A Swiss B2B prospecting workflow in seven steps, from the target list to the CRM

A B2B prospecting workflow for Swiss companies runs from the list of companies you would like as customers to the first conversation and the CRM record behind it. It often breaks down between two steps: a list goes out unreviewed, an email is sent on a change nobody read in full, or a reply never reaches the CRM and the account is researched again six months later. The seven steps below each hand something specific to the next, and each has its own guide.

The workflow at a glance

Step	Starts from	Hands over
1. Build the list	A description of the customers you want	Companies, each with the reason it matches
2. Review the list	The list	Accepted, rejected and unclear companies, each with a reason
3. Research the account	One accepted company	A one-page brief that ends in write, wait or drop
4. Wait for a reason	Briefs marked "wait"	A dated change, with its source
5. Write the first email	The brief and the change	An email sent to the right person, or a decision not to send
6. Record it in the CRM	The brief, the email and any reply	A company record with its UID, the brief and a dated next step
7. Come back later	A dormant or closed-lost record	A new brief, when a change answers the reason it stopped

In a team of one, the same person does every step. The handoffs still matter, because the brief and the CRM record are what that person reads when the account comes back months later.

1. Build the list

Start from what you sell and to whom: the activity of the companies you want, where they work, their size, and what rules a company out. The guide to building a Swiss target-account list turns a sales brief into that description and then into companies. Finding companies like your best customers starts from three good customers instead, and sizing a Swiss target market tells you whether the list will be 40 companies or 4,000 before you build it.

Handoff: every company on the list carries the reason it was included. A list of names alone forces the reviewer to redo the search.

2. Review the list

A search on activity and region always returns some companies that only look right: a distributor where you wanted a manufacturer, a holding instead of the operating company, a firm whose Swiss address is a mailbox. Before anyone researches or writes, review a sample first to find the errors that repeat, then decide on each company, write down why each rejected company is wrong, and look for good companies the search missed. Reviewing a Swiss prospect list gives the acceptance rule and a review sheet.

Handoff: each company is accepted, rejected or unclear, with a reason. Only accepted companies move on. Unclear ones get a research task and an owner.

3. Research the account

Once the review accepts a company, research establishes whether to write to it, which legal entity would buy, and what you can say that is true. For a Swiss company that means the register entry and its branches, who signs and how, the owners where the register shows them, what the company actually does and how big it is, and the recent changes, each with its source and date.

The Swiss account research template collects this on one page, with a spreadsheet to download and two completed briefs. Checking a Swiss company shows where each fact sits in Zefix, the SHAB and the cantonal extract, and sizing a Swiss company covers the size clues in public records.

Handoff: a brief that names the buying entity, lists what is still open, asks one next research question and ends in a decision: write now, wait until a stated date or event, or drop.

4. Wait for a reason

Most accounts that fit have no reason to hear from you this month. Put them on a watch and reopen the brief when something changes: a branch registered, a new managing director, a merger, a job advert for the role your product serves. Swiss company changes and what they tell you goes through what each kind of change establishes and what it leaves open. Monitoring a Swiss company for changes covers the free options, from SHAB searches to a watch on one company.

Handoff: a change with its publication date and a link to the source, read in full. A summary line such as "purpose changed" can stand for a notice that only rewords the old purpose.

5. Write the first email

The email states the fact with its source and date, words your guess as a guess, says in one sentence what you do, and asks one question that is easy to answer. The brief supplies most of it: the open point it names often becomes the closing question. Five first-contact emails built on a Swiss company change shows annotated drafts for five kinds of notice, including one where the right move is to wait.

Write to a person the brief identified, in the language of the office you are writing to. Swiss unfair competition law (Art. 3 para. 1 let. o UWG) requires prior consent for mass advertising by email, companies included, along with a correct sender and a free way to refuse. Mass advertising means sending that is automated, so a single email written and sent by hand for one company is generally read as outside the consent rule. No Federal Supreme Court ruling on the point is known. Sign with your full name and company, and add one line under the signature: "If you'd rather not hear from me, just reply and I won't write again."

Without a reply, one follow-up after about two weeks is enough, with something the first email did not say. After that, set a date to reopen the brief.

Handoff: the sent email and its date, or the reason it was not sent.

6. Record it in the CRM

The CRM is where the next person picks the account up, so the record has to stand on its own. Create one company record per legal entity, keyed on the UID, which does not change when the company renames itself or moves. Website domains and names do change, and a group often shares one domain across several companies. Then add:

• the brief, or a link to it, with its date;
• the email that was sent, and any reply;
• the next step with a date: a call, a follow-up, or a date to reopen the brief;
• the contact you wrote to, linked to the company record.

Before you import a list in bulk, match it against the companies already in the CRM. Two records for the same company split the history, and the second salesperson writes without seeing the first email.

Handoff: a record that someone who has never seen the account can read in two minutes, with a dated next step and an owner.

7. Come back later

An account that went quiet or was lost can come back. The CRM records why it stopped: no budget, a competitor, the wrong person, bad timing. Some Swiss public changes answer exactly those reasons, such as a new managing director, a merger or a new branch. Reactivating dormant and closed-lost accounts covers which changes reverse which loss reasons, and what to write when you come back. Start from the brief written in step 3 and add the new change to it.

Running the steps in Clay or n8n

Teams that run prospecting in Clay or n8n can automate steps 1 and 4: a feed of the companies on a list, and a feed of the changes published about them. Swiss company changes in Clay and n8n shows how to keep fit and timing apart in such a table. A person still researches the account and decides whether to send.

Where Prospex fits

Prospex covers steps 1 and 4, helps with step 6, and supplies the register data and the changes for step 3.

• Build the list: describe the customers you want and Prospex builds a list of Swiss companies, with the reason each one matches. A free account builds one list and shows its first ten companies.
• Wait for a reason: on a paid plan, turn on monitoring for a list and Prospex shows the changes published about its companies: register notices, trademark filings, job adverts and website changes, each dated and linked to its source. A summary arrives every Monday, and an alert on the day a company changes.
• Record it in the CRM: on a paid plan, connect HubSpot, Attio or Pipedrive, and send a company and its latest change to the CRM, with a note and a follow-up task. Prospex matches CRM records on the website domain and writes the UID into its own field, so check the group companies that share a domain. A company without a website has to be created in the CRM by hand.

Prospex supplies no personal email addresses or phone numbers. The register lists who signs for a company, and the company's website usually names the rest of the team.

See an example list, or compare the plans.