If you’re reading this, you probably know that “contact data enrichment” is supposed to make B2B sales easier. The reality? It’s only as good as the setup and upkeep behind it. If you’re using Salesfinity and want to actually get better targeting—not just more cluttered lists—this is for you. No magic tricks, no buzzwords, just a clear path to making your enrichment process less painful and more useful.
Why Bother Optimizing Contact Data Enrichment?
Here’s the short version: bad data wastes your time, annoys prospects, and kills campaigns before they start. The promise of enrichment is that you get accurate, useful info about your leads—so you can reach the right people with the right message. But enrichment tools, including Salesfinity, don’t do this perfectly out of the box.
Who’s this guide for? - B2B marketers tired of “spray and pray” emails. - SDRs or AEs who want less manual research. - Anyone who’s spent hours cleaning up lists that were supposed to be “automatically enriched.”
Step 1: Get Your House in Order—Clean Existing Data First
Before you turn on enrichment, deal with the mess you already have. If your CRM is a junk drawer, enrichment will just add more junk. Here’s how to prep:
- Deduplicate contacts: Merge or remove obvious duplicates. Some tools help, but you’ll probably have to spot-check.
- Standardize fields: Make sure job titles, company names, and emails follow the same format. “VP Sales” and “Vice President, Sales” shouldn’t be separate titles.
- Purge garbage records: Delete contacts with missing emails, generic “info@company.com” addresses, or people you know are long gone.
Pro tip: Run a sample export of your contact list and scan for weirdness. It’s easier to fix a few issues now than try to untangle them after enrichment.
Step 2: Know What Data Actually Matters
Salesfinity offers a ton of enrichment options—phone numbers, LinkedIn URLs, company size, tech stack, industry, revenue, and so on. The trick is to avoid the “more is better” trap.
Focus on: - Data you’ll use: If you never segment by tech stack, skip it. - Must-haves for outreach: Direct emails, work phones, accurate job titles. - Deal-breakers: Do you need to avoid certain regions or industries? Make sure those fields are prioritized.
Ignore: - Vanity data (like Twitter handles, unless you actually use social selling). - Overly broad firmographics you never filter on.
Reality check: More fields mean more chances for errors and more work to keep things clean. Only enrich what you’ll act on.
Step 3: Set Up and Test Enrichment in Salesfinity
Now, actually configure enrichment in Salesfinity. Don’t just hit “enrich all” and walk away. Here’s a smarter way:
- Pick a small, representative sample. Maybe 100 contacts from different segments.
- Choose your enrichment fields. Start with 3-5 that really matter (see previous step).
- Run enrichment on the sample.
- Audit the results. Check:
- Are emails valid and up-to-date?
- Are job titles accurate?
- Is company info matching reality?
- Log errors and weird mismatches. Keep track—this helps you spot patterns.
If you see lots of missing fields or bad matches, dig into why. Sometimes it’s Salesfinity’s data sources, sometimes it’s the original record.
Don’t: Enrich your entire database before testing—mistakes at scale are a pain to undo.
Step 4: Create Clear Rules for Data Overwrite and Merge
Enrichment tools love to overwrite. Sometimes that’s good (updating “unknown” titles); sometimes it nukes your hard-won notes.
Decide: - When should new data replace old? (E.g., only if the existing field is blank, or only if the new data is more recent.) - Which fields should NEVER be overwritten? (Maybe custom notes, lead source, or anything your team updates by hand.) - How do you handle conflicting info? (If Salesfinity says “CTO” but your SDR says “Head of Engineering,” pick a rule.)
How to set this up in Salesfinity: - Use the field mapping and overwrite controls in your enrichment settings. - Test with a few records and confirm nothing important gets wiped out.
Step 5: Automate—But Keep a Manual Review Step
Salesfinity lets you automate enrichment, but don’t let it run unchecked.
Best practice: - Set up weekly or monthly auto-enrichment for new leads only. - Have a workflow where someone reviews enriched records before they hit your main lists. A quick scan can catch obvious errors.
Why bother? Even the best enrichment APIs get things wrong—especially with job changes or company rebrands. A little human oversight goes a long way.
Step 6: Integrate Enriched Data into Segmentation and Outreach
Now that your data is (mostly) clean and accurate, make it work for you.
- Segment smarter: Use real job titles, company sizes, and industries to build targeted lists.
- Personalize outreach: Pull in specifics (“Congrats on joining [Company] as [Title]”) instead of generic intros.
- Score leads: Accurate enrichment means you can actually trust lead scoring models. (But don’t blindly trust them—always sanity-check.)
Avoid: - Over-personalization. Don’t regurgitate every field you have (“I see you like kayaking and use HubSpot”). It’s creepy and doesn’t convert.
Step 7: Monitor, Measure, and Adjust
Data enrichment isn’t a “set it and forget it” deal. Over time, sources change, people switch jobs, and enrichment APIs drift in accuracy.
What to track: - Enrichment accuracy: Spot check a few records every month. Are emails still valid? Are titles up to date? - Campaign performance: Did your targeting actually get better? If not, what’s missing? - Data decay: If you see bounce rates or bad connects creeping up, it’s time to revisit enrichment.
Pro tip: Keep a simple log of issues and fixes. It’ll save you headaches when troubleshooting later.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What Works
- Small batch testing: Prevents mass errors.
- Focusing on just a few key fields: Keeps things tidy and actionable.
- Manual review: Catches what automation misses.
What’s Overrated
- “Complete” records: You’ll never have every field filled. Get over it.
- Exotic data points: If nobody on your team uses it, don’t enrich it.
What to Ignore
- Vendor hype: No enrichment tool is perfect. They all miss things or introduce errors.
- Obsession with 100% accuracy: Aim for “good enough to make decisions,” not perfection.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Contact data enrichment in Salesfinity can save you tons of time and help you nail B2B targeting—but only if you keep it simple, test everything, and adjust as you go. Don’t get sucked into endless “data improvement” projects or overloaded with fields you’ll never use. Start small, fix what breaks, and keep what works. That’s how you actually get value—without driving yourself (or your team) nuts.