How do I filter the leads database by industry?

Short answer: open the Leads page, open the Industry menu, and pick a grouped option from the top of the list — the ones marked with a ★, like SaaS / Software / Internet or Healthcare / Biotech. The reason matters: our leads come from more than one data source, and those sources describe "industry" in different words. A grouped option bundles all of those wordings together, so it matches the right people no matter how each record was labeled. Then combine it with a Country, a Job title, or a keyword to sharpen the list. That one habit is the difference between a full, on-target list and a short, lopsided one.

WarmySender runs your outreach on autopilot with AI agents, across Cold Email, Email Warmup, LinkedIn, Instagram and Multichannel sequences — plus real-time email verification. The lead database is the prospecting input that feeds all of them, so the cleaner your industry filter, the better every campaign that follows.

Why industries are labeled inconsistently — and why that matters

Here's the thing worth understanding, because it explains everything else on this page. The contacts in the database are gathered from several data sources, and each source has its own idea of what "industry" means:

• Some sources describe the company's sector — words like Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Real Estate. These describe what the business does.
• Other sources describe the person's function — words like Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance. These describe what the person does inside the business.

Both are perfectly valid, but they're different vocabularies. So if you type a single raw word into the industry filter, you only ever match the records that happen to use that exact word — and you silently miss all the ones that describe the same thing a different way. Search a sector word and you can miss everyone whose record was tagged by function; search a function word and you can miss everyone tagged by sector. The list comes back looking thin or one-sided, and it's easy to assume "there just aren't many leads in this industry" when really the filter only caught one slice.

The grouped options solve this. Each group gathers up the many different ways an industry gets written — across every data source and every region — into a single, recommended choice. Pick SaaS / Software / Internet and you catch the software companies, the internet and cloud businesses, the platforms and apps, however each one was originally labeled. That's why the grouped options are pinned to the top of the Industry menu and marked with a ★: they're the choice that just works.

How to filter by industry, step by step

1. Open the Leads page and find the Industry filter. Click it to open the menu.
2. Pick a grouped option from the top (the ★ ones). Start typing to jump to it — for example "health" surfaces ★ Healthcare / Biotech, "soft" surfaces ★ SaaS / Software / Internet. These recommended groups sit above the longer list of raw industry values.
3. Watch the live match count. As soon as you choose a group, the count updates to show how many contacts match. A grouped option will nearly always return a fuller list than a single raw word, because it's catching every labeling at once.
4. Add another filter to sharpen it. Layer on a Country, a Job title, or a keyword (details below). Each filter you add narrows the results, so a couple of well-chosen filters turn a huge pool into a focused shortlist.

You can pick more than one industry group if your offer spans a few sectors — for example SaaS / Software / Internet together with AI / ML / Data — and the results will include contacts matching any of them.

Filter by industry alone — no country needed

You don't have to pick a country. Choose an industry group on its own and you'll get matching contacts from every region at once — pick ★ SaaS / Software / Internet with no country selected and you'll see software and internet companies worldwide, not an empty list. The same is true when you select several countries: the industry filter applies across all of them together. Industry works as a standalone filter, and as one that spans as many regions as you like.

This is handy whenever your offer isn't tied to one country — a product that sells globally, a remote-friendly service, or simply the early research stage where you want to see the whole landscape before narrowing down. Start with the industry group alone to gauge the size of the market, then add a Country (or a few) only if and when you want to focus.

Worked example — software companies across every region. Open the Industry menu, pick ★ SaaS / Software / Internet, and leave Country empty. The live count jumps to the full worldwide pool of software and internet companies. Want a couple of specific markets instead of all of them? Add, say, the United States and the United Kingdom together, and the same industry filter now spans just those two countries. Layer a Job title like Head of Sales on top and you've gone from "everyone in software, everywhere" to "software sales leaders in the US and UK" — all without ever being forced to start from a single country.

Combine industry with country, job title, or keyword

Industry on its own is a wide net. The magic is in stacking it with one or two more filters — every filter you add makes the list smaller and more precise:

A good rule of thumb: pick the industry group first to define the space you're selling into, then add a Job title or Seniority to define the person you want to talk to inside it. For the full tour of every filter — Location, Job title, Seniority, Department, and Has LinkedIn — see how to find your ideal leads using filters.

