Definition
The research step of outbound sales: finding companies and contacts that match your ideal customer profile, verifying their details, and deciding who to reach out to first.
Prospecting comes before outreach and decides most of its outcome. A strong prospect list is narrow, filtered by fit and by timing signals like hiring, funding, or a tech change, and has verified contact data. A weak one is a broad export of job titles, which no amount of clever copy can rescue.
Where this comes from
Read: The TAM Trap: Vague Targeting Kills Your Pipeline