If you sell to businesses, you know the drill: finding the right person to talk to is half the battle. It’s not enough to know a company’s name—you need the actual decision makers, not just a generic info@ email or some random junior staffer. This guide is for salespeople, recruiters, founders, and anyone tired of chasing their tail trying to figure out who calls the shots.
There are a million tools out there that promise to “revolutionize” prospecting. Most of them are either overpriced, bloated, or just plain inaccurate. I’m going to walk you through how to use Dropcontact to actually identify real decision makers at companies, step by step—warts and all. You’ll get the good, the bad, and a few shortcuts that actually work.
Step 1: Know What You’re Looking For
Before you even touch Dropcontact, get clear about who you want:
- Decision maker can mean a lot of things. For sales, it might be the Head of Marketing or CTO. For recruiting, you might want the VP of Engineering.
- Skip “catch-all” titles like “Associate,” “Coordinator,” or “Assistant.” You want seniority—think “Head,” “VP,” “Director,” “Chief,” or “Founder.”
- Write down the exact job titles you care about. This pays off later.
Pro Tip: Sometimes the “right” decision maker is not the most senior person. For smaller companies, a founder does everything. In big companies, team leads can have real authority. Don’t get stuck on titles—think about who can actually say yes.
Step 2: Gather Your Target Company List
You can’t find decision makers if you don’t know which companies you’re targeting. A few fast ways to build a list:
- Export companies from LinkedIn, Crunchbase, or your CRM.
- Use filters to get specific: industry, size, location, funding stage, etc.
- Save your company list as a simple CSV with columns for
company,website, and whatever notes you want.
What doesn’t work: Dumping a giant, generic list into Dropcontact and hoping for the best. The more focused your list, the better your results.
Step 3: Set Up Your Dropcontact Account
If you’re new to Dropcontact, here’s what matters:
- Plans are pay-as-you-go. You buy “credits” that get used up with each enrichment.
- The interface is simple—mostly file uploads.
- You don’t need to install anything. It’s all web-based.
Upload your CSV of company names and websites. Dropcontact will need at least the company domain to do its thing.
Heads up: If you only have company names (and not websites/domains), expect lower match rates. Dropcontact is good, but it’s not psychic.
Step 4: Enrich Your Company Data
This is where the magic (sometimes) happens.
- Upload your CSV and select “Enrich with contacts.”
- Choose the option to find company decision makers. Dropcontact will try to pull senior contacts—founders, C-level, VPs, etc.
- You can specify job titles or levels if you want to narrow it down (like “Marketing Director” or “CTO”).
Dropcontact will return a new file with results: names, titles, emails, LinkedIn profiles (when available), and sometimes phone numbers.
What works: - Dropcontact is strong on European data, especially for France and nearby countries. - You get mostly verified, direct emails—not scraped junk.
Limitations: - U.S. data is decent, but not as deep as some old-school tools (like ZoomInfo). - If your company list is full of tiny startups or obscure firms, expect fewer hits. - Sometimes you’ll get generic emails (hello@, contact@) if no person is found.
Step 5: Review and Filter Your Results
Don’t just trust the output blindly—some cleaning is required.
- Filter out contacts with junior titles or roles you don’t care about.
- Check for duplicate contacts or obviously outdated info.
- Sense-check emails and LinkedIn URLs. If something looks weird (“ceo@company.com” is almost never real), skip it.
Pro Tip: If you want to be extra sure, cross-check a random sample of contacts on LinkedIn. Dropcontact usually gets titles right, but nobody’s perfect.
Step 6: Fill in The Blanks
You’ll notice gaps. Maybe some companies have no decision maker listed, or just a generic contact.
Here’s what to do: - For “empty” companies, check their LinkedIn company page and look at employees. Sometimes a quick manual search gets you what automation can’t. - Use the company domain and Dropcontact’s “email finder” to guess emails for people you identify manually. - If you have a big list, consider running a second enrichment pass in a few weeks—people change jobs, and databases update.
What to ignore: Don’t waste time chasing “maybe” contacts or trying to hack around Dropcontact’s limits. If the info isn’t there, move on.
Step 7: Reach Out—But Don’t Be Weird
Congrats, you’ve got a list of real decision makers with (mostly) real emails. Now, some quick advice:
- Personalize your emails. Reference their actual job or something specific about their company.
- Don’t mass-blast everyone with the same message. That’s how you get flagged as spam.
- Expect a lot of non-responses. Even with perfect data, outreach is a numbers game.
Pro Tip: If you get bounces or auto-replies, update your list. Keeping your data clean saves headaches later.
What Dropcontact Does Well—and Where It Falls Short
What works: - Fast, no-nonsense enrichment for European companies. - Clean data—less spam, more real emails. - Decent for finding founders and C-levels, especially at small and mid-sized firms.
What doesn’t: - U.S. and global coverage is OK, but not as deep as the big, legacy data giants. - Sometimes struggles with ultra-niche or brand-new companies. - Doesn’t always get you personal emails for every decision maker, especially if they’re secretive or use aliases.
Ignore the hype: No enrichment tool is 100%. Decision makers are humans—they quit, change jobs, or just don’t want to be found. Use Dropcontact as a starting point, not a magic bullet.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Don’t Overthink It
Finding decision makers will always be part art, part science. Tools like Dropcontact make your life easier, but they won’t do all the work for you. Start with a clear target, keep your lists tight, and don’t be afraid to do a little manual digging.
Stay skeptical of any tool that promises perfection. Keep your process simple, update your data regularly, and you’ll be ahead of most people out there. Good luck—and remember, most “gatekeepers” are just regular folks trying to do their job. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.