Build and launch

Workflow Reviewed · not yet fact-checked

At a glance

Goal

A list of contacts matching your ICP — sourced live from LinkedIn data, deduplicated against your account, and validated — ready for enrollment.

When to use this workflow

You know who you want to reach and need the records, without buying external lists and importing CSVs. If your data already exists in files or a CRM, start from Build a prospect list instead.

What Reply provides

Realtime B2B Data search with structured filters or a pasted Sales Navigator URL, a 5-7 contact preview before spending credits, saving to a list, sequence, or both, automatic skipping of contacts already in your account, a Search History with statuses and credit usage, LinkedIn search import through your own Sales Navigator account, and an email validation service.

What you must provide

The ICP translated into concrete filters, the credit budget, and — for LinkedIn search import — a LinkedIn account with Sales Navigator (other LinkedIn plans are not supported).

Preconditions

Reply credits (every user receives 50 basic credits; buy more under Plans & Billing → Manage current subscription); a destination list or sequence; for the LinkedIn search path, a connected Sales Navigator account.

Flow

ICP criteria → Data page filters (or Sales Navigator URL)
    → preview 5-7 contacts → Launch Live Search
    → save to list / sequence / both → Search History tracks progress
    → validate emails → filter by ICP score inside an AI SDR sequence

Step-by-step

1. Set the filters. Open the Data page and apply filters, or paste a LinkedIn Sales Navigator search URL — Reply's filters update to match it. Unsupported Sales Navigator filters such as Changed Jobs, Posted on LinkedIn, Shared Experiences, and saved searches are skipped with a note; the rest still apply. To target specific companies instead, select an Accounts list of uploaded domains — Industry and Employee Headcount lock because they come from your company data.
2. Refine the search. Add keywords (works for both companies and contacts), exclude values with the – button on Accounts lists, Industry, Account/Contact location, Keywords, Job title, and Department, or filter by Hiring on Social Media. Toggle Contacts only mode to find people even without company data (some filters like Industry become unavailable), Add contacts without email addresses for LinkedIn-only outreach, and Find phone numbers if you want numbers looked up.
3. Check the preview. The page shows 5-7 contacts matching your criteria — adjust filters until the preview looks like your ICP before spending credits.
4. Launch the Live Search. Click Launch Live Search and choose where to save: a specific list, a sequence, both, or neither (contacts save directly to your account).
5. Track progress in Search History. Each search shows its date, save target, status (Finished, No new contacts, Running, or Paused), used credits, contacts found, and owner. From the three-dot menu you can view contacts, reuse the search for a new batch, pause or resume it, or delete the entry. Contacts already saved to your account are not duplicated.
6. Or import from your own Sales Navigator searches. On the People page (or a sequence's People tab) click Add contacts → LinkedIn search, paste a Sales Navigator search or saved-list URL, choose how many contacts to extract, and pick Skip or Add anyway for contacts already in other sequences. Up to 2,000 contacts per day per LinkedIn account.
7. Validate emails. On the People page select at least one contact and click Validate emails. One batch validates at a time; results mark each address valid, risky, or invalid. Reply will not send emails to contacts with invalid addresses.
8. Prioritize by fit. Inside an AI SDR sequence's People tab, every contact gets an ICP score (computed against that sequence's offer, with hover explanations) and a LinkedIn Activity score (Frequent, Consistent, Occasional). Filter out low scores — for example, ICP under 60 — and lead with LinkedIn for highly active contacts. The scores are calculated automatically when enough data exists (LinkedIn URL, job title, company), including for imported lists.

Failure conditions

• Not enough credits — saving stops until you buy more; validation shows a pop-up pointing to Plans & Billing
• No new contacts — the audience for these filters is exhausted; widen the filters or accept the count
• Paused too late — the system may still add the last batch of 10-20 contacts after you pause
• Scores missing — ICP and LinkedIn Activity scores need a LinkedIn URL, job title, and company data, and appear only in the People tab inside an AI SDR sequence

Verification

The destination list holds the expected count; Search History shows Finished with the credits you expected to spend; validation marks most addresses valid; no duplicate records — already-saved contacts are skipped, and imports follow the deduplication rule.

Limits

• Credits per saved contact: 1 (LinkedIn profile link, no email), 2 (LinkedIn link and email), 3 (phone number found)
• Contacts without emails cost 1 credit each when enabled
• Every user receives 50 basic Reply credits
• Preview size: 5-7 contacts
• LinkedIn search import: up to 2,000 contacts per day per LinkedIn account; requires Sales Navigator
• Email validation: one batch at a time; Reply does not email contacts marked Invalid
• A contact with Invalid email status can still enter a sequence that currently has no email steps

Related

• Prospect search — the capability behind this workflow
• Build a prospect list — when data comes from imports too
• Launch an outbound campaign — the next step
• Prospect data

Build with Reply

• REST API: docs.reply.io — data endpoints (check operation status)
• MCP: agents.reply.io/mcp · Skills: agents.reply.io/skills