A worked example

Say you sell a scheduling product to software companies in the United States, and you want to reach the people who run their sales teams. Here's the reliable way to build that list:

1. Industry: open the menu and choose the grouped ★ SaaS / Software / Internet option (not a single raw word like "software"). This one choice catches software, internet, cloud, platform, and app companies however each was labeled across the data sources.
2. Country: add United States.
3. Job title: type Head of Sales (or add Seniority = VP with Department = Sales to widen it to every senior sales leader).

The live match count confirms a healthy list of senior sales leaders at US software companies. Compare that with what you'd get from typing just "software" as a raw value: you'd match only the records that happen to use that exact word and miss the internet, cloud, and platform businesses that belong in the same list. Same intent, far better coverage — because you started from the grouped option.

Once the list looks right, select the contacts, choose Save to List to add them to a prospect list, and launch a campaign straight from it. Saved leads land in the same prospect list a CSV import would create, so warmup, sending limits, and analytics all work exactly the same downstream.

A few tips for a fuller list

• Always start from the ★ groups. They're at the top of the menu for a reason — they match across every labeling, so they give you the fullest, most representative list. Reach for a single raw value only when you need something very specific that no group covers.
• If a list looks surprisingly small, check your industry choice first. A thin result is usually a sign a single raw word was used instead of a group — switch to the matching group and the count typically jumps.
• Broaden with a second group before you assume the market is small. If one group is genuinely niche, adding a neighbouring group (say Fintech / Finance alongside SaaS / Software / Internet) can open up adjacent companies you'd want anyway.
• Sharpen with Country or Job title, not by dropping the group. Keep the group and layer filters on top — that keeps your coverage wide while making the people precise.

Frequently asked questions

Why should I pick a grouped industry option instead of typing an industry?

Because the leads in the database come from several data sources, and those sources label industries in different words — some by the company's sector (Retail, Healthcare) and some by the person's function (Engineering, Sales). A single typed word only matches the records that use that exact wording, so it can return a short or lopsided list and make you think an industry is smaller than it really is. A grouped option (the ones marked ★ at the top of the Industry menu) bundles all the different wordings for an industry together, so it matches consistently across every source and region and gives you a fuller, more representative list.

Where do I find the grouped industry options?

Open the Leads page, click the Industry filter, and look at the very top of the menu. The recommended grouped options are pinned there and marked with a ★ — for example ★ SaaS / Software / Internet and ★ Healthcare / Biotech. Below them is the longer list of individual raw values. Start typing to jump straight to the group you want.

What are some examples of the industry groups?

The groups cover the common B2B spaces — for example SaaS / Software / Internet, Fintech / Finance, E-commerce / Retail, AI / ML / Data, Marketing / Advertising, Agencies / Consulting, Healthcare / Biotech, Real Estate / Property, Manufacturing / Industrial, Education / EdTech, and more. Each one gathers the many ways that industry gets written across the data sources into a single, reliable choice, so you don't have to guess every synonym yourself.

Can I combine industry with other filters?

Yes, and you should. Industry on its own is a wide net, so stack it with a Country, a Job title, or a keyword to focus the list. Filters are additive — each one you add makes the results smaller and more precise — and a live match count updates as you go. For example, pick the SaaS / Software / Internet group, add the United States, and add the job title "Head of Sales" to get senior sales leaders at US software companies.

Can I select more than one industry at once?

Yes. If your offer spans a few sectors, pick several groups — for instance SaaS / Software / Internet together with AI / ML / Data — and the results include contacts matching any of them. This is a good way to widen a niche list before assuming the market is small.

My industry list looks really small. What am I doing wrong?

The most common cause is filtering by a single raw word instead of a grouped option. Because the sources label industries differently, one word catches only a slice of the matching companies. Switch to the matching ★ group at the top of the Industry menu and the count usually jumps. If it's still small, try adding a neighbouring group, or loosen another filter (for example widen the Country) and watch the live count to find the right balance.

Do I have to select a country to filter by industry?

No. You can filter by industry on its own — with no country selected — and get matching contacts from every region at once. Picking the ★ SaaS / Software / Internet group with no country returns software and internet companies worldwide, not an empty list. The same applies when you select several countries: the industry filter spans all of them together. A good approach is to start with the industry group alone to see the whole market, then add one or more countries only when you want to narrow to specific regions.

Related reading

• How to find your ideal leads using filters — the full tour of Location, Job title, Seniority, Department, and Has LinkedIn
• How the leads database serves data — quality, freshness, and what each email-confidence label means
• What email verification results mean — read each result before you send
• Open the Leads page — start building a targeted industry list now
• Full documentation — Cold Email, Email Warmup, LinkedIn, Instagram and Multichannel guides