Introduction

Cold outreach is all about timing—and what better timing than when a company is actively hiring? In this guide, you’ll learn how to use Clay to find companies hiring for specific roles, enrich them with relevant decision makers, and automatically write cold emails that convert—without switching tools.

1. Step 1: Build a List of Target Companies

Start by identifying your ICP:

• Choose industries, company sizes, revenue ranges, locations
• Exclude domains you've already contacted
• Filter with keywords like “software,” “AI,” “B2B”, etc.

👉 Example: IT/software companies in New York, 10–500 employees
Clay pulled 69 matching companies using this filter.

2. Step 2: Enrich the List with Hiring Signals

Use Clay’s "Find active job openings" enrichment to check if companies are hiring.

• Target job titles like: Sales, GTM, BDR, SDR
• Use filters: employment type, post date, location
• Results: 4 out of 69 companies were currently hiring for relevant roles

Why this matters: Hiring = active need = perfect timing to sell.

3. Step 3: Find the Right People

Next, enrich those hiring companies with key decision makers.

• Use Clay’s “Find people” enrichment
• Filter by title, experience, location, languages, etc.
• Normalize titles and exclude generic/undefined roles
• Example: 12 valid ICP-fit contacts from 4 companies

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4. Step 4: Get Verified Work Emails

Use waterfall enrichment to find work emails from multiple providers.

• If one fails, Clay tries the next
• Filter out contacts without valid emails
• Normalize names and companies for use in templates

💡 Tip: Keep your data clean from the start—it saves massive time later.

5. Step 5: Use AI to Write Cold Emails (Inside Clay)

Use built-in AI (Claude 3.5) with a proven structure:

Email Framework:

1. Observation → “You’re hiring 4 SDRs at [Company]”
2. Poke-the-bear question → “Will they spend more time selling or burning hours prospecting?”
3. Elevator pitch → “Clay helps sales teams spot buying signals early and personalize outreach at scale.”
4. CTA → “Would you be open to a quick 15-minute chat?”

✅ Output: Short, personalized email with relevance + timing + value.

6. Optional: Push to Outreach Tools

After AI creates the messages, you can:

• Export leads to Instantly or any email tool
• Add follow-ups (1st, 2nd, 3rd messages) as variables
• Launch multistep sequences directly from your Clay output

🚀 Result: Fully automated prospecting from signal to send.

7. Other Use Cases for Signals

Hiring isn’t the only trigger you can use. Try:

• Tech stack – e.g. "Companies using HubSpot"
• Ad spend – high-budget advertisers = warm leads
• Funding rounds – growth = buying potential

But hiring remains one of the strongest and clearest indicators of buying intent.

Final Thoughts: From List to Outreach in One Tool

Clay makes it possible to:

• Find hiring companies
• Pull decision makers
• Get verified emails
• Auto-generate messages
• Send with just a few clicks

No scraping, no jumping between platforms. Just smart outbound at scale.

🔁 Want to build your own Clay workflow? Try this method first—then tweak it for your own ICP, vertical or signal.