sales-enrich

What this skill does

# Enrich Contacts & Clean CRM Data

Help the user enrich contacts and companies with verified data, clean stale CRM records, and optimize their enrichment workflow. This skill is platform-agnostic but references Apollo.io as the primary tool. The same strategies apply to ZoomInfo, Clay, Lusha, Cognism, or any enrichment provider.

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What do you need to do?**
   - A) Enrich a list of contacts with emails/phones
   - B) Enrich company/account records with firmographic data
   - C) Clean up stale or incomplete CRM data
   - D) Set up ongoing auto-enrichment
   - E) Deduplicate contacts or accounts
   - F) Verify existing email addresses before a campaign
   - G) Other — describe it

2. **How many records are involved?**
   - A) Under 100 (manual/one-time)
   - B) 100-1,000 (batch job)
   - C) 1,000-10,000 (bulk operation)
   - D) 10,000+ (large-scale cleanup)
   - E) Ongoing (continuous enrichment of new records)

3. **What enrichment tool(s) do you have?**
   - A) Apollo.io
   - B) ZoomInfo
   - C) Clay
   - D) Lusha / Cognism
   - E) Clearbit / Breeze
   - F) Multiple providers (waterfall)
   - G) None yet — recommend one

4. **What data do you need?**
   - A) Email addresses (verified/deliverable)
   - B) Phone numbers (direct/mobile)
   - C) Both email and phone
   - D) Firmographic data (company size, revenue, industry, tech stack)
   - E) All of the above

## Step 2 — Enrichment strategy

Choose the right approach based on volume and frequency:

### Single-record enrichment
- **When**: Researching a specific prospect, manual prospecting
- **How**: Look up individual records in your enrichment tool or via API
- **Credit cost**: 1 credit per person (email), more for phone numbers
- **Best for**: High-value ABM targets, executive-level contacts

### Batch enrichment
- **When**: Enriching a list before launching a campaign
- **How**: Upload CSV or select records in-platform for bulk enrichment
- **Credit cost**: 1 credit per record enriched (plan carefully)
- **Best for**: Campaign prep, list cleaning before outreach

### Auto-enrichment
- **When**: Keeping CRM data fresh continuously
- **How**: Set up rules to enrich new records on creation or on a schedule
- **Credit cost**: Ongoing — budget credits monthly
- **Best for**: Teams with steady lead flow who need data quality without manual effort

### Waterfall enrichment
- **When**: Single provider doesn't have enough coverage
- **How**: Try Provider A first → if no result, try Provider B → then Provider C
- **Credit cost**: Only pay for successful enrichments at each level
- **Best for**: Maximizing coverage when targeting niche personas or international contacts
- **Key waterfall providers**:

| Provider | Strength | Coverage |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Clay | Purpose-built waterfall across 150+ providers | Broadest — aggregates multiple sources |
| Apollo | Email + phone enrichment (waterfall in beta) | 275M+ contacts |
| ZoomInfo | Enterprise-grade firmographic + contact | 321M+ contacts |
| Seamless.AI | Real-time verified emails + mobiles | 1.8B+ emails, 414M+ mobiles |
| Cognism | EMEA/international mobile numbers | Strong EU coverage |
| Lusha | Quick email + direct dial lookup | 100M+ contacts |
| Hunter.io | Domain search + email finder + verifier | Email-focused, bulk operations |
| Tomba | Domain search + email finder + bulk enrichment | 430M+ indexed emails |
| Prospeo | 5-step email verification + company enrichment | 280M+ leads |
| Snov.io | Email finder + verifier + campaigns | 600M+ contacts |

For detailed per-provider workflows, API endpoints, and credit economics, see `references/platforms.md`

## Step 3 — Execute the enrichment

### Pre-enrichment checklist
- [ ] **Deduplicate first**: Remove duplicate records before enriching — don't pay to enrich the same person twice
- [ ] **Filter to qualified records only**: Don't enrich contacts you'll never reach out to
- [ ] **Check existing data**: Skip records that already have verified emails/phones
- [ ] **Estimate credit cost**: Records × credit cost per record. Stay within budget.
- [ ] **Set enrichment scope**: Choose which fields to enrich (email only is cheaper than email + phone + firmographic)

For platform-specific enrichment workflows, API endpoints, credit economics, and bulk operation instructions, see `references/platforms.md`.

### Compliance checklist

Before enriching and contacting, verify compliance with data privacy regulations in your target regions:

**EU contacts (GDPR)**:
- [ ] You have a **lawful basis** for processing (legitimate interest for B2B outreach is common, but document it)
- [ ] Your enrichment provider has a GDPR-compliant data sourcing policy (check their DPA)
- [ ] You can honor **right to erasure** requests — if someone asks to be deleted, you can remove them from all systems
- [ ] Your outreach includes a clear way to opt out
- [ ] You're not enriching personal data beyond what's necessary (data minimization principle)

**US contacts (CAN-SPAM)**:
- [ ] Every email includes a **physical mailing address**
- [ ] Every email includes a working **unsubscribe link**
- [ ] Unsubscribe requests are honored within **10 business days**
- [ ] Subject lines are not deceptive
- [ ] The email is identified as an advertisement (if applicable)

**California contacts (CCPA/CPRA)**:
- [ ] You provide a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" option if applicable
- [ ] You can disclose what personal data you've collected if a consumer requests it
- [ ] Your enrichment vendor's data collection practices comply with CCPA

**General rules**:
- If someone unsubscribes, suppress them globally — don't re-enrich and re-add them next month
- If you're enriching contacts in bulk, check regional distribution first and apply the strictest relevant regulation
- Keep a log of where enriched data came from (which provider, when) for audit purposes

### Data quality scoring

After enrichment, score your data quality:

| Field | Quality level | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Email verified + deliverable | High | Ready for outreach |
| Email found but unverified | Medium | Run through verification tool (NeverBounce, ZeroBounce) before sending |
| Email not found | Low | Try alternate enrichment provider or find via LinkedIn/company website |
| Phone — direct/mobile | High | Ready for calling |
| Phone — HQ/switchboard | Low | Not useful for cold calling — try to find direct line |

## Step 4 — CRM data hygiene

For stale data identification, deduplication strategy, enrichment schedules, and ongoing data quality automation, use `/sales-data-hygiene`. That skill covers record matching, merge rules, audit trails, and refresh cadences in detail.

**Key rule**: Always deduplicate before enriching — don't pay to enrich the same person twice.

## Step 5 — Credit optimization

### Credit-saving strategies

- **Enrich only qualified records**: Apply ICP filters before enriching — don't waste credits on bad-fit contacts
- **Check existing data first**: Skip records that already have the data you need
- **Prioritize email over phone**: Email credits are typically cheaper. Only reveal phone numbers for contacts you'll actually call.
- **Use waterfall strategically**: Start with the cheapest provider, escalate to premium for high-value targets
- **Batch over real-time**: Bulk enrichment is often more credit-efficient than one-at-a-time
- **Monitor usage weekly**: Set up alerts when you hit 80% of monthly credit budget

For platform-specific credit economics, see the relevant platform skill (`/sales-apollo`, `/sales-zoominfo`, `/sales-clay`, etc.) or `references/platforms.md`.

## Gotchas

- **Don't enrich before deduplicating.** Claude often recommends "enrich everything, then clean up." This wastes credits on duplicate records. Always dedup first, then enrich the clean list.
- **Don't assume enriched emails are de