How to Find Decision Makers? Fast Way to Build Quality Lists

Reaching out to a company without knowing who makes the calls is like pitching to an empty room. If you work in sales, identifying the right decision makers is the difference between a missed opportunity and a closed deal. But with company structures becoming more complex, finding the person who can say “yes” isn't always straightforward.

In this post, you’ll learn how to cut through the noise, pinpoint the actual influencers and gatekeepers, and reach decision makers with confidence. Leverage public web data to understand organizational dynamics and personalize your outreach to get in touch with the right people.

The best ways to identify decision makers

If your goal is to connect with a decision maker, you will need to be both precise and creative while choosing the right identifiers.

Here are several telltale signs that a person is a decision maker:

1. Start with job titles tied to ownership or authority

Job titles are often the first and most obvious signal. Look for senior-level roles that are responsibile for revenue or cross-functional oversight. These include:

C-suite roles (CEO, COO, CMO, CTO)
VP and Director-level positions (e.g., VP of Sales, Director of HR)
Heads of departments (e.g., Head of Talent Acquisition, Head of Growth)
Founders or Co-founders, especially in startups and SMBs

For more complex organizations, mid-level managers may hold significant decision-making power, particularly if they lead specific product lines or regional operations.

2. Examine the company’s size and structure

In smaller companies, decision makers often wear multiple hats. A CEO or founder may still handle marketing or procurement themselves. In larger companies, responsibilities are distributed, and decision makers are often part of a buying committee. To adjust your outreach:

Use employee count filters to estimate company size.
Look for department-specific leaders in larger organizations.
At mid-size firms, target VP or Director-level titles, as they often hold buying authority.

3. Look into background and seniority indicators

Beyond titles, a person’s professional history offers context. Decision makers often have:

10+ years of industry experience
Long tenure at their current company
A track record of leadership roles across multiple firms
Connections to company founders, executives, or board members

4. Consider not only the decision makers but also influencers

Sometimes the decision maker is a key influencer, but they do not confirm the budgets. For example:

A CTO might not buy a new SaaS tool, but their endorsement can make or break the deal.
A team lead might initiate the vendor selection process before escalating it up the chain.

By understanding the buyer persona for your product, you can map the internal champions who support and shepherd the deal from inside.

Find decision makers with Coresignal

Coresignal’s Multi-Source Employee Dataset helps to find people who control buying decisions in the company at scale.

It provides a unique perspective on over 800 million employee profiles, helping you pinpoint the most relevant contributors in any organization:

Filter employees by job title, seniority level, department, or function to narrow down actual decision makers.
Identify influencers beyond the C-suite, such as department heads and regional managers, who often drive purchasing decisions.
Cross-check employee career histories to validate expertise and confirm authority within their domain.
Map organizational structures to see reporting lines and uncover hidden influencers in the decision-making chain.
Enrich lead and account intelligence by pairing employee data with firmographic and technographic datasets.

Keep in mind that the dataset includes a specific field (is_decision_maker) that indicates whether a person is currently in a position to approve budgets, sign off on partnerships, or greenlight purchases.

Combine this with additional information, such as their previous experience, and get a tailored list of people who will make your time worth it.

Reach out to me for more information:

How to find decision makers in a company? Step-by-step guide

Alternatively, you can register for our free trial and instantly access our data for testing.

That’s especially worth trying if you want to get a smaller decision-maker’s list. Simply create a free account, add some filters, and access complete profiles. It's an excellent opportunity to:

Explore 1B+ public records from trusted sources, including employee, company, and job posting data.
Validate our data fit before making a commitment, which is perfect for early-stage pilots and vendor comparisons.
Test all core APIs, including Company, Employee, and Jobs APIs.

Interested? Follow this link to register for an account. First 400 searches and 200 record downloads are on us.

Once you register, you will need to take several steps:

Step 1: Navigate to the Employee API Playground

You can find it on the side menu – simply choose the API Playground section under the Employee APIs.

It will open a new window, where you can:

Write a prompt that our AI assistant will turn into a search query
Choose the API you'd like to use
Explore pre-made prompt templates to get some ideas on how to write your prompts for the best results

Remember, that Multi-Source API will use 2 credits per search as your results will have more data fields, while Clean and Base APIs will use 1 credit.

Step 2: Write your prompt

Let's say, you want to find decision makers that work in Netflix in the US.

Simply write the prompt into the related field. Make sure that you select Multi-source API, because it has the most data points, including is_decision_maker, which helps to easily identify people you'd want to reach.

