Study Reveals the 5 Best Waterfall Enrichment Tools for B2B

We’re not exactly philosophers, but we’ve got two nagging questions that we can’t shake off.

1. If 90% of B2B companies are using 2 or more enrichment tools, why are more than 60% of sales teams still struggling with contact data?
2. How can every enrichment tool claim they’ve got the best find rates? Surely, there can only be one top dog, right?

That’s why we put five of the leading waterfall enrichment tools to the test: Surfe, Enrow, Lemlist, Fullenrich, and BetterContact. Our goal? To see which tool could find the most accurate, professional email addresses from a list of contacts. We’ll compare the find rate of each tool as well as be transparent about how much it cost for us to enrich those contacts.

Attention: The information in the following study is 100% accurate and not manipulated in any way. Our team ran a list of 100 contacts through each of these tools. The results you see in this article are the find rates we found and how much it cost us.

Key highlights:

• What is a Waterfall Enrichment Tool?
• Which is the Best Waterfall Enrichment Tool?
  • Lemlist
  • Enrow
  • FullEnrich
  • BetterContact
  • Surfe

What is a Waterfall Enrichment Tool?

A waterfall enrichment tool is a new type of tool that streamlines the process of finding and verifying email addresses. Unlike traditional email finders that might rely on a single database or source, waterfall tools use a multi-tiered approach to data verification. They systematically search through multiple databases, moving from one to the next—like water cascading down a series of steps—until they find a match or exhaust all options.

Waterfall enrichment tools typically involve several key components:

1. Sequential data access: This is a fancy way of saying they begin with the most likely source to find the info you’re looking for. This is often based on the region, industry, or account segment of the contacts in your search. For example, if you’re searching for the email address of a contact in the US, it would make sense to first check the database that specializes in this market.
2. Multiple databases: Since they’re searching various databases, it enhances the likelihood of finding accurate and verified contact information. Searching 4 databases will always be more successful than just searching one.
3. Validation checks: After finding a potential email address, the tool checks its validity to ensure it’s active and capable of receiving messages. This is basically to make sure the email addresses they’re providing are accurate and you send emails that bounce or land in the spam.

What sets waterfall tools apart from regular email finders is their comprehensive approach to data accuracy. Regular tools might stop after the first successful search, potentially settling for outdated or incorrect information. Waterfall tools, however, verify each find through multiple checkpoints, significantly increasing the reliability of the data collected.

Why Waterfall Enrichment Tools Surpass Regular Email Finders

Every lead and every minute counts. BDRs have their hands tied. They don’t have a choice. They must continuously evolve, improve, and become more efficient to secure deals and meet targets.

When every second counts, SDRs and BDRs simply cannot afford to spend hours every week looking for contact details. In fact, Salesforce recently found that sales reps only spend 28% of their time actually selling – the rest is spent on admin work (crazy, right?). So really, they can’t afford to waste any time at all.

Here’s why switching to a waterfall approach can be a game-changer for sales teams:

Efficiency in Data Handling

Regular email finders often operate on a simpler, sometimes linear search process that may require manual intervention to switch sources or verify data. Waterfall enrichment tools, on the other hand, automate this process by sequentially accessing multiple databases. So no more tab-switching, uploading and exporting lists, no manual data entry into your CRM.

Comprehensive Data Coverage Increases Success Rate

One of the biggest challenges with regular email finders is the reliability of the data they provide. Frankly, they’re poor. Waterfall tools enhance this aspect by:

• Validating every email address and ensuring the data is not only current but also that those inboxes are being actively checked – meaning your lead’s eyeballs will definitely fall on your email.
• Reducing the impact of data decay on your CRM. Regular tools might pull outdated or incorrect emails, leading to high bounce rates and potentially damaging sender reputations. But they’ll also just stuff your data with useless data that is a pain to clean and results, ultimately, in lower revenue.

Cost-Effectiveness

Using multiple tools or subscriptions to achieve what a single waterfall tool offers can be both costly and cumbersome. Why subscribe to two, three, four, or even more tools (plus a validation tool), when you can just have one subscription to a waterfall enrichment tool? There are of course even further benefits to reducing the tech stack, but cost is an obvious one.

Which waterfall enrichment tool is the best?

So, waterfall enrichment tools are the way forward, but how do you choose which waterfall enrichment tool is the best?

We’ve exclusively tested 5 of the best waterfall enrichment tools on the market to precisely answer this question.

Each of the five competing tools—Surfe, Enrow, Lemlist, Fullenrich, and BetterContact—was given the same list of 100 contacts drawn from diverse industries and roles to ensure a comprehensive evaluation across different sectors. The aim was to observe not only the success rate of each tool in finding accurate email addresses but also to evaluate the efficiency and reliability of each service in real-world scenarios.

The contacts were processed through each tool under the same conditions without any manual interference, allowing for a fair and controlled comparison of the results.

