First step in prospecting - how to do research using Clay (clay.com)?

How can you use this tool and increase your operational capabilities?

In B2B sales, finding the right leads is not just a matter of growth, but also of building cashflow or opening up to new, diversified sources of revenue. Prospecting, i.e., the process of actively seeking potential customers who will benefit from your product or service, is the foundation of building an effective sales strategy.

From this article, you will learn:

• Why is Clay (clay.com) changing the rules of outbound?
• How to do research using Clay?
• What are best practices and what mistakes should be avoided?

Why is Clay (clay.com) changing the rules of outbound?

Clay is a comprehensive no-code platform that allows you to manage your prospecting process all in one place. This tool centralizes everything you need for effective prospecting in one place, thanks to a wide range of integrations with other tools (which you can find here).

Why is Clay so unique and actually changing the game?

Simply put, it eliminates the need for imports, exports, data transfers from one place to another, or building custom applications in Google Sheets that connect to other tools via API and use artificial intelligence to analyze records individually in each column, using the unique context of a given record to deliver the best-matched response
in a structured way.

An example to illustrate:

I want to create a list of companies using LinkedIn, find specific people in selected functional positions, then verify whether the categorization of companies is correct, download information about recent events at these companies from their websites and social media, and find personal email addresses of the identified individuals.

Without using Clay, the process looks like this:

1. Company research via Sales Navigator,
2. Research people in those companies,
3. No export option without external tool,
4. Export and upload data to Google Sheets,
5. Analyze data in Google Sheets using OpenAI API, which often can’t handle data load,
6. No possibility to enrich company data in real time from their media,
7. Export data,
8. Upload data to email-finder tool #1,
9. Export data,
10. Filter out records with found data,
11. Upload remaining records to another tool,
12. Export data,
13. Merge data,
14. Export data,
15. Upload to mailing tool,
16. Upload to CRM.

Using Clay, the process looks like this:

1. Company research with much broader selection criteria,
2. Research people in those companies,
3. Add column for categorization analysis,
4. Add AI-powered column to find real-time online information,
5. Add waterfall function to find email addresses using 3 sources based on name, surname, and domain,
6. Export data directly to mailing tool,
7. Export data directly to CRM.

Shorter, faster, more convenient, fewer errors.

What does research in Clay look like?

1. Define your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

Before diving into Clay’s features (you can read more about them here), you must have absolute clarity on who you are targeting. An Ideal Customer Profile is not just demographics - it’s a detailed picture of companies and people most likely to buy your product or service.

Start by analyzing your current customer base:

• Which industries bring the best results?
• How do analyzed companies describe themselves?
• Who is the decision-maker or influencer?
• What specific problems does the customer solve?
• Why will they choose you over competitors?
• When will companies enter the buying process?
• What triggers the start of a buying process?

2.Find target companies

Searching for companies in Clay is pleasant thanks to the Find Company function.

Use filters offered by Clay:

• Industry of interest,
• Company size based on number of employees,
• Type of company (e.g., LLC or joint-stock),
• Keywords to refine the companies you’re interested in - this option is limited in Sales Navigator.

Example:

Let’s say you want to reach companies in the medical industry with a specific profile: running their own e-commerce store.

You’re interested in supplements, medical equipment, or dermocosmetic producers - but not hospitals, pharmacies,
or clinics, which operate physically.

At first glance, just typing in the industry seems enough. But half of the results turn out to be hospitals, pharmacies,
or clinics.

This is where the exclude keywords function becomes very valuable.

We set a simple exclusion filter for company descriptions with words like:

• hospital
• pharmacy
• clinic

Thanks to this, instead of manually checking and deleting 200+ results, Clay did this for us.

Next, using the Clay Gent module, each website record in our database is checked for, e.g., the presence of a shopping cart feature, determining an e-commerce store.

3. Identify decision-makers

Finding the right company is just the beginning. Using the Find People at these companies function, you’ll find decision-makers based on previously found companies.

As you can see, Clay can be used iteratively, and the prospecting process becomes a cause-and-effect chain that, if well managed, can significantly ease your work.

Example:

You’ve found medical companies with e-commerce stores. Next, identify decision-makers.
Clay generates a table with your target companies. Now your goal is to find the decision-makers within them.
Using the Find People at these companies tool, you can define key parameters:

• Position (e.g., CEO, Founder, Owner, Director),
• People limit per company (usually 2–3 max).

This gives us a new table integrated with the previously generated company data.

Limiting records to 1 per company also answers: how many CEOs can be found on LinkedIn from the earlier list, and how to fill in missing contacts—e.g., with middle managers or by using local-language titles like "Geschaeftsfuehrer" instead of CEO.

4. Enrich and verify data

Thanks to Clay’s integration with email-finding tools (like Prospeo), you can query several databases in one place, maximizing the chance of finding correct email addresses.

Best practices:

• Test different "enrichers" on a small sample (5–10 records),
• Use waterfall logic-start with cheaper enrichers, then premium if needed.

Example:

You have the companies and decision-makers. Now verify that you have complete contact data. Enrichment lets you complete, e.g., missing business emails.

Use the waterfall function to merge tools in one utility to generate value- here, email addresses.

With API access to tools like Prospeo or Findymail, use them first to reduce costs. LeadMagic, on the other hand, will consume Clay credits.

In practice:

• The system queries all tools in sequence until it finds an email
• If it finds one in the first tool - done, output to the column
• If not, it checks the second - found? Done, output to column

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Best practices and common mistakes

• Don’t scale without testing: The biggest mistake is mass enrichment without source checks. What works in IT may fail in healthcare.
• Use waterfall logic: Don’t start with expensive enrichers.
• Start simple: Don’t build complex systems from the start. Add complexity step by step.

How to save on credits

It’s worth mentioning cost reduction in prospecting. A Clay credit costs $0.0745. But thanks to OpenAI API integration, the same action can cost $0.0001. Another example: getting an email with Prospeo costs 2 Clay credits ($0.149), while using the Prospeo API costs $0.039.

In numbers:
‍Example 1

You want to generate short company descriptions from Clay data:

Clay cost (1 action = 1 credit = $0.0745)
1000 records × $0.0745 = $74.50

OpenAI API cost (~$0.00001 per action)
1000 records - $0.00001 = $0.10

Example 2

You want to get business emails:

Clay cost (1 action = 2 credits = $0.149)
1000 records × $0.149 = $149

Prospeo API cost = $0.039 per action
1000 records × $0.039 = $39

As you can see, at scale, prospecting savings are significant. If you want to learn more about Clay, read on.

Summary

Effective research is based on precision and relevance. Clay can help you transform a chaotic process into a structured system.

By following this system from ICP definition to data enrichment, you can research more efficiently, which is the foundation of prospecting.

If you're just starting with Clay, remember: stick to simple rules, test on small samples, and build complexity iteratively.