More companies like your best customers

Why does the lookalikes play work?

Your best customers are the most precise description of your market you have. Industry codes and keyword lists are rough copies of the same idea.

What counts as a good lookalike?

This play has no timing signal: fit is the reason to write. A good match has all of these:

• Sells a similar product or service, read from its own website.
• Sells to a similar buyer: the same kind of customer as your seed accounts.
• Falls in the same size range as the customers you picked.
• Is not already in your CRM as a customer or an open deal.

What looks like the signal but is not

Seeds that are not alike

Mixing very different customers gives a blurry average. Run one search per customer type.

Famous seeds

Seeding with your best-known logo instead of your best customer finds companies like the logo, not like the deal.

Matching on size alone

Size is a filter, not a match. Two 100-person companies can have nothing in common.

Ignoring why they bought

If your best customers share a trigger, such as a new team or a tool change, add it as a signal. Fit alone finds companies that may not need you yet.

How to run it, step by step

Six steps in the same five-part frame as every play. Each step says what you are after, why it matters and how to do it with any tools; the Breaknorm boxes show the shortcut.

1. 01Signal

   Pick your best customers

   Goal. Three to ten customers that describe the pattern you want more of.

   Why. The seeds decide everything that follows. Pick the customers you would clone: they bought quickly, stayed, and would recommend you.

   How.

   • Choose customers by fit and outcome, not by logo.
   • Keep them similar to each other; run a separate search for each customer type.
   • Three is enough to start; ten gives a sharper match.

   Start from your customersfind_similar

   find_similar({ "domains": ["shipvane.io", "portlane.io"] })Copy

   You end withA short list of seed customers, one search per type.

2. 02Signal

   Match on offer, buyer and size

   Goal. A ranked list of companies like your seeds, without your existing customers.

   Why. Matching on what companies say about themselves finds the ones with the same problems. Excluding your CRM stops you writing to customers and open deals.

   How.

   • Read the top results yourself before trusting the list.
   • Mark a few as good or bad fits; the ranking follows.
   • Exclude current customers and open deals with a list.

   The filters behind itfind_similar + create_list

   {
     "similar_to": ["shipvane.io", "portlane.io"],
     "exclude_list": "crm-customers",
     "employees": { "min": 20, "max": 500 },
     "limit": 500
   }Copy

   You end withA ranked list of lookalikes, each tagged with the customer it resembles most.

3. 03Who

   Find the buyer you usually sell to

   Goal. The same role at each lookalike that bought at your seed customers.

   Why. If your customers were bought by Heads of Operations, the lookalikes will be too. Copy the buyer, not just the company.

   How.

   • Check who signed at your seed customers: function and level.
   • Find that role at each lookalike.
   • Titles vary; match on function and level, not exact wording.

   Find the buyersearch_people

   { "function": "operations", "level": ["head", "director"], "company": "parcelyn.com" }Copy

   You end withOne named buyer per lookalike.

4. 04Find

   Get an email that is verified

   Goal. A working address for each buyer.

   Why. Lookalike lists can be long. Verifying before you send keeps your bounce rate, and your domain, clean.

   How.

   • Find the address from the name and the company domain.
   • Verify it at the mail server.
   • Hold contacts whose address cannot be confirmed.

   Find and verify with Breaknormfind_email · verify_email

   find_email({ "name": "Katrin Vogel", "domain": "parcelyn.com" })Copy

   You end withA verified email per buyer.

5. 05Say

   Share what a company like theirs did

   Goal. A message that shows the similarity and offers a peer's result to read.

   Why. A result from a company like theirs is more convincing than any claim. Offered as something to read, it asks for very little.

   How.

   • Say what they have in common with your customer, in one line.
   • Name the problem that customer had, which they probably share.
   • Offer the write-up of what changed and ask if you can send it.

   You end withOne message per company, built on the customer it resembles.

6. 06Measure

   Compare lookalikes with your usual lists

   Goal. A view of which seeds produce accounts that reply and buy.

   Why. Some customers make great seeds and some don't. Tracking by seed tells you which pattern to grow.

   How.

   • Tag each account with the seed customer it resembles.
   • Compare reply and meeting rates against your usual outbound.
   • Re-run when you win new customers; the pattern shifts.

   You end withA ranking of seed customers by the pipeline their lookalikes create.

A worked example, start to finish

One company, through every step. The companies and the person are invented; the steps are the real ones.

1. Signal

   Your best customers are Shipvane and Portlane: software for online retailers, 50 to 200 people, bought by operations.

2. Signal

   Parcelyn, a post-purchase tracking company in Munich with about 120 people, comes back as a 92% match to Shipvane. It is not in your CRM.

3. Who

   At Shipvane, the Head of Operations signed. At Parcelyn, that is Katrin Vogel.

4. Find

   [email protected] comes back valid from the mail server.

5. Say

   The message names what Parcelyn and Shipvane have in common and offers the Shipvane write-up.

6. Measure

   Tagged with Shipvane as the seed, so you can see which customer makes the best lookalikes.

Prompt

Find 500 companies like shipvane.io and portlane.io, not in my CRM

Like shipvane.io

Sells to retailers

ParcelynPost-purchase tracking · Munich · 120 people92% match

SellsTracking for retail brands

Sells toOnline retailers

BuyerHead of Operations · valid

Lookalike list1,284 companiesranked by fit · example

ReplayILLUSTRATIVE · EXAMPLE DATA

What to write to a lookalike company

A short email that gives before it asks: something useful for the situation they are in, not a meeting request. Why each line is there:

When not to run this play

• You name a customer without their permission.
• Your seed customers are very different from each other.
• You have fewer than three customers; start with a market map instead.
• The lookalike is already in a deal with you.
• You use fit as the only filter on a big list; add a signal to know when to write.

How to measure whether it works

Track a few numbers per batch and compare them over time. What counts as good depends on your market, so the trend matters more than any benchmark.

Reply rate compared with your usual lists

Lookalikes should do better than a broad list. If they don't, look at the seeds.

Results by seed customer

Which customers produce lookalikes that reply and buy.

Share of results you mark as good

If it is low, the seeds are too broad or too different from each other.

Meetings per 100 companies

The number that tells you whether the play is worth repeating.

From our data

Figures from Breaknorm's own company data, refreshed every 1 to 7 days.

Checklist

1. Three to ten seed customers, chosen by fit and outcome
2. One search per customer type
3. Top results read and marked good or bad
4. Current customers and open deals excluded
5. Contact: the same role that bought at your seeds
6. Email verified at the mail server
7. Message shares a similar customer's result, with permission
8. Results tracked by seed customer

Questions about this play