How to find prospects with AI (step by step)

Step-by-step walkthrough of the AI prospect finder. For the overview of when and why to use it, see AI prospect finder - overview. This article assumes you already know what the feature does and just want to know exactly how to run one.

Step 1: open the tool

1. Go to Pipeline in the sidebar.
2. In the top-right of the pipeline board, click the Find prospects with AI button. A modal opens over the board.

The modal has one input, one Search button, and a results list that appears once the search is done. You do not leave the pipeline page - close the modal and you are right back on your board.

Step 2: write your brief

The textarea is where you describe who you want to find. Treat it like a message to a smart new hire who has never met your customers. The narrower your brief, the sharper the results.

Include these three pieces every time:

1. What kind of business. Sector, product, business model.
2. Where. Country, region, city.
3. Any qualifying signals. Size, sector-specific tells, recent events.

Step 3: check a real example first

Here are three briefs that produce good shortlists. Copy one and adapt the specifics to your business before your first go:

• “FMCG wholesalers with dated websites in the South East, VAT registered, minimum 12 months trading”
• “Recruitment agencies in Manchester turning over £2m+ focused on tech or SaaS placement”
• “Independent design studios in the UK with 5-15 staff, video production capability, working with SaaS or fintech clients”

And here are three that produce bad results. Skip these shapes:

• “sales leads” - too vague, will return random companies.
• “big companies” - no vertical or geography, low relevance.
• “my ideal customer” - the AI has no idea what you sell without you saying it.

Step 4: click Search

Hit the Searchbutton once you have written at least 8 characters. The button becomes “Searching…” and stays greyed until results come back.

Expect 20 to 60 seconds. The AI is running live web searches and then reading each result to check it matches your brief. If you close the modal during the search, the search is cancelled - no credits charged.

Step 5: read the results

You get up to 20 companies. Each row shows:

• The company name and a link to their website.
• A one-line reason for why the AI picked them.
• Country / location, sector tags where discoverable.
• A Find emails action - covered in the next section.

Read the reason before ticking. If the reason is thin (“matches your brief” with no specifics), the company is probably a weak match. If the reason cites concrete evidence (“has a wholesale portal at /trade”, “lists FMCG suppliers on the About page”), that is a strong match.

Step 6: (optional) find emails

On each result there is a Find emails button. Click it and Jeanus returns verified email addresses for the target job titles at that company (marketing directors, buyers, hiring managers, etc). Each email enrichment costs 3 additional credits per company.

You can do this after adding the prospects to your pipeline instead - the choice is timing preference, not accuracy.

Step 7: tick the ones you want and add to pipeline

1. Tick the checkbox next to each company you want as a lead. You can shift-click to range-select.
2. The Add N leads to pipeline button at the bottom updates as you tick.
3. Click Add N leads. Each becomes a new lead in your first pipeline stage with the company name, URL and the AI's reason pre-filled as a note.

Auto-enrichment kicks off in the background so trading name, sector and Companies House info fill in within seconds. Refresh the pipeline board and the new cards are on it.

Step 8: (optional) draft first emails

On each new lead detail, the AI draftbutton now works. Give the AI a one-line goal (“introduce our new pallet delivery service” or “book a discovery call about their sourcing team”) and it drafts a personalised first email using the lead's trading info, sector, and any specific reason from the prospect finder.

Common gotchas

• Search returns 5 results, not 20. Your brief was probably too narrow for the AI to find 20 real matches. Loosen one criterion (drop the size band, or widen the geography) and rerun.
• Results are all the same big-brand competitors. Your brief was probably too broad and the AI defaulted to the highest-authority sites. Add a size or sector qualifier.
• Search fails with an error. Retry once - transient web-search failures happen. If it fails twice in a row, check the AI credits page for a rate-limit note.
• Some results are duplicates of leads you already have. The finder does not dedupe against your existing pipeline. Skim before ticking.