Using Industry Awards, Rankings and "Best Of" Lists for B2B Prospecting
By Email ExtractorPublished 6 min read
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Why Awards Lists Are Prospecting Gold
Companies on awards and rankings lists share characteristics that make them ideal prospects: they are growing, they have budget, and they are publicly identifiable:
List characteristic
What it signals
Prospecting value
Revenue growth (Inc. 5000, Deloitte 500)
Company is scaling rapidly
Budget for new tools and services
Innovation award
Company investing in R&D; forward-thinking
Early adopter; willing to try new solutions
Best places to work
Investing in culture and employees
Budget for HR tech, benefits, engagement tools
Industry leadership award
Established player; market leader
Enterprise budget; brand-conscious
Startup award (TechCrunch, Product Hunt)
Early-stage company with momentum
Needs everything; rapid buying decisions
Export / international award
Expanding globally
Needs international tools, compliance, logistics
Sustainability / ESG award
Values-driven; investing in social impact
ESG tools, reporting, sustainable supply chain
Top prospecting lists by category
List
Publisher
Frequency
Number of companies
Key criteria
Inc. 5000
Inc. Magazine
Annual (August)
5,000
Fastest-growing private US companies by revenue
Deloitte Technology Fast 500
Deloitte
Annual (November)
500
Fastest-growing North American tech companies
Fortune 500 / Fortune 1000
Fortune
Annual (June)
500-1,000
Largest US companies by revenue
Forbes Global 2000
Forbes
Annual
2,000
Largest public companies worldwide
Glassdoor Best Places to Work
Glassdoor
Annual (January)
100 (large + SMB)
Employee satisfaction ratings
Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work Institute
Annual
Varies (100 per category)
Employee survey results
Gartner Magic Quadrant
Gartner
Varies by category
15-30 per quadrant
Technology market leaders
G2 Best Software
G2
Quarterly / annual
Varies by category
User review rankings
Product Hunt Golden Kitty Awards
Product Hunt
Annual
~20 categories
Top new products voted by community
Forbes 30 Under 30
Forbes
Annual
600 (20 categories x 30)
Young founders and leaders
EY Entrepreneur of the Year
EY
Annual
Regional + national
Entrepreneurial achievement
Fast Company Most Innovative
Fast Company
Annual
50+
Innovation in business
Business journal "Fastest Growing"
Local business journals
Annual
25-100 per market
Regional growth leaders
SaaS 1000
SaaS Mag
Ongoing
1,000
Top SaaS companies globally
How to Use Each List Type
Growth lists (Inc. 5000, Deloitte 500)
What the list tells you
How to use it
Best products to sell
Revenue growth rate (3-year CAGR)
Higher growth = more active buying
Everything (hiring, tools, infrastructure)
Revenue range
Size qualification
Match product pricing to revenue tier
Industry category
Vertical targeting
Industry-specific solutions
Location (city, state)
Geographic targeting
Local services; regional sales
Number of employees
Company size qualification
Products sized for their employee count
Year founded
Company maturity
Startup-stage vs scale-stage products
CEO name
Decision maker identification
Direct outreach to CEO
Best places to work lists
What the list tells you
How to use it
Best products to sell
Employee satisfaction scores
Company invests in people
HR tech, benefits, engagement, L&D
Company culture emphasis
Values-driven buying
Culture assessment, DEI tools, wellness
Growth and opportunity ratings
Career development focus
LMS, career pathing, mentorship platforms
Compensation ratings
Competitive pay philosophy
Compensation benchmarking, equity management
Management quality ratings
Leadership investment
Executive coaching, management training
Innovation and technology awards
What the list tells you
How to use it
Best products to sell
Technology adoption
Early adopter; tech-savvy
Cutting-edge tools; AI; automation
R&D investment
Budget for innovation
Developer tools, infrastructure, cloud
Product-market fit signals
Validated product; growth ahead
Scaling infrastructure; hiring tools
Founder visibility
Accessible decision maker
Direct founder outreach
Research Workflow
Extracting prospect data from award lists
Step
Action
Tools
Time
1
Access the list (most published online as searchable web pages or PDF)
Web browser
5 minutes
2
Export or copy company names, locations, industries, revenue ranges
Copy/paste; web scraping tool
10-30 minutes
3
Enrich with contact data (company website, LinkedIn, decision makers)
LinkedIn; company websites
5-10 minutes per company
4
Qualify against your ICP (industry, size, location, technology)
Spreadsheet filtering
15-30 minutes
5
Find decision maker email addresses
Email finding tools; company websites
2-5 minutes per company
6
Personalise outreach with award context
Research; email templates
2-3 minutes per company
Personalising outreach with award data
Personalisation element
Where to find it
Email use
Growth rate
Inc. 5000 listing; Deloitte listing
"Growing at [X]% creates [specific challenge our product solves]"
Award category
Award listing
"Congratulations on [award]. Companies at your stage often..."
CEO quote (from award profile)
Award profile; press release
"You mentioned [quote about growth/challenge]. We help with exactly that"
Employee count growth
Year-over-year data
"Going from [X] to [Y] employees in [timeframe] means..."
Industry ranking
Ranking position
"As the [X]th fastest growing [industry] company..."
Cold Email Templates
Inc. 5000 / growth list outreach
Section
Content
Subject line
"Congrats on Inc. 5000 (#[rank]) - quick question"
Opening
"Congratulations on making the Inc. 5000 at #[rank]. [X]% growth over three years is impressive, especially in [their industry]..."
Transition
"Companies growing at your rate usually hit a wall with [specific pain point your product solves: hiring, infrastructure, process, compliance]"
Value
"We help Inc. 5000 companies [specific outcome]. [X] of this year's list use [your product] for [use case]"
CTA
"Is [pain point area] something your team is navigating right now?"
Best places to work outreach
Section
Content
Subject line
"Your Best Places to Work recognition and [relevant topic]"
Opening
"I saw [Company] made [publication]'s Best Places to Work list. That is a real achievement, and it shows your team is doing something right with employee experience..."
Transition
"Companies that invest in culture often find that [adjacent challenge your product solves] is the next priority"
CTA
"Would it be useful to discuss how [your product] supports companies that prioritise employee experience?"
Building Prospect Lists from Awards Data
When compiling prospect data from award list web pages (HTML), downloaded PDF rankings, press releases, LinkedIn research on award-winning companies and industry directory cross-references, upload the files to Email Extractor to extract and deduplicate email addresses. Companies appear across multiple award lists (an Inc. 5000 company may also appear on a Best Places to Work list, a Deloitte 500 list and a local fastest-growing list), so deduplication prevents sending the same company multiple congratulatory outreach emails from overlapping lists.
