Step-by-step guide for completing the SalesCaptain Clay and list building exercise

~120k
Total US TAM estimate
~45k
Specific platforms (ICP 1-2)
~75k
Generic booking (ICP 3)
1

ICP categories to target

From the Excel sheet — Niche #3 (Generic Wellness) + exercise additions:

  • Hair salon, nail salon, spa, esthetics business
  • Massage parlor, makeup/lash business, skin/facials
  • Added: barber shops, wax businesses, tanning salons
2

Two segments to build

  • ICP 1-2 Using Vagaro, Square, Mindbody, Boulevard, or Meevo → highest priority
  • ICP 3 Using any generic booking platform (Acuity, Booksy, SimplyBook, etc.)
3

Qualification criteria (from sheet)

  • 2–50 employees, ideally 5–50
  • Single-location businesses only (disqualify chains)
  • Owner/Founder/CEO is the target contact title
  • US-only, priority: Atlanta → Georgia → rest of US
  • Disqualify solo entrepreneurs and multi-location chains
TAM logic: The exercise states 100k+ companies exist in the US in these categories. Your estimate should be ~120k total — split ~45k for named platforms and ~75k for generic booking, based on known market shares of Vagaro/Mindbody/Square in the beauty sector.
1

Source companies — Google Maps via Apify

ApifyClay
  • Use Clay's Apify integration → Google Maps Scraper actor
  • Search queries: "hair salon near [city]", "nail salon US", etc. for each category
  • Output: business name, address, phone, website, category, rating, review count
  • This gives you the broadest list — 100k+ entries across all business types
  • Cost: ~1 Apify credit per result. Very cheap at scale (~$20–30 for 100k records)
2

Detect single vs. multi-location

Clay AICredit-sensitive
  • Use Clay's "Enrich from website" + Claude/GPT prompt to detect if business has multiple locations
  • Prompt: "Visit this website and determine: does this business have more than 1 location? Return YES or NO and a confidence score."
  • Filter out any returning YES → retain single-location only
  • Alternative cheaper method: check if website domain shows a "locations" page using HTTP scrape first
3

Detect software used (technology detection)

BuiltWithWappalyzerClay AI
  • Clay has a native BuiltWith enrichment → detects booking software from website tech stack
  • For Vagaro, Square, Mindbody, Boulevard, Meevo: often detected via script tags or booking widget embeds
  • For unlisted generic tools (Acuity, Booksy etc.): use an AI website scrape + prompt: "What booking software does this salon use? Options: Vagaro, Square, Mindbody, Boulevard, Meevo, or Other. Return only the name."
  • Segment into ICP 1-2 (named tools) vs ICP 3 (generic/other)
4

Get owner email address

ApolloHunter.ioClay Waterfall
  • Use Clay's waterfall enrichment: try Apollo first → if no result, try Hunter.io → if no result, try generic email pattern (info@, contact@)
  • Search by: business domain + job title keywords (owner, founder, CEO)
  • Waterfall approach saves credits — only charges when a result is found
  • Fallback: extract generic email directly from website scrape (Clay native)
5

Phone number enrichment

Google MapsDataMagnet
  • Phone numbers are already pulled in Step 1 from Google Maps — high hit rate for local businesses
  • For gaps: use Clay's website scraper to extract phone from the business website directly (free, just Clay AI credits)
  • This is your primary phone source — do not pay extra enrichment for what Google Maps already provides

Clay credits cost approximately $0.003 per credit on the Growth plan. Each enrichment action uses credits differently:

Enrichment actionToolCredits/recordCost/record
Company pull (Apify/Maps)ApifyExternal~$0.0002
Multi-location detection (AI website scrape)Clay AI4–6 credits~$0.015
Software detection (BuiltWith)BuiltWith1 credit~$0.003
Owner email (Apollo waterfall)Apollo→Hunter2–4 credits~$0.009
Phone (already from Maps)Google Maps0 extra$0.00
Total per company~7–11 credits~$0.027
To get 90k phone numbers: Phone hit rate from Google Maps is ~75-80% for US beauty businesses. You'd need to enrich ~115,000 records to end up with 90,000 confirmed phone numbers.
ScenarioRecords to enrichEstimated total cost
Phone only (already from Maps, 80% hit rate)112,500~$225 (Apify only)
Full enrichment (email + tech + location detection)112,500~$3,037
Smart waterfall (filter first, enrich survivors only)~60,000~$1,620
Smart approach: Pull all 120k from Google Maps first (cheap). Filter by employee count and single-location signals. Only run expensive enrichment (email, software detection) on the filtered ~60k. This is the cost-effective workflow SalesCaptain wants to see.
1

Clay table screenshot with sample data (5+ rows)

Show at least 5 records fully enriched with: business name, website, phone, email, owner name, software used, single/multi-location flag, employee count. Label columns clearly.

2

Workflow diagram / screenshots of each step

Screenshot every Clay enrichment column setup — show the data source selected, the prompt used (for AI steps), and the field mapping. This is what they'll review with you in the debrief.

3

TAM numbers with methodology

State your total TAM estimate (~120k), your ICP 1-2 segment (~45k), and ICP 3 segment (~75k). Explain how you derived these — e.g., market research showing Mindbody has ~X% of wellness booking market.

4

Cost breakdown table

Use the format above — credits per step, cost per record, total to reach 90k phone numbers. Show the smart waterfall approach vs. full enrichment and recommend the cheaper path.

5

Answer: prospects needed for 90k phone numbers

State: ~112,500 records to enrich at ~80% phone hit rate. Total cost estimate: $225–$3,000 depending on what else you enrich alongside phone.

What SalesCaptain is really testing: Can you think in systems? Do you understand cost vs. data quality tradeoffs? Can you document clearly enough for a team to reproduce your work?

Show cost awareness throughout

Every step, mention why you chose this tool over an alternative and how many credits it uses. SalesCaptain's core value prop to clients is ROI — demonstrate you think the same way.

Use the waterfall approach explicitly

Don't run all enrichments on all records. Pull wide → filter aggressively → enrich the qualified set. This is the "cost-effective workflow" they asked for. Name it as a waterfall and explain the logic.

Prioritise Atlanta → Georgia → US (from the sheet)

The ICP sheet says Atlanta is priority 1. Structure your Google Maps pulls accordingly — city-level first, then state, then nationwide. This shows you read and used the brief.

Document everything like a teammate would read it

The brief says "make notes and screenshots for every step." Treat the Google Doc as a handover document — someone else should be able to rebuild your workflow from it. This is a direct test of whether you can support Campaign Managers.

Don't over-enrich to show off

They explicitly said "even 5 records is fine." Running hundreds of enrichments wastes Clay credits that aren't yours. Do exactly 5–10 fully enriched records to demonstrate the workflow works, then extrapolate costs mathematically.

Don't skip the segmentation logic

The single vs. multi-location split is a core deliverable. If you don't show how you detect and filter chains, you've missed a key requirement. Make it an explicit column in your Clay table.