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People Search is one of the three ways a Search Agent can search. The two company-led engines find companies first, then look for contacts inside them. People Search works the other way round: you tell Alva the roles you sell to — “Chief Information Security Officer”, “Head of Operations”, “VP of Finance” — and it finds those people across companies of any sector, reveals their verified emails, and imports them into your CRM ready for outreach. Use People Search when the job title matters more than the company. If you sell to a specific role wherever it sits, this is the fastest way to build a targeted contact list.
People Search is a mode of the same Search Agent system as company discovery. It reuses the same activate, pause, resume, and results workflow — the difference is what you search for and how it’s billed. It only surfaces companies established enough to have that role on record, so it isn’t the tool for very small or local businesses — use Local & service businesses for those.
For the company-led modes, see Local & service businesses (found by area) and Funded & high-growth companies (found by firmographic profile). Go to Discovery → Search Agents and click Create New Search Agent, then choose Find people.

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Job titles (required)

Enter one or more job titles you want to reach — for example CISO, Chief Information Security Officer, Head of Security. Alva matches people whose current title matches what you enter.
Turn on Include similar titles to widen the net to closely related roles (e.g. searching “Head of Security” will also surface “Security Director” and “VP Security”). Leave it off when you need an exact match.

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Optional filters

Narrow the search with any combination of: The more filters you add, the tighter and more relevant your results — but the fewer people will match. Start broader and narrow later if you’re getting too many low-quality matches.

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Result limit

Every people search has a result limit (default: 25). The search pauses automatically when it reaches the limit rather than running unbounded — this is your main cost-control dial. The recommended workflow:
1

Start small

Set a low limit — say 10 — when you first activate the search.
2

Review the results

Check the contacts that were imported. Are they the right people? Are the emails what you expected?
3

Raise the limit

Happy with the quality? Increase the limit on the profile page. The search resumes automatically and runs until it reaches the new limit.
People searches have no throttle or speed control. Pace is governed entirely by the result limit — the search stops as soon as the limit is reached.

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Ideal Company Profile (optional)

You can add an optional Ideal Company Profile — a short, plain-language description of the kind of company you’d ideally reach these people at. Alva uses it to score each person’s company for fit after import, so your best-fit contacts can be prioritised for outreach. This is scoring, not filtering: a low score never stops a contact being imported (see Match scoring below). The brief follows the same rules as a company search description — it can only ask for things that can be determined from a company’s website, so avoid criteria like headcount, funding, or technology stack. See what makes a good description for guidance.

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What gets imported

When the search runs, Alva reveals the verified email for each matching person and imports them into your CRM automatically:
  • Contacts are created with their name, job title, verified email, and company.
  • Companies are created (or matched to an existing record by domain, so you never get duplicates).
  • Each imported company runs through the standard enrichment pipeline, including a website summary if one is missing.
  • Contacts appear in Discovery → Contacts alongside contacts found by other means.
People Search reveals verified emails only — it never pulls phone numbers. Only people who have a discoverable email are enriched and imported, so you never pay for empty records.
Some emails come back marked verified and others unverified. Both are imported, but BDR agents only auto-send to high-confidence addresses — unverified emails are kept for you to use manually rather than sent to automatically.

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Match scoring

If you set an Ideal Company Profile, each contact’s company is scored 0–100 for fit shortly after import, and given a category: The score appears as a % match badge and a Profile Match Analysis card on the company’s detail page — the same display as company-led results. Key things to know:
  • Nothing is ever discarded. Unlike company search, a low score never holds a contact back — every matching person is still imported. The score only informs priority.
  • BDR agents use the score to prioritise. Agents work through the best-fit companies first. You can also set a minimum match score on an agent so it skips low-fit companies automatically.
  • No brief means no score. If you don’t set an Ideal Company Profile, companies are left unscored rather than assumed to be a perfect match.
You can edit a people search’s criteria (titles, seniority, locations, size, industry, result limit) while it’s in draft or paused. Pause an active search first. Saving changes returns the search to draft so that re-activating runs cleanly against the new criteria. Contacts already imported stay in your CRM — they’re real people you’ve paid to reveal. To find more people with the new criteria, raise the result limit above the current count and re-activate.
You’re never charged twice for the same person. If a search re-encounters someone you’ve already imported, they’re skipped — no repeat billing.

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How duplicates are avoided

People Search removes duplicates at several points, so you don’t pay twice or clutter your CRM:
  • Before revealing an email, people Alva has already returned to you are skipped — no repeat charge.
  • On import, anyone whose email already exists as a CRM contact is skipped.
  • Companies are grouped so each organisation becomes a single CRM company, matched to existing records by domain.

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Managing People Search with Alva

You can create and manage a people search conversationally — just ask Alva:
  • “Find me CISOs at UK fintechs and get their emails.”
  • “Set up a people search for Heads of Operations at logistics companies in Germany, limit 20.”
  • “Pause my security-officers search.”
  • “Raise the limit on my CISO search to 50.”
Alva asks clarifying questions when a request could mean either a company search or a people search, and sets up the right one for you.

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Costs

People Search is designed so you only pay for results you can use:
  • Searching is free. Finding matching people costs nothing.
  • You only pay per verified email revealed — and only for people who actually have an email. You’re never billed for empty results.
  • No repeat charges for people you’ve already imported.
Billing appears under enrichment usage. See Settings → Usage for a breakdown, and Understanding Credits for how billing works overall.
The result limit is your budget dial. Start at 10, confirm the contacts are on target, then raise it — the search picks up automatically where it left off.