# Client Discovery > Client Discovery - Skill: `handsomeboy990/client-discovery` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add handsomeboy990/client-discovery` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/handsomeboy990/client-discovery/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: Handsomeboy990 (https://skillmd.com/u/handsomeboy990) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/handsomeboy990/client-discovery --- # Client Discovery Finding the right clients to approach is the difference between outreach that converts and effort sprayed at everyone. This skill defines who actually fits what the provider offers, finds real organisations that match and show a signal of need, and qualifies them, so the provider spends limited outreach on prospects worth approaching. Every prospect is real and sourced, because a fabricated one wastes real outreach. ## 1. Define the ideal client profile from the real offering ``` offering what the provider actually does well, for whom; the profile follows the real capability, not an aspiration to serve everyone who fits the organisation type, size, sector, and situation that genuinely needs and can pay for this offering signal the observable sign that an organisation needs it now: a hiring pattern, a recent funding round, a product launch, a public problem, a technology they use; the signal is what separates a prospect from a name exclude who does not fit, so the search does not waste effort on organisations that will not convert ``` A profile that describes everyone describes no one, and produces a prospect list that converts at random. ## 2. Search live sources for real organisations ``` sources the business directories, professional networks, news, and connectors the runtime can reach real every prospect is a real organisation, found at a real source signal each is included because it shows the signal of need, not because it exists; a company that fits the profile but shows no signal of need now is a lower-priority prospect, marked as such unreachable if no live source can be reached, say so and give the provider the exact search and directories to use; never invent prospect organisations ``` This is opportunity-core's grounding rule for business: a prospect that cannot be traced to a live source is not a prospect. ## 3. Qualify against fit and reachability ``` fit how well the organisation matches the ideal profile, with the evidence: the size, the sector, the situation, the signal reachability is there a real way to reach a real decision-maker or a real channel; a perfect-fit organisation with no reachable contact is a weaker prospect than a good-fit one the provider can actually reach timing the signal suggests a need now, soon, or someday; now outranks someday priority fit times reachability times timing; a strong fit, reachable, with a current signal is the top of the list ``` ## 4. Report the shortlist with evidence ``` prospect the organisation, with the fit evidence and the signal that qualified it contact a real point of contact or channel, from the source; never a fabricated name, email, or phone number why the specific reason to approach this organisation now: the signal, the fit, the angle approach a suggested angle for the outreach, grounded in the signal; handed to the outreach or proposal step effort where the provider's limited outreach is best spent; ten well-qualified prospects beat a hundred names ``` ## 5. Prohibitions - Never invent a prospect organisation, a contact name, an email, or a phone number. - Never report a prospect that cannot be traced to a live source. - Never build a client profile that fits everyone; it must follow the real offering. - Never include an organisation with no signal of need at the same priority as one with a current signal. - Never present an unreachable prospect as a strong lead. - Never contact a prospect on the provider's behalf without explicit confirmation. - Never fabricate a signal of need; report the real one or mark its absence. ## 6. Protocol 1. Define the ideal client profile from the provider's real offering, with the signal of need and the exclusions. 2. Search live sources for real organisations that fit and show the signal. 3. Qualify each on fit, reachability, and timing, with the evidence. 4. Prioritise by fit times reachability times timing. 5. Report the shortlist with the fit evidence, a real contact or channel, and the approach angle. 6. Guide where the outreach effort is best spent. 7. Where a source cannot be reached, hand over the search rather than inventing. ## 7. Auto-critique Score from 0 to 5: ideal profile follows the real offering, every prospect from a live source with a real signal, qualified on fit and reachability and timing with evidence, contacts real not fabricated, shortlist prioritised, effort guidance given, nothing invented. Threshold: no axis below 3, average at least 4. A single invented organisation, contact, or signal is an automatic zero regardless of the average, per opportunity-core. ## 8. Interfaces - Upstream: `opportunity-core` for the grounding rule. - Downstream: `lead-research` deepens a qualified prospect into an approach, `market-research` sizes the field the prospects come from, `cover-letter` and the outreach message adapt to the prospect. - Lateral: `source-research` and `source-verification` in `research/` for the gathering and checking; `company-research` in `career/` shares the sourced-facts discipline. ## 9. Live sources and connectors This skill reads whatever business and professional sources the runtime exposes: a directory, a professional-network connector, news and search, a freelance-platform connector. It reads and prepares; it does not send outreach on the provider's behalf without explicit confirmation. When a source cannot be reached, it names the directories and searches the provider should run themselves, rather than inventing organisations, because the provider will spend real outreach on what it reports. ## 10. Note on the signal of need The difference between a name and a prospect is the signal: an observable reason to believe this organisation needs the offering now. A list of organisations that merely fit the profile, with no signal, is a directory, not a prospect list, and it converts at the base rate. The signal (a recent raise for a service that scales with growth, a hiring spree for a tool that helps teams, a public problem the offering solves) is what makes outreach timely and welcome rather than cold and generic. Discovery without the signal is half done.