Exercise 3 - Teach the Agent Your ICP

After completing this exercise, you'll be able to:

• Turn your ICP into account and prospect criteria the agent can follow.
• Test your criteria with Preview before the agent runs on your whole list.

Step 1: Define Your Target Accounts (Account Research)

On Account Research, you define what a good target account looks like. The agent comes with example criteria. Replace them with your own, using your ICP answers from Exercise 0. Don't just accept the defaults: the more closely these criteria match your ICP, the better your recommendations are from day one.

The editor has two sections, Required Criteria and Optional Criteria. Each bullet is one criterion. Click a bullet to edit it. To replace it, click it, press Cmd+A (Ctrl+A on Windows), and paste. To add one, press Enter at the end of a bullet.

• Required Criteria: must be true, or the account is disqualified. Think industry, company size, and geography.
• Optional Criteria: these raise an account's rank but never disqualify it. Preview labels them Nice-to-have. Think recent activity, funding or news, product launches, and intent signals.

TIP: Remove the template's rules first. The template comes with a required rule that accounts must be in the technology industry. If your report isn't all tech companies, this rule quietly disqualifies them and your test returns nothing. It also comes with an optional rule that uses ZoomInfo to check for funding, which can't run without ZoomInfo. Delete both before your first Preview, then add your own criteria.

Write each criterion as a plain-language instruction. Use this pattern:

Where to look (field or source) → the rule (include, exclude, or rank) → what to do if data is missing → the reason the agent should give

Use Salesforce field names in plain text. Don't use brackets or variable syntax. Words like "must," "preferred," and "also consider" tell the agent how much weight to give each rule.

Example — Required Criteria (replace with your ICP):

Use Account.Industry. Include accounts where Industry is Technology, Software, or Telecommunications. If Industry is blank, use web search to find the industry. If excluded, give the reason: "Industry is outside ICP."

Use Account.NumberOfEmployees. Include accounts with more than 500 employees. If NumberOfEmployees is blank, use web search to find the company size, and apply the same threshold. If excluded, give the reason: "Company size below ICP threshold."

Use Account.BillingCountry. Include only accounts in the United States. If excluded, give the reason: "Geography outside ICP."

Example — Optional Criteria:

Rank accounts higher when Account.LastActivityDate is within the last 90 days. The more recent the activity, the higher the rank. Do not disqualify accounts with older or blank activity dates.

Rank accounts higher in industries next to our ICP, such as FinTech or Cybersecurity, when Account.AnnualRevenue is greater than $100M.

TIP: Start small. Begin with 3–5 required criteria and 2–3 optional ones. You can add more after Preview gives you results you trust. To speed this up, paste your ICP notes and the pattern above into an AI assistant, such as Slackbot, and ask it to draft required and optional criteria.

Step 2: Preview Your Account Criteria

Before you continue, use the Preview Agent panel on the right to test your criteria on real accounts. Search Accounts finds only accounts on the report you connected in Exercise 2.

1. Select Save to save your criteria.
2. In Search Accounts, search for an account you expect to qualify, then select Preview. Your test account from Exercise 0 is a good first pick. A preview takes about 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Review the result. Each criterion shows as met (✓) or not met (✗), along with the data source used (Salesforce or Web Search) and a Qualified or Disqualified result.

4. Repeat with an account you expect to be disqualified, and then with one you're unsure about.

If a result surprises you, change the criterion that caused it, then run Preview again. Do this before you add more criteria. When the results look right, select Continue.

TIP: Test both ways. Previewing an account that should qualify and one that shouldn't catches mistakes in your criteria before the agent runs on your full list. You can edit these criteria any time after the agent is live.

TIP: Read the reason on each line, not just the ✓ or ✗. On a disqualified account, a line can show ✗ even when the account meets it. The reason text tells you which rule really failed.

Step 3: Define Your Target Contacts (Find Prospects)

Account Research decides whether an account is worth pursuing. Find Prospects decides who to contact there. Think of it as your contact-level ICP.

Like Account Research, Find Prospects comes with example criteria. Edit the three sections to match your answers to the "who should we contact" questions:

• Ideal Prospect: the people to contact first. Be specific about seniority, function, and titles.
• Acceptable Prospect: good contacts after your Ideal Prospects have been reached, such as managers or individual contributors close to the decision-maker.
• Poor Prospect: roles the agent should always skip, such as consultants, board members, or junior coordinators.

TIP: Start with your best deals. Ask, "Who do our best deals start with?" The answer usually becomes your Ideal Prospect criteria. The more precise you are here, the better the prospects the agent finds.

Example (replace with your personas). Each section is its own box, so paste only the text after the label:
Ideal Prospect: Director level or above, with a title containing Sales, Revenue, Marketing, or Operations. Prefer contacts with a verified email address.
Acceptable Prospect: Managers in Sales Operations, Revenue Operations, or Marketing Operations.
Poor Prospect: Executive Assistants, Administrative Coordinators, consultants, board members, interns, and anyone marked Do Not Contact.

TIP: Getting the wrong titles? Be explicit about what to exclude. "Do not recommend Executive Assistants or other non-decision-making roles" works better than listing only the titles you want.

Step 4: Preview Your Prospect Criteria

1. Select Save.
2. In Preview Agent, search for an account whose people you know, then select Preview. The agent lists the prospects it would recommend from that account. This takes about a minute. Your test account from Exercise 0 is a good first check, because its contact (your VP of Sales) should come back as an Ideal Prospect.
3. Check that the recommended people match what you'd expect. If they don't, adjust the criteria and run Preview again. When they do, select Continue.

TIP: If the preview says it couldn't find prospects, select Preview again. It can take a few tries, and each one takes about a minute. Your criteria are saved either way.

Your agent is connected to your account report. The template's rules are gone. Your own account and prospect criteria each return the results you expect in Preview.

This completes Exercise 3. Next, in Exercise 4, you assign prospects, activate your agent, and run it for the first time.