to your list, collect the following data fields:

💡  Add buying signals (intent data) when possible. It helps personalize your outreach and improve conversions.

Step 3: Structure Your List

Okay—now that you’ve collected your prospect data, it’s time to organize it properly.

Now, there is no standard rule for formatting your prospecting list. 

However, I recommend creating as many segments as possible and adding columns for:

• Sources (keep a tab of where you got the information from)
• Notes (include additional relevant information that can help personalize your outreach)

Once you’ve collected the data, copy it into a spreadsheet or CRM with well-labeled columns.

Here’s an example of a sales prospecting list:

Just a thought 🤔

You can use Spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets) to build a prospect list.

But Spreadsheets are great for small-scale prospecting.

If you are prospecting  at a larger scale, they can slow you down:

• You’ll spend hours copying, verifying, and updating details
• Errors are common
• Data will become outdated fast

That’s why I recommend investing in a sales automation tool, such as Salesforce, Zoho, or Pipedrive. These tools will help you to →

• Avoid human error
• Keep data synced and clean
• Save time and improve scale
• Connect directly with your outreach workflows

Step 4: Score Your Leads

Add a score for each of your prospects based on the following criteria:

• How closely do they match your ICP
• Whether they show any buying signals
• How engaged they are (e.g., email opens, LinkedIn activity)

Now, this isn’t a compulsory step, but it will help you identify high-priority prospects who are most likely to convert faster.

So, Should You Buy or Build a Prospecting List?

The common question that many sales teams face is— Should we build the prospecting list manually from scratch, or buy it from a trusted tool?

Let’s break that down.

1. Building It Yourself

This means you’re collecting data manually from places like:

• LinkedIn
• Company websites
• Business directories
• Google, trade publications, etc.

It sounds doable at first. However, for most sales teams, it’s not sustainable in the long term.

Pros:

• Full control over who you add
• Free of cost if you’re doing it yourself
• You can spot unique buying signals while researching

Cons:

• Takes a lot of time
• Easy to miss or mess up contact details
• Not scalable if you’re doing outreach at volume
• Needs manual cleaning and verification

2.  Using a Tool

By “buying,” we’re talking about using B2B data providers like Saleshandy, Apollo, or ZoomInfo that give you access to millions of verified contacts based on filters like:

• Job title
• Industry
• Location
• Company size
• Tech stack

In other words, you skip the research and get straight to outreach.

Pros:

• Huge time-saver
• Verified and regularly updated contact data
• Easily filter by your ICP
• One-click exports or direct push to email campaigns

Cons:

• Not completely free (though most tools offer free trials or credits)
• Quality may vary depending on the tool you choose
• Might need some minor cleaning or segmentation before use

Pro Tip:

If you decide to buy leads, stick with vendors that comply with GDPR/CAN-SPAM and update their databases regularly. Bad lists hurt the sender’s reputation and waste the budget.

Apart from it, you should also look out for the following factors:

• Geographical data coverage
• Credit system
• Are data points available (intent data, event and hiring triggers, technographics, firmographics)
• Integrations with sales tools

Tips for Managing and Cleaning Your List

Let’s take a look at a few tips that can help you create a winning sales prospecting list 

1. Use an Email Verification Tool
2. Clean Your Data
3. Refine your ICPs and Buyer Persona
4. Invest in a CRM
5. Update Your List Regularly

Explore them in detail →

1. Use an Email Verification Tool

Before you add any email to your prospect list, always verify it. Even one bad email can hurt your deliverability and send your messages straight to spam.

Some sales tools come with built-in email verification; however, if yours doesn’t, consider using a tool like NeverBounce, MillionVerifier, or Bouncer.

This way, you only reach out to valid, active email addresses, avoiding bounce backs that can damage your domain.

2. Clean Your Data

Even small mistakes can make your outreach look unprofessional or result in contacting the wrong person.

Here’s what you should clean up before uploading or using any list:

• Remove emojis or random words from job titles
• Standardize phone numbers (use one format for all)
• Fix spelling errors in names, emails, or company names
• Strip out company suffixes like “LLC” or “Ltd.” unless relevant

3. Keep Refining your ICPs and Buyer Persona

This is a non-negotiable practice!

You should not forget to update your ICP and buyer persona every 2-3 months, as this can help you optimize your future outreach efforts.

