How to build a custom outbound workflow in Clay for B2B sales teams

If you’re in B2B sales and tired of clunky spreadsheets, jumping between tools, or getting drowned in “automation” promises, you’re not alone. Building your own outbound workflow isn’t about chasing shiny new features—it’s about making your process easier, more repeatable, and less annoying for everyone. This guide is for sales teams who want to use Clay to take control of their outbound without getting lost in a maze of integrations or bloated playbooks.

Let’s cut the fluff. Here’s how to actually build an outbound workflow in Clay that works for real B2B teams.

1. Get Clear on What You Actually Need

Clay can do a lot, but so can a whiteboard and a marker. Before you even open the app, spend 10 minutes answering:

  • Who are you reaching out to? (Your ICP, in sales-speak. Be specific.)
  • Where do you find them? (LinkedIn, company sites, job boards, etc.)
  • What’s your goal? (Book meetings? Start conversations? Qualify leads?)

Pro tip: Don’t try to automate everything from day one. Start with the core: find good-fit prospects and get useful data into one place.

2. Set Up Your Workspace in Clay

Assuming you’ve signed up for Clay, here’s how to get your house in order:

  • Create a new table and name it something like “Outbound Prospects.”
  • Decide what columns you’ll need. At minimum:
    • Company Name
    • Contact Name
    • LinkedIn URL
    • Email
    • Role/Title
    • Status (e.g., “To Contact,” “Contacted,” “Replied,” etc.)
    • Any custom fields (Industry, Company Size, Notes)

Don’t add 20 columns you won’t use. You can always add more later.

3. Source Leads (Without Losing Your Mind)

Clay’s biggest draw is how it connects to sources like LinkedIn, Apollo, Crunchbase, and even custom Google searches. But: Just because you can pull in thousands of leads doesn’t mean you should.

Start simple:

  • Use Clay’s LinkedIn integration to search for your ICP. For example, “VP of Marketing” at SaaS companies with 50–500 employees.
  • Import a small batch (50–100) to get your filters right.
  • Add filters in Clay to weed out obvious bad fits (wrong industry, non-business emails, etc.).

Heads up: If a data source looks too good to be true, it probably is. Always spot-check results. “Verified” emails are rarely 100% accurate—test before you trust.

4. Enrich Your Data (But Don’t Overdo It)

Clay lets you enrich contacts with all kinds of info: company size, funding, tech stack, recent news, you name it. This is cool, but easy to overcomplicate.

  • Start with the basics: Find work emails, double-check roles, and confirm company info.
  • Add one or two enrichment steps that actually help you personalize outreach (like recent funding or a tech stack match).
  • Skip “nice-to-have” fields unless you’re actually going to use them in your outreach.

Pro tip: More data = more room for errors. Keep your enrichment tight so you’re not fixing junk data later.

5. Build Your Outbound Sequence

Clay isn’t a full-blown sales engagement platform, but you can use it to organize your touchpoints.

  • Create columns for each step (e.g., “Email Sent,” “LinkedIn Connect,” “Follow-up 1”).
  • Use checkboxes or status picklists to track progress.
  • If you use a tool like Outreach, Apollo, or Mailshake for sending, export your contacts from Clay with the right fields and tags.

What works: Keeping your workflow in Clay means you always have one source of truth. You can see at a glance where each prospect is in your sequence.

What doesn’t: Don’t try to run your whole email campaign from Clay. It’s possible with some hacks, but you’ll spend more time fighting the tool than closing deals.

6. Automate What Actually Saves Time

Automation is great—up to a point. Here’s where Clay’s automations actually help:

  • Automatically enrich new leads as they’re added.
  • Send Slack or email notifications when a prospect matches a hot trigger (say, new funding or a certain tech stack).
  • Update statuses based on actions (e.g., change to “Contacted” when an outreach email is sent).

What to skip: Overcomplicated multi-step automations that break if one data source changes. Keep it boring and reliable.

7. Collaborate Without Losing Context

If you’re working with a team:

  • Use Clay’s sharing and permissions so folks don’t accidentally overwrite each other.
  • Add notes and assign owners for each lead.
  • Use filters to quickly show each rep their own pipeline.

Don’t bother with fancy dashboards until your basic workflow is humming.

8. Keep Your Data Clean

Nothing kills an outbound workflow faster than a messy database. Here’s what to do:

  • Regularly deduplicate leads (Clay has a dedupe tool for this).
  • Archive or delete dead leads.
  • Review bounces and update records accordingly.

Pro tip: Build in a quick weekly review—10 minutes to clean up goes a long way.

9. Measure What Matters (And Ignore Vanity Metrics)

Clay can surface all sorts of numbers, but don’t get distracted.

  • Track: Number of new leads added, % with verified emails, response rates to outreach.
  • Ignore: Number of columns, total data points, how many automations you have.

What matters is: Are you having more quality conversations with the right people?

10. Iterate, Don’t Overengineer

Your first workflow won’t be perfect. That’s fine. The goal is to get something working, see where it breaks, and improve from there.

  • Add new sources or enrichments only if they’ll actually help.
  • Cut anything that’s slowing you down or not getting used.
  • Ask your team: “What’s annoying?” Fix that first.

Summary: Keep It Simple and Adapt

Building your own outbound workflow in Clay doesn’t have to be a slog. Start with the basics, get your core data right, and only automate what you’re sure actually saves time. Ignore the temptation to build a Rube Goldberg machine just because you can. Instead, keep things simple, review what’s working, and tweak as you go. Outbound is a moving target—your workflow should be, too.