Poor data quality slows down your sales team’s prospect research when they could be closing deals. Combat this by rolling out a lead enrichment program across your business.
In this article, you’ll learn what lead enrichment means and how it boosts sales team performance to drive greater revenue. You’ll also discover how to integrate lead enrichment into your sales process in five easy steps.
What is lead enrichment?
Lead enrichment software automatically populates prospect contact data records with detailed, accurate company, behavioral and intent information. Instead of starting with just a name, number and email address, your prospecting and sales teams will get a complete profile.
For example, they know the decision-makers’ names, the company size and the software they use. They may also see a prospect’s social profile, recent company news like funding rounds or changes in leadership and any recent product launches.
Imagine a SaaS company selling HR software to mid-market businesses. They’re targeting HR Directors and CTOs at companies with 100-1000 employees.
Before implementing lead enrichment, their reps spent hours every week trying to find and identify the right buyers.
After implementing lead enrichment, they have the names and contact details of decision makers, what they’ve posted about on LinkedIn, their recent hiring activity and much more.
Even better, they can see which HR tools their prospects currently use. In their outreach messaging, they can highlight their differences and the unique pain points they solve.
Lead enrichment gives your sales reps the insights they need to start meaningful conversations with prospects. They get a fuller picture of a target business and its potential needs, eliminating the guesswork in pitching and enabling reps to focus on the challenges prospects face.
Note: Lead generation and lead enrichment are related but distinct. Lead generation brings in new contacts, while enrichment adds valuable details like company size, technology use and buying signals. Together, they help you attract complete, high-value leads ready to engage.
What are the benefits of lead enrichment?
The main benefit of lead enrichment tools is that your sales and marketing teams get to work from detailed, actionable data about prospects and the firms they work for. These extra details let your team personalize their approach and build stronger connections with potential customers.
For example, with basic contact data, the reps at our HR company would know that Jane Smith is on TechCorp’s C-Suite.
However, enriched data tells them:
She’s been recently promoted from her previous position as VP of Sales
The firm is a VC-backed startup that has just raised $20m in Series B funding
She’s actively researching HR software to support the firm’s rapidly growing team
Lead enrichment turns Jane from a cold call into a prime target whose needs and challenges reps can anticipate and address effectively.
Other benefits lead enrichment offers include:
Personalized prospect insights. Reps have a clearer view of prospects’ needs and pain points. These insights allow them to personalize their pitches, prepare for objections they might encounter and identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Better targeted outreach. Sales teams can pinpoint the right decision-makers across different departments, so they only spend time connecting with the people with the authority to buy. They can also time their approaches to match company budget cycles and buying patterns.
Deeper prospect knowledge. Reps can access detailed insights into each prospect’s role, responsibilities and preferences. For example, knowing that a prospect prefers to be contacted by – and is far more responsive to – email means they can move the sales process forward faster.
Improved pipeline visibility. Enriched data tracks each prospect’s actions – like email opens, website visits and content downloads – giving reps a clear view of where each prospect stands in the buying process. They can use this information to personalize follow-ups and keep conversations relevant to each prospect’s interests.
Precision marketing segmentation. Marketers can more accurately segment audiences based on factors like company size, line of business and tech stacks. They can use this information to launch more relevant campaigns and optimize ROI.
Lead enrichment equips your sales and marketing teams with granular, relevant data to help them better understand and engage with each potential customer. Company-wide, you benefit from higher conversion rates, a robust sales pipeline and a better understanding of your target audience.
Note: Lead scoring is a way of ranking customers by their characteristics and client behaviors. Its goal is to help sales teams choose which deals to chase based on how likely they are to buy. Lead enrichment can improve the accuracy of your lead scoring system by adding deeper insights, so you have a fuller picture of each lead’s potential and urgency.
What types of lead enrichment data exist?
There are 10 main types of lead enrichment data. Each type helps at different parts of the sales cycle, from initial contact to cross-selling and upselling.