Look at your current campaigns closely and see

• Who are converting
• What made them choose your product
• What problems were they facing before they made the purchase?
• How much did they spend?
• What finally convinced them? 

Use those insights to fine-tune your targeting and keep your list filled with high-intent prospects.

4. Invest in a CRM

Using a CRM tool is one of the smartest moves you can make when building and managing your sales prospecting list.

Why?

Because CRMs:

• Keep the list organized as you add more prospects
• Allows you to search through your prospects easily
• Automates parts of your workflow.

And the best part? The CRM can automatically remove outdated ones, saving you the headache of manual cleanups.

5. Update Your List Regularly

Creating a prospecting list is not a one-time task

Data changes faster than you can think.  

• People change jobs
• Emails become invalid
• Companies shift priorities

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you refresh your data monthly or quarterly. 

Here is what you can do while updating your prospect’s data:

• Refresh emails
• Remove unresponsive or irrelevant leads
• Recheck the ICP match and update the buyer persona

Prospecting List Template You Can Use for FREE

To help you get started faster, here are four ready-to-use sales prospecting list templates.

You can copy and paste them directly into a spreadsheet or import them into your CRM.

1. B2B Prospecting List Template for Outreach

2. Targeted  Account-Based Prospecting List Template

3. Event-Based Prospecting List Template

4. CRM Import-Ready Template

Mistakes to Avoid While Building a Sales Prospecting List

A few small mistakes can ruin your prospecting list—and hurt your outreach results.

To save you from that, here are some common mistakes to watch out for (and how to avoid them). 👇🏼

1. Not Defining ICPs
2. Skipping Personalization Triggers
3. Overfilling the List with Unnecessary Data

1. Not Defining ICPs

One of the common mistakes that many people make is skipping or rushing through their ICP process.

Which eventually leads to

• Poor match between your offer and the prospect
• Low response rates
• Wasted time and effort

Therefore, you make sure to define your ICPs. 

2. Skipping Personalization Triggers

Your prospecting list should do more than store contact details. It should help you personalize your outreach.

If you’re not adding fields like:

• Job function context
• Recent news or funding
• Common connections
• Prior engagement history

…you are missing out on a chance to personalize your outreach and end up making it feel generic.

Therefore, always include notes or extra columns that you can refer to while launching your outreach campaigns. 

3. Overfilling the List with Unnecessary Data

More data ≠ Better data

Collecting every possible detail about a prospect just makes your list messy and harder to manage.

 Instead, focus only on what helps you:

• Qualify leads
• Personalize messaging
• Segmenting &  targeting

Key TakeAways

• A sales prospecting list isn’t just a list; it’s the foundation of your outbound success.
• You can build a quality list in two ways: manually or using tools
• Many sales teams create sales prospecting lists with tools
• Collect only useful data—don’t overload your list with unnecessary details.
• Update your list regularly, verify email addresses, and refine your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) based on actual performance data.

FAQs on Building Prospect Lists

1. What Tools Can I Use to Build a Prospecting List?

You can use B2B business databases like Saleshandy Lead Finder to quickly narrow down and find prospects relevant to your outreach needs.

2. Can I Use AI to Build My Prospecting List Faster?

Yes, AI can definitely help you prospect and build lists faster. There are many prospecting tools that have AI recommendations, which will suggest prospects based on your previous search criteria and wins.

3. How Often Should I Update My Prospecting List?

There is no correct timeframe for this, as some of your prospects can change roles or companies at any time.
Therefore, a more effective option would be to have a prospecting platform with an enrichment feature integrated with your CRM. This way, your list stays fresh with real-time updates.

4. How Many Contacts Should Be in My Prospecting List?

It depends on your outreach strategy. If you want to take a highly personalized route, I recommend not having more than 3 prospects per account and having no more than 150 accounts per list.

5. What’s the Difference Between a Lead List and a Prospecting List?

A lead list contains details of potential customers who have shown some interest in your offering.
On the other hand, a prospecting list includes individuals who match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and are qualified for outreach efforts.

6. Which Channel Should I Use to Reach Out After Getting My Prospecting List?

The best channel is the one where your prospects are most active. That’s why a multichannel approach works best.
Start with cold emails, follow up with LinkedIn messages, and call your high-intent or high-value leads.
This boosts your chances of getting replies and starting real conversations.