Plans and checks the cold email list: sources you have the right to use (your ATS, live job posts, a data tool you pay for), the columns a sequencer needs, a dated hiring signal per row, one or two people per company, role inboxes out, and current clients, opt outs and off-limits companies suppressed, with counts at each step.
Sales and BDcategory
No scriptsinstructions only, sends nothing
Any AI appupload, or copy and paste
Free, no signup
Upload the file to Claude, ChatGPT Business or Gemini Enterprise. On ChatGPT Plus, the free Gemini app or Grok, copy and paste it instead.
Nothing hidden: this is the whole file. Want it with your agency's details filled in, or formatted for ChatGPT, a Gemini Gem or Grok? Use the copy tool on the Cold Email Pack page.
---
name: lead-list-builder
description: "Plans and checks the contact list for a recruitment agency's cold email campaign, with the right columns, one hiring signal per row, one or two people per company, and current clients and opt outs removed, ready for verification and a sequencer. Use when a recruiter asks \"build my cold email list\", \"what columns do I need\", \"clean this lead list\", \"where do I find hiring managers' emails\", \"dedupe against my ATS\", or \"prepare a CSV for Instantly\"."
license: MIT
metadata:
author: Work Insiders
version: "1.0"
pack: cold-email-pack
---
# Lead list builder
The list decides more of the result than the copy does. You plan the list from the ICP, check what the recruiter pulls, and hand back a file the sequencer can use and the copy can lean on.
If `references/agency-profile.md` exists, read it first: markets, specialties, where existing clients and the do-not-contact list are kept. Ask for the segment from recruitment-icp-builder; if there is none, ask for the role family, region and buyer titles.
## Where the rows come from
Work from sources the recruiter has the right to use:
- Their ATS or CRM: past clients, hiring managers who moved company, contacts who said "not now".
- Live job posts (company careers pages, job boards) for the trigger. Work Insiders' free careers page checker (workinsiders.com/free-tools/careers-page-checker/) and Hiring Radar extension (workinsiders.com/hiring-radar/) show a company's open roles and how long each has been posted. Aging-role lists go stale in weeks, so rebuild them every two weeks. For a dated, linked signal per company, hiring-signal-scan in the Recruiter Outreach Pack does this step.
- A B2B data tool the agency already pays for (Apollo, ZoomInfo, Sales Navigator exports through an approved tool, and similar) for names and work emails.
- Public news for funding, new sites and leadership changes.
Never scrape sites against their terms, never buy unknown lists, and never use personal email addresses for BD.
## The columns
Ask for or build these columns. Keep names simple so the sequencer can map them:
| Column | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| first_name | Dana | Clean capitals |
| last_name | Ruiz | |
| title | Plant Manager | Exact title |
| email | dana.ruiz@company.com | Work email only |
| company | Midwest Polymer | Short name people use, not "Midwest Polymer Holdings LLC" |
| company_domain | midwestpolymer.com | For dedupe |
| city / state / country | Toledo, OH, US | Country sets the legal rules |
| signal | Controls Engineer job posted 41 days | The reason to write, one line |
| signal_source | URL | |
| signal_date | 2026-10-12 | Signals older than about 60 days get re-checked |
| contact_source | Apollo export 2026-10-12 / LinkedIn public profile / applied via Indeed 2024 | Where this address came from. Never guessed |
| segment | ohio-mfg-controls-30d | |
| line | (left blank until written) | Optional first line, written per row later |
## Checks before it leaves you
1. **Suppress first, by domain.** Remove current clients by company domain so new hires there are covered too (unless the recruiter says otherwise), other staffing agencies, anyone who opted out of any past campaign, the do-not-contact list, off-limits companies, and the agency's own staff.
2. **Dedupe** by email, then by person across companies.
3. **People per company.** One or two people per company per campaign, the most likely buyer first. Ten people at one company looks like spam and burns goodwill.
4. **Role inboxes and personal addresses out.** Remove `info@`, `hr@`, `careers@`, `jobs@`, Gmail, Hotmail and similar for BD.
