How to build a targeted LinkedIn lead list
By Bravabase · Published
Start with the companies your offer can help. Find the people responsible for the problem, check what you actually know about their situation, and keep a reason beside every name. That gives you a useful starting point for targeted outreach.
This guide is for agency owners finding their own clients and B2B founders building their own sales pipeline. You will work from an offer to a shortlist, then prepare a first message that makes sense for the person receiving it.
1. Choose companies your offer can help
Make the offer specific before searching for names. “We help businesses grow” leaves almost everyone on the list. “We turn customer interviews into case studies for B2B software marketing teams” tells you what the company sells, which team might care and what work you can offer.
Write down three things: the company type, the problem your work addresses and the situations you would exclude. Use size, location or language only when they affect fit or your ability to deliver. Funding, hiring or a launch can give you something to investigate; none proves that a company needs your help.
Our offer: Companies this fits: The problem we help with: Who is responsible for that work: Evidence worth investigating: Companies or situations to exclude: What we still need to learn:
This brief organizes your own criteria. It does not retrieve leads or check them for you.
Start with company websites and LinkedIn company pages. Check what the business sells and who buys it. You can also work outward from relevant people in your existing network or from a public discussion you can contribute to. LinkedIn’s official prospecting guide describes company-first and person-first approaches.
2. Find the person who owns the problem
A title is a clue. The responsibility is what matters. At one company, a founder chooses the marketing work. At another, a marketing leader owns it while a customer-marketing specialist runs the interviews. Read the current role and company context before deciding whom to approach.
- Who experiences the problem? They can explain what makes the work difficult.
- Who owns the process? They may choose an approach or coordinate a change.
- Who approves the purchase? Leave this unknown until you have evidence.
These can be the same person, but you should not assume they are. Keep one short note with the source, date checked and the responsibility you could verify. If a profile is unclear, record the question instead of filling in a budget or decision-making role.
3. Decide: contact, research further or skip
A useful list includes decisions, not just names. Review each person against the same offer so a familiar title does not pull you away from the companies you meant to serve.
- Contact: the company fits, the person’s responsibility is relevant, and you have a truthful reason to start a conversation. This is permission to prepare a considered message, not proof they want to buy.
- Research further: the company looks relevant, but the role or situation is unclear. Write down the missing fact and where you could check it.
- Skip: the company or problem is outside your scope, the person is not relevant, or they have asked not to be contacted. Keep the reason so they do not return to the same list by accident.
A reaction to a post may be a place to begin your review. It is not a buying signal by itself. Use the lead qualification guide when you need to separate company fit, stated need and an actual opportunity.
Agency example: sell customer case studies to B2B SaaS teams
Both examples in this guide are fictional. Names, companies, posts, replies and decisions illustrate the method; they are not customer results.
Imagine your agency interviews a software company’s customers and turns those interviews into case studies. Your starting market is B2B SaaS companies with a marketing team. You are looking for the person responsible for customer proof, rather than everyone with “marketing” in their title.
Contact: a marketing leader discussing the right problem
Maya leads marketing at a B2B SaaS company. Its website confirms the business model. In a public post, Maya asks how other teams turn customer interview notes into useful sales stories. You have a relevant reason to respond: the question concerns work your agency does.
Save the post and the specific question. Budget, project timing and interest in an outside agency remain unknown. A helpful answer in the discussion may be the right first step.
Research further: the company fits, but ownership is unclear
Alex leads HR at another B2B SaaS company and discusses interviewing employees. The company fits, but that discussion does not establish ownership of customer case studies. Look for who handles customer marketing. Do not turn employee interviews into a made-up reason to pitch Alex.
Skip: the title fits, but the company does not
Jordan leads marketing at a direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand. The role sounds relevant, but this campaign is for B2B SaaS customer stories. Exclude the company from this list. Revisit that market only if you deliberately change the offer and can support it.
The result is three different decisions from the same brief. You have one relevant conversation to prepare, one ownership question to resolve and one mismatch to leave out. For fitting this work around delivery, use the agency business-development routine.
B2B founder example: let replies improve the buyer hypothesis
Imagine you are building software that helps implementation teams keep customer handoffs organized. Your first hypothesis is that an operations leader at a B2B software company owns the problem. That is a starting point to investigate, not a fact about every company.
You find a relevant company and ask an operations leader how implementation handoffs work. In this fictional reply, they explain: “Customer success owns that here. The hard part is collecting the information before kickoff.”
That reply changes two parts of your brief: who owns the work at this company, and which part of the process is difficult. Record customer success as the owner here and missing kickoff information as the stated problem. If an introduction would be welcome, ask for one; do not claim the operations leader recommended your product.
A second reply says another company has already solved the issue with its current process. Mark it as no current need. Do not treat every response as an opportunity or keep the original pitch unchanged.
For your next review, look at customer-success and implementation responsibilities as well as operations. Keep the original hypothesis, what each person said and the change you made. One reply can guide the next question; it does not establish that the whole market has the same problem.
4. Prepare a first message with a real reason behind it
Start with the relevant fact, connect it to one useful idea and ask one easy question. Read the full source first. If the opening could be sent unchanged to anyone, the list probably needs more work.
For Maya in the fictional agency example, a possible first message is:
Hi Maya — your question about turning customer interviews into sales stories caught my attention. Our agency works on B2B SaaS case studies. Is the harder part getting specific examples from the interview, or shaping the material afterward?
The message identifies why you are contacting her and what you do. It leaves room for her to correct the premise. Review the wording and context yourself before sending. If she asks for a resource, keep that promise in your next reply. The follow-up examples help with those later situations.
When someone says no or asks you to stop, close the outreach task. When they supply new information, update the record before preparing another message.
5. Keep the evidence and next step with the name
You can use our existing prospecting worksheet for this process. Fill in the offer and company criteria once, then duplicate the person-review section for each candidate. Record the source, the relevant fact, what is still unknown and your contact/research/skip decision.
The worksheet is a blank text file, not a list of leads. The free planner organizes the notes and next step you enter; it does not search LinkedIn or send messages. Keep private lead details in your own records.
Keep lead finding and conversations in one routine
Bravabase helps you work through the people connecting with you, following you and responding to your content. Use your offer and ideal-customer context to review relevance, then keep the conversation and next step close to the person.
Explore Prospecting for reviewing relevant people and Inbox for continuing the conversation. Check the features available in your account before planning an outreach campaign. Review and approve each message or post before it goes out.
Use LinkedIn and your own research to investigate companies beyond the information available in your connected account. This guide does not assume that Bravabase searches every LinkedIn profile or automatically imports the people you find.
Questions about targeted LinkedIn lead generation
How can an agency find its own clients on LinkedIn?
Choose one service and the companies it fits, then find the person responsible for that work. Check the current context before reaching out. The agency example above is about winning your own clients; it does not require managing LinkedIn accounts for your clients.
Where should a B2B founder start with LinkedIn outreach?
Start with a clear buyer and problem hypothesis. Review relevant companies, ask useful questions and record how replies change what you thought. Keep learning conversations separate from people who have agreed to discuss a purchase.
How many people should be on the list?
Keep it small enough that you can explain every name and follow through on each conversation. If the list grows faster than you can review it, improve the criteria before adding more people.
What should I measure?
Count reviewed candidates, justified contacts, relevant replies and agreed opportunities separately. Note why people were excluded and which replies changed your brief. Use the measurement guide to connect the work to business outcomes without treating a list, click or reply as a sale.