---
name: search-prospects
description: Use this skill when the user wants to find a list of people matching a profile — by job title, seniority, industry, department, or country.
---

# Search Prospects

Find people matching an ICP using `MoltSets:search_business_profiles`.

## Triggers

"find VPs of Sales in fintech", "show me software engineers in London", "who are the marketing directors at SaaS companies", "search for prospects", "build me a list of [role]", "find [title] in [country/industry]". Returns ranked people results. Does not enrich — follow up with enrich-contact or batch-enrich-linkedin-list to get contact data.

## Set Expectations

Before firing any calls, give the user a brief, dry heads-up. Deadpan over enthusiastic — no filler, no corporate speak.

Facts to work with:
- 1–2 search calls, results in ~5–10 seconds
- This skill doesn't enrich — if the user wants contact data after, that's a separate step handled by enrich-contact or batch-enrich-linkedin-list

## Step 0 — Input Quality Gate

Assess input before searching. If fewer than 2 of the 5 filter fields are specified, **pause and ask**.

### Minimum viable input (need at least 2)
| Field | Maps to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Role / title | `query` | "VP of Sales", "Head of Growth", "Account Executive" |
| Seniority | `seniority` | "Director+", "C-suite", "VP", "Manager" |
| Industry | `industry` | "SaaS", "FinTech", "eCommerce", "Healthcare" |
| Department | `department` | "Sales", "Marketing", "Engineering", "RevOps" |
| Country / location | `country` | "United States", "United Kingdom", "Germany" |

### Vague input triggers
Trigger this gate if the user says something like:
- "find me some salespeople"
- "show me marketing people"
- "search for prospects" (no role, no filters)
- Only one field provided with no other context

### Response when input is vague

> "I need a bit more to narrow this down. Which of these can you add?
>
> - **Role/title** — e.g. "Head of Demand Gen", "AE", "RevOps Manager"
> - **Seniority** — e.g. Director+, VP, C-suite, Manager
> - **Industry** — e.g. SaaS, eCommerce, FinTech, Healthcare
> - **Department** — e.g. Marketing, Sales, Engineering, RevOps
> - **Location** — e.g. United States, UK, Global
>
> At minimum, role + one filter (industry, seniority, or location) gives useful results."

Wait for response before running the search.

### What helps most
- **Role + seniority** — narrows to a specific persona level
- **Role + industry** — strongest combo for ICP targeting
- **Department** — useful when titles vary widely across companies
- Avoid putting seniority/industry/country in `query` — use their dedicated params

## Mapping user language to parameters

| User says | Use parameter | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| Name / role keywords | `query` | "Account Executive", "Head of Sales fintech" |
| Country / location | `country` | "United States", "United Kingdom" |
| VP / Director / C-suite / Manager | `seniority` | "VP", "Director", "C Suite", "Manager", "Owner" |
| Tech / SaaS / fintech / healthcare | `industry` | "Information Technology", "Finance and Banking", "Health and Pharmaceuticals" |
| Sales / Marketing / Engineering / HR | `department` | "Sales", "Marketing", "Engineering", "Human Resources" |

**Do NOT** put country, seniority, or industry in `query` — use their dedicated filter params.

Exact string values matter — use the casing shown above.

## Step 1 — Probe first (cheap)

Run with `limit: 1` to check result quality before fetching more. If the top result looks off-target, adjust `query` or filters before scaling.

## Step 2 — Full search

Default: `limit: 10`. Increase up to 25 if user wants more. Paginate with `offset` for larger pulls.

## Step 3 — Present results

| Name | Title | Company | Location | LinkedIn |
|---|---|---|---|---|

Omit `_score` unless user asks about match quality.

## After results

Ask: "Want me to enrich these with business emails or mobile numbers?"

If yes: collect LinkedIn URLs → hand off to **enrich-contact** (for small batches) or **batch-enrich-linkedin-list** (for 10+).

## Edge cases

- Vague input → Step 0 gate fires before any search runs
- `seniority` and `industry` are ~60% filled — results may not be exhaustive, not all matches will have these fields indexed
- Max 25 per call — for larger lists, use `offset` to paginate