Planning for 2026: The Two List Prospecting Strategy

In 2026, most established salespeople are looking for ways to grow without overcomplicating their days. This is where the Two List Strategy comes in. It's practical, it's focused, and it fits the way you already work.

The first list is your Active Lead List. The second is your Nurture List. Each plays a different role, and together they give you more control over your growth.

Your Active Lead List

This is the list of prospects you are actively working with. Shoot for 25 accounts that represent your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

The size of this list makes it possible to touch each contact every week or two. With a little help from AI, you can customize messages and give each lead personalized attention.

This strategy supports focused quality attention for the win. Sales psychology tells us that buyers respond to familiarity. They are more likely to answer someone they recognize and trust. It usually takes multiple touches before a buyer engages. You can't deliver that level of consistency with a hundred prospects. You can with twenty-five.

Avoid being a one-channel salesperson. Email is fine, but it's not enough. Pick up the phone. Mail something. Text them a 30-second production floor video. Reach out on LinkedIn with something relevant. If they’re in the office, try a “donut marketing drop-off.” The point is to show up in multiple ways, because one-trick email-only ponies can get boring.

Your Nurture List

The second list is the slow burn. These are people who fit your ICP, but who are early in the cycle of getting to know you and your company. A nurturing campaign helps you activate your brand and build top-of-mind awareness. They see your name, they notice your content, and they start to recognize you.

This isn't about urgency. It's about staying visible until they're ready. And when they are, you're already there.

How the Lists Work Together

Some of the people on your Active Lead List will meet with you. Some will tell you they aren't interested. And some will ignore you. This list needs to be refreshed periodically.

As a rule of thumb, if you give someone 90 days of high-quality attention and they don't respond, you should assess whether to move them to your nurture list or take them off your radar entirely.

Both lists feed each other. Someone from your active list may drift into the nurture list if they go quiet. Someone on the nurture list may return to your active list when they raise their hand. (For more thought on nurturing, check out When Leads Don’t Respond You Have to Nurture.)

This is how you keep your prospecting pipeline full without constantly starting from scratch.

When to Move Someone from Nurture to Active

Here are the signals that tell you it's time to promote someone from your Nurture List to your Active Lead List:

• They engage with your content: They're opening your nurture emails and clicking on links.
• They view your LinkedIn profile: This suggests they're researching you.
• They respond to a nurture email or text message – Even a brief reply is a green light to move them up.
• They accept your connection request: On LinkedIn, this is your cue to start more direct conversations.
• You hear they're hiring, expanding, or launching something new – These trigger events mean they may need your solution.

When you see these signals, move them to your Active Lead List and start your focused outreach campaign. Don't wait. Strike while the interest is warm.

Why This Works

The biggest advantage of the Two List Strategy is simplicity. You aren't spreading yourself thin. You aren't juggling two hundred names and feeling guilty because you can't keep up.

You focus where it matters and keep everything else warm in the background.

This is how sales growth really happens. It isn't complicated. It's intelligent persistence consistently applied.

If your goal is to grow in 2026, build these two lists now. Work the first one and nurture the second. Stick with it, and you will create the momentum you need to make next year your best year yet.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.