Finding new leads can be one of the most time-consuming parts of sales and business development. You may already know a few companies in your target market, but how do you quickly build a longer list of similar ones without hours of research? This is where ChatGPT can help.
Instead of manually searching Google, you can use ChatGPT to identify lookalike companies in a specific industry. Let’s walk through a simple example with a pillow manufacturer.
Let’s walk through a simple example with a pillow company.
Step 1: Start With a Seed Company
Imagine you run a business called Best Pillows Ever, a manufacturer that sells luxury pillows to a variety of industries (bedding retailers, hotels, department stores, distributors, etc). You want to find other companies in the bedding and sleep space that could be good prospects to sell to.
Start with a prompt that outlines your value prop:
I run marketing at a company called Best Pillows Ever. We sell luxury pillows. The pillows are more expensive than cheap, mass market pillows and cost about $80 each at retail (less on wholesale depending on volume). I currently sell pillows to Marriott hotels. Can you help me identify 25 other companies that are like this who I can sell to. Can you include the job title of the person I should reach out to?
And just like that, we have a list of 25 different companies with potential targets to sell into.
Step 2: Expand and edit the list
Once ChatGPT gives you an initial list of companies, the real value comes from refining it. Think of the first output as a starting point — you can guide the model to make it more useful by adjusting your prompt.
For example, if the list feels too broad, you might ask:
“Can you refine this list to focus only on U.S.-based pillow manufacturers with fewer than 500 employees?”
Or, if you want to explore international brands in a particular region, you can focus it further:
Provide me a list of only hotel and hospitality companies in Europe that would be interested in my pillows?
Step 3: Ask for more!
One of the most powerful (and overlooked) features of AI is how easy it is to keep pushing for additional results. If the first list is helpful, do not stop there — simply ask for more.
For example, after ChatGPT gives you 20 companies, you could say:
“Great. Can you give me 20 more companies that fit the same description but are not already on the list?”
Or you can get even more specific:
“Can you share 10 emerging pillow manufacturers founded in the last five years?”
By continuing to ask, you build out a much larger and richer lead list than what you would get from a single query. The compounding effect of stacking these results can quickly turn one seed company into dozens (or even hundreds) of relevant prospects.
Step 4: Ideate with ChatGPT!
Lead generation is not only about finding competitors and lookalikes — it is also about discovering new opportunities. ChatGPT can help you brainstorm entirely new industries or customer segments where your product could fit.
For example, for our bedding example:
What are 10 adjacent industries where a pillow manufacturer could expand beyond hotels and hospitality?
For industries you like, you can leverage Steps 1 - 3 to get specific account names!
Step 5: Outreach
Once you have the list of target accounts and type of people to prospect to, it's time to go to LinkedIn to search for these people. Sending LinkedIn messages can be an effective way to get in-front of them or you can use an email enrichment tool like Clay or Apollo.
info@aitrailmaps.com