Prospect Linkedin Research

SKILL.md — Prospect LinkedIn Research

Find, profile, and connect with VP/Director-level prospects on LinkedIn using the LinkedIn MCP server.

When to Use

• Finding decision-makers at a specific company or industry
• Profiling a prospect before outreach
• Batch-sending connection requests
• Checking if a prospect has mutual connections

Tools

• LinkedIn MCP (linkedin-mcp):
  • search_people — Search for prospects by keyword + company
  • get_person_profile — Full profile with activity feed
  • connect_with_person — Send connection request
  • get_company_overview — Company size, industry, description
  • get_company_profile — Employee count, growth signals

Target Prospect Profile (ICP)

Title keywords (in priority order):
1. "VP of Platform Engineering" / "VP Platform Engineering"
2. "Director of Platform Engineering" / "Director SRE"
3. "Senior Director of Engineering" (if platform/infrastructure focus)
4. "VP of Infrastructure" / "VP of Engineering" (platform-heavy)
5. "Engineering Manager" (Platform / DevOps / SRE / Observability)

COMPANY SIZE (CRITICAL FILTER):
- Target: 50-500 employees (or team of 2-10 engineers managing ELK)
- Acceptable: 500-2000 employees
- AVOID: 2000+ employees (too many resources, too many tools)

ELK CRITICALITY:
- Target: ELK is mission-critical — the platform team exists primarily to keep ELK running
- AVOID: Large tech companies where ELK is one of many pain points (Discord, Goldman Sachs,
  Stripe, BBVA) — they have dedicated teams and Elastic consulting. Not our ICP.

NOT:
- Individual contributors without team lead / manager title
- Contractors, job seekers, "open to work"
- Competitors (Elastic, Splunk, CrowdStrike employees)
- IT services / consulting companies
- Companies where ELK is a side concern, not core infrastructure

Search Strategy

By Company

Use search_people with company name + title keywords:

Keywords: "VP Director Platform Engineering site:linkedin.com/in {CompanyName}"

Note: The site:linkedin.com/in filter often doesn't work with LinkedIn's search. Use the MCP's built-in search_people with just keywords instead:

Keywords: "VP Director Platform Engineering SRE"

Then filter results by company from the profile.

By Title + Company Size

For companies 50-500 employees:

Keywords: "Director of Platform Engineering SRE"

By ELK Signal (Highest Intent)

Prospects who explicitly mention ELK/Elasticsearch in their profile:

Keywords: "ELK Elasticsearch Logstash Kibana"

Note: This is rare — <5% of profiles. When found, it's a very strong signal.

By Active Posting

Use get_person_profile and check the Activity section:

• Posted in last 30 days = "Fresh" prospect
• Posted 1-3 months ago = "Warm"
• No recent posts = "Cold" (lower priority)

Profiling a Prospect

For each prospect, use get_person_profile to capture:

Must have:

• Full name
• Current title and company
• Connection degree (1st = gold, 2nd = good, 3rd+ = follow-only)
• Whether Connect button is available (not follow-only)

Nice to have:

• Recent posts and engagement
• Tech stack mentions (ELK, Kafka, Ansible, Kubernetes = perfect)
• Background/previous companies
• Mutual connections
• Whether they're actively hiring (job posts in activity = stretched team)

Red flags (deprioritize):

• "Open to work" in profile
• No team (individual contributor only)
• Employee at Elastic/Splunk/competitor
• IT services/consulting company
• Connection degree 3rd+ (can't connect, only follow)

Connection Requests

Always Use Blank Connection Requests

LinkedIn MCP connect_with_person sends a blank connection request by default. Do NOT include a note in the initial request — send the note as a follow-up message after they accept.

Priority Order

1. Fresh prospects (posted within 30 days) with Connect button available
2. Warm prospects (posted 1-3 months) with Connect available
3. Prospects with explicit ELK/Elasticsearch mentions
4. 2nd connection prospects (easier to convert)

Connection Statuses

Track in CRM:

• Not Connected — Can't connect (3rd+ degree or profile restriction)
• Pending — Connection request sent, awaiting acceptance
• Connected — They accepted, ready for outreach message

Blocked Profiles (Follow-Only)

Some profiles only show "Follow" not "Connect." These are:

• 3rd+ degree connections
• Profiles with network restrictions
• Premium-only features

What to do: Note in CRM as "Follow-Only" and move on. Don't waste time retrying.

Batch Workflow

1. search_people for the target company + title keywords → get list
2. For each promising prospect, get_person_profile → evaluate fit
3. connect_with_person for all Connect-available prospects
4. Update CRM with connection status, pain signals, and last activity

Common Pitfalls

• Don't send notes with connection requests — LinkedIn treats them as InMail (requires premium). Send blank requests and follow up after acceptance.
• Retry follow-only profiles once — sometimes the button appears after a page refresh. But if it fails twice, accept it and move on.
• LinkedIn MCP search doesn't filter by site: Use keywords that include the company name explicitly to narrow results.
• 3rd+ degree = no connect button — Accept this. Find mutual connections or use InMail (premium) instead.
• Don't obsess over company size — A 10,000-person company with a VP of Platform Engineering is just as good as a 200-person company. The pain is the signal.

Output Format

{
  "prospects_found": [
    {
      "name": "Full Name",
      "title": "Exact title",
      "company": "Company",
      "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/...",
      "connection_degree": "2nd",
      "connect_available": true,
      "recent_post": "topic or null",
      "recent_post_date": "2mo ago",
      "elk_signal": true,
      "pain_signals_from_profile": ["tech mentions", "topics posted about"],
      "priority": "High",
      "connection_status": "Pending"
    }
  ],
  "connection_requests_sent": ["name1", "name2"],
  "follow_only_profiles": ["name3"],
  "recommended_next_steps": ["send follow-up to accepted connections", "search next company"]
}