Build Your Lead Engine in Claude

I'm building a lead engine and I need to build my list of target businesses first.

Before you start, ask me two things:
1. What kind of business am I trying to reach?
2. Which area? Give me the country, state, and city or suburb.

Once I answer, do this:

1. Connect Apify if it isn't already:
- Open the connectors menu in Claude, search for Apify, click Connect, sign in, approve the permissions.

2. Use the Apify MCP to run the actor compass/crawler-google-places:
- Search term: the business type I gave you
- Location: the area I gave you
- Pull around 25 to 30 results to start
- Capture for each: name, website, phone, address, category, rating

3. For every business that has a website, use subagents (the Task tool, not an external API key) in batches, each subagent handling about 5 businesses. Each subagent runs the Apify actor apify/website-content-crawler on that business's website and returns a 2 to 3 sentence summary of what the business does, plus anything specific I could reference in an email.

4. Collect everything into one table and show it to me:
Business name | Website | Phone | Suburb | Category | Rating | Website summary

Do not contact anyone. This step only builds the list. Keep the full list in this session for the next steps.

Now I need the decision-maker contact and a verified email for each business on my list.

First ask me: do I want to use Apollo or Hunter.io?

If it isn't connected, walk me through it:
1. Open the connectors menu in Claude
2. Search for the tool I picked
3. Click Connect and sign in with my account
4. Approve the permissions
5. I'll tell you when it's connected

Once connected, for each business on my list from Setup 1:
1. Find the best contact (owner, director, or manager) and their email
2. Verify the email is deliverable (mark it valid, risky or catch-all, or invalid)
3. Add these columns to my table: Contact name | Role | Email | Email status

Use subagents (the Task tool, not an external API key) in batches to enrich the list faster. Each subagent handles a batch and returns the contact and verified email.

Skip any business where you can't find a valid email and tell me which ones you skipped. Don't email anyone yet.

Now I want every lead logged in one place so nothing gets lost.

First ask me: do I want to use Google Sheets or Notion?

If it isn't connected, walk me through it:
1. Open the connectors menu in Claude
2. Search for the tool I picked (Google Drive for Sheets, or Notion)
3. Click Connect and sign in
4. Approve the permissions
5. I'll tell you when it's done

Once connected, create a new tracker called "Lead Engine" with these columns:
Business name | Website | Suburb | Contact name | Role | Email | Email status | Business summary | Personalisation line | Draft status | Sequence step | Last contacted | Reply status | Next action

Then load every lead from Setups 1 and 2 into it, and set Draft status to "not started" for each row.

One rule that never changes: every email this system produces goes into my Gmail drafts for me to review. Nothing is ever sent automatically. We'll fill in the draft columns in the next step.

I'm turning my leads into personalised cold email drafts. I want them to sound like me and hit one sharp angle, not read like a template. Before you write a single word, interview me.

Ask me these a few at a time and wait for my answers. Push back if an answer is vague.

Your offer
1. In one plain sentence, what do you build or do?
2. Who exactly is it for? Name the type of business and the specific person inside it who feels the problem.
3. What is the one result they get? Describe the outcome they feel, not the feature.

The pain (this is the most important part)
4. Describe the exact moment your ideal client feels this problem. A real, recognisable scene, not a statistic.
5. Is this mainly a revenue problem or an efficiency problem? If there's any honest way to frame it as revenue, tell me.

Proof
6. What can I honestly claim as proof? Past clients, a specific result, years in it, or a narrow focus. Only give me what's true. Never invent clients or numbers for me.

Voice
7. How do I want to sound? Give me one line in that voice as a sample.
8. Any words, phrases, or hype I never want in my emails?
9. My exact sign-off block (name, title, business, contact details)?

The ask
10. Soft close or direct meeting ask?
11. Am I offering anything free, or is it paid from the start?
12. Subject line style: plain and human, or a little curiosity?

Once I've answered, do this:

1. Take the FIRST business from my Setup 1 list. Write ONE cold email:
- around 80 to 120 words
- open with the pain scene as a real pattern, not "imagine" and not a stat
- one clear angle tied to something specific about their business
- a personalisation line that proves I read past their homepage
- my exact sign-off
- no em dashes, no hype words, no "I'd love to" or "hope this finds you well"

2. Show me the draft. We iterate until I say it's right.

Once I approve the sample, build me a reusable cold email skill with these sections:
- Core insight: the one painful scene, and why it lands
- Hard rules: my banned words, no em dashes, no hype, no fabricated proof, my greeting and sign-off
- Input needed per business: which personalisation hook to pull from each website summary
- Email structure: which parts stay fixed and which change per business
- Worked example: the email I just approved
- Final check: a short list to run before every email goes out

Then use subagents in batches to write the rest of the list. Each subagent takes one business plus its website summary, follows the skill, and returns the personalisation line and the full email.

For each finished email, create a draft in Gmail. Never send. Update the tracker: Draft status to "drafted", Sequence step to "cold email", Last contacted to today.

When replies come in, flag them and stop that sequence. I review, approve, and send every draft myself.