Sorting every new sign-up so sales calls the right people first

// 01 the business

Logistics software company

40 staff, selling to shippers and carriers

Webinars, trade shows and free-trial sign-ups bring in hundreds of contacts a month with only a name and an email. Marketing sends everyone the same emails. Sales complains about lead quality and cannot tell a large shipper from a student.

// 02 before

The problem

Sign-ups, webinar lists and event scans arrive with a name, an email and little else. Marketing cannot tell a large prospect from a student, so everyone gets the same emails. Sales complains the leads are poor, and nobody can say which ones were worth calling.

• -Most contacts have no company size, industry or role.
• -Everyone gets the same nurture emails.
• -Sales calls leads in the order they arrived, not by fit.

// 03 the build

What the AI does

How it was put together

• -Looked up company details for each new contact from enrichment providers and the company website.
• -Inferred the person's likely buying role from the job title.
• -Assigned segments and lifecycle stages using rules marketing and sales agreed together.
• -Added contacts to the right nurture list, and alerted sales in Slack for strong matches.

// 05 rollout

From kickoff to live in 3 weeks

1. Week 1Agree the ideal customer profile, segments and the definition of a sales-ready lead.
2. Week 2Enrich last quarter's contacts and check a sample by hand.
3. Week 3Switch on for new contacts and start the sales alerts.

// 06 after

What changes

Each contact gets messages that fit their business, and sales spends its calls on the people most likely to buy. Reports by segment become possible because the data is filled in consistently.

What to measure

• -Share of contacts with complete key fields.
• -Lead-to-meeting rate by segment.
• -Time from sign-up to first sales contact for strong matches.
• -Unsubscribe rate by nurture list.

// 07 evidence

What the research says

1. A survey of 4,050 sales professionals found the average seller spends about 40% of their time actually selling, and 51% of sales leaders using AI say disconnected systems are slowing their AI work.

   Salesforce, State of Sales report, 2026 edition (opens in a new tab) · 2026

2. Gartner research put the average cost of poor data quality at $12.9 million a year per organisation.

   Gartner, Data quality: why it matters and how to achieve it (opens in a new tab) · 2020

3. About 75% of generative AI's potential value sits in four areas: customer operations, marketing and sales, software engineering, and R&D.

   McKinsey & Company, The economic potential of generative AI: the next productivity frontier (opens in a new tab) · 2023

// 08 lessons

Mistakes to avoid

• -Enriching without a definition of a good lead. Agree it first.
• -Over-segmenting. Five segments beat twenty that nobody writes for.
• -Ignoring data protection. Know where enrichment data comes from.

// 09 questions

Common questions

Which enrichment tools do you use?

Often Apollo, Clay or similar, plus the company's own website. We choose based on your markets and privacy needs.

Will this work with a small list?

Yes. The rules are the same; the time saved simply grows with volume.