I’m looking at the smart filtering options in LiSeller and I’m honestly overwhelmed. Like, there are a dozen checkboxes for company size, seniority, industry, keywords… and I’m supposed to figure out which ones actually matter for my niche?
I keep seeing posts about ‘quality over quantity’ and ‘defining your ICP’ as if that’s something I just know. But I don’t. I have a vague idea that I want to reach mid-market SaaS founders, but when I drill into the filtering, I’m paralyzed. Do I filter by company revenue first? LinkedIn headline keywords? Employee count?
Also—if I filter too aggressively, won’t I miss potential leads? But if I filter too loosely, aren’t I just sending spam to people who don’t actually care?
I want to set this up once on day one and then just know I’m reaching the right people. What does your filtering setup actually look like, and how did you decide which criteria to include?
This is the single most important decision you’ll make, so I’m glad you’re overthinking it instead of just going broad.
Here’s the framework I use with my clients:
Start with the inverse question: Not “who do I want to reach?” but “who do I NOT want to waste time on?”
Example: “I sell growth consulting to SaaS founders.”
NOT: “I want founders in tech” (too broad).
INSTEAD: "I don’t want founders in:
- Healthcare software (different sales cycles)
- Pre-seed companies (no budget)
- Enterprise-only plays (different buyer persona)
- Solo founders still in product development (can’t sell to you yet)"
See the difference? You’re eliminating wasted outreach systematically.
Your filtering order should be:
- Company size (in employees, revenue, or both) – This is your veto filter. Eliminates 80% immediately.
- Industry/verticalization – Second filtering layer. Specific verticals, not “all SaaS.”
- Title/seniority – Third layer. Founders only? C-suite? This changes your message anyway.
- Keywords – Last layer. Company tagline, website, pitch—whatever signals your specific use case.
On day one, here’s what I’d actually do:
Don’t try to be perfect. Pick your top 3 disqualifiers, set those filters, run a pilot of 30 leads. Look at them manually. Are these people people you’d actually want to talk to? If 80%+ are yes, your filters are working. If not, adjust.
This takes 20 minutes max, and it beats spending 2 hours trying to engineer the “perfect” filter that doesn’t exist.
What’s your actual product or service? I can tell you exactly which criteria matter most for your niche.
One more thing—and this is critical: your filter is not your identity. You can run multiple filter sets. “Set A: Founders with $1-5M ARR in B2B SaaS.” “Set B: VP of Sales at mid-market tech companies.” “Set C: Marketing leaders in agencies.”
I probably have 15 different filter profiles set up, and I rotate between them based on campaigns. Some months I’m hunting founders, some months I’m going after their VPs.
Day one, just build one tight filter. But know that you’re not locked in forever. You’ll get smarter about your ICP after you send your first 100 messages and see who actually engages.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of started.
Real talk: I massively overthought filtering on day one. I spent like 4 hours trying to build the ‘perfect’ filter based on some YouTube video about ICPs.
Then I just… started. Built a loose filter (mid-market companies, 50-500 people, software/tech), sent 20 messages to a variety of titles, and tracked what happened. Turns out I got way more replies from specific personas than others. That’s when I actually refined my filters.
My advice: don’t engineer it perfectly upfront. You don’t actually know which criteria will lead to conversations until you have data. Filter broadly enough that you’re not sending spam, but loosely enough that you can iterate fast.
After my first 100 conversations, I realized I should’ve been filtering harder for companies with recent funding rounds. That was my actual edge, not company size.
Start with your gut, send your first batch, then use the data to refine. That’s way faster than analysis paralysis for 3 weeks.
What’s your average deal size? That’ll actually tell you a lot about whether to go broad or narrow on the filters.
Quick clarification on how the smart filtering actually works, since I think some of the confusion comes from not understanding the data sources:
When you set a filter (e.g., “companies with 50-500 employees”), LiSeller is pulling that data from LinkedIn’s public profiles and company pages. It’s real data, but it’s LinkedIn’s snapshot, not necessarily perfect. Sometimes company size is outdated by a few months.
Keyword filtering is more precise because it’s searching actual profile text—job descriptions, company bios, headlines. That’s more real-time.
Industry filtering is reliable because it’s pulled from LinkedIn’s official company categorization.
My day-one recommendation:
- Set company size (most reliable data)
- Set industry/vertical (second most reliable)
- Add title as a filter (headline searches are pretty solid)
- Keyword filtering is optional on day one—add it after you see how tight your initial filter is
This gives you 80% precision without information overload.
Also—check your filtered results before you start any campaign. Literally look at 10 random profiles from your filtered list. Do they look like real targets? If you’re seeing clearly irrelevant people, tighten your filter and re-run.
Make sense?
Here’s something people miss about filtering: it’s not just about quantity, it’s about message relevance.
If your filter is too broad, you’re forcing yourself to write generic opening hooks. “Hey, I help companies grow” vibes.
But if your filter is tight—like, specifically VP of Sales at recently funded B2B SaaS companies—suddenly your first line can be: “Hey [Name], saw you just closed Series B last month. We’ve helped 12 companies in your space cut sales cycles from 90 to 45 days.”
That’s a completely different message. And it converts.
So filtering isn’t just a lead quality issue—it’s a copywriting issue. Tighter filter = sharper, more credible opening hook.
My day-one advice: filter to your most confident persona first. The one where you can write a custom hook without thinking too hard about it. That’s your canonical filter. Nail that one, get 20-30% reply rate, then broaden to adjacent buyer personas.
Don’t try to boil the ocean on week one. Dominate one narrow niche first.
Who’s your most obvious buyer persona? The one you could pitch in your sleep?