What you'll be able to do after this guide: divide your market into segments that a sourcing agent can search for reliably, and decide how much volume and what kind of outreach each segment deserves.
Different buyers are found in different places, qualify on different evidence and respond to different messages. If one agent sources everyone at once, the easiest-to-find segment crowds out the rest, and its messages blur together. One sourcing agent per segment keeps each search focused and each message specific.
Fernhill sells a software platform to small and medium-sized businesses. It runs three sourcing agents:
| Segment A: Switchers | Segment B: Specialists | Partners | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Businesses of 5 to 500 staff using a competitor product they have outgrown | Solo experts and very small firms who sell their expertise and need a simple platform | Consultants and service firms who advise clients on which software to buy |
| Where the agent looks | Company search by industry code, size and revenue | Niche marketplaces, directories, podcasts, award lists | Partner directories of competing products, consultancy case studies |
| What qualifies them | Evidence they use a competitor, plus a reason to change | A real, active business with paying customers | They serve your buyers and have real influence over which tool those buyers choose |
| Daily volume | At least 15 new prospects | 2 to 5; zero is acceptable | 2 to 5; zero is acceptable |
| Call to action | A short call | Try the product yourself | A partnership conversation, not a product pitch |
Notice how different the rows are. Segment A is high value and needs volume, so it has a firm daily minimum. The other two value quality, so a day with no good candidates is a correct outcome, not a failure.
A good segment definition answers four questions.
1. What is the business, in searchable terms? Use attributes a search tool can filter on: industry codes, employee bands, revenue, location, the niche a specialist works in. Avoid starting from "companies that use Competitor X" as a search filter. Enrichment tools tag technology unreliably, and selecting on a noisy tag fills your list with the wrong companies. Search on what the business is, then verify what it uses during research.
2. What evidence qualifies them? Write the specific signals that make a company a fit, and the specific signals that rule it out. "In a regulated sector" is not a signal. "Names a specific regulation it must comply with, on its own website" is.
3. Who is the decision-maker? Name the roles in priority order. For a small company that might be the founder; for a larger one, the head of a department.
4. What should the first message ask for? A call, a free trial, a partnership chat. The ask should match the size of the decision.
If two segments share a search tool and the same kind of filters, run them on different days instead of mixing them. At Fernhill, Segment A has two sub-groups: companies that sell services to others, and companies that buy for their own staff because a regulation requires it. They are different buyers. The agent searches the first group on odd-numbered days and the second on even-numbered days, and on weekends revisits records stuck in Researching, which is why it's scheduled daily rather than on weekdays only. Because the rule is based on the calendar, anyone can predict what ran on a given day.
A partner isn't a buyer, so the usual fit test doesn't apply. Fernhill uses a two-part test, and both parts are required:
Customer overlap. They serve the kind of businesses Fernhill sells to.
Influence over the choice. They have real authority to influence which product those businesses choose.
Influence can be formal (a listed partner or reseller of a competing product) or informal (a service line, a case study or a role showing they help clients choose software). Both are equally valid. Notice the inversion: for Segment A, a competitor product is the thing to replace. For partners, being an existing partner of a competitor is a positive signal, because it proves they influence the decision.
Every segment needs an exclusion list that the agent checks on every candidate:
Your existing customers.
Direct competitors of your key customers, if you have agreed not to work with them.
Any category of business you have chosen not to serve.
When a candidate sits close to a line, the agent should flag it for a person to decide, not decide itself.
Write one short definition per segment covering the four questions, the volume target, the call to action and the exclusions. These become the opening section of each sourcing agent's spec.
Next: Build an ICP Fit Score.
