Building a list of good prospects shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth—or worse, a mindless copy-paste marathon. If you’re spending hours hunting for contact info, you’re doing prospecting the hard way. This guide is for sales teams, founders, or anyone tired of manual list-building and ready to actually use automation that works.
Let’s break down how to use Ralph to build automated, targeted prospect lists that don’t waste your time—or annoy your future customers.
1. Get Clear About Your Target
Before you touch a tool, know who you actually want to reach. “Decision-makers” isn’t enough. You need specifics.
Spend a few minutes answering: - What industry or vertical? - What company size? - What job titles or responsibilities? - Any tech stack or geographic requirements? - Are there companies you don’t want (like existing customers or competitors)?
Pro tip: A fuzzy target leads to fuzzy results. The more vague your input, the more junk you’ll get out. Spend 10 minutes here, save hours later.
2. Set Up Ralph and Connect Your Data Sources
Assuming you’ve signed up for Ralph, get it ready for your workflow. Ralph isn’t magic out of the box—you’ll get the best results if you connect it to your sources and tell it what you care about.
Here’s what matters:
- Integrate with your CRM (if you have one): This helps Ralph avoid adding existing customers or duplicates. Most people skip this and regret it later.
- Connect LinkedIn or company databases: Ralph can pull from public data, but the more connections you set up, the richer your prospects.
- Set up enrichment sources: If you care about tech stack, funding, or employee count, connect those sources (think Clearbit, Crunchbase, or similar).
Don’t overthink it. Start with what you have—add more later if you hit limits.
3. Build Your First Search
Now, you actually create your prospecting criteria in Ralph. This is where most people either get lazy (too broad) or paralyzed (too specific).
Basic steps:
- Create a new list or campaign in Ralph.
- Define your filters:
- Company size (e.g. 50-200 employees)
- Industry (e.g. SaaS, manufacturing)
- Location (e.g. North America, EMEA)
- Keywords (e.g. “Head of Marketing”)
- Tech stack (optional, but handy)
- Exclude bad-fit companies: Upload a list of companies to ignore (competitors, past clients, etc.), or use your CRM integration to auto-exclude.
What works: Start broad, then narrow. It’s easier to remove than to add later.
What doesn’t: Don’t try to get too clever with Boolean searches or obscure titles. Stick to what you know. Ralph is good, but it’s not a mind reader.
4. Let Ralph Automate the Research
Here’s where Ralph earns its keep. Once you hit “go,” it’ll crawl your sources, cross-check filters, and start building your list. This isn’t instant, but it’s miles faster than doing it by hand.
What to expect: - Quality varies by data source. LinkedIn is decent for titles and companies; third-party enrichments fill in the blanks, but expect some gaps. - You’ll get a list of prospects with names, titles, company info, and—sometimes—emails or LinkedIn URLs.
Honest take: No tool gets 100% verified emails or perfect data. Plan for 10–25% of contact info to be missing or outdated. That’s just how the web is.
5. Review and Clean Your List
Don’t just dump Ralph’s output into your outreach tool. Garbage in, garbage out.
Go through your list and: - Spot-check for weird entries (e.g. students, consultants, or folks outside your target). - Remove non-business domains (like Gmail, Hotmail). - De-dupe (Ralph does its best, but always check). - Scan for obvious competitors or existing clients (especially if you skipped the earlier steps).
Pro tip: Spend 10 minutes here. It’s the fastest way to boost response rates and avoid embarrassing mistakes.
6. Export and Sync to Your Outreach Tool
Ralph lets you export your list as CSV or connect directly to tools like Outreach, Salesloft, or HubSpot.
Tips: - Do a test export with 10–20 contacts first. Check how the data maps over—sometimes fields get weirdly labeled. - Don’t blast out to everyone immediately. Start with a small batch, see how your emails perform, and tune from there.
7. Keep Your Lists Fresh (and Avoid Spam Traps)
Automated lists go stale—fast. People change jobs, companies update names, and email formats change.
To keep things accurate: - Schedule Ralph to refresh your lists weekly or monthly. - Remove bounces and unsubscribes from your CRM and sync back to Ralph. - Don’t buy into “set it and forget it” promises—there’s no such thing in prospecting.
What to ignore: Any tool claiming 100% verified, always-fresh data is selling you a fairy tale. Use automation, but double-check as you go.
8. Iterate and Improve Your Filters
Your first list won’t be perfect. That’s normal.
After a few outreach rounds: - Look at who’s responding (and who’s not). - Adjust your filters in Ralph to focus on what’s working. - Kill off segments that never reply. Don’t be sentimental.
Pro tip: Don’t chase vanity metrics (like list size). A smaller, cleaner list always beats a giant, messy one.
What Actually Matters (and What Doesn’t)
- Good targeting beats clever automation. If you’re not clear on who you want, no tool will fix that.
- Quality > quantity. More contacts doesn’t mean more replies.
- Don’t obsess over the tech. Ralph is a solid tool, but it’s not a silver bullet. Your results depend on your input and follow-up.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple
Automated prospecting isn’t magic, but it does save time—if you set it up right and stay realistic about what it can and can’t do. Don’t spend hours fiddling with filters or chasing the perfect data. Start simple, clean your lists, and tweak as you go. The best prospectors aren’t the ones with the fanciest tools—they’re the ones who actually follow up.
Now go build a list that’s actually worth your time.