Finding is fast. The day goes to screening
Most people use AI to bring in more companies. The afternoon goes to the opposite: cutting the ones that don't fit.
Doing the work backwards
Five steps to go from a long list to a short list with proof. Manual method: Claude and your LinkedIn account, and with Sales Navigator step 2 goes faster. No downloading an entire database.
What you need: Claude and your LinkedIn account; with Sales Navigator step 2 goes faster. It isn't free: Sales Navigator is paid, and so is Claude used this way. What you save is the database and the fight with its columns.
The ideaThe AI that brings you 200 companies doesn't save you the afternoon. It just moves it.
Finding names is the fast part, which is why it's the part everyone automates first. The slow part is deciding which of those names DON'T make the cut, and that usually never gets done: you write to the whole list and see who answers. This guide uses AI for the opposite: cutting.
01 · Who you sell to, in plain language
No filters, no industry codes: you explain it to Claude the way you'd explain it to a new colleague on their first day. This description is the yardstick for the other four steps: everything that comes after gets measured against it. Fill in the blanks and paste it in.
I'm going to give you lists of companies to screen. First, let me tell you who I sell to, in plain language and without industry codes. I sell [WHAT YOU SELL]. My best customers are [TYPE OF COMPANY]: they [WHAT THEY DO], they sell to [THEIR CUSTOMERS] and their pain is [THE PROBLEM YOU SOLVE]. NOT a fit: [THE ONES TO CUT: too small, distributors...]. Repeat back who I'm looking for, ask me about anything missing, and don't start until I give you the go-ahead.
I sell AI prospecting software for B2B sales teams. My best customers are industrial companies: they manufacture machinery or components, sell to other businesses, and their pain is spending the afternoon figuring out who to write to. NOT a fit: companies that sell to consumers, or that have nobody selling.
02 · The candidates, without downloading a database
You already have the source: a LinkedIn or Sales Navigator search, the exhibitor list from a trade show in your industry, an association's directory. You give it to Claude in small batches, not all at once, so you can check what it does with each one.
You know who I'm looking for. I'm going to paste company names in batches, pulled from [YOUR SOURCE: LinkedIn, a trade show, an industry association]. For each one, just tell me CANDIDATE or OUT and your hunch about why, in one line. Don't research any of them yet: that comes later. If a name means nothing to you, answer I DON'T KNOW instead of filling the gap. At the end of each batch, give me the count.
03 · The sentence that proves it, with its link
This is where screening stops being an opinion. For each candidate, Claude has to bring the verbatim sentence from their website that proves they fit your step 1, plus the link so you can check it. A summary in its own words doesn't count: either there's a quote, or there's no proof.
Now for the proof. I'll give you the candidates one at a time: [NAME], [WEBSITE URL]. Read their website and bring me the VERBATIM sentence that proves they fit what I told you in step 1, copied exactly, in quotes, and tell me which page it's on, with the link, so I can check it myself. If there's no sentence that proves it, answer NO PROOF and don't dress it up. No summarizing in your own words: either there's a quote with a link, or there's no proof.
04 · No proof, out. Even if it fits on paper
The hard step, because you have to let go of companies that looked perfect. Right size, right industry, and not one sentence on their website to prove it: out. Not because they're bad, but because without proof you have nothing to say to them in the first message.
Go over everything so far. Any company without a verbatim sentence and a link goes to OUT, even if it looks perfect on size and industry. Don't argue for any of the cuts: if the proof isn't there, it isn't there. Give me two blocks, STAYS and OUT, each company with its reason in one line. And tell me which of the OUT ones would be worth another look in a few months, and on what signal.
05 · The short list, and going in only there
What's left is a short list where every name has its proof next to it. That's where screening ends and selling begins: the first call doesn't start cold, it starts with what that company publishes about itself.
Close out the short list. Sort the ones that STAY by the strength of their proof, from clearest to weakest. For each one, give me in one line the sentence from their website and how I'd use it to open the conversation without sounding like a template. That list is where I go in this week; everything else doesn't exist until the next screening. If any proof looks weak to you, tell me now and we'll drop it, not after I've written to them.
Screening on 1 page
Screenshot it: this is the whole method.
- 01
Describe who you sell to in plain language, no filters or codes.
The move: the way you'd explain it to a new colleague. It's the yardstick for everything else.
- 02
Pull the candidates without downloading an entire database.
The move: small batches from a source you already have: LinkedIn, trade shows, associations.
- 03
Ask for the verbatim sentence on each website that proves the fit.
The move: a quote copied exactly and a link to check it. A summary without a quote isn't proof.
- 04
Cut every company that comes without proof, even if it fits on paper.
The move: when in doubt, cut it. The short list is the value, not the row count.
- 05
Keep the short list and go in only there.
The move: every name has its why next to it, ready for the first call.
All 5 back to back, on an industrial list
The whole method on a real industrial list. Everything stated about each company comes from its public website, with the source cited.
- Result
Step 1
The description, ours: AI prospecting software for B2B sales teams, best customers are industrial companies that manufacture and sell to other businesses. Claude repeats it in its own words, asks what size counts as "too small", and doesn't start until it gets the go-ahead.
- Result
Step 2
The source: the exhibitor list from BIEMH, the Bilbao machine tool trade show, which the show itself publishes. Pasted in batches, each name comes back as CANDIDATE, OUT or I DON'T KNOW with a one-line hunch. Nothing downloaded.
- Result
Step 3
One candidate: GEMINIS, a lathe manufacturer from Elgoibar. The proof, on their public website, geminislathes.com: they sell to rail, steel, energy, shipbuilding and aerospace. Long cycle and audited purchasing: it fits step 1, and the sentence comes with its link so you can check it.
- Result
Step 4
The ones that get cut: those whose website only says "end-to-end solutions" without saying for whom, and those that looked perfect on size and industry but don't come with a single sentence to prove it. On paper they fit. Without proof, out, with the reason noted in case they come back.
- Result
Step 5
What's left is the short list, each name with its sentence next to it. The first conversation with each one starts with what they publish themselves, not with "let me introduce my company". And that's where screening ends: what comes next is selling.
What this screening won't give you
The next stepNow you know which companies. What's missing is who decides inside.
This gives you a screened list, with proof next to each name. What it doesn't give you is who decides inside each company, or a list that rebuilds itself when things change: the first is another free playbook with 5 prompts, and the second is Neety, which you can see in 30 minutes.
Who wrote this
- Co-Founder · Neety
Asier Olaizola
This screening method comes from building lists for demos with industrial companies: too much list, not enough proof. I build the sales AI that does this on its own, every week. If your team loses afternoons screening by hand, let's talk. Follow Asier on LinkedIn
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