OSINT Tradecraft for Sales Intelligence

Comprehensive methodology for gathering personal and business intelligence using open-source techniques. This skill transforms raw names and company identifiers into actionable sales intelligence.

Core Principles

Data Source Hierarchy

Query sources in order of reliability and cost-effectiveness:

•
Hunter.io (highest confidence for email)
- •Domain search for company emails
- •Email verification
- •Email finder with confidence scores
•
Google Maps/Places API (business verification)
- •Confirm company exists and is operational
- •Get verified address, phone, hours
- •Reviews indicate company health
•
SerpAPI (web search aggregation)
- •LinkedIn profiles (public data)
- •Company news and press releases
- •Social media presence
- •Publications and speaking engagements
•
Direct web scraping (supplementary)
- •Company websites for team pages
- •Press releases for executive changes
- •Job postings for org structure clues

Verification Protocol

Never trust single-source data. Cross-reference using:

•Email confidence: Hunter.io provides confidence scores (accept >80%)
•Phone verification: Google Maps confirms business phone
•Title validation: LinkedIn + company website agreement
•Recency check: Prefer data updated within 6 months

Person Intelligence Workflow

Step 1: Initial Search

Start with the most specific identifiers available:

•Full name + company
•Full name + location
•Email address (if known)
•LinkedIn URL (if known)

Step 2: Email Discovery

Use Hunter.io's email finder:

code

Domain: company.com
First name: John
Last name: Smith
→ john.smith@company.com (95% confidence)

Verify discovered emails before storing.

Step 3: Professional Profile

Gather from SerpAPI LinkedIn search:

•Current title and company
•Previous roles (work history)
•Education background
•Skills and endorsements
•Mutual connections

Step 4: Social Presence

Search for additional profiles:

•Twitter/X (industry thought leadership)
•GitHub (technical roles)
•Medium/Substack (content creators)
•Speaking engagements (conference sites)

Step 5: Decision-Maker Scoring

Calculate a 1-10 decision-maker score based on:

Factor	Points
C-level title	+4
VP/Director title	+3
Manager title	+2
"Head of" or "Lead"	+2
Budget keywords in title	+1
5+ years at company	+1
Previous purchasing roles	+1

Company Intelligence Workflow

Step 1: Basic Verification

Use Google Maps/Places API to confirm:

•Company exists at stated location
•Current operating status
•Verified contact information
•Review sentiment analysis

Step 2: Company Profile

Gather from multiple sources:

•Industry classification (SIC/NAICS)
•Employee count range
•Revenue estimate (if available)
•Founded date
•Headquarters location
•Additional office locations

Step 3: Leadership Identification

Build executive roster:

•Search "[Company] leadership team"
•Search "[Company] executives"
•Check company website /about or /team pages
•Cross-reference with LinkedIn company page

Step 4: Employee Roster

For full org intel:

•Hunter.io domain search (returns all known emails)
•SerpAPI LinkedIn company employees search
•Categorize by department and seniority
•Identify reporting structures where possible

Step 5: Decision-Maker Mapping

Identify buyers with authority:

•Find people with "purchasing", "procurement", "vendor" in title
•Determine who manages the relevant department
•Map C-level stakeholders
•Document the typical buying committee structure

Step 6: Competitive Intelligence

Research market position:

•Direct competitors (same product/service)
•Recent news (funding, launches, pivots)
•Job postings (indicate growth areas)
•Tech stack (BuiltWith, Wappalyzer)

Output Formats

Person Intelligence Report

markdown

# Person Intelligence: [Full Name]

## Contact Information
- **Email**: verified@company.com (95% confidence)
- **Phone**: +1-555-123-4567 (business)
- **LinkedIn**: linkedin.com/in/username
- **Twitter**: @handle

## Professional Profile
- **Current Role**: VP of Engineering at Acme Corp
- **Tenure**: 3 years, 4 months
- **Location**: San Francisco, CA