Our AI query builder will help you by interpreting your prompt and writing a search query for the database:

Step 3: Analyze the results

You will get a list of Netflix employees (in this case, more than 1000 of people) who are considered decision makers in the company. You can take a look at a full profile to see how the data is structured and what kind of results you can expect.

Step 4: Find decision makers at scale

Our API playground allows you to test a powerful feature of Coresignal’s: our Employee API. With this API, you can access and retrieve our data automatically, which is perfect for building products that require real-time data updates.

With Coresignal’s Employee API, you can get:

Fresh and frequent updates: Access employee data, updated and discovered in real time.
Multi-source enrichment: We combine and enrich employee data from various sources into comprehensive profiles, including job titles, skills, work experience, education, and more.
Historical insights: Includes aggregated historical data, enabling tracking of changes in employee metrics over time.
Data fields include: Active experience, professional contact information, workplace details, location, salary projections, skills, certifications, awards, social media metadata, and more.

Interesting in finding out more? Let’s talk:

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How to find information about decision makers?

Identifying the right people is only the first step. To successfully reach out and build relationships, you need context. What challenges are they facing? What tools do they already use? What growth stage is their company in? Without this background, your outreach risks being too generic to resonate.

That’s where enriched data comes into play. By combining basic employee details with broader organizational insights, you gain a sharper view of the person behind the title. The more relevant your information, the more likely your message will cut through the noise.

Enrich your decision makers' database with the top data providers

Relying on a single source often leaves gaps. Instead, leverage multiple, high-quality datasets to paint a complete picture of your target audience. Here are a few data sources and providers worth considering:

Coresignal – Offers one of the largest and most complete multi-source datasets in the market, with over 800M employee records and 70M+ company profiles. With features like the is_decision_maker field, you can filter contacts by authority level and combine them with firmographic and technographic data for a 360-degree view.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Useful for real-time updates and social connections, but limited to its own platform and less scalable for large-scale enrichment.
Owler – Provides competitive intelligence and company news, giving you context about strategic initiatives that matter to decision makers.

By enriching your decision maker database with these sources, you can:

Personalize outreach with relevant talking points.
Understand company priorities before the first call.
Build account maps to identify champions, influencers, and final approvers.
Improve targeting accuracy and reduce wasted time on irrelevant contacts.

How to reach key decision makers for a sales pitch?

Once you’ve identified who holds the buying power, the next challenge is getting in front of them. Decision makers are often busy, surrounded by gatekeepers, and targeted by countless vendors daily.

To stand out, you need a thoughtful, multi-channel approach that strikes a balance between persistence and personalization.

1. Seek out warm introductions
Referrals remain one of the most effective ways to reach executives. Tap into your professional network, mutual LinkedIn connections, alumni networks, or industry associations to secure introductions. A trusted recommendation instantly increases your credibility.

2. Make it personal
Generic outreach won’t resonate with someone making high-stakes business decisions. Reference company milestones, recent funding rounds, product launches, or job changes in your pitch. Tailoring your message shows you’ve done your homework and respect their time.

3. Reach out on multiple channels (but not all at once)
Decision makers don’t live in their inbox alone. Combine email outreach with LinkedIn messages, targeted ads, and even phone calls when appropriate. Multi-touch campaigns increase the likelihood of your message being noticed.

Important: don't attempt to reach out to them all at once.

4. Engage with their content
Executives often share insights on social platforms or speak at industry events. Commenting on their posts, asking thoughtful questions, or mentioning a recent talk in your outreach can warm up the conversation and demonstrate genuine interest.

5. Offer value before asking for time
Whether it’s a data insight, an industry report, or a case study, lead with value. Position your pitch around solving a pressing problem, not just selling a product. This consultative approach helps open doors and sets the tone for a meaningful conversation.

6. Be strategic about timing
Reaching out after funding announcements, organizational changes, or new market entries increases your odds of relevance. Public web data, such as hiring trends or job postings, can be a goldmine for identifying the right moment to connect.

Are you ready to find decision makers at scale?

Finding and reaching company decision makers requires more than just a list of names. With Coresignal’s Multi-Source Employee Dataset, you gain access to over 800M professional profiles enriched with context so you can identify true decision makers, validate their authority, and connect with the right people faster.

If you’d like deeper insights into how multi-source employee and jobs data can support your sales strategy, contact us today. Our team will help you explore tailored datasets and find the right solution for your business needs.

How to Find Decision Makers in a Company?

Key takeaways

The best ways to identify decision makers

Find decision makers with Coresignal

Ready to explore salary data?

How to find decision makers in a company? Step-by-step guide