Here is a list of the 10 categories:
1. Contact data
Basic contact data is data your sales and marketing teams use to reach out to prospects.
Standard prospecting contact information includes:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Contact name | Personalizing your marketing campaign and rep outreach |
Job title and department | Ensures you connect with people who have decision-making authority |
Email address | Communicate with decision-makers directly and unguarded by a gatekeeper |
Telephone number | Allows you to build personal relationships with prospects and answer their questions in a two-way conversation |
Personal LinkedIn profile | Get to know a prospect’s background and interests to deepen your understanding of them |
You can get contact data from:
Your own internal sales and marketing spreadsheets
Profile information on LinkedIn and target company websites
Email verification and discovery tools like ZoomInfo
You can purchase accurate contact data from list brokers and owners as well as directly from Pipedrive’s Sales Prospector tool in the LeadBooster add-on.
Sales Prospector contains contact data from over 400 million high-quality lead profiles.
Contact data is the starting point of lead enrichment. You layer more information on top of it to create detailed, actionable prospect profiles.
2. Firmographic data
Use firmographic data to find out whether a company is a good match for your product or service.
Firmographic data you should prioritize collecting includes:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Employee count | Target companies that are the right size for your solution and that have the needs and resources to invest |
Annual revenue range | Identify prospects that can afford your solution, reducing the need to discount |
Industry type | Focus on industries where your solution fits best so you don’t waste time on unsuitable prospects |
Years in business | Indicates stability and credibility, useful for companies offering extended split payment terms |
Service area | Helps you focus on the areas where you can provide timely and cost-effective service |
This information is available from online business directors, data brokers/owners, company websites and LinkedIn company profiles. Other excellent sources include public filings, industry reports and sites like Crunchbase.
Accurate firmographic information makes it easier to see how close individual targets match your ideal customer profile.
3. Behavioral data
Behavioral data indicates a prospect’s interest levels by tracking their interactions with your business.
Useful behavioral data points include:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Email engagement | Tracks opens and click throughs from email marketing campaigns to see prospects already showing interest |
Website visitors | See which pages prospects spend time on so you know what they’re interested in |
Content downloads | White paper and product description downloads indicate areas of interest for more targeted follow-ups |
Form submissions | Shows a high level of interest and allows you to answer prospects’ pressing questions |
Quote request | Signals that a prospect might be ready to buy, meaning your reps should follow up straight away |
You can set up Google Analytics and CRMs like Pipedrive to monitor visitor behavior on your site and track your email campaigns.
Behavioral data highlights which prospects are the most engaged so your sales team can prioritize personalized follow-ups with the most interested leads.
4. Geographic data
Geographic data helps you understand where potential customers operate and identify local markets with a high demand for your products and services.
Important geographic data includes:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Country, region or city | Helps marketers customize messaging for different audiences and schedule convenient appointments for field sales reps |
ZIP code | Enables hyper-local targeting like location-based offers or local event promotions |
Headquarters location | Shows the location of company headquarters, helping focus marketing outreach on key stakeholders |
Branch locations | Identifies all locations a company operates in, uncovering additional sales opportunities |
Time zone | Allows marketing teams to time emails and calls effectively so contacts are available to respond |
You can obtain much of this information from prospects’ websites, local directories and third-party data providers.
Geographic data lets you tailor marketing campaigns to fit each area, focus on companies you’re best equipped to serve and allocate sales reps based on local demand.
5. Demographic data
Demographic data helps you understand the roles of individual decision-makers in purchasing and how much influence they have.
Common customer demographic data points include:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Seniority | Tailor your outreach so that you only market and pitch to decision-makers with budget and authority |
Department | Target campaigns and cold calls to the right teams, meaning you avoid departments that don’t need your solution |
Time in role/at company | Gauge a contact’s influence in decisions based on their experience and length of service within the company |
Professional interests | Identify topics they’re passionate about so you connect over shared professional priorities |
Previous roles | See a prospect’s career progression and use shared experiences to personalize your approach |
You can get this information from LinkedIn, company websites and professional data aggregation services like Zoominfo.