Here is what we found:

1. Lemlist

Lemlist isn’t a tool for finding email addresses – it’s also a platform that allows users to personalize and automate their outreach campaigns. One of Lemlist’s most distinctive features is its ability to embed personalized images and videos within emails, which can significantly increase engagement rates and help establish a more personal connection with recipients.

They also have built-in A/B testing functionality, which enables users to experiment with different email templates and subject lines. Lemlist’s analytics help users track everything, allowing for meticulous monitoring and tweaking of email strategies based on comprehensive data insights.

Performance in the Study

In our study, Lemlist achieved an 88% find rate for valid, professional email addresses, making it a highly effective tool for sales teams looking to enhance their lead generation efforts.

Cost-Effectiveness

Priced at just €6 for the scope of our test, Lemlist provides an affordable solution for businesses of all sizes. Considering the advanced features and the high level of personalization it offers, Lemlist presents significant value for money, especially for sales and marketing teams focused on crafting tailored and impactful email outreach campaigns. At just €6 to find 100 email addresses, Lemlist was the cheapest tool we tested.

2. Enrow

Enrow positions itself as a robust player in the email enrichment and stands out by only charging its users for emails it successfully finds. Most waterfall enrichment tools will charge you 100 credits when you search for 100 email addresses, no matter what the find rate is. Enrow only charges for the emails it finds.

Performance in the Study

For our search, Enrow achieved a find rate of 74% for valid, professional email addresses. While this rate is lower compared to some competitors, it is important to consider that it’s still a much better result than you would usually find with a single tool.

Cost-Effectiveness

At a cost of $29 for 100 contacts, Enrow’s pricing is mid to high-range. It’s certainly not the cheapest, but there are more expensive tools out there.

3. FullEnrich

FullEnrich excels not only as a comprehensive enrichment tool but also offers the unique capability to export lists directly from LinkedIn searches, streamlining the integration of social data into business workflows.

Performance in the Study

FullEnrich recorded a high find rate of 90% for valid, professional email addresses. 90% is a high find rate by any standards and is achieved thanks to the enrichment databases they’re connected to: Apollo, Clearbit, Snov, and Hunter to name a few.

Cost-Effectiveness

At €29 for the test involving 100 contacts, FullEnrich sits between mid and high-end. While this price point is on the higher side, the additional features and the comprehensive nature of the data provided offer significant value, particularly for enterprises and mid-sized businesses that require deep insights into their contacts to tailor their engagement strategies effectively.

4. BetterContact

BetterContact stands out from the other tools in this study by positioning itself as AI powered. Depending on factors like industry and geography, BetterContact decides which database is best to search first. They also only charge for emails that are found.

What’s more, they combine the power of more than 20 data sources. There are other tools that do this, but they usually come with a smaller amount by default, with the option to add others via API. BetterContact offers you full access to them all without the need for AI.

Performance in the Study

In our study, BetterContact achieved a find rate of 73% for valid, professional email addresses. This was the lowest performing tool in the study. It’s not clear what resulted in the lower find rate and results may vary across searches. The email addresses we searched for in this study covered a variety of roles, industries, and geographies to fairly compare the tools, but your results may vary and BetterContact could perform better for your industry or geography.

Cost-Effectiveness

BetterContact has a budget plan at $15, but it only offers 200 contacts. If you’re only looking to enrich a small number of contacts, this plan could be for you.

5. Surfe

Surfe stands out from the crowd by bringing its waterfall enrichment tool to where your sales happens, wherever that may be.

With Surfe, you can find the contact information of individual contacts directly from their LinkedIn profiles. Surfe embeds its search tool into LinkedIn profiles, runs those contacts through their waterfall tool, and then adds the contact information to your CRM.

If finding the email address for a contact in one click is not quick enough for you, Surfe also allows you to find email addresses in bulk. It does this in 2 ways:

1. Enrich the contact information of your Sales Navigator lead lists. Open your lead list, select all the contacts, click ‘Export to CRM’, and all those contacts will be processed by the waterfall enrichment tool and added to the CRM.
2. Lighthouse by Surfe is a new product that allows you to upload a spreadsheet of contacts and then enriches it with contact information. It’s the fastest way to enrich hundreds or thousands of contacts with accurate, reliable contact data.

Surfe’s main offering comes from its Chrome extension that connects your CRM to LinkedIn. You can integrate Pipedrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, Copper, or Google Sheets with your CRM so that you can easily sync contact data between the two. It means you can add LinkedIn contacts to your CRM in one-click, manage and edit deals on LinkedIn, sync InMails with your CRM, and much more.

Performance in the Study

In our study, Surfe came out on top with a find rate of 95%. So how did Surfe get such a high find rate compared to the other tools? Well, Surfe aren’t just throwing together a few databases and then making a search. They’ve carefully researched and then built partnerships with these providers to ensure we are integrated with only the best. Thanks to this, you automatically have access to the databases of Apollo, RocketReach, Dropcontact, and Hunter in your Surfe