STEP 2 — BUILD YOUR FIRST PROSPECT LIST
The Problem We’re Solving
“I know who I want to reach, but I don’t know exactly who I should approach first.”
In Step 1, you created your First-Customer Acquisition Plan.

You identified:

Your Best-Fit Customer
Where they may be found
Your initial acquisition channel
Your customer entry point
How you intend to move prospects toward a sale
But knowing your target market is not the same as having actual prospects.

You may know:

“I help consultants.”
But that is not a prospect.

You need to know:

Who are the specific people I should approach?
This is where prospecting begins.

Your goal is not to build the biggest possible database.

Your goal is to identify a focused group of real prospects who are likely to fit your customer profile and have a relevant problem or buying situation.

THE EVUNN MINDSET SHIFT
From “I need more leads” → “I need the right buyers.”
Traditional prospecting can easily become a numbers game:

Contact more people.
Send more messages.
Build a bigger list.
But more prospects do not automatically mean more customers.

If you are approaching people who:

Don’t fit your customer profile
Don’t have the problem
Aren’t in the relevant situation
Don’t have a reason to act
Aren’t appropriate for your offer
then increasing your outreach simply increases wasted effort.

The better question is:

“Who is most likely to have the problem I solve and have a reason to engage with me?”
This is the buyer-first approach that underpins Gap Prospecting.

📖 Recommended Book
Gap Prospecting
Authors: Keenan & Will Aitken

The Big Idea
Effective prospecting starts with the buyer—not with your product, your pitch or the number of people you can contact.

The book challenges traditional prospecting approaches and moves toward a more buyer-centred approach:

Understand the buyer

↓

Understand the problem

↓

Target the right buyer

↓

Create a relevant reason to engage

That makes it a strong fit for Step 2.

You are not reading it simply to learn how to “find leads.”

You are learning how to identify better prospects.

What Business Problem Does This Book Solve?
“I’m contacting people, but I don’t know whether I’m actually targeting the right buyers.”
A prospect list can look impressive while being commercially useless.

You can have 500 names and still have no meaningful prospects.

The book’s Part II — Put the Buyer First — is particularly relevant to EVUNN because it focuses on understanding the buyer, mapping the problem and targeting the buyer.

Should I Read It Now?
YES — but only the relevant chapters.
You do not need to read the whole book before completing this step.

Your objective is:

“Learn how to identify and target prospects based on their situation and problem rather than simply their demographic or job title.”

Which Parts Matter Most?
PART II — PUT THE BUYER FIRST
Chapter 7 — Get to Know Your Buyer
ESSENTIAL
This is where you deepen your understanding of the person you are trying to reach.

Connect it to the Best-Fit Customer you created earlier.

You should be able to answer:

Who is this buyer?
What situation are they in?
What are they trying to accomplish?
What might be getting in their way?
What would make this problem relevant to them now?
The objective is to move beyond:

“My target market is small business owners.”
toward:

“My prospect is a small business owner who is experiencing a specific situation that makes the problem I solve relevant right now.”

Chapter 8 — Map the Problem
ESSENTIAL
You already identified and validated the problem in earlier phases.

Now use that understanding when identifying prospects.

Ask:

What observable signs might indicate that this person is experiencing the problem?
For example, the signal might be:

A recent role change
A new business launch
A new responsibility
A growth challenge
A stated goal
A visible operational problem
A request for help
A change in circumstances
You are looking for evidence of relevance, not simply demographic similarity.

Chapter 9 — Target Your Buyer
ESSENTIAL
This is the most directly relevant chapter for Step 2.

Use it to think about who should actually make it onto your prospect list.

Your objective is not:

“Find everyone who could possibly buy.”
It is:

“Identify the people most worth approaching first.”
This becomes the bridge between your Best-Fit Customer and your actual prospect list.

What Should I Read Later?
PART I — IT’S BROKEN
These chapters provide useful context about the problems with traditional prospecting.