## Work History
1. VP Engineering, Acme Corp (2022-present)
2. Director Engineering, Previous Co (2019-2022)
3. Senior Engineer, First Job (2015-2019)

## Education
- MS Computer Science, Stanford University
- BS Engineering, UC Berkeley

## Social Presence
- Active on Twitter (12k followers)
- GitHub contributor (open source projects)
- Conference speaker (DevCon 2024)

## Decision-Maker Score: 8/10
- VP title (+3)
- 3+ years tenure (+1)
- Technical budget authority implied (+2)
- Previously evaluated vendors (+2)

Company Intelligence Report

markdown

# Company Intelligence: [Company Name]

## Overview
- **Industry**: Enterprise Software (SIC: 7372)
- **Founded**: 2015
- **Employees**: 250-500
- **Revenue**: $50M-$100M (estimated)
- **Funding**: Series C ($45M)

## Location
- **HQ**: 123 Main St, San Francisco, CA 94102
- **Phone**: +1-555-000-0000
- **Website**: https://company.com

## Leadership
| Name | Title | Email | DM Score |
|------|-------|-------|----------|
| Jane CEO | CEO | jane@company.com | 10 |
| John CTO | CTO | john@company.com | 9 |
| Sarah VP Sales | VP Sales | sarah@company.com | 8 |

## Department Breakdown
- Engineering: 120 employees
- Sales: 45 employees
- Marketing: 25 employees
- Operations: 35 employees

## Decision Makers (Your Product Category)
1. **Primary**: Sarah VP Sales (budget holder)
2. **Technical**: John CTO (technical approval)
3. **Executive**: Jane CEO (final sign-off)

## Recent News
- [2024-01] Announced Series C funding
- [2024-02] Launched new product line
- [2024-03] Expanded to European market

## Competitors
- Competitor A (larger, enterprise focus)
- Competitor B (similar size, SMB focus)
- Competitor C (emerging, AI-native)

API Integration Patterns

Hunter.io

python

# Email finder
GET https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-finder
  ?domain=company.com
  &first_name=John
  &last_name=Smith
  &api_key=$HUNTER_API_KEY

# Domain search (all emails)
GET https://api.hunter.io/v2/domain-search
  ?domain=company.com
  &api_key=$HUNTER_API_KEY

Google Maps/Places

python

# Place search
GET https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext/json
  ?input=Acme+Corp+San+Francisco
  &inputtype=textquery
  &fields=name,formatted_address,formatted_phone_number
  &key=$GOOGLE_MAPS_KEY

# Place details
GET https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/details/json
  ?place_id=ChIJ...
  &fields=name,formatted_address,formatted_phone_number,website,reviews
  &key=$GOOGLE_MAPS_KEY

SerpAPI

python

# LinkedIn profile search
GET https://serpapi.com/search
  ?engine=google
  &q=John+Smith+VP+Engineering+site:linkedin.com
  &api_key=$SERPAPI_KEY

# Company news search
GET https://serpapi.com/search
  ?engine=google
  &q="Acme+Corp"+news
  &tbs=qdr:m  # Past month
  &api_key=$SERPAPI_KEY

Data Quality Standards

Confidence Thresholds

Data Type	Accept	Verify	Reject
Email	>80%	50-80%	<50%
Phone	Verified	Google Maps	Unverified
Title	Multi-source	Single source	Outdated
Address	Google Maps	Company site	Unverified

Freshness Requirements

•Contact info: Verify if >6 months old
•Job titles: May change frequently, cross-reference
•Company data: Revenue/size estimates valid ~1 year
•News: Focus on past 6 months for relevance

Additional Resources

Reference Files

For detailed techniques and patterns:

•references/data-sources.md - Complete API documentation and rate limits
•references/scraping-patterns.md - Web scraping techniques and selectors

Scripts

Utility scripts in $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/:

•format-report.py - Format intelligence into markdown/JSON/CSV
•export-leads.py - Export batch results to various formats