# Boolean Search Mastery

## Purpose
Find and identify prospects, competitors, and market data using advanced search operators on LinkedIn, Google, and other platforms—the core skill of outbound prospecting.

## When to Use
- Finding earlyvangelists and prospects
- Researching competitors and their customers
- Building targeted outreach lists
- Finding industry experts and influencers
- Market sizing through company/role counts

## Process

### 1. Understand Boolean Basics

**Core operators:**

| Operator | Meaning | Example |
|----------|---------|---------|
| AND | Both terms required | `marketing AND manager` |
| OR | Either term | `CEO OR founder` |
| NOT | Exclude term | `engineer NOT senior` |
| "" | Exact phrase | `"product manager"` |
| () | Group operators | `(CEO OR founder) AND startup` |
| * | Wildcard | `market*` matches marketing, marketer |

**Operator precedence:** NOT > AND > OR
Use parentheses to control order: `(A OR B) AND C`

### 2. LinkedIn Search Patterns

**Finding decision-makers:**
```
"VP" OR "Vice President" OR "Director" AND marketing
AND (SaaS OR "B2B software")
```

**Finding specific titles:**
```
"Head of Growth" OR "Growth Lead" OR "VP Growth"
```

**Finding by company size:**
```
"product manager" AND (startup OR "series A" OR "seed stage")
```

**Excluding irrelevant results:**
```
"content marketing" NOT intern NOT coordinator NOT entry
```

**Industry targeting:**
```
"sales director" AND (fintech OR "financial services" OR banking)
```

### 3. Google Search Patterns

**Finding companies:**
```
site:linkedin.com/company "AI powered" "customer support"
```

**Finding competitor customers:**
```
site:*.com "powered by [competitor]" OR "uses [competitor]"
```

**Finding job postings (reveals hiring companies):**
```
site:lever.co OR site:greenhouse.io "product marketing manager" "B2B SaaS"
```

**Finding industry blogs/content:**
```
intitle:"state of" "[industry]" 2024 filetype:pdf
```

**Finding case studies:**
```
"[competitor name]" + "case study" OR "customer story"
```

### 4. Building Prospect Lists

**Step 1: Define your ICP criteria**
- Title/role
- Company size
- Industry
- Geography
- Technologies used

**Step 2: Build the search string**

Example ICP: Marketing leaders at B2B SaaS companies (50-500 employees)

```
LinkedIn search:
("VP Marketing" OR "Head of Marketing" OR "Director Marketing")
AND (SaaS OR "B2B software" OR "cloud software")
```

**Step 3: Add filters**
- Company size: 51-200, 201-500
- Industry: Computer Software, Technology
- Geography: United States

**Step 4: Refine based on results**
- Too many results → Add more specific terms
- Too few results → Remove restrictions
- Wrong results → Add NOT exclusions

### 5. Finding Earlyvangelists

**People with the problem:**
```
LinkedIn:
"struggling with" OR "looking for" OR "need help with"
AND "[problem area]"
```

**People who built workarounds:**
```
Google:
"built a spreadsheet for" OR "hacked together"
AND "[problem area]"
```

**People asking questions:**
```
site:reddit.com OR site:quora.com
"how do I" OR "best way to" AND "[problem area]"
```

**People complaining:**
```
site:twitter.com "[competitor]" AND
("frustrated" OR "hate" OR "worst" OR "annoying")
```

### 6. Competitive Research

**Find competitor customers:**
```
site:g2.com/products/[competitor]/reviews
site:capterra.com/software/[competitor]/reviews
"we switched from [competitor]" OR "we use [competitor]"
```

**Find competitor employees:**
```
LinkedIn: current company:[competitor] AND
("sales" OR "customer success" OR "account executive")
```

**Find competitor content:**
```
site:[competitor.com] AND (whitepaper OR ebook OR webinar)
site:[competitor.com] intitle:"state of" OR "trends"
```

**Find competitor pricing:**
```
"[competitor name]" AND (pricing OR "how much" OR cost)
site:[competitor.com] pricing OR plans
```

### 7. Market Research

**Industry size/companies:**
```
"[industry]" AND ("number of companies" OR "market size" OR "TAM")
```

**Industry publications:**
```
"[industry]" AND (magazine OR journal OR publication OR newsletter)
```

**Industry conferences:**
```
"[industry] conference" OR "[industry] summit" 2024
```

**Industry influencers:**
```
LinkedIn: "[industry]" AND ("thought leader" OR "speaker" OR "author")
AND (10K+ followers filter)
```

### 8. Platform-Specific Tips

**LinkedIn Sales Navigator:**
- Use Boolean in Lead search, not keyword search
- Save searches for alerts
- Use "Posted on LinkedIn" filter for active users
- Use "Changed jobs" filter for receptive prospects

**Google:**
- Use site: to restrict to specific domains
- Use filetype: for documents (pdf, xlsx)
- Use intitle: for page titles
- Use daterange: for recent content
- Use "" for exact phrases

**Twitter/X:**
- Use from: for specific accounts
- Use to: for replies to accounts
- Use since: and until: for date ranges
- Use -filter:replies to exclude replies

### 9. Building Search Templates

Create reusable templates for common searches:

**Template: Find [Role] at [Industry] companies**
```
("[Role1]" OR "[Role2]" OR "[Role3]")
AND ("[Industry1]" OR "[Industry2]")
NOT (intern OR entry OR junior OR assistant)
```

**Template: Find [Competitor] customers**
```
"[Competitor]" AND ("customer" OR "user" OR "we use")
OR "switched to [Competitor]"
OR site:g2.com/products/[competitor]
```

**Template: Find [Problem] discussions**
```
("[Problem keyword1]" OR "[Problem keyword2]")
AND ("help" OR "advice" OR "recommend" OR "looking for")
site:reddit.com OR site:quora.com OR site:community.*
```

### 10. Synthesis

When building a search:
- Start broad, then narrow
- Check first page of results for relevance
- Iterate the query based on results
- Save successful queries for reuse
- Track which queries yield best prospects

## Example

**Goal**: Find earlyvangelists for AI-powered legal document review

### Search Development

**Attempt 1: Too broad**
```
"legal document" AND "AI"
```
Result: 50,000+ results, mostly news articles

**Attempt 2: More specific**
```
"contract review" AND ("time consuming" OR "tedious" OR "manual")
AND (lawyer OR legal OR attorney)
```
Result: Better, but still mostly content marketing

**Attempt 3: Finding complainers**
```
site:reddit.com/r/law* "contract review" AND
("hate" OR "tedious" OR "takes forever" OR "junior associates")
```
Result: Found 3 discussions with lawyers complaining

**Attempt 4: LinkedIn prospects**
```
("General Counsel" OR "Legal Ops" OR "VP Legal")
AND (startup OR "tech company" OR SaaS)
NOT ("big law" OR partner)
```
Result: 500 relevant prospects

**Attempt 5: Finding budget owners**
```
("Legal Tech" OR "Legal Operations") AND
("Director" OR "Manager" OR "Head of")
AND ("evaluating" OR "looking for" OR "implementing")
```
Result: 50 highly qualified prospects

### Final Search Library

| Search Name | Query | Platform | Results |
|-------------|-------|----------|---------|
| GC at startups | ("General Counsel" OR "VP Legal") AND startup | LinkedIn | 500 |
| Legal ops managers | "Legal Operations" AND (Director OR Manager) | LinkedIn | 200 |
| Complainers | site:reddit.com "contract review" tedious | Google | 20 threads |
| Competitor users | site:g2.com/products/contractpodai/reviews | Google | 100 reviews |
| Job postings | site:lever.co "legal operations" | Google | 30 companies |

### Prospect Building Workflow

1. Run "GC at startups" search on LinkedIn
2. Export to Sales Navigator list
3. Cross-reference with "Job postings" companies (hiring = budget)
4. Prioritize companies also found in "Competitor users"
5. Research from "Complainers" threads for messaging

**Insight:** Boolean search isn't just about finding names—it's about finding the right names with the right context. The search evolution from 50,000 generic results to 50 highly qualified prospects demonstrates the power of iterative refinement.
