In this lesson, we'll build company lists based on tech stack, layer in firmographic filters, optimize your credit usage, and cover advanced targeting strategies.

🔧 Building Your First Tech Stack-Based Company List

Let's start by building our first tech stack-based company list.

Navigate to Add Column, Add Enrichment, then select “Companies by tech stack with HG Insights”.  This is HG Insights' core company discovery feature - it lets you find companies based on the technologies they're actually using.

Before we run anything, set up your search. I recommend starting with 10-50 companies, or turn on Sandbox mode to avoid burning through credits while you're figuring out your targeting.

🔍 Three Ways to Define Technologies

You have three main ways to define what technologies you're looking for:

1. Vendor domains: Enter specific company domains like salesforce.com or hubspot.com when you want to target companies using products from specific vendors.
2. Product categories: Use the dropdown to select broader categories like CRM, Marketing Automation, or Business Intelligence when you care more about function than vendor.
3. Product names: Select specific products. Your selections in domains and product categories will limit the product names here.

Here's an area that trips people up: If you can't find a specific tool in the product names dropdown, don't worry. First, narrow in on it using vendor domains and product categories. If you still can't find it, then double-check the HG Insights discovery database at discovery.hgdata.com to verify what's in their database. Or, you can search on Perplexity using "does HG Insights have [tool name] in their database."

There are also a few additional product attributes to narrow your search:

• Max products and max companies to control search scope
• Total product locations count and total product signals count to understand how deeply embedded these technologies are
• Product first verified date to identify recent adopters in implementation mode

📊 Adding Firmographic Filters

You have a broad tech stack search. You can add firmographic filters to turn it into a targeted prospect list.

Start with employee count - set a range matching your ideal customer profile, perhaps 100-1000 employees for mid-market companies.

Add revenue range to focus on companies with budget.

Industry filters help you focus on verticals where your solution has product-market fit.

And geographic parameters let you target by country, state, or city-level.

Last thing: if you want to target decision-making locations, not just any office using the technology, then toggle the headquarters versus subsidiary locations option.

💰 Understanding Credit Usage

HG Insights charges 8 credits per company per technology.

If you're looking for companies using both Salesforce AND HubSpot, that's 16 credits per company. With 100 companies, you've spent 1,600 credits.

So, make sure you use credits strategically:

• Calculate total cost before running anything (Companies × Technologies = Total Credits)
• Test with small batches first to validate targeting (remember, Sandbox mode is your friend)
• Consider using product categories instead of specific products for broader results at the same credit cost

🚀 Deploying Your Intelligence

Now you've got all this intelligence. How do you deploy it in your sales and marketing motions?

Here are three ideas:

1. Competitive displacement: Target companies using competitor products with low utilization or outdated versions. If you're selling a modern sales engagement platform, look for companies using SalesLoft but with low email volume - they're prime for switching.

2. Complementary stack targeting: Find companies using adjacent technologies that indicate readiness. If you sell revenue intelligence software, target companies that recently adopted Gong or Chorus - they're investing in sales technology and might be ready for the next layer.

3. Migration signals: Target companies using outdated versions or legacy systems approaching end-of-life. Companies on old versions of Marketo or Pardot are often actively evaluating replacements.

The key is timing. You're finding companies that fit your ICP AND are in a buying window based on their technology decisions.

🔮 What's Next

In the next lesson, we'll look at mapping company relationships with HG Insights.

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