5. **Mail gateway check.** Look up each company domain's MX record. In practitioners' experience, domains behind Mimecast, Proofpoint or Barracuda often reject new cold senders on policy: tag them so they go out in a small separate batch from the healthiest mailbox, and move a domain to phone or LinkedIn only after a policy (`5.7.x`) bounce from it. If you cannot look up DNS, ask the recruiter to run the domains through an MX lookup and paste the results. Expect more of these in legal, finance and public-sector lists.
6. **Signal per row.** Every row needs a signal and its date, or it belongs in a different, softer campaign.
7. **Empty fields.** Any row missing first_name, company or email is set aside, not sent with a blank.
8. **Fix text.** Name capitals, company suffixes, stray spaces. Work Insiders' free lead list cleaner (workinsiders.com/free-tools/lead-list-cleaner/) does this in the browser.
Report the counts after each check so the recruiter sees where rows went.
**Candidate lists** (for candidate-cold-email-sequence): personal addresses are allowed where the agency may lawfully use them, so skip checks 3, 4 and 5; replace `signal` with the work-related reason they fit; `contact_source` is required on every row.
## Output
The column list, the cleaned rows (or the steps to clean them in a spreadsheet if the file is large), the counts, and the rows set aside with the reason. Then hand the file to list-verification-gate. Never send a list straight to a sequencer without verification.
## Rules
- Choose people by their job and the company's need, never by protected traits or guesses from names or photos.
- Keep only the work facts needed to write the email. No home addresses, personal phones or social life details.
- Note the source of each row so the agency can answer "where did you get my email?" honestly.
The agency profile it reads (fill this in so it uses your real details)
# Agency profile
Fill this in once. Every skill in the pack reads it, so every output comes out in your agency's voice with your real terms. Delete any line you do not want the AI to use. Leave a line blank rather than guessing.
## Who we are
- Agency name:
- Recruiter name and title (for sign-offs):
- Phone:
- Mailing address (needed for US commercial email):
- Years in business:
- Specialties (roles we fill):
- Markets (cities, regions or "US remote"):
- Industries we know best:
## Terms
- Direct hire fee basis (e.g. % of first-year base):
- Guarantee period and type (free replacement / pro-rata refund / credit; conditions, e.g. fee paid within terms):
- Contract markup or bill rate approach:
- Exclusive or retained options:
- Payment terms (e.g. net 30 from start date):
- Introduction period (how long a candidate we introduce stays ours):
- Contract-to-hire conversion fee:
- Concessions we allow, and their limits:
## Proof points we can share
- Placements, time to fill, or retention figures we are happy to quote:
- Client names we may mention (only with permission):
## How we work
- ATS:
- Do we text candidates? (yes/no):
- Name the client in first candidate messages? (yes/no):
- Blind profiles: always / new clients only / never:
- Include pay expectation in submittals? (yes/no):
- Job post apply instructions:
- EEO statement:
## Cold email
- Sequencer we use (e.g. Instantly, Smartlead, EmailBison, lemlist, Apollo):
- Sending domains (lookalikes only, never our main domain):
- Mailboxes and the sender names on them:
- Countries we email (sets which email and data laws apply):
- Opt-out line we use (e.g. "Reply 'no' and I won't email again."):
- Booking link (sent only after someone replies yes):
- Where our current clients, opt outs and do-not-contact list are kept:
## Words we never use
-
Yes. It is part of the free Work Insiders Cold Email Pack, MIT licensed, so you can edit and share it.
Does Lead List Builder work in Gemini?
Yes. Upload it in Gemini Enterprise or drop the folder into Gemini CLI's skills folder. In the regular Gemini app, paste its instructions into a Gem.
Can I trust it with my data?
It has no scripts and sends nothing anywhere. Whatever you paste goes only to your AI assistant, under that assistant's own data terms, so remove candidate details you do not need first. It can still steer how the assistant answers, so read it before you use it.
Written by Work Insiders for agency recruiters. Fill in the agency profile before you use it so it never invents fees or proof points. How we make money.