For this step:

Chapter 1 — The Fundamental Challenge
SKIM

Useful for understanding why prospecting needs to change, but not essential to completing your task.

Chapter 2 — The Nine Truthbombs of Prospecting
SKIM

Useful context, but you do not need to study every principle before building your first prospect list.

Chapters 3–6
SKIP FOR NOW

They provide broader context around the current state and business impact of prospecting, but they are not necessary for this execution step.

What Should I Save for Step 3?
PART III — THE GOAL OF PROSPECTING
Keep these for the next step:

Chapter 10 — Light Up Your Buyer’s Brain
Chapter 11 — Get Sticky
Chapter 12 — Get Your Mind Right
These become more relevant when you move from:

“Who should I approach?”
to:

“How do I approach them in a way that earns attention and starts a conversation?”
That gives the roadmap a natural progression rather than making the user read the entire book at once.

YOUR EVUNN ACTION
BUILD YOUR FIRST PROSPECT LIST
Now turn your Best-Fit Customer into real prospects.

This is where the work moves from strategy to execution.

1. BRING FORWARD YOUR BEST-FIT CUSTOMER
Go back to the customer profile you created in Phase 3.

Record:

Who are they?

What situation are they in?

What problem are they experiencing?

What outcome do they want?

What makes this problem relevant now?

Who is NOT a fit?

This becomes your prospect qualification filter.

2. DEFINE YOUR PROSPECT CRITERIA
Before searching for people, decide what makes someone worth adding to your list.

Must Fit
The prospect must:

Strong Fit
The prospect is especially attractive if:

Not a Fit
Do not add prospects who:

The goal is to prevent yourself from collecting names simply because they look vaguely similar to your target customer.

3. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM SIGNAL
Your validated problem should help you recognise potential prospects.

Ask:

“What would I be able to observe that suggests this person may be experiencing this problem?”
For example:

If you help newly promoted managers, a useful signal could be:

Recently promoted into their first management role.
If you help professionals turn expertise into consulting offers:

Recently launched an independent consulting practice but has not established a consistent offer or client pipeline.
The signal should connect directly to the problem you are solving.

4. IDENTIFY THE BUYING-SITUATION SIGNAL
A person can have a problem without being ready to act.

That’s why your Buying Situation matters.

Ask:

“What makes this problem relevant to this person now?”
Look for signals such as:

A recent promotion
A new role
A business launch
A major transition
A new responsibility
A growth target
A deadline
A visible challenge
A stated intention
A request for help
You are looking for the circumstances that make your offer more relevant now.

5. FIND WHERE YOUR PROSPECTS CAN BE IDENTIFIED
Return to the acquisition channel you selected in Step 1.

Then identify practical places where your prospects can be found.

Depending on your business, this could include:

LinkedIn
Professional directories
Industry associations
Company websites
Events
Conferences
Professional communities
Existing networks
Referrals
Alumni networks
Partnerships
Local business networks
Don’t ask:

“Where are the most people?”
Ask:

“Where can I identify people who fit my criteria?”

6. START WITH PEOPLE YOU CAN ACTUALLY REACH
Your first customer does not need to come from a massive audience.

Look at the people already within reasonable reach:

Existing professional connections
Previous contacts
LinkedIn connections
Industry relationships
Relevant communities
Previous customers
Referrals
Professional associations
You are not asking these people to buy simply because you know them.

You are identifying whether anyone in your existing network genuinely fits the customer criteria.

7. CREATE YOUR PROSPECT RECORD
For every prospect, capture only information that helps you determine fit and have a relevant conversation.

Prospect Name

Organisation

Role

Contact / Profile

Acquisition Channel

Problem Signal

Buying-Situation Signal

Why They May Be a Fit

Relevant Context

Date Added

Don’t turn prospect research into a research project.

You need enough information to understand why this person may be relevant.

8. PRIORITISE YOUR PROSPECTS
Not every prospect deserves the same attention.

Divide your prospects into three groups.

