I’ve closed over $100M in B2B deals and I’ve never once paid a broker for a lead list. In this video I break down what actually works in 2026: build your list from scratch based on a real ICP, real buying signals, and fresh data—then plug it into a cold email system that books meetings. Most teams do it backwards: they buy a random list, blast it, get nothing, and blame cold email. The channel isn’t the problem. Your targeting is. The core is getting insanely specific with your ICP (not “small businesses in North America,” but something like “B2B SaaS, 20–100 employees, US, using HubSpot/Salesforce, raised Series A in the last 18 months”). I show how I use technographics (tech stack data) to find companies already spending, plus trigger events like funding rounds, hiring SDRs, or a new VP Marketing. Then I walk through pulling contacts (without paying ZoomInfo prices), why “fresh vs. stale” matters more than “free vs. paid,” and why verification isn’t optional if you care about deliverability. Once you’ve got a clean list, a short problem-focused email with tight targeting is still the highest ROI outbound channel you can run.