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Net-new and cross-sell prospecting agent for vertical SaaS selling to auction houses on HubSpot
The Prospector finds independent auction houses and auctioneers that fit the ideal customer profile, times outreach around their sale calendars, and books meetings, while a separate lane spots existing customers ready for an add-on product and routes them to account owners. It sits on top of the HubSpot Help Desk and support agent already running, reads their ticket and usage context before any outreach, and turns both new logos and expansion into booked meetings and pipeline.
| ROLE | SALES | PLATFORM | HUBSPOT |
|---|---|---|---|
| INDUSTRY | B2B SOFTWARE / SAAS | ||
| DRAWN BY | HACKING DEMAND | ISSUED | OCTOBER 27, 2026 |
What The Prospector does
A mid-size company selling auction management software already runs HubSpot with Help Desk and a live support agent answering customer questions, and that setup works. What it lacks is a steady source of new auction house and auctioneer meetings, and a reliable way to offer its other products (for example online bidding, payments, or cataloging modules) to customers who would benefit. Auction houses are a fragmented market of family firms, estate and equipment auctioneers, and specialty houses, many of which are thinly covered by standard contact databases, run on seasonal sale calendars, and research software on their own before talking to sales. The Prospector works for the sales team and owns two lanes. The net-new lane builds and refreshes target lists from industry directories, public sale listings, licensing records and website visitors, enriches contacts, writes first touches that reference the prospect's actual sales, and books meetings. The expansion lane reads product usage, billing and support history to identify customers ready for a second product, drafts a relevant note for the account owner, and never contacts a customer while a support issue is open. It owns list quality, suppression, sequencing, routing and the funnel dashboard; reps own conversations, demos and deals.
Built on HubSpot
The company already runs HubSpot with Help Desk and a support agent, so the prospecting agent should live in the same CRM where tickets, usage properties, owners and deals already sit. HubSpot workflows, Breeze prospecting features and sequences handle research summaries, tasks, routing and the dashboard, and keeping everything in one record is what makes the support-first suppression rule enforceable. HubSpot falls short on niche auction data and safe high-volume cold sending, so the plan adds custom sourcing from directories and licensing records via n8n, FullEnrich for contact coverage, Warmly for visitor identification, Smartlead on separate domains to protect the customer-facing sending reputation, and Chili Piper for routed booking.
What starts it
- A new or refreshed target account appears from directory, licensing or public sale listing sources and matches ICP rules (auction type, sale volume, region, no current customer record)
- An identified auction house or auctioneer visits pricing, online bidding, or comparison pages on the website
- A prospect publishes an upcoming sale using a competitor's bidding platform or no online bidding at all, inside the outreach window before their next sale
- An existing customer crosses a usage threshold or pattern that signals fit for another product (for example rising lot counts with no online bidding module, or manual payment reconciliation volume)
- A prospect or customer replies, clicks a booking link, or a sequence step comes due
What it reads
- HubSpot CRM (companies, contacts, deals, lifecycle stage, owner, product line items)
- HubSpot Help Desk tickets and support agent conversation history, used to check open issues and sentiment before any expansion outreach
- Product usage and billing data (active modules, lot and sale counts, trial status, plan) synced into HubSpot company properties via n8n or a warehouse sync
- Auction industry directories, state auctioneer licensing records, and public sale listing sites for net-new accounts and upcoming sale dates
- Website visitor identification from Warmly, with contact enrichment through FullEnrich waterfall
- An AI context file of ICP by auction segment, offer by product, approved proof points, and common objections (switching mid-season, bidder data migration, fees)
How it works, step by step
- Build the AI context and segment mapDocument the ICP by segment (estate, equipment, art and antiques, real estate, charity auctioneers), the offer for each product, approved proof such as published case studies, and the objections reps actually hear. The agent reads this before every draft so messaging stays accurate per segment.
- Source and dedupe accountsWeekly, the agent pulls new auction businesses from directories, licensing records and sale listings, matches them against HubSpot companies by domain and name, and drops anything that is already a customer, an open deal, or on the suppression list. Ambiguous matches (same family name, multiple locations) go to a review queue instead of being created.
- Enrich and capture sale contextFullEnrich finds verified emails and phone numbers for owners and principal auctioneers. The agent records the next known sale date, auction format (live, online, hybrid) and current bidding platform as HubSpot properties, because timing and format drive the message.
- Write and send net-new first touchThe agent drafts a short email referencing a specific upcoming or recent sale and one relevant capability, then schedules it outside the prospect's sale week. Cold sends go through Smartlead on separate warmed domains so the main HubSpot sending domain that customers and the support agent rely on is protected. Visitor-triggered accounts get a faster, shorter touch with a Chili Piper booking link.
