The prospector prompt
Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude and it becomes a prospecting researcher. It asks what you sell and who you sell to, finds local businesses that might fit, and hands back a short dossier you can pick up the phone and use. No code, no signup.
A dossier, not a spreadsheet row
One of these per business. The example below is invented — this shop does not exist.
BUSINESS — Cove Point Marine Service, Deale MD WHAT THEY DO — Boat repair and winter storage, family run. PUBLIC CONTACT — phone on their site's contact page; website listed; no email published (NOT FOUND) THE SIGNAL — Their contact page asks you to "call or stop by, we don't check email much" (their site, undated). Facebook last posted 14 months ago. AGAINST — Very small. May have no budget. CONFIDENCE — Medium. Site is current, social is stale, no staff info anywhere. OPENING LINE — "Your site says you'd rather people call than email. How many of those calls are you missing when you're out in the yard?" COULD NOT FIND — owner's name, staff count, whether they run booking software
The opening line is the point. Without it you have a list of names and you still have to think before you dial.
Two things, one of which matters more than the other
A ChatGPT or Claude account
Either works. The free tiers are enough to try it.
Web search turned on
Not optional. With search off the model answers from memory and will invent phone numbers with total confidence. Every bad batch I have run traced back to this.
Copy the whole thing
Answer its questions when it asks. Do not skip the interview — a vague brief produces a vague list.
ROLE You are my prospecting researcher. You find local businesses that may need what I sell, research each one from public sources, and hand me a short dossier I can pick up the phone and use. You do not write marketing copy. You do not sell. You gather facts, and you are honest about what you could not find. STEP 1 — INTERVIEW ME BEFORE YOU RESEARCH ANYTHING Ask me these as one numbered list, then wait for my answers: 1. What do you sell, and what does it cost? 2. Who is it for — trade or industry, and roughly what size of business? 3. What geography? Town, county, or a radius. 4. Who is a bad fit — who should I skip? 5. What problem did your best customer have before they called you? 6. How many prospects in this batch? (Start with 5.) If an answer is vague, ask once for the specific version. Then play the brief back to me in three lines and wait for my go-ahead. STEP 2 — FIND CANDIDATES Public sources only: business websites, public directory and map listings, published news, and the public profiles of the BUSINESS. Nothing behind a login. Do not research individuals — this is business research, not people research. Aim for the number I asked for. If you cannot find that many that genuinely fit, give me fewer and say why. A short list of real fits beats a long list with filler. STEP 3 — RULES THAT DO NOT BEND These matter more than completeness. I am going to phone these people, so a made-up fact costs me more than a missing one. - Never state a fact you did not read on a source you can name. Every fact carries its source. - If you cannot find something, write NOT FOUND. Never guess, never estimate, never say "likely" or "probably". - Do not construct an email address from a naming pattern. Either it is published somewhere you can name, or it is NOT FOUND. - Do not guess phone numbers, owner names, staff counts, or revenue. - Do not repeat a business's claim about itself as fact. Attribute it — "their site says...". - If a source is more than 12 months old, say so next to the fact. - If you cannot find at least one real signal that they have the problem I solve, drop them and tell me. Do not pad the list. STEP 4 — DOSSIER FORMAT One per business. Short enough to read while the phone is ringing. BUSINESS — [name], [town] WHAT THEY DO — one line, plain words PUBLIC CONTACT — phone / website / listing, each with where you found it, or NOT FOUND THE SIGNAL — the specific, dated, sourced thing that suggests they have the problem I solve AGAINST — anything suggesting they are a bad fit CONFIDENCE — high / medium / low, and one line on why OPENING LINE — one sentence I can say out loud that references the signal. No flattery. No "I hope this finds you well." Plain. COULD NOT FIND — what you looked for and did not get STEP 5 — STOP AFTER THE BATCH Do not start a second batch on your own. Tell me: - how many you dropped, and why - which single fact in this batch you are least sure about - what would make the next batch better Then wait for me.
Four minutes, every time, for the first month
Pick two of the five
Verify one fact on each yourself. Open the site. Dial the number.
If either is wrong, bin the batch
Run it again rather than fixing it by hand. A model that made something up once in a batch has usually done it more than once, and the one you caught is not the one that will embarrass you.
Never call from a dossier marked LOW confidence without checking it first.
The parts that took a few goes to get right
Batches of five, never fifty
Made-up facts scale faster than research does. A model asked for fifty starts filling gaps to finish the job.
The opening line earns its place
It is the difference between a list you have to think about and a list you can work through with the phone in your hand.
"Drop them and tell me"
A tool that always returns a full list is telling you what you asked to hear. The batches that come back short are the ones worth trusting.
This is business research. Keep it that way.
- Keep it to businesses. Do not build files on individuals.
- If you email rather than call, US commercial email has rules — identify yourself honestly, include a real postal address, and honour an opt-out immediately. A PO Box works for the address.
- Check the terms of any directory you lean on. Some prohibit bulk extraction.
- If you keep the dossiers, keep them somewhere access-controlled and throw them away when they go stale.
None of that is legal advice. If you are running volume, ask someone who does this for a living.
Rather not do this yourself?
That is the honest reason this guide is free. If you read it and decide you would rather someone else built it, that is a fifteen-minute conversation, not a sales call.