Executive Summary
LeadBridge, a sales intelligence company serving B2B software vendors, faced long prospect research cycles that slowed down their sales development reps (SDRs). On average, SDRs spent 18–20 minutes per prospect manually verifying emails, gathering job titles, and collecting company details. By adopting automated data enrichment workflows, LeadBridge cut research time by 52%—bringing it down to 9 minutes per prospect—and freed SDRs to spend more time on outreach and conversations.
Company Background
LeadBridge provides a prospecting platform designed to help SaaS sales teams identify and engage high-quality leads. With a team of 12 SDRs generating pipeline for account executives, efficiency in prospecting was crucial to hitting revenue targets.
The company relied heavily on cold outreach, but SDRs complained that prospect research consumed most of their day, leaving little time for personalized outreach.
The Challenge
Before automation, LeadBridge SDRs faced multiple roadblocks:
- Manual research: SDRs scoured LinkedIn, company websites, and databases to verify information.
- Low data accuracy: Outdated job titles and invalid emails created high bounce rates.
- Slow list building: Building a list of 100 targeted prospects could take several hours.
- Reduced outreach volume: Time spent researching cut into actual email sending and follow-up activity.
As a result, the team struggled to scale outreach while maintaining quality.
Objectives
LeadBridge set out to:
- Cut prospect research time by at least 40%.
- Improve data accuracy and reduce email bounce rates.
- Increase outreach capacity without expanding headcount.
Approach
The sales operations team rolled out a three-step strategy centered on automated data enrichment.
1) Integrated Data Providers
- Connected enrichment tools to their CRM to automatically pull verified emails, job titles, LinkedIn profiles, company size, industry, and funding data.
- Built workflows to update records every 30 days, reducing data decay.
2) Automated List Building
- Created smart filters to generate prospect lists by role, industry, geography, and tech stack.
- SDRs no longer had to manually build lists; they reviewed pre-filtered, enriched leads daily.
3) Real-Time Validation
- Implemented real-time email verification to flag invalid addresses before sequences were launched.
- Reduced bounce rates and protected domain reputation.
4) Training & Adoption
- Ran training sessions showing SDRs how to leverage enriched data for quick personalization.
- Replaced outdated manual research checklists with a streamlined 3-step workflow: review → personalize → send.
Implementation Timeline
- Weeks 1–2: Select enrichment providers, integrate with CRM, and run initial tests.
- Weeks 3–4: Deploy smart filters and automated list-building workflows.
- Weeks 5–6: Train SDRs, roll out real-time email validation, and monitor bounce rates.
- Weeks 7–8: Optimize filters and expand enrichment coverage to additional industries.
Results
Within two months, LeadBridge saw measurable improvements:
- Research Time: 18–20 mins → 9 mins per prospect (↓ 52%).
- Email Bounce Rate: 12% → 3% (↓ 75%).
- Outreach Volume: SDRs increased daily outreach capacity by 35%.
- Pipeline Impact: Monthly outbound-sourced opportunities grew by 41%.
What Changed in Practice
- SDRs stopped wasting time copying and pasting from LinkedIn profiles.
- Lists were cleaner, more targeted, and ready to go at the start of each day.
- Reps used saved time to focus on writing better personalization and follow-ups.
Lessons Learned
- Automation multiplies SDR capacity. Cutting time on repetitive tasks creates space for higher-value work.
- Data freshness matters. Scheduled enrichment prevented leads from going stale.
- Bounce rates kill deliverability. Real-time verification protected sender reputation.
- Training ensures adoption. Without clear workflows, SDRs fall back to old habits.
What’s Next
- Expanding enrichment to include buyer intent signals (content downloads, site visits).
- Testing AI-assisted personalization using enriched data points.
- Exploring enrichment for post-meeting account research to accelerate deal cycles.
Customer Voice
“Our SDRs were spending hours every day just making sure the data was right. Now, they can trust the lists and focus on conversations that actually move the needle. Research that used to take 20 minutes now takes less than 10.” — Sales Operations Manager, LeadBridge
Bottom line: By automating prospect research with data enrichment tools, LeadBridge cut research time in half, reduced bounce rates, and unlocked higher outbound productivity—proving that better data drives faster growth.