If you’re in a niche industry, you already know how hard it is to find the right leads. The default filters in most sales platforms are built for generic B2B hunting—tech, finance, healthcare, rinse, repeat. But what if you need to find, say, medical device distributors in the Midwest, or boutique distilleries with under 20 employees? That’s where custom filters in Lead411 come in.
This guide is for anyone who’s tired of wading through endless irrelevant contacts and wants to actually get to the good stuff—without needing a PhD in sales software. We'll break down how to set up custom filters that actually work for weird, niche, or just plain small markets. And we’ll be honest about what works, what doesn’t, and where you might hit a wall.
Why bother with custom filters?
Let’s be real: shotgun searches waste time. If you’re in a niche, you want fewer, better leads—not a giant list you’ll never call. Custom filters help you:
- Skip the noise, get to useful contacts.
- Stop cold-emailing people who’ll never care.
- Actually understand who’s in your market, not just “companies with over 100 employees.”
But be warned: no filter is perfect. Lead411 pulls from a big database, but you’ll always need to double-check for accuracy—especially with niche targets.
Step 1: Get your niche criteria straight
Before you even log into Lead411, write down exactly who you want to find. Don’t rely on vague ideas—get specific:
- Industry or sub-industry (use NAICS codes if you know them)
- Geography (cities, states, regions)
- Company size (by revenue, employee count, or both)
- Special attributes (privately owned? woman-owned? franchises?)
- Titles you actually want to reach
Pro tip: Talk to your current best customers. What do they have in common? Use that as your starting point.
What to skip: Don’t bother with every possible detail at first. Focus on the 2-3 things that really matter. You can always get more granular later.
Step 2: Log in and head to Advanced Search
Once you’re in Lead411, skip the basic search. Click on “Advanced Search”—that’s where all the real power lives.
You’ll see a ton of filter options. Some are useful, others are just noise for most niches. Here’s what to focus on:
- Industry/Sub-Industry: Start here. Use the dropdowns; you can select multiple industries or drill down into sub-categories. If your industry is truly obscure, try the “Keyword” field.
- Location: You can filter by state, city, zip, or even radius from a point.
- Company Size: Set by employee count or revenue range.
- Title/Department: Find people by job function or title keywords. For niche outreach, this is gold—skip “CEO” unless you’re really selling to owners.
- Technologies Used: If you sell to companies that use specific tools, this can help.
- Other filters: Ownership, funding, recent hiring, etc. Honestly, in most niche cases, these are less useful, but worth a glance.
Step 3: Build and stack your filters
This is the fun (and sometimes frustrating) part.
- Start broad. Pick your main industry and region.
- Add one filter at a time. Watch how your results change.
- Stack filters, but don’t go overboard. It’s easy to “filter yourself into oblivion” and get zero results.
Real-world tip: If you’re getting too many leads, tighten up. Too few? Loosen one filter and see what pops up. This is more art than science.
Example: Targeting craft breweries in the Pacific Northwest
- Industry: “Food & Beverage” → “Breweries”
- Location: Oregon, Washington, Idaho
- Company Size: 5–50 employees
- Title: “Owner,” “Head Brewer,” “Operations”
You’ll probably still get a few irrelevant hits, but it’s a solid start. Refine as needed.
Step 4: Use keywords for ultra-niche targets
If your target niche doesn’t fit neatly into Lead411’s categories, use the keyword field. This searches company descriptions and sometimes titles.
Try:
- Brand names
- Product types
- Certifications (e.g., “ISO 13485” for medical device makers)
- Niche jargon only your industry uses
Pro tip: Run a few searches with different spellings or synonyms. Databases aren’t always smart about variations.
What to ignore: Don’t expect the keyword search to be magic. It’s good, but not Google-level. Sometimes you’ll get weird results.
Step 5: Save your custom filter for next time
Once you’ve got a filter setup that works—save it. Lead411 lets you save custom searches so you don’t have to start from scratch.
- Click “Save Search” at the top (name it something you’ll remember).
- You can create several—for different niches, regions, or campaigns.
This is a big time-saver, especially if your targeting changes week to week.
Step 6: Review and export—carefully
Before blasting out emails, sanity-check your list:
- Scan the company names. Do they look right?
- Are the titles on target? If you see a lot of “VP of HR” in your brewery search, something’s off.
- Spot-check a few with Google or LinkedIn. Some data will always be outdated or wrong—it’s the nature of these tools.
Once you’re happy, export your list and move on to your outreach.
Honest take: No tool, including Lead411, will be 100% accurate, especially in tiny or oddball markets. Always double-check before you pitch.
Troubleshooting: What if the filters aren’t working?
If you’re not getting the results you want:
- Too few leads? Loosen filters. Try a broader industry, bigger geography, or wider company size.
- Too many junk leads? Tighten up. Add job titles, more location details, or a keyword.
- Can’t find your niche at all? Sometimes, Lead411 just doesn’t have much data for super-niche industries. No tool covers everything. Supplement with LinkedIn, trade associations, or plain old Google.
Watch out for:
- Outdated data (people change jobs all the time)
- Companies listed under weird categories
- Small companies missing from the database entirely
Extra tips for niche prospecting
- Check competitor lists: Sometimes, searching for your competitors by name and pulling similar companies is the fastest way.
- Use exclusion filters: If you keep getting irrelevant industries, use “exclude” to weed them out.
- Don’t chase vanity metrics: A list of 100 great leads is better than 1,000 random ones.
- Iterate: Your first search won’t be perfect. Tweak, save, and come back as you learn.
Keep it simple and keep tweaking
Setting up custom filters in Lead411 for niche industries isn’t rocket science, but it does take some fiddling. Don’t stress about making it perfect on the first try. Start with your best guess, see what comes up, and adjust as you go. As long as you’re getting better leads than you were before, you’re on the right track.
Go forth and find those weird, wonderful prospects—one filter at a time.