If you’re tired of watching your perfectly good campaigns fall flat because of bad contact info, you’re not alone. Bounced emails are a pain—costing you time, money, and maybe even making you look sloppy to the spam filters. This guide is for sales and marketing folks who want a no-nonsense way to keep their lists clean using Salesintel—and who don’t have hours to waste on “data enrichment journeys.”
Below, you’ll find a straightforward process for validating contacts in Salesintel so you can actually reach the people you’re trying to reach. Plus, some honest advice about what works, what doesn’t, and where to spend (or not spend) your energy.
1. Understand Why Contact Validation Matters (And Where Salesintel Fits In)
Before you even log in, let’s be clear: No tool will magically make every email deliver. But if you regularly blast out messages to stale or sketchy lists, you’re asking for high bounce rates, poor deliverability, and wasted effort.
Salesintel pitches itself as a source of “human-verified” B2B contact data. In plain English, that means they claim to check their info more than most, but it’s still a database: things change, people move jobs, and some emails will always be duds.
Bottom line: Validation is about stacking the odds in your favor, not guaranteeing perfection. You still need to use your head.
2. Export (or Build) Your List Carefully
Don’t just grab every contact you can. The more targeted your list, the less garbage you’ll have to clean up later.
If you’re building a list in Salesintel: - Use tight filters—job title, industry, company size, geography, etc. - Avoid huge, catch-all exports. Quality > quantity. - Check for “last verified” or “recently updated” fields—prefer contacts updated in the last 6–12 months.
If you’re uploading your own list: - Make sure fields are mapped correctly (email, phone, name, etc.). - Remove obvious junk (like info@ or admin@ addresses, duplicates, and blanks).
Pro tip: Document where you got your contacts. If you start seeing bounces, you’ll want to know which source is the problem.
3. Use Salesintel’s Built-In Validation Tools—But Don’t Stop There
Salesintel lets you validate emails right inside their platform. Here’s how to get the most out of it:
Step-by-step: 1. Select the contacts you want to validate. Don’t bother with every single one—start with your top targets. 2. Look for the “verified” or “human-verified” indicator. Salesintel tags contacts that have supposedly been checked by a real person. 3. Use the “Reverify” feature if available. This triggers a fresh check on the email. 4. Export only the contacts marked as “valid” or “verified.” If it’s not clear, reach out to Salesintel support and ask them to clarify which statuses are safe to use.
What works:
- Their “human verification” is better than a lot of scraped databases.
- If you stick to recently verified contacts, you’ll see fewer bounces.
Where it falls short:
- Even “verified” emails can bounce—people change jobs fast.
- The platform sometimes lags behind real-world changes.
- Not every contact can be reverified instantly.
Bottom line: Salesintel’s validation is a solid first line of defense, but it’s not foolproof.
4. Run an External Email Validation (Don’t Skip This)
Here’s the honest truth: Even the best data vendors miss things. Before you hit send, run your list through a third-party email validation tool. Yes, it’s an extra step. But it’ll catch: - Typos and formatting errors - Disposable or role-based addresses (like info@, sales@) - Domains that no longer exist - Emails that are “catch-all” (which often bounce at scale)
Popular tools:
- NeverBounce
- ZeroBounce
- BriteVerify
- Kickbox
How to do it: - Export your validated list from Salesintel as a CSV. - Upload it to your chosen email validator. - Download the cleaned list, filtering out anything marked “invalid” or “unknown.”
Pro tip: Don’t be seduced by “guaranteed deliverability” claims. No validator is perfect, but they’ll reduce bounces by a lot.
5. Check Phone Numbers and Other Contact Details
Email’s not the only channel that gets messy. If you’re calling or texting: - Make sure phone numbers are in a standard format (country code, area code, etc.). - Use a phone validation API (like Twilio Lookup or NumVerify) to weed out disconnected or fake numbers. - Remove duplicates and numbers tied to generic company lines.
What to ignore: Spending hours cross-checking minor details most prospects never use (like fax numbers). Focus on the channels you actually touch.
6. Set Up a Process for Ongoing Validation (So You Don’t Fall Behind)
One-and-done doesn’t cut it. People move, get promoted, or quit. Here’s a simple way to stay ahead:
- Schedule regular list cleans: Monthly or quarterly, depending on email volume.
- Monitor bounce rates: If you see a spike, revisit your source and validation method.
- Update your CRM: Remove or flag bounced contacts right away—don’t keep sending to dead addresses.
- Ask for feedback: When sales or SDRs find bad info, make it easy for them to flag or correct it.
Pro tip: If you use marketing automation, build in automatic suppression for contacts that hard bounce or opt out.
7. Don’t Fall for These Common Validation Myths
Let’s clear up a few things:
- “If I use Salesintel, my list is 100% clean.” Nope. Every database has duds.
- “Email verification prevents all bounces.” It reduces them, but people leave jobs, domains expire, and IT admins get creative.
- “More data is always better.” A small, accurate list outperforms a massive, messy one every time.
- “Validation is only needed once.” See above—things change fast.
8. Quick Checklist: Before You Hit Send
- [ ] Contacts filtered by recent verification date in Salesintel
- [ ] Emails run through a third-party validator
- [ ] Obvious junk (role-based, duplicates, blanks) removed
- [ ] Phone numbers formatted and checked if you’re calling
- [ ] CRM updated with any bounced or outdated contacts
- [ ] Ready to suppress or remove bounces as they happen
Keep It Simple—And Don’t Chase Perfection
You could spend weeks chasing down every last invalid contact. Or you could put a few smart checks in place, hit send, and see what happens. Start small, learn from the bounces you do get, and tweak your process as you go.
No tool, not even Salesintel, will make your lists bulletproof. But with a little validation and common sense, you’ll spend a lot less time dealing with bouncebacks—and a lot more time talking to actual humans.