# Find decision makers at target accounts — Ravn

Canonical: https://askravn.com/use-cases/find-decision-makers

Use case

# Find the people who decide at the accounts you want.

Search each target domain with search_people filtered by title or seniority, then confirm a work email for each person with search_business_email_by_name. People search runs on your own provider key, and you pay one lookup per person returned.
[Start free: 1,000 lookups](https://askravn.com/#start) [Read the docs](https://askravn.com/docs)

Playbook
## Account list in, named contacts out
Start with a short list of company domains you already want to sell to.
- / 01
### Write down the buying role
Be specific: "Head of Finance or CFO" beats "leadership". search_people filters by title, seniority, department, country, state and city, so the tighter the role, the fewer people you pay for.
- / 02
### Connect your provider key
search_people runs on your own People Data Labs account. Connect it once with `ravn keys add pdl` (or on the account page); without a key the tool returns 403 `provider_key_required`. Ravn makes the call and stores nothing.
- / 03
### Search one account first
Run search_people with `company_domain` and the title, with a small `limit` such as 3. Check the results look right before you run the whole list.
- / 04
### Run the rest of the list
Repeat per domain. Each call returns up to 25 people and a `next_cursor` if there are more. Keep the limit low; you rarely need more than two or three people per account.
- / 05
### Confirm a work email
Records may already include a `business_email`. Where they do not, or you want a fresh check, run search_business_email_by_name with the name and domain. It learns the company pattern from its own site and verifies the result.
- / 06
### Check the dates
Each person has `last_updated_at`. Older records are more likely to have moved on. Re-verify the email before you write.
Run it
## Prompt, CLI and API

```
# Claude
For each domain in this list, use Ravn search_people to find up to 3 people
whose title is CFO, VP Finance or Head of Finance, in the United States.
Then confirm a work email for each with search_business_email_by_name.
Return a table: company, name, title, email, email grade, last updated.
Stop and ask me before searching more than 20 domains.

# CLI: one account
npx ravn search_people --company_domain acme.com --title "VP Finance" --limit 3

# CLI: confirm the email
npx ravn search_business_email_by_name --name "Jane Smith" --company acme.com

# REST
curl https://api.askravn.com/v1/tools/search_people \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $RAVN_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"company_domain": "acme.com", "seniority": "vp", "department": "finance", "limit": 3}'
```

What it costs
## One lookup per person, one per email
People search runs on your own People Data Labs key: connect it once with `ravn keys add pdl`, and each person returned is one lookup from your plan. PDL bills you directly for the record; Ravn stores nothing. A search that finds nobody costs nothing. Finding and verifying an email with search_business_email_by_name is one of our own checks, so it needs no provider key and uses one lookup too.Worked example: 50 target accounts, 2 people each, is 100 people. That is 100 lookups for the people and 100 for the emails, 200 in all, which fits easily inside the 10,000 lookups a month the plan includes. If 10 of those emails come back not_found, those 10 lookups are given back, and so is any people lookup that returns nobody.Because a miss is free, asking for 3 people and getting 1 costs one lookup, not three. See [pricing](https://askravn.com/pricing) and the [people search API](https://askravn.com/features/people-search-api).Before you reach out. Contact people only where you have a lawful basis, honour every opt-out, and never use this data for credit, employment, insurance or housing decisions (FCRA uses are forbidden by our [terms](https://askravn.com/terms)). People who opt out at [our opt-out page](https://askravn.com/privacy#optout) are never returned again. The full rules are on the [compliance page](https://askravn.com/compliance).
FAQ
## Common questions.
[All questions →](https://askravn.com/faq)Where does the people data come from?Ravn holds no people data of its own. search_people runs on your own People Data Labs key; Ravn makes the call and stores nothing. We never scrape LinkedIn, and people who have opted out are removed. The [data page](https://askravn.com/data) explains the model.Can I export everyone at a company in one go?No. There is no bulk people export. search_people returns up to 25 results per call with a cursor, and you pay one lookup per person returned, so it is built for finding the few people you need.What if the record has no email?Run search_business_email_by_name with the person's name and the company domain. It returns the best verified address with its pattern and a confidence, or not_found at no cost.Can I filter by company size?Yes. search_people accepts `employee_range` and `industry` as well as title, seniority and location. All filters are listed in the [search_people docs](https://askravn.com/docs#search_people).

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