Key takeaways
- A custom list starts with a written ideal customer profile, not with a tool.
- Filter-based databases and enrichment builders produce lists in different ways.
- Check how each platform handles exclusions and duplicates before you import.
- Pebbles Ai turns a described ideal customer into companies and then people, with leads from its own GDPR-compliant B2B contact database.
What makes a prospect list custom
A prospect list is custom when every row matches criteria you chose, not a generic industry filter. That means company traits, the roles you sell to and the signals that make an account worth contacting now.
The platform you pick should let you express those criteria directly, and let you exclude the accounts you already work with.
- Company filters such as industry, size, location and technology used.
- People filters such as role, seniority and department.
- Signals such as hiring, funding or website visits.
- Exclusions for customers, open deals and competitors.
How the main platforms build lists
The platforms below either filter a database or enrich a list you bring, so they are grouped by that job and listed alphabetically within each group, not ranked. The notes summarise what each says it does on its own site.
- Cognism (database): verified mobile numbers and compliance-first contact data, with intent data on its Pro package.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator (database): advanced lead and account filters, saved searches and alerts inside LinkedIn.
- UpLead (database): a credit-based contact database with email verification and intent data on its Professional plan.
- ZoomInfo (database): enterprise contact and company data with buyer intent and website visitor data.
- Clay (list builder): spreadsheet-style workflows that pull from many data providers in a waterfall, with an AI research agent called Claygent.
- Persana AI (list builder): many data sources, signals and agents for enrichment and sequencing.
A worked example of a custom list
Picture Fernvale Security, an illustrative firm selling access control to mid-sized UK manufacturers. Its list needs operations and facilities leads at manufacturers with several sites, and none of its current customers.
In a database tool the team stacks filters for industry, size and role, then removes customers by hand. In an enrichment builder it starts from a company list and adds people and emails column by column.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
Pebbles Ai fits teams that would rather describe the list than build filters. Your assistant finds companies that match the description, then finds people with the roles and locations you set at up to ten chosen companies a run.
Optional filters include seniority, industry, company size and keywords to exclude. Each lead lands in a segment of the Pebbles Ai CRM, labelled Beta, with a work email where found, a confidence score and a catch-all flag, and the list holds work emails rather than phone numbers.
The products compared
Cognism
B2B contact and mobile data
A B2B data provider selling verified mobile numbers and contact data it describes as compliance-first, with intent data on Pro and a CRM enrichment add-on in quote-based packages.
Best for: Teams that call prospects and want phone-verified mobile numbers, with intent data and CRM enrichment from the same data vendor.
Pricing model: Standard and Pro, quote-based, 5 seats included; 1 credit = 1 revealed contact. Source: Cognism pricing
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn prospecting and social selling tool
LinkedIn's paid prospecting tool for searching leads and accounts with advanced filters, tracking changes, messaging people outside your network with InMail and syncing to a CRM on its top plan.
Best for: Sellers whose prospecting happens on LinkedIn and who want advanced search, alerts and InMail on LinkedIn's own network.
Pricing model: Core, Advanced and Advanced Plus, priced per licence with monthly or annual billing; Advanced Plus is custom-priced by team size and CRM needs. Source: LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing
Read the comparison with LinkedIn Sales Navigator Visit LinkedIn Sales Navigator
UpLead
B2B contact database
A B2B contact database with credit-based plans for finding and verifying emails, with intent data on its top tier and a short trial.
Best for: Small teams buying verified contact lists by the credit.
Pricing model: Essentials, Plus and Professional; monthly or annual; single-user except Professional. Source: UpLead pricing
ZoomInfo
B2B data and sales intelligence platform
An enterprise B2B data platform for sales and marketing teams, offering contact and company data, buyer intent, website visitor data and AI email generation in packaged, quote-based plans.
Best for: Larger sales and marketing organisations that need deep contact coverage, intent signals and conversation intelligence under one enterprise contract.
Pricing model: Packages priced by features, licences and credits (1 export = 1 credit); quote-based. Source: ZoomInfo pricing
Clay
Data enrichment and GTM workflow builder
A spreadsheet-style workspace for building enrichment and prospecting workflows, pulling from many data providers with waterfalls and an AI web research agent, priced by actions and data credits.
Best for: GTM engineers and RevOps teams who want to design custom enrichment and research workflows across many data sources.
Pricing model: Free, Launch, Growth and Enterprise; monthly actions and data credits; unlimited seats. Source: Clay pricing
Persana AI
AI prospecting and enrichment
An AI prospecting platform that combines many data sources, signals and AI agents for enrichment, with email sequencing and CRM integration, on credit-based plans.
Best for: Teams wanting Clay-style enrichment with signals and agents.
Pricing model: Free, Starter, Growth, Unlimited and Enterprise, credit-based, billed monthly or annually. Source: Persana AI pricing
We make Pebbles Ai. Facts about other products come from their own public pages, checked on .
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityProspecting & customer recordsDescribe your ideal customer and your assistant finds matching companies, then the right people at up to ten of them, saved to a CRM segment.
- FoundationCompany IntelCompany Intel holds your business knowledge and brand voice, built from your website, company information and files, so your assistant works from your own context.
Common questions
Should I buy a prospect list or build my own?
Building your own keeps every row tied to your criteria. A bought list often needs heavy cleaning before it matches your ideal customer profile.
How many filters should a prospect list use?
Use the fewest that still describe a good account. Too many filters shrink the list to a handful of companies and hide good fits.
How do I keep existing customers out of a new list?
Use the platform's exclusion filters or compare the list against your CRM before outreach. In Pebbles Ai, Find fresh leads also takes keywords to exclude, which narrow each run.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