- Score expansion candidatesFor existing customers, the agent compares active modules with usage patterns and flags fit for an add-on product. Before anything is drafted it checks Help Desk for open or recently escalated tickets, low satisfaction, and renewal timing. Clean accounts get a drafted note and a HubSpot task for the account owner; flagged accounts are held.
- Triage replies and routeThe agent classifies replies as interested, timing objection, referral, not a fit, unsubscribe, or support issue. Interested replies get a booking link routed by territory and segment through Chili Piper. Support issues raised by a prospect or customer are handed to the Help Desk queue, not answered by the prospecting agent. Timing objections are rescheduled after the prospect's next sale.
- Report the full funnelA HubSpot dashboard tracks accounts sourced, enriched, contacted, replied, meetings booked, and pipeline created, split by net-new versus expansion, auction segment and signal source, plus deliverability health per sending domain.
When a person takes over
- Any positive reply or booked meeting from a net-new auction house goes to the territory rep with the sale context, platform in use and full thread logged in HubSpot.
- Every expansion opportunity goes to the existing account owner as a drafted note and task; the owner decides whether and when to send, because they know the relationship and any recent issues.
- Replies mentioning a bug, billing problem or a live sale going wrong are routed to the Help Desk queue and the support team immediately, and the prospecting sequence pauses for that account.
- Accounts with unclear identity, multi-location ownership, or a competitor contract end date the agent cannot verify go to a sales ops review queue rather than guessing.
Rules it follows
- Never start or continue expansion outreach to a customer with an open Help Desk ticket, a recent escalation, or a low satisfaction score; the support relationship always takes priority over the upsell.
- Respect product-led and trial motions: contacts in an active trial or self-serve onboarding are owned by the product and lifecycle flows, and the agent only drafts a rep touch when usage signals match the agreed handoff criteria.
- Do not send to a prospect during the week of their published sale, and never claim capabilities, integrations or results that are not in the approved proof list.
- Cold email runs only from separate warmed domains with daily volume caps, bounce and spam thresholds that auto-pause sends, and a shared suppression list covering customers, unsubscribes, competitors and partners.
- Treat bidder and consignor data as off limits: the agent never uses customer bidder lists or consignor information for prospecting.
How you know it works
- Meetings booked per month, split by net-new auction houses and existing-customer expansion
- Pipeline created from agent-sourced and agent-triggered accounts, by segment
- Reply rate and positive reply rate per segment and signal source (visitor, sale listing, usage trigger)
- Expansion opportunities accepted and actioned by account owners versus held for support reasons
- Bounce rate, spam complaint rate and inbox placement per sending domain
From pilot to live
- Pilot: one segment and the expansion lane in draft-only modeBuild the AI context and suppression rules, connect usage and Help Desk data, and run net-new outreach to one auction segment in one region with rep approval on every first touch. Expansion runs as drafts and tasks only so account owners can judge quality. Confirm nothing touches existing support workflows or the main sending domain.
- Expand: more segments, visitor signals and auto-sendAdd the remaining auction segments and Warmly visitor triggers, move proven net-new templates to auto-send with spot checks, and tune expansion scoring based on which drafts owners actually sent and which became deals.
- Run and maintainOngoing ownership of list refresh, enrichment, deliverability, prompt and proof updates as products change, seasonal timing rules, and a monthly review of the dashboard with sales leadership to adjust ICP, signals and handoff criteria.
Tools that fit
HubSpot
CRM and marketing software
Warmly
Reveal site visitors and buying signals
FullEnrich
Waterfall contact enrichment
Smartlead
Sales outreach tool
Chili Piper
Demand conversion platform
Some tool links are partner links. Hacking Demand may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
This blueprint is a version of The Prospector (prospecting agent) ↗
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Straight answers.
Will this interfere with our Help Desk and support agent that already work?
No. The Prospector only reads ticket and conversation data; it does not change support workflows, pipelines or the support agent's configuration. Cold email sends from separate domains, and any reply that looks like a support issue is routed to the existing Help Desk queue while outreach to that account pauses.
Auction houses are small and many are not in contact databases. Where do the leads actually come from?
Mostly from sources specific to the industry: auctioneer association directories, state licensing records, and public sale listing sites that show who is running sales, how often and on which platform. Standard databases and waterfall enrichment fill in contact details, and website visitor identification adds houses already researching you. Accounts that cannot be verified go to review instead of being emailed with guessed addresses.
How does it decide when a customer should hear about another product, and who decides if they are in a trial?
It uses product usage and billing data synced into HubSpot, such as sale volume, lot counts and which modules are active, against criteria your team agrees on, and it holds any account with open or recent support problems. Trial and self-serve users stay with your product-led flows until they hit the agreed usage threshold; then the agent drafts a note for the owner rather than emailing the customer directly.
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