A — High Priority
Strong customer fit + strong problem signal + relevant buying situation.

Start here.

B — Potential
Good customer fit, but weaker evidence of need or timing.

Keep on the list.

C — Low Priority
Some characteristics match, but there is little evidence of the problem or buying situation.

Don’t spend your initial effort here.
This prevents you from wasting your limited time on weak prospects.

9. BUILD YOUR INITIAL PROSPECT BATCH
You do not need thousands of prospects.

Build a manageable initial batch.

25–50 qualified prospects
The exact number depends on:

Your market
Your offer
Your price
Your acquisition channel
How accessible your prospects are
How much time you can commit
The principle is:

Build enough prospects to test your acquisition approach without creating a list so large that you never contact anyone.
Your first list is an experiment.

It is not your permanent CRM database.

10. CHECK THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIST
Before you move to outreach, review the list.

Fit
Does this person match my Best-Fit Customer?

Problem
Is there a reasonable basis for believing they may experience the problem?

Situation
Is there a reason the problem may be relevant now?

Reachability
Can I realistically contact them?

Relevance
Would my offer genuinely be appropriate for them?

If most prospects fail these tests, don’t start outreach yet.

Improve the list.

11. DO NOT CONFUSE A PROSPECT WITH A LEAD
A name is not automatically a prospect.

A prospect should have enough evidence to suggest:

This person may genuinely fit the problem, customer and situation I’m targeting.
That distinction matters.

Otherwise, you are simply collecting contacts.

EVUNN is teaching you to build a qualified prospect pool.

12. PREPARE FOR THE CONVERSATION
For each high-priority prospect, you should now know:

Who are they?

Why might they be a fit?

What problem signal have I identified?

What buying-situation signal have I identified?

What do I still need to learn?

This final question is important.

You are not supposed to know everything about the prospect before contacting them.

You are identifying enough to make a relevant first approach.

🧠 EVUNN MINDSET CHECKPOINT
Are you building the list because contacting prospects makes you uncomfortable?
Prospecting can create resistance.

It is easier to:

Research
Organise
Build spreadsheets
Refine your profile
Improve your website
Create more content
Search for more prospects
than to actually approach someone.

But the prospect list is not the goal.

The conversation is.
Your list only needs to be good enough to help you begin.

Optional Mindset Reading
The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
Use this only if you notice yourself repeatedly preparing instead of taking the uncomfortable action of approaching prospects.

This is optional. It is not a core Step 2 book.

🔓 EVUNN EXECUTION TOOLKIT
First Prospect List Builder
Don’t build a giant database of random leads.

Use the EVUNN First Prospect List Builder to identify real prospects who match your Best-Fit Customer, capture relevant problem and buying-situation signals, rank prospects by priority and create a focused list ready for outreach.

→ Open Toolkit
| Go Back to Roadmap

ONE PAYMENT. ALL STAGE 1 TOOLKITS. YOURS FOR LIFE.
No monthly subscription. No recurring fees. Just the tools you need to execute.

→ Unlock All Stage 1 Execution Toolkits

YOUR STEP 2 OUTPUT
By the end of this step, you should have a:

FIRST PROSPECT LIST
Containing:

Best-Fit Customer Criteria

↓

Prospect Qualification Criteria

↓

Problem Signals

↓

Buying-Situation Signals

↓

Real Prospects

↓

Prospect Information

↓

Priority Ranking

↓

25–50 Initial Prospects
Your objective is not to create a perfect database.

Your objective is to have a focused group of real people you can begin approaching and learning from.

WHAT YOU SHOULD NOW KNOW
You entered this step with:

“I know who my target customer is.”
You leave knowing:

“I know exactly who I am going to approach first, why they may be a fit and what makes their situation relevant.”
But identifying the right prospects is only the beginning.

Now you need to earn their attention and start a genuine conversation.

NEXT: STEP 3 — START THE CONVERSATION
“What do I say to a prospect that makes them want to engage rather than ignore me?”