Demographic data allows sales and marketing teams to tailor their messaging to address each decision-maker’s unique challenges and responsibilities. The extra depth ensures that their outreach is both impactful and highly relevant.
6. Technographic data
Technographic data shows which technology, hardware and software individual prospects already use.
Important technographic touchpoints include:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Website platform | Knowing a prospect’s CMS or CDN means you’re prepared to address compatibility questions upfront |
Payment systems | Position your solution as an improvement offering better functionality or lower costs |
Social media presence | Knowing which networks decision-makers are active on lets you focus outreach where it’s most likely to be seen |
Tech stack | Show how your solution integrates with and adds to their existing hardware and software setup |
Communications tools | Demonstrate how your solution complements or improves their existing communication systems |
Useful sources of technographic data include lead enrichment tools provided by Coresignal, BuiltWith and Similartech. LinkedIn profiles and candidate requirements in job adverts can also tell you more about prospects’ tech stacks.
Technographic data helps your marketers and sales reps effectively present your solution to prospective clients, whether as an addition or replacement to their existing system.
7. Intent data
Intent data reveals when prospects are actively researching your products and services.
Effective data to spot these important buying signals includes:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Demo requests | Shows a high degree of interest, giving you a chance to highlight how your solution meets specific prospect use cases |
Free trial sign-ups | Signals serious intent, suggesting your solution may be on the final shortlist for in-depth review |
Product description downloads | Reveals which products or services interest a prospect, allowing for follow-up that addresses their likely needs |
Request for proposal (RFP) submissions | Demonstrates the client is at the formal evaluation stage so you can tailor your responses to meet their selection criteria |
Case study downloads | Suggests that the prospect values proven outcomes, indicating they might be at the decision-making stage |
You can glean intent information from an existing CRM system like Pipedrive, website analytics data and marketing automation platforms.
Intent data is valuable because it lets your reps focus on prospects near the point of purchase, boosting conversion rates and driving revenue growth.
8. Social media data
Social media content can reveal what matters to your audience. What prospects post online and how they react to your social media marketing campaigns help marketers and sales reps understand which topics are most important to them.
Important social insights you can include in lead enrichment are:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
LinkedIn updates | Stay updated on product launches or new hires so your outreach reflects important changes and emerging priorities |
X (formerly Twitter) posts | Spot which topics or hashtags spark engagement so you can focus your messaging on relevant and timely topics |
Customer reviews on Google or Facebook | Get a snapshot of current client pain points and challenges to position your solution as a direct remedy |
Social media posts | Monitor how decision-makers interact with their audience so you can match their tone in your outreach |
YouTube channel activity | Track recent prospect content like demos or testimonials to identify how your products/services could add value |
Social listening tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can integrate this information directly into your sales and marketing databases. You may also be able to build custom Zapier and API-based integrations to capture accurate data.
Social media data expresses your audience’s needs and preferences in their own words and actions, giving your outreach extra relevance that can drive engagement.
9. Transaction data
Transaction data shows your company’s and individual prospects’ financial and interaction history.
Useful transaction indicators include:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Previous purchases | Get an insight into buyer preferences and budgets to spot opportunities for upsells, cross-sells and new sales |
Subscription/renewal history | How often a prospect buys your product or service can highlight opportunities for complementary sales |
Payment patterns | Time your outreach to go in months when prospects are more likely to purchase |
Average deal size | Seeing the average, lower and upper transaction sizes helps gauge a prospect’s likely budget |
Service inquiries | Helpdesk tickets identify additional challenges prospects face that may signal upsell and cross-sell opportunities |
You can get this information from your accounting and software packages as well as your customer service team’s ticketing app.
Transaction data helps sales and marketing teams time their approaches more effectively and personalize offers based on prospects’ previous buying patterns.
10. Account data
Account data gives you a complete view of how different contacts at the same company are connected.
Important account data points include:
Data | Benefit of collecting |
Company hierarchy | Identify the power dynamics within a business to pinpoint the most influential figures across departments |
Parent and subsidiary relationships | Map connections between related firms to expand your outreach and unlock additional sales opportunities |
Departmental roles | Spot which departments are involved in purchasing decisions so you can tailor outreach to their specific needs |
Account structure | Get a clear view of each decision-maker’s role so you can focus your outreach on contacts with the authority to proceed |
Internal champions | Identify advocates likely to push for your solution and act as your champion when reps aren’t directly involved |
Sources for account data include your current CRM system, LinkedIn, third-party data brokers and data enrichment tools like Clearbit, Dealfront and Apollo.io. Your sales and marketing teams can also add insights from their prospect conversations.
Account data gives your team a comprehensive view of an organization’s structure. It allows them to target the most influential executives and tailor their pitches to decision-makers with the budget, authority and need.
Do small businesses need dedicated lead enrichment platforms?
Small companies can gather valuable data points using free and affordable tools like LinkedIn and Google Analytics.
You can use your current CRM, like Pipedrive, to expand your data. Enrichment tools like Pipedrive Sales Prospector can help you build more comprehensive prospect profiles from one centralized place.
The more relevant lead information in each prospect record, the better prepared your sales reps and marketers will be to engage prospects effectively.
How to automate lead enrichment in your CRM
Your CRM should be at the heart of your firm’s lead enrichment process. Establish it as the central source of truth for prospect information that your team members can update and access.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Get your data ready for Pipedrive
Gather all your existing contact information that’s stored in departmental spreadsheets and cloud apps like your email marketing platform.
Create custom fields within Pipedrive to hold your enriched contact data, such as their job title and LinkedIn profile and company data, such as the number of employees and annual revenues.
Here’s how you can do that in Pipedrive:
Go to Settings > Company > Data fields. Add new custom fields to categories such as Leads (Deals), People, Organizations, Products or Projects.
Then, choose a name for each field that is easy to identify, such as “Parent Company” under Organizations or “LinkedIn URL” under People.
Next, group your fields logically to make your database easier to organize.
For example, add “Parent Company” to a group like “Corporate structure” and “LinkedIn URL” to “Contact information”.
Last, add a description so your team members know what information needs to go in each field.
Make sure you standardize your data, for example:
Phone numbers follow the same pattern (including the international code)
Email addresses have an @ sign and a valid top-level domain (like .com or .org)
Company names should be consistent and avoid variations like “Ltd” and “Limited”
When you’ve done that, import your lead records into Pipedrive.
Click on ... (More) > Import data > From a spreadsheet. Select the file you intend to import. Pipedrive supports Excel (.xls and .xlsx) and .csv files.
Map each column in your spreadsheet to the correct field in Pipedrive. Pipedrive’s auto-recognition feature will handle most of the matching.
For fields Pipedrive doesn’t recognize, manually drag each column from your file to the corresponding field in Pipedrive. The screen looks like this:
When you’re done, Pipedrive will show you a preview of your database. If it’s correct, you can mark the task as done. You’re now able to access your data in Pipedrive.
If any items don’t match, Pipedrive holds them in a skip file. You’ll see each row it couldn’t match and why. Download the skip file, make the changes Pipedrive recommends and then upload it again.
2. Set up your data flows and workflow automations
You’ve now created a central source of truth for your company by uploading them to Pipedrive.
Next, add more custom fields to hold the extra information you want to capture for your lead enrichment drive.
Add even greater value to the data by using your CRM’s marketing automation functionalities. Here are some examples:
Trigger event | Enrichment and automation |
Prospect downloads a white paper from your website |
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Prospect, when logged in, visits key product/service pages |
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Inquiry received via Pipedrive Web Forms |
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Prospect uses Pipedrive Web Chat on your site |
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New media mentions detected by AlmaConnect News plug-in |
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Prospect posts on social media |
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Prospect registers for event/webinar |
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Prospect completes customer survey or feedback form |
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Pipedrive’s built-in functionality and extensive integrations keep your enriched data accurate so your sales and marketing teams can work from profiles containing valuable and actionable insights.
Automated workflows keep prospects moving through the lead funnel, helping you engage meaningfully with prospective customers when it counts.
3. Test and train
Test your systems and ready your team for the launch of your automated lead enrichment program.
Start by running small batches of leads through the enrichment process first, checking the following:
Are updates happening in real time?
Is all the data you want being added to each record?
How will you handle conflicts between data sources? For example, if one source lists a contact’s job title as “Marketing Manager” and another lists it as “Senior Marketing Specialist”.
Are the automations working as expected?
Assign one or two reps to use the system for a few weeks. Ask them which data points are most helpful for closing deals. Find out from your marketing team which information they find most effective for targeting, segmenting and lead conversion.
When you’re happy, roll out the system to the rest of your staff. Ensure you train them to use insights from enriched data in sales conversations and marketing outreach.
Ask your reps to manually add their observations from individual interactions to client histories. It will deepen the data quality and help them tailor their pitches the next time they speak with a prospect.
Check in with your reps and marketers regularly to determine if there are additional data points that could further enhance lead enrichment or improve targeting.
Your team’s initial and ongoing input will build buy-in to the system. By incorporating the data your reps and marketers find most valuable, they’ll feel invested in the project and be more likely to use the insights effectively to drive results.
3 steps to implementing a successful lead enrichment program
To ensure the ongoing success of your lead enrichment program, take these three steps:
1. Define your goals
Many sales teams waste hours each week researching basic company information and trying to reach the wrong contacts.
At the same time, marketing teams send out generic emails that get ignored.
Before launching your lead enrichment program, define goals like:
Reducing outbound telesales research time per prospect from 15 minutes to 2 minutes
Improving clickthrough rates from cold campaigns by 25%
Increasing sales rep deal-to-conversion ratios by 20%
Keep asking your team about which tasks waste most of their time and which specific information they’d find most valuable to have on prospects.
By setting clear, achievable goals, you’ll prioritize which enrichment data to collect first and ensure your sales and marketing teams have the data they need to improve their performance.
2. Validate your data and check for compliance
Not all data is good data. Data provider Datamatics says B2B data decays by 2.1% every month. In other words, over a quarter of your data will be inaccurate within a year.
Combat this by implementing basic verification steps, such as email validation and phone number verification. Also, remove phone numbers and email addresses that no longer work.
Document where everything comes from to ensure you only collect quality data and comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. Create a checklist for potential data sources that includes what data you’ve collected, when you verified it and how you obtained explicit consent.
3. Monitor your progress
Track the metrics that highlight how effective lead enrichment has been on your marketing and sales strategies.
Do this by:
Comparing conversion rates between enriched and non-enriched leads
Measuring time saved and productivity increases through automation
Monitoring marketing engagement rates to check how impactful campaign personalization and segmentation is
Checking that lead routing to reps who are subject matter specialists results in higher closing rates
Review your results regularly to understand the value lead enrichment has added to your business. Use these insights to refine your strategy for even greater impact.
Final thoughts
Lead enrichment transforms basic prospect contact details into rich sales intelligence that drives higher conversion and closure rates. Your company benefits from higher revenues, and your staff is more motivated as they know who to contact, what to say and when to get in touch.
Start by getting the essentials right – accurate contact details, company size and industry information.
Build automations into your CRM to support and simplify the sales process.
Then, add more details to Pipedrive to deepen your knowledge of decision-makers and target organizations.
Start your lead enrichment program with a 14-day free trial from Pipedrive.
