Org Chart Research

Research and reconstruct the reporting structure and key personnel at a target account. Produces a structured map of who reports to whom, team sizes, and role classifications relevant to your buying process.

Prerequisites

• Clay account with credits (Claygent + People Search)
• Target company identified with domain or LinkedIn company URL
• Buyer personas defined (titles/roles you care about)
• Optional: LinkedIn Sales Navigator for deeper org browsing

Steps

1. Seed the company in Clay

Create a Clay table row for the target company. Add columns for company_name, domain, linkedin_company_url, employee_count, and industry. Use clay-company-search if you need to find the company first.

2. Find people at the company

Add a "Find People at Company" enrichment column using clay-people-search. Configure filters:

• Seniority: Director, VP, C-Suite, Founder
• Departments: Engineering, Product, Operations, Finance, IT, Procurement
• Limit: 20-30 people per company (covers the buying committee without credit waste)

Expand rows so each person gets their own row.

3. Enrich each person

For each person found, add enrichment columns:

• Title (from LinkedIn or People Data Labs)
• Department (parsed from title)
• Seniority level (C-Suite, VP, Director, Manager, IC)
• LinkedIn URL (for manual verification)
• Email (via clay-enrichment-waterfall)
• Tenure at company (from LinkedIn start date)
• Reports to (use Claygent: "Who does {Name} at {Company} report to based on LinkedIn?")

4. Use Claygent to infer reporting lines

Add a Claygent column with prompt:

Based on LinkedIn profiles and public information, who does {Full Name}, {Title} at {Company Name} report to? Return the name and title of their likely manager. If you cannot determine this, return "Unknown".

Run on Director-level and below. VP and C-Suite reporting lines are usually obvious from titles.

5. Map the hierarchy

Export the enriched table. Structure the output as a nested hierarchy:

CEO
  |- CTO
  |    |- VP Engineering
  |    |    |- Director of Platform
  |    |    |- Director of Frontend
  |    |- VP Product
  |- CFO
  |    |- VP Finance
  |- CRO
       |- VP Sales
       |- VP Customer Success

6. Identify gaps

Flag departments or levels with missing data. Common gaps: middle management (Directors), cross-functional roles (Chief of Staff, Business Operations), and newly created roles. These gaps may hide stakeholders who influence buying decisions.

Via Apollo

Apollo provides org chart data for some companies:

1. Search for the company in Apollo
2. Navigate to the company profile > People tab
3. Filter by department and seniority
4. Export contacts with titles and departments
5. Apollo does not provide reporting-line data — use Clay for that

Via LinkedIn Sales Navigator

1. Search: Current company: {Company} AND Seniority: Director+
2. Browse results and note titles/departments
3. Use TeamLink to see if anyone in your network knows them
4. Save leads to a Sales Navigator list for later outreach

Tool Alternatives

| Tool | Org Chart Capability | Notes | |------|---------------------|-------| | Clay | People Search + Claygent inference | Best for automated research at scale | | Apollo | People tab on company profiles | Good contact data, no reporting lines | | LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Advanced people search | Manual but deepest data | | ZoomInfo | Org chart feature | Enterprise-grade, expensive | | Cognism | People search | Strong in EU/UK markets |

Error Handling

• Claygent returning "Unknown" for most entries: Company may be too small or private. Fall back to LinkedIn manual research.
• Stale data: People change roles frequently. Filter for people with tenure > 3 months to avoid recently departed contacts.
• Credit burn: Claygent uses 5-10 credits per query. Budget 10-15 credits per company for full org chart research. Run on high-priority accounts only.
• Duplicate people across providers: Deduplicate by LinkedIn URL (most reliable unique identifier).