Discovery

Find new prospects using natural language search powered by AI. Discovery combines professional email databases with social media activity to surface the most relevant contacts for your outreach.

What is Discovery?

Discovery is LeadMachine's contextual prospecting engine. Instead of manually searching LinkedIn or purchasing lead lists, you describe who you're looking for in plain English - and Ledo finds them.

How It Works:

1. You enter a natural language query (e.g., "Marketing VPs at tech companies who posted about AI")
2. Ledo parses your intent and runs parallel searches
3. Results from email databases and social activity are merged
4. AI scores and ranks prospects by relevance
5. You review and add the best matches to your leads

Data Sources:

• Hunter.io - Professional email addresses and contact info
• EXA.ai - Social media activity and content engagement
• AI Scoring - Gemini analyzes and ranks the best matches

Getting Started

Access Discovery

1. Click Discovery in the sidebar
2. You'll see the Ledo search bar at the top

Note: Discovery requires company-level access. If you don't see it in the sidebar, contact support to enable it.

Your First Search

Type a natural language query describing who you're looking for:

Example Queries:

• "Find marketing managers at Nike who talk about sustainability"
• "People at Hershey's who posted about CES"
• "CMOs in Austin, Texas interested in AI"
• "Sales directors at software companies discussing remote work"

Click the search button or press Enter to start the search.

Understanding Results

Prospect Cards

Each result appears as a card showing:

Contact Information:

• Full name
• Job title
• Company
• Email address (when available)
• Phone number (when available)

Social Links:

• LinkedIn profile
• Twitter/X handle

Activity Context:

• Original post or activity that matched your query
• When they posted it
• Link to view the original content

Relevance Scoring

Ledo assigns a relevance score to each prospect based on:

• How well they match your search criteria
• Quality of contact information
• Recency of activity
• Job title seniority

Higher-scored prospects appear first.

Advanced Filters

Click "Advanced filters" to access additional search controls:

Domain

• Search a specific company domain (e.g., "hersheys.com")
• Focuses Hunter.io search on that company

Topic/Keywords

• Specific topics to search for in social activity
• Multiple keywords separated by commas

Location

• City, state, or region
• Helps narrow results geographically

Date Range

• Filter by when content was posted
• Examples: "January 2026", "past week", "last month"

You can combine advanced filters with your natural language query for more precise results.

Working with Results

Selecting Prospects

Check the checkbox on any prospect card to select them. You can select multiple prospects at once.

Export to CSV

Click Export to download all search results as a CSV file:

• Includes name, title, company, email, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Contains relevance score and match reason
• Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or any spreadsheet app

Add to Leads

Select the prospects you want and click Add to Leads:

• Creates new leads in LeadMachine
• Sets lead type to "Prospect"
• Includes social post as a note (for context)
• Skips duplicates (matched by email)

After adding, you'll be asked if you want to view your new prospects in the Leads page.

Auto-Enrichment After Adding

When you add prospects from Discovery to your leads, enrichment is automatically queued — no extra steps needed. The enrichment queue processes discovery leads at priority 3 using the full waterfall:

1. Hunter.io — Attempts to find a professional email address
2. Apollo.io — Fallback email finder if Hunter returns no result
3. Google Places — Adds address, phone, and website if the company has a local presence

If no email is found (after both Hunter.io and Apollo.io), the lead is automatically tagged needs-outreach, signaling that email outreach isn't available for this contact.

You don't need to manually trigger enrichment — it runs in the background within minutes of the lead being created.

Saved Queries

Save frequently-used searches for quick access:

To Save a Query:

1. Run a search
2. Click Save Query button
3. Query appears as a badge below the search bar

To Use a Saved Query:

• Click any saved query badge to run it again

To Delete a Saved Query:

• Click the X on the query badge

Saved queries are tied to your user account and persist across sessions.

Tips for Better Results

Query Writing

Be Specific:

• "Marketing directors at Fortune 500 companies discussing digital transformation" is better than "marketing people"

Include Context:

• Mention events, topics, or trends they might discuss
• Reference specific industries or company types

Use Location:

• Add city or region for local prospecting
• Helpful for in-person meeting opportunities

Filtering Strategy

Company-Focused:

• Use the Domain filter when targeting a specific company
• Combine with topic to find the right people at that company

Topic-Focused:

• Leave domain empty to search across companies
• Use specific topics that indicate buying intent

Event-Based:

• Search for trade show hashtags (CES, SXSW, etc.)
• Look for conference speakers and attendees

Best Practices

Before Outreach

Verify Information:

• LinkedIn URLs are usually accurate
• Email addresses should be verified before mass outreach
• Check the original post for conversation starters

Personalize Your Message:

• Reference their social post or activity
• Show you understand their interests
• Don't send generic templates

Lead Management

Organize Prospects:

• Add relevant tags after creating leads
• Set appropriate lead types
• Assign to team members for follow-up

Track Progress:

• Use lead statuses to track outreach stages
• Add notes about conversations
• Set tasks for follow-up actions

Troubleshooting

No Results Found

Try these adjustments:

• Broaden your search terms
• Remove some filters
• Check spelling of company names
• Try a different date range

Results Don't Match Intent

Refine your query:

• Be more specific about job titles
• Add company or industry context
• Use the advanced filters

Missing Contact Information

This is normal — and LeadMachine handles it automatically:

• Not all social profiles have email addresses
• Some companies aren't in email databases
• When enrichment completes with no email found, the lead is tagged needs-outreach
• Ledo can generate personalized outreach tasks (LinkedIn DM, phone call) for these contacts
• Use the needs-outreach filter in Leads to find all contacts needing a non-email first touch

Requirements

To use Discovery:

• Your company must have Discovery access enabled
• Contact support to request access
• Hunter.io and EXA.ai API keys must be configured (admin)

Privacy & Compliance

Data Sources:

• All data comes from publicly available sources
• Email addresses are from professional contexts
• Social activity is from public posts

Best Practices:

• Respect unsubscribe requests
• Follow CAN-SPAM and GDPR guidelines
• Don't use for unsolicited mass email campaigns

FAQ

Q: How many searches can I run? A: Depends on API rate limits. Typically several hundred per month.

Q: Are the email addresses verified? A: Hunter.io provides confidence scores. High confidence emails are more reliable.

Q: Why do some prospects only have LinkedIn? A: Email addresses aren't always available. Use LinkedIn for direct outreach.

Q: Can I search for people at my competitors? A: Yes, use their domain in the advanced filters.

Q: How recent is the social activity data? A: EXA.ai indexes content regularly. Most results are from the past few months.

Q: What happens when I add prospects as leads? A: They're created as "Prospect" lead type with the search context saved as a note. Enrichment is automatically queued to find emails and company details.

Q: What if enrichment can't find an email? A: The lead is tagged needs-outreach. Ledo's outreach queue will generate personalized tasks for alternative contact methods (LinkedIn, phone). You can also filter by this tag to work these contacts manually.

Getting Help

Need assistance with Discovery?

• Check this documentation first
• Contact support via the in-app support ticket system
• Email [email protected] for technical issues