How to prospect with Claude without finding the same leads twice
Claude can already search the web and read pages. What it lacks for prospecting is a method and a memory. Here are both, step by step.
Claude can search the web, read a company’s site, work in your browser and fill a spreadsheet. On paper, that is most of a prospecting job.
In practice, the first session goes well. The second one goes wrong.
What goes wrong without a method
It forgets
A new conversation starts from zero. The same directories give the same names.
It comes back
Nothing remembers a rejected company, so it gets checked again.
It guesses
Asked for an email, it writes firstname@company.com. That bounces, or reaches the wrong person.
It drifts
“Dentists in Austin” turns into “healthcare in Texas” by page three.
It never stops
Or it stops at three. Without a number, the length of a session is luck.
None of this is about intelligence. It is about method and memory, and Claude can be given both. Here is the method, step by step, on one example: finding dental practices in Austin for a company that sells online booking.
The method, in six steps
Frame the target in one sentence
Who, where, and the signal that makes them a prospect. One sentence is a boundary Claude can hold. A paragraph is an invitation to wander.
Add who the right contact is, and who is out of target.
Target
Independent dental practices in Austin whose site takes appointments by phone only.
- Right contact
- The owner or the office manager. Failing that, the practice’s generic address.
- Out of target
- Chains, hospital departments, current customers.
Decide what every prospect must carry
Before the first search, say what makes a prospect complete. At least one detail must belong to a single practice: an email, a LinkedIn profile. A candidate without it is not a prospect yet.
Required
Nice to have
Check before you dig
Before researching a batch of candidates, check them against everything you already have: prospects and rejected candidates alike. A check costs one look-up. Researching a practice twice costs a dozen page reads.
Batch check
- Hillcrest Dental StudioNew: research it
- Lakeview SmilesAlready a prospect
- Northgate Family DentalExcluded: part of a chain
- Riverbend Dental CareNew: research it
- Cedar Park DentistryExcluded: books online
Read contact details, never deduce them
Every email, phone number or profile comes from a page, a file or an API where it is written. Keep that source next to the detail: the exact URL. That is the proof. If you cannot point to it, you do not have it.
Take a person’s address only when the source names their role. Otherwise, take the generic one.
Prospect
Hillcrest Dental Studio
Austin, TX
- frontdesk@hillcrestdental.exampleread on hillcrestdental.example/contact
- Dr. Ana Ruiz, ownerread on hillcrestdental.example/team
- ana@hillcrestdental.exampleGuessed: not kept
Exclude with a reason
Out of target, no contact found, already a customer: write it down, candidate by candidate. A rejected candidate with a reason is never checked again. Without one, it costs a second look every session.
Cap the effort too: about twelve page reads per candidate. Past that, exclude it as incomplete and move on.
Excluded
- Northgate Family DentalPart of a chain of twelve practices.Out of target
- Maple Street DentalNo email or profile after twelve page reads.Incomplete
- Cedar Park DentistryAlready takes appointments online.Out of target
Stop at a number, then write the notes
Decide how many prospects a session should bring. Ten is a good start. At ten, stop. Then write the hand-over notes: where you searched, what worked, what came up empty, where to go next.
Write the dead ends too. They are what the next session is most likely to repeat.
Notes · session 3
10 of 10 prospects- Searched
- Maps listings for zip codes 78704 and 78745, then each practice’s own site.
- Worked
- Contact and team pages: that is where the emails are written.
- Dead ends
- Review sites block AI agents. Chain sites only offer a form.
- Next
- Zip codes 78757 and 78731, then Round Rock.
Where the memory lives
The method needs a place Claude reads at the start of every session and writes to as it goes. Two options work.
- A spreadsheet Claude can open: a CSV file, a shared sheet. No setup. Fine for a few dozen rows. Past that, duplicates and rejected candidates are checked by eye.
- A tool connected over MCP, the standard way to give an AI agent new tools. Claude calls it to check candidates, record prospects with their proof and keep the notes. It takes a few minutes to connect.
| Spreadsheet | MCP tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Works with no setup | ||
| Survives a new conversation | ||
| Keeps a proof next to each detail | ||
| Checks a batch in one step | ||
| Refuses a duplicate on its own |
The six rules, on one card
- 1One sentence for the target. Never widen it.
- 2Decide what every prospect must carry before the first search.
- 3Check a batch against what you have before researching it.
- 4Read every contact detail at its source, and keep the source.
- 5Exclude with a reason. In doubt, exclude.
- 6Stop at a number, then write the notes, dead ends included.
Give these six rules to Claude at the start of a session, and keep the memory somewhere it can read.