Criteria vary by vertical: define appetite, identify facts that distinguish fit, set exclusion rules, prioritize the market, and qualify interest before handoff.
No checklist makes every account producer-ready. Fleet may be central to trucking and incidental to professional services. Criteria should be inputs tied to decisions, not a claim that every source is complete.
Use five layers of criteria in every vertical
Organize inputs by the decision they support:
- Classification: What does the business do, and which operations are in scope?
- Geography: Where is it located or operating, and does that territory fit?
- Account size: Which observable indicator best approximates the agency’s desired scale?
- Exposure or coverage fit: Which facts suggest the lines and risks the agency wants?
- Contact and timing: Who may influence insurance, and when is outreach worth prioritizing?
Add exclusions and evidence requirements to each layer. A criterion is useful only if it changes whether the account is included, excluded, reviewed, prioritized, or routed.
Compare criteria across common commercial verticals
Use this matrix as a configuration menu.
| Vertical | Classification inputs | Size or exposure inputs | Contact or structure inputs | Important limitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trucking | Operation, authority or status, haul categories | Fleet, drivers, radius, vehicle indicators | Owner, safety, fleet, finance | Fleet, authority, and haul data can be incomplete or stale |
| Contractors | Trade, license class, project type | Payroll, employees, revenue, subcontracting, fleet | Owner, controller, operations | Licenses do not fully describe current work; payroll and fleet vary by source |
| Commercial property | Property type, occupancy, location | Square footage, units, buildings, physical profile | Owner, manager, portfolio relationships | Ownership and occupancy can be unclear or outdated |
| Staffing | Staffing segment, client industries, placement type | Internal staff, temporary workforce, payroll indicators | Owner, finance, risk, operations | Workforce and payroll can change rapidly |
| Manufacturing | Products, processes, classification | Employees, revenue, locations, equipment or facility indicators | Owner, CFO, plant or risk leader | Broad classifications may hide materially different processes |
| Healthcare | Provider or facility type, services, regulated status | Locations, employees, beds or provider indicators | Administrator, practice owner, finance | Licensing confirms status, not the full operational or coverage profile |
| Hospitality and food service | Hotel, restaurant, franchise, venue, service model | Locations, rooms, seats, payroll, revenue indicators | Owner, operator, management company | Ownership and operating entities may differ |
| Professional services | Practice type, specialty, client profile | Professionals, employees, offices, revenue indicators | Partner, administrator, finance | Public data may provide little detail about contract or professional exposures |
Choose the right size proxy for the coverage
“Account size” is not one universal number. Match the proxy to the coverage and vertical.
- Workers compensation campaigns may emphasize payroll, employee mix, and field exposure.
- Commercial auto campaigns may emphasize vehicles, drivers, and operating radius.
- Property campaigns may use buildings, square footage, units, construction, and occupancy.
- General liability targeting may require operations, project type, products, foot traffic, or subcontracting.
- Professional liability campaigns may use specialty, professional headcount, services, and client type.
Revenue and employee count may be estimated or misleading when a company uses temporary labor, subcontractors, automation, or seasonal work. Use ranges, confidence labels, and qualification questions when size affects eligibility.
Distinguish hard exclusions from ranking signals
A hard exclusion should remove or hold an account because the agency cannot support it. A ranking signal changes outreach order without declaring the account ineligible.
| Hard exclusion examples | Ranking signal examples |
|---|---|
| Prohibited trade, haul, occupancy, state, or operation | Preferred class or strategic niche |
| Account outside required minimum or maximum | Higher expected account value |
| Missing evidence for a mandatory criterion | Stronger decision-maker evidence |
| Prior-contact or DNC rule prevents outreach | Credible timing or business event |
| Producer or carrier constraint blocks placement | Better geographic concentration |
An attractive timing signal should never override a prohibited class. A missing nonessential enrichment field should not automatically remove an account.
Treat renewal timing as priority, not intent
Across every vertical, renewal dates and estimated windows have the same limitation: they can help schedule outreach, but they do not prove the prospect is shopping.
Maintain separate labels:
- Eligible: appears to fit the approved target based on required evidence.
- Prioritized: deserves earlier outreach because of timing, value, strategic fit, or contact quality.
- Engaged: a person responded, but fit or next step still needs review.
- Qualified: the response meets the agency’s agreed fit and interest threshold.
- Follow-up: timing or referral context exists, but the account is not a newly qualified handraiser.
Apply an evidence policy across sources
Registries, licenses, assessor records, websites, databases, and contact providers answer different questions. Coverage, freshness, and definitions vary.
Use this evidence checklist:
- Define which criteria require hard evidence
- Record source and freshness for decision-changing facts
- Compare sources when a conflict would change eligibility
- Label estimates, ranges, and inferred relationships
- Route weak hard evidence to review or skip
- Deduplicate related entities, locations, portfolios, and prior contacts
- Recheck DNC, caps, appetite version, and eligibility before outreach
Build a vertical launch checklist
Before a new niche goes live, confirm:
Appetite and market
- Included operations and classifications are explicit
- Geography, account scale, desired lines, and exclusions are approved
- Producer capacity and campaign caps are set
- The selected criteria are actually available with usable coverage
Research and outreach
- Evidence requirements and review paths are documented
- Contact roles reflect the vertical’s buying structure
- Calling, email, and LinkedIn use the same segment definition
- Messages avoid presenting inferred or estimated facts as certain
- DNC and prior-contact rules are applied
Qualification and handoff
- Callers know the minimum questions needed to confirm fit
- Renewal timing is separated from expressed interest
- Potential follow-ups are distinct from qualified responses
- Handoffs include account, contact, evidence, conversation, and next action
- Producer outcomes return to the next targeting cycle
Commercial360 can coordinate research, calling, email, LinkedIn, response review, qualification, and producer-ready context around an approved market.
Adapt the matrix when moving into a new niche
For a new vertical, begin narrowly. Define the operation, territory, account scale, and coverage pattern, then test whether useful criteria and decision-maker evidence exist. Review a sample before broad outreach.
Do not assume a criterion transfers cleanly between niches. “Fleet” means something different for a trucking company, contractor, home-health provider, and restaurant group. A license may identify an entity without explaining current operations.
Launch at a volume producers can service. Fix classification, contact, or fit problems before adding records.
Know the limitations of cross-vertical targeting
Commercial sources have different update cycles and definitions. Entity names and relationships vary. Payroll, revenue, fleet, and employee estimates can conflict. A record can fit a targeting model and still fail underwriting or decline a conversation.
Prospecting should therefore use evidence to improve selection, not claim certainty. Preserve unknowns, verify decision-changing facts, qualify responses, and let producer feedback update the criteria.