Struggling to find the one when it comes to data providers?
Looking for someone with… a big network? You’re in the right place.
You’ve got goals to hit, and sure - some say you’re picky.
But really?
You just want a data partner who gets you. Someone who comes prepared with a full contact list, understands your ideal type, and doesn’t disappear when it’s time to deliver pipeline.
This playbook will help you find a match that brings both volume and value—not just vanity metrics.
Because let’s be honest: buying a big list without a strategy is like dating someone just because they look good on Instagram.
It’s what’s inside that counts 👀 (think: bounce rates, match quality, data recency…).
Quantity in data is about finding the right fit at scale.
Data volume is the foundation of any scalable go-to-market motion. If you don’t have enough records in your CRM that match your ideal customer profile (ICP), your campaigns will stall before they start.
This becomes especially critical when:
Jeff Ignacio, Head of GTM Operations at Keystone AI said:
"If your database doesn’t reflect your ICP, you’re not just missing opportunities - you’re handing them to competitors."
But here’s the catch: volume without strategy leads to noise. You want to scale precision, not just numbers.
How much data is enough?
It depends on your TAM and funnel model. But if you’re consistently struggling to hit volume goals, start by mapping your ICP coverage. Most vendors can help with this as part of a sample test.
What if I already have a provider?
If you’re happy with data quality but struggling on scale, consider layering a second provider focused on volume. Just make sure you have deduplication rules in place.
Should I choose a global provider or regional specialists?
For pure volume, global databases offer scale - but regional providers often outperform in specific markets (e.g. Germany, Benelux). If you’re targeting multiple regions, a hybrid approach may be best.
While this guide focuses on volume, you still need to keep quality in the picture. Here’s how volume-first stacks up:
Antoine Cornet, Cognism’s Head of Revenue Operations, said:
“We always check: is Sales asking for volume, or are they just asking for better contacts? Sometimes what sounds like a quantity issue is really a quality issue.”
In a volume-driven evaluation, your job is to build scale without trashing your database. These are the metrics that should drive your evaluation:
Run some blind dates with data, testing it out before you commit!
When you’re evaluating a data provider based on volume, your priority isn’t verifying what you already have - it’s discovering how well they can fill the gaps. That’s where unknown data testing becomes your most important tool.
Unknown data testing is when you ask a vendor to deliver a sample of net-new contacts that match your ideal customer profile (ICP) - contacts you don’t already have in your CRM. This test helps you evaluate:
Unlike known data testing (where you enrich a list of verified contacts from your CRM to check accuracy), unknown testing gives you a real-world preview of how usable and scalable the vendor’s data actually is.
Jeff said:
"Unknown testing is your stress test. It’s the best way to find out if a vendor can really power your next campaign - or if they’re just good on paper."
Here’s how to get the most value from an unknown data test:
Adam Thompson, Cognism’s CPO, said:
"The best unknown tests tell you not just if the vendor has data, but whether they have the right data for your GTM engine."
📌 Bonus Tip:
Compare unknown to your ICP heatmap. If you’ve mapped out your total addressable market (TAM) or ICP coverage by region and persona, overlay the vendor’s sample onto that.
Ask:
By running structured unknown data testing, you move beyond marketing promises and uncover the vendor’s true capacity to drive top-of-funnel growth.
It’s the single best way to avoid being underwhelmed after the contract is signed.
When evaluating for volume, raw contact numbers are meaningless unless those contacts are complete and usable.
That’s where fill rate and deliverability come in.
Fill rate refers to how many key data fields are actually populated for each record - especially the ones your teams rely on most, like verified email addresses and mobile phone numbers.
Without these, the record is just noise in your CRM.
Here’s what to aim for:
Deliverability, meanwhile, determines whether that contact info actually works. A high fill rate is irrelevant if half the emails bounce.
What to test:
Antoine said:
"We don’t just look at what’s filled in - we look at how many records are truly ready to use. Fill rate tells you what’s there. Deliverability tells you what works."
And don’t forget recency. Ask vendors:
Stale data means high bounce rates and wasted outreach, especially if the vendor isn’t flagging old records or detecting changes in job titles.
Adam said:
“About a third of your data will go bad every year. If a buying committee has eight people, you’re probably targeting two or three that are no longer relevant within 12 months.”
When you’re evaluating a vendor for data volume, it’s easy to be impressed by the size of their overall database.
But here’s the catch:
Total contact count doesn’t mean total coverage for you. Especially if your GTM motion is global or persona-specific.
Not all data providers are built the same when it comes to regional depth or job function accuracy. Many will perform well in high-volume markets like the US or UK, but fall short in places like the DACH region, France, or Southeast Asia - where data collection, privacy laws, and language barriers create friction.
Adam said:
“Europe is not one thing. Even amongst the EU, data collection and compliance laws are unique from country to country.”
And even within a market, some vendors might crush it for Sales and Marketing personas but lack depth in Product, Engineering, or Finance roles - often due to how they source their data (e.g., LinkedIn scraping, technographic signals, publisher partnerships).
Sales and marketing personas are often overrepresented in vendor datasets because they’re easier to track.
But for more niche or less externally visible roles (like Procurement, Legal, or Product Ops), coverage can be surprisingly thin.
If you’re running ABM campaigns or targeting a full buying committee, this can be a huge blocker.
Jeff said:
“Don’t wait until after you buy to realise the vendor can’t deliver for half your personas. Always test by job function, not just region.”
Let’s put this into practice with an example use case.
Imagine you’re a RevOps leader at a growth-stage SaaS company, and your outbound sales and demand gen teams are gearing up to expand across Europe.
Your executive team has tasked you with increasing CRM coverage and lead volume for the UK and DACH regions to fuel Q3 pipeline targets.
Your ICP looks like this:
You’re evaluating three data vendors to see who can best deliver high-volume, usable, and relevant net-new contacts for this segment.
Provide each vendor with a written request that includes:
This gives each vendor the same conditions and lets you run a controlled side-by-side comparison.
Once you get the sample data from each provider, do a quick check for:
Bonus tip:
Have your sales team skim a portion of each list and flag any records that look like noise - this qualitative feedback is often just as telling as the metrics.
Here’s what to measure once you’ve received the sample data:
Adam said:
"You’d be surprised how many vendors will hand you old job data. Always ask for the ‘last updated’ field - or check a few manually on LinkedIn."
Build a simple comparison table that looks something like this:
|
Metric |
Vendor A |
Vendor B |
Vendor C |
|
Sample size provided |
1,000 |
1,000 |
1,000 |
|
Fill rate (email + mobile) |
72% |
65% |
80% |
|
Bounce rate (email test) |
3.5% |
7.2% |
2.1% |
|
Mobile coverage |
68% |
52% |
77% |
|
ICP match score (manual review) |
High |
Medium |
High |
|
Last verified/updated field |
✅ |
❌ |
✅ |
|
Regional accuracy (UK + DACH) |
95% |
78% |
98% |
This visual approach makes it easier to align with stakeholders and clearly see which vendor is the best fit - not just in theory, but in actual usability and relevance.
Use this checklist in your vendor interviews:
When you’re selecting a data provider based on their ability to deliver high-volume, usable contact records, your vendor interviews need to go beyond the standard sales pitch.
You want to ask questions that help you uncover how scalable, reliable, and targeted their data really is - before you commit.
Use this list of volume-focused questions to guide your conversations. These aren’t just checkboxes - they’re designed to reveal limitations, gaps, and the vendor’s true operational strength.
High-volume vendors often tout the size of their database, but that number is meaningless if a significant portion is outdated.
Data decays fast - titles change, people leave roles, and contact details become invalid.
Aim for: At least 30–50% of their database refreshed in the past 6 months.
You’re not just buying a database - you’re trying to reach specific people in specific places doing specific jobs.
If a vendor can’t slice their dataset by these dimensions, they likely can’t support your GTM strategy at scale.
Pro tip:
Ask for a CSV export of these breakdowns to cross-reference against your ICP map.
Your volume needs are ongoing, not a one-and-done upload. This question checks the sustainability of the vendor’s data pipeline.
Jeff said:
"We’re not just testing what you can give us now. We’re testing what you can give us every month for the next year."
A vendor that can deliver 10,000 leads but with a 15% bounce rate isn’t delivering value.
High bounce = wasted budget, hurt deliverability, and lost credibility with Sales.
Target: Consistent bounce rates under 5% and under 3% for high-performing vendors.
Many vendors promote flexibility but hide usage limits behind complex pricing models.
This question uncovers friction that might block scale.
Be wary of plans where you “run out of credits” too quickly or can’t export data freely.
This reveals how well the vendor integrates into your workflow.
If you need real-time enrichment (e.g., as new leads enter your funnel), batch-only processes may slow you down.
Ideal vendors allow auto-enrichment at the point of entry, reducing manual effort and improving time-to-lead.
Volume-focused buying can be dangerous when short-term goals override long-term quality.
Watch out for:
Adam said:
“Anyone can give you 10,000 contacts. But if 2,000 bounce, 3,000 don’t match your ICP, and 2,000 are missing fields, you’re not buying data - you’re buying cleanup work.”
Buying a high-volume data solution is only the beginning.
Real success comes when your contact volume directly supports pipeline generation, drives conversion, and actually gets used by your GTM teams.
Here’s how to know your volume-first strategy is paying off:
One of the clearest indicators of success is how quickly your database grows in meaningful ways.
It’s not just about total records - it’s about how much of your target market is now reachable.
High bounce rates kill email deliverability, credibility, and SDR morale. If you’re buying in volume, keeping bounce under control is essential.
Adam said:
“Bounce rate is the canary in the coal mine. If it spikes, it’s a sign something’s off in your sourcing or recency.”
In a high-volume motion - especially one driven by SDRs or BDRs - mobile numbers are gold.
If most of your records are email-only, your dial-to-connect ratio will suffer, and so will productivity.
This is where quality and scale intersect.
You might start with a higher cost per usable contact if you’re testing multiple vendors, but over time, that number should go down, not up.
Pro tip:
Include internal time costs in your calculation. If you’re spending hours cleaning up bad data, your cost per contact is higher than it looks.
It’s not a success if the data sits unused.
One of the most telling success indicators? Your GTM teams trust and rely on the data you’re buying.
Jeff said:
“We see success when Sales stops asking, ‘Where did this lead come from?’ and starts saying, ‘Send me more like this.’”
To maintain momentum (and secure budget for renewals), track these core KPIs monthly or quarterly:
|
Metric |
Why It Matters |
|
Match Rate by ICP Segment |
Shows how well your vendor supports your GTM focus |
|
Deliverability (Email & Phone) |
Core usability metric—bounce/connect = trust |
|
Conversion Rates |
Lead → MQL → Opportunity → Closed-won |
|
Outreach Productivity |
Connect rate, reply rate, meeting booked rate |
|
Cost per Usable Contact |
Efficiency of your data investment |
|
CRM Fill Rate |
Measures how enriched and complete your data is |
You can also pull in qualitative feedback:
If you’re shopping for data to scale fast:
With the right approach, you can transform a shallow CRM into a well-segmented, high-performing database that powers outbound success.