Before we start
Hey - I'm Antoine, founder of PipeSignals.
PipeSignals is the tool we built to replace the Apollo + Clay stack. You describe your ideal customer, click a button, and get qualified companies with decision-makers and personalized outreach - in about 60 seconds.
But this guide isn't a sales pitch. We're giving you the exact prompts we use to set up opportunity discovery in PipeSignals. You run them in Claude (with web search). No manual ICP writing. No Apollo. No scraping.
If at the end you want a tool that does it all in one click, PipeSignals is free to try. Either way, you'll have an agent that finds qualified B2B opportunities better than 95% of teams running Apollo lists.
The Problem You Already Know
You're spending 16+ hours a month searching for companies in databases, enriching each line, filtering junk, and manually qualifying. Poor quality timing signals. Have you ever reviewed your results? If so, you know the "yes, but". This lead matches all the criteria but it's not a good fit for some reason. The filtering isn't smart enough. It wastes your time, your budget, and doesn't deliver good outcomes anyway.
Here's the flip: start from your website, let AI build your brief, search the live web, and get opportunities with real signals - in minutes. Two prompts.
Step 1: Setup Your Brief (Claude Does the Work)
This prompt is the exact logic we use for folder setup at PipeSignals. Claude visits your website, understands your business, and gives you your ICP, timing signals, wedge, and exclusions. You don't write anything - you just paste your URL.
What to do: 1) Copy the prompt below. 2) Replace OUR WEBSITE: with your URL. 3) Optionally add ADDITIONAL CONTEXT: with a full brief if your site doesn't have a complete brief on what you do and your market. 4) Run with Claude Opus 4.6 for best results (web search enabled). 5) Claude will respond with your brief in clear sections. Review and copy what you need.
Prompt 1: Setup
You are an expert B2B sales strategist. Here is our company. Help us build our opportunity discovery brief.
OUR WEBSITE: [PASTE YOUR URL - e.g. https://example.com]
ADDITIONAL CONTEXT: [OPTIONAL - paste a full brief here if your site doesn't have a complete brief on what you do and your market]
Use web search to visit our website and understand our business. Then answer:
0. LANGUAGE: What is the primary language of our site or description? Return ISO 639-1 (e.g. en, fr). Write ALL output in that language.
1. COMPANY DESCRIPTION: 3-6 sentences - what do we sell, who do we sell to, our value proposition. Factual, not marketing copy.
2. TARGET MARKET LOCATION: Where are our CUSTOMERS? (e.g. France, United States, Europe, DACH, Worldwide)
3. WEDGE: What is our unique competitive advantage? Why would a prospect choose us right now? 2-4 sentences.
4. ICP DESCRIPTION: What is our ideal customer profile? What types of companies should we look for - sectors, size, characteristics? Start directly with criteria (e.g. "Look for companies that..."). Be specific to our market. No system instructions.
5. TIMING SIGNALS: What "why now" events make a company a hot prospect for us? Fundraise, hiring, expansion, M&A, tech migration, regulation, etc. Specific to our market. Rich, detailed list.
6. ANTI-ICP: Which company profiles should we EXCLUDE? (bullet list, 3-6 items). Too small/large, wrong vertical, competitor locked-in, etc.
7. ANTI-SIGNALS: Which warning signs should we avoid? (bullet list, 3-6 items). Layoffs, acquisition, long-term competitor deal, cost-cutting, etc.
Present your analysis in clear sections (company description, target market, wedge, ICP description, timing signals, anti-ICP, anti-signals) so we can easily copy each part for the next step.Review Your Brief
Claude has done its job and delivered your brief. Before moving to Step 2, review and adapt what it returned. Re-read the ICP, timing signals, wedge, anti-ICP, and anti-signals. Adjust them based on:
- Your internal knowledge of your ideal customers
- Your go-to-market strategy and positioning
- Your target markets (geos, verticals, company sizes)
Claude gives you a strong starting point, but your expertise will make the results significantly better.
Step 2: Find 10 Opportunities
In the same conversation, paste the prompt below. Claude already has your brief - no need to re-paste it. Run with web search enabled.
The prompt includes a SOURCE RECENCY variable (set to 1 month by default). You can edit it to narrow or widen the window (e.g. last 2 weeks for hotter leads, last 3 months for more volume).
Prompt 2: Find Opportunities
Based on the brief you just gave us, find 10 companies where there is a CONCRETE, CURRENT reason to believe they need our services RIGHT NOW.
SOURCE RECENCY: Only use sources and evidence from the last 1 month. Any source older than this MUST be ignored.
For EACH company: 1) FIND SIGNAL FIRST (search web), 2) Respect geographic focus from the brief, 3) At least one source with date (YYYY-MM-DD).
MATCH SCORE: 90-100 perfect fit + strong signal, 75-89 strong + clear signal, 65-74 good + moderate. Below 65: do not include.
List 10 validated companies. For each one, include: company name and the concrete trigger, the specific dated signal you found, why they match us, website URL, contact email (if found), LinkedIn company page, and your sources with dates. Present in a clear, readable format.Pro tips
- Run in batches of 10 - each batch surfaces fresh companies from the live web
- Adjust SOURCE RECENCY in the prompt for hotter leads (last 2 weeks) or more volume (last 3 months)
I hope this guide helps. Good luck with your prospecting, here's to finding the right opportunities at the right moment.
Want to go further?
We built PipeSignals to automate this entire workflow. Instead of running the prompts manually each time, it finds companies with real signals, enriches leads, and generates personalized outreach. Here's what it adds:
- Patrol: Automates Sniff or Hunt in the background. Choose a frequency (1 to 50 runs per week), get email digest or in-app alerts when new opportunities land
- AI outreach: Personalized approach message for each lead, based on opportunity context. Review and edit before pushing to Lemlist, HeyReach, or your CRM
- Human-in-the-loop: Review and edit every message before it goes to your outreach tool
- LinkedIn-native: Direct lead research on LinkedIn, not just web scraping
- Clear interface: Manage opportunities, leads, and outreach in one view
- Sequenced flow: Agents tailored to each job (discovery, enrichment, outreach) with the right tools for each step
- Stronger data: Better web search APIs and databases than a simple Claude chat
- Collaborative: Notes, tags, team discussions on each opportunity
- Integrable: Push to HubSpot, Lemlist, HeyReach, or automate with Make, Zapier, N8N
Your first Sniff is free. No credit card needed. www.pipesignals.com · Try PipeSignals