Automated Contact Research from a Google Sheet
This template automates the process of researching contact information. It reads a list of organizations (like universities or companies) from a Google Sheet, uses AI-powered web research to find contact details for a specific role at each organization, and writes the results back to the same Google Sheet in a new tab.
This automation streamlines lead generation and contact discovery. Here’s how it works:
- Reads Input: It starts by reading a list of organization names from a specified column in your Google Sheet.
- Web Research: For each organization, it performs an AI-powered web search to find the name, address, phone number, and email for a specified role (e.g., "Dean of Engineering").
- Email Verification: If an email address is found, it uses an integrated service to verify if the email is deliverable.
- Writes Output: It neatly organizes the findings—including the contact's name, address, phone, email, and verification status—and appends them to a designated output tab in the original Google Sheet.
The process runs in batches, making it efficient for processing long lists of organizations.
Usage Ideas
- Sales Lead Generation: Create a list of target companies in a Google Sheet and have the automation find the contact information for key decision-makers (e.g., VPs of Sales, CTOs).
- Academic Research: Compile contact lists of department heads, researchers, or administrators across multiple universities for surveys or collaboration opportunities.
- Recruitment Sourcing: Generate a list of department heads or hiring managers at companies you want to source candidates from.
- PR & Marketing Outreach: Build a media list by finding contact information for editors, journalists, or marketing managers at relevant publications and companies.
- Event Management: Find event coordinators or facilities managers at a list of potential venues.
Customization Ideas
This template is a powerful starting point for various research tasks. You can easily customize it to fit your specific needs:
- Target Different Roles: You're not limited to finding engineering deans. Change the search query to find anyone, such as "VP of Sales," "Head of HR," or "Head of Procurement" at a list of companies.
- Collect Different Data: Modify the automation to find different pieces of information. You could add "LinkedIn Profile URL" or "University Endowment Size" to the data you want to collect.
- Customize Your Spreadsheet: Specify which Google Sheet to use, what the input tab and column are, and what to name the output tab for the results.
- Adjust Output Columns: Change the headers in the output sheet to match the data you are collecting.
- Trigger on a Schedule: Configure the automation to run on a recurring schedule (e.g., daily, weekly) to process new entries automatically.
- Connect to Other Systems: Use a webhook, n8n, Make, or Zapier to trigger the research when a new organization is added to another system, like a CRM.
Agent Inputs
Required Parameters
Name | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
googleSheetUrl | string | None |
URL of the Google Sheet containing the list of universities (input) and where results will be written (output) | ||
Optional Parameters
Name | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
batchSize | number | 25 |
Number of results to accumulate before writing a batch to the output sheet | ||
inputColumn | string | A |
Column letter (e.g. A, B) that contains university names | ||
inputSheetName | string | Sheet1 |
Name of the sheet/tab that contains the university names | ||
maxUniversities | number | -1 |
Maximum number of universities to process. Set to -1 to process all universities in the sheet | ||
outputSheetName | string | Dean Results |
Name of the sheet/tab where dean results will be written. Created automatically if it does not exist | ||
