Claude for sales starts with a list of people you can actually reach, and Claude cannot build one on its own because it has no contact database. Connect the Scalelist MCP server and Claude can search for real people from one sentence, verify their work emails, find their mobile numbers and hand you a CSV or a HubSpot-ready list, all in one chat.
This walkthrough takes one ideal customer profile (ICP) from a sentence to a 25-person call list, with the credit cost of every step and fixes for the problems you will hit.
What you need:
- A Claude account. Custom connectors work on every plan; the Free plan allows one (Anthropic help center).
- A Scalelist account. New accounts get 20 free credits, no credit card required.
- One sentence that describes your buyer.
What Claude for sales prospecting looks like
Claude for sales prospecting is a chat where Claude calls Scalelist’s tools for you: it sizes a search, pulls matching people, finds their emails and mobiles, and formats the result. You describe, approve and check; Claude does the clicking. It is AI lead generation run from a chat instead of a dashboard.
Two steps cost nothing: connecting, and sizing the search. Everything after that is charged only when something is found: 1 credit per lead, 1 per email found and 20 per mobile found. A miss costs 0.
Claude prospecting in 6 steps
Each step below has a prompt you can paste, what it costs, and a deeper tutorial if you want the long version. The example: Maya Chen, founder of Talkline Coaching, a fictional sales-coaching startup in Denver, wants to reach sales leaders at US IT services firms.
1. Connect the Scalelist MCP server
Add Scalelist to Claude once as a custom connector, using the URL https://mcp.scalelist.com/mcp. On Pro and Max, Anthropic’s steps are: Customize, then Connectors, then “+” and “Add custom connector”. Paste the URL, then sign in to Scalelist and click Authorize.
On Team and Enterprise plans, an Owner adds the connector first in Organization settings, then Connectors; each member then clicks Connect. Sign-in uses OAuth, so Claude never sees your Scalelist password. For what the protocol does under the hood, read what an MCP server is or our shorter explainer on Claude MCP and how to use it.
In each new chat, click “+”, open Connectors and switch Scalelist on. Then test it:
Claude should call the Scalelist account tool and answer with your balance. If it answers from memory, see Troubleshooting below. The Scalelist MCP server page lists all 11 tools Claude can call.
2. Describe your ICP and size it first
Describe your buyer in one sentence and ask for the count before any people. Sizing a search is free, and the readback shows you whether Claude understood your sentence.
Maya’s sentence matched 1,613 people on 28 September 2026. If your count is 0 or runs into six figures, rewrite the sentence: our guide on how to describe your ICP in one sentence covers titles, industry names and size ranges.
3. Pull a first batch of people
Pull a batch you can work this week, not the whole market. Scalelist returns up to 25 people per page, at 1 credit per person returned.
Read the table before you enrich anything. Wrong titles here mean wasted email and mobile credits in the next two steps. If you prefer to start from a company list rather than a role, our tutorial on building a leads list in Claude chat walks through that route.
4. Find verified work emails
Ask for emails as one bulk job, not 25 single lookups. Every email is verified before it is returned and labelled Valid or Risky; Not found costs nothing.
Claude submits the job, gets a job ID and checks back until it completes. The step-by-step version, with real results, is our AI email finder tutorial for Claude. Enriching a file you already have instead? Follow adding verified emails to a CSV in Claude.
5. Add mobiles only for the people you will call
Mobiles cost 20 credits each when found, so reveal them last and only for this week’s call block.
For call-list tactics such as time zones and which numbers to dial first, read finding direct phone numbers in Claude.
6. Export a CSV or push to your CRM
Claude can hand you the list as a file, or write it to HubSpot through HubSpot’s own connector after a duplicate check.
HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Instantly and lemlist each publish their own MCP server; compare them in our list of the best MCP servers for sales and marketing. If you would rather push from Scalelist itself, the app’s HubSpot integration sends selected leads with field mapping, and lemlist, Instantly, Smartlead, Woodpecker and Saleshandy sync directly.
What a 25-person call list costs
A 25-person call list with emails for everyone and mobiles for 10 people costs at most 250 credits. You pay less when some lookups come back Not found, because misses are free.
| Step | What you get | Credits (at most) |
|---|---|---|
| Size the search | Readback and count | 0 |
| Pull 25 people | 25 named leads | 25 |
| Find emails | Up to 25 emails, Valid or Risky | 25 |
| Find mobiles | Up to 10 mobiles | 200 |
| Total | A call list for one week | 250 |
On the 1,000-credit plan (49 USD a month, 4.90 cents per credit), 250 credits is about 12.25 USD. With the 20 free credits you can test the routine on a small scale: a count, 5 people and 5 emails, or a single mobile. See all tiers on the Scalelist pricing page.
Tips for Claude prospecting that stays accurate
Accurate Claude prospecting comes from narrow prompts, hard credit caps and a rule against guessing. These habits keep the list clean.
- Save your ICP in a Claude Project. Keep the sentence, the exclusion list and your column order in one Project so every chat starts from the same brief.
- Put a credit cap in every prompt. “Stop and ask before 200 credits” makes Claude pause before a bulk job runs past your budget.
- Ban guesses. Ask for “unknown” or a blank cell instead of an invented email, title or number.
- One audience per chat. Mixing two ICPs in one thread makes Claude blend exclusions and columns.
- Pick the model for the job. Model choice changes speed and how fast you use your plan’s limits. Our comparison of Claude Haiku, Sonnet and Opus for sales shows where each fits.
- Research company websites in the browser. On paid plans, Claude in Chrome brings Claude into your browser; see lead generation with the Claude Chrome extension.
Once the routine works, save it as a reusable Skill: our library of Claude skills for sales teams has a list-building skill you can adapt. To run it every weekday with an approval step, build a small outbound agent in Claude Code.
Connect Scalelist to Claude, describe your buyer in one sentence and see the count before you spend a credit.
Get 20 credits to test itTroubleshooting
Most problems come from the connector being off, a vague sentence or a single lookup where a bulk job belongs. Here is how to fix each one.
Scalelist does not appear in the chat
Click “+” in the chat, open Connectors and switch Scalelist on; connectors are enabled per conversation. On the Free plan, the one custom connector slot may already be taken. On Team or Enterprise, ask an Owner to add the connector in Organization settings.
Claude answers without calling Scalelist
Start the prompt with “Using Scalelist” and check that the reply shows a Scalelist tool call. Claude has no contact database, so any email or number it gives without a tool call is a guess. Delete it.
The count is 0 or far too large
Look at how Claude read the sentence. One title family, a plain industry name, an employee range and a location usually fix it. Recounting is free, so try two or three versions.
Claude looks up emails one by one
Ask for “one Scalelist bulk job”. The connector’s own instructions tell Claude to use bulk jobs for more than 5 contacts, and single lookups in a loop are slower.
The bulk job has not come back
Ask Claude to check the job status. Bulk jobs return a job ID straight away and are checked every 30 seconds until they complete, so keep the ID in the chat.
Many emails come back Risky
Risky means the company’s mail server accepts every address, so the mailbox cannot be confirmed. About 20 to 30% of Risky emails turn out to be deliverable; send them from a secondary domain. Our guide to handling catch-all emails explains the options.
You hit a Claude usage limit mid-list
Claude plans limit usage over a rolling five-hour window (Claude pricing). Work in batches of 25 and ask Claude to summarize the list before you continue in a new chat.
FAQ
Can Claude find sales leads on its own?
No. Claude is an AI assistant and has no contact database. It can research companies and write copy, but real names, verified emails and mobile numbers come from a data tool it calls through a connector. With the Scalelist MCP server connected, Claude for sales prospecting returns real people with emails labelled Valid or Risky.
Which Claude plan do I need to prospect in Claude?
Any plan can add a custom connector, according to Anthropic; the Free plan is limited to one. Paid plans raise usage limits, which matters when you enrich lists every day. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds the Scalelist connector for the organization, then each member connects with their own Scalelist login.
How many credits does prospecting in Claude use?
The same as the Scalelist app: 0 to size a search, 1 per lead returned, 1 per email found and 20 per mobile found. Nothing is charged when nothing is found. A 25-person list with emails for everyone and mobiles for 10 people costs at most 250 credits.
Can Claude see my Scalelist password?
No. The connector uses OAuth: you sign in to Scalelist in a separate window with Google, Microsoft or your email and password, then click Authorize. Claude gets access to the Scalelist tools, not your password, and you can disconnect the connector from Claude’s settings at any time.
Can Claude send the emails too?
Only through a sending tool you connect, such as the Instantly or lemlist MCP server, and we recommend a person reviews every message first. Keep prospecting and sending as separate steps: build and check the list in Claude, then load approved contacts into your sequencer.
Can I push the list to Salesforce instead of HubSpot?
Yes, through Salesforce’s own hosted MCP servers, available on Enterprise Edition orgs and above, which Claude calls like any other connector. Scalelist’s native CRM push is HubSpot only; Salesforce and other CRMs are reached through Zapier, the Scalelist API or the CRM’s own MCP server.
Is prospecting in Claude GDPR compliant?
Scalelist operates under the GDPR and Singapore’s PDPA, with a Data Processing Agreement, Standard Contractual Clauses and a published sub-processor list. Contact data you submit is never added to Scalelist’s database. You remain responsible for email and calling rules in the markets you contact; see the Scalelist trust center.
Build this week’s call list inside Claude: one sentence, a free count, then verified emails and mobiles you pay for only when found.
Describe your buyer in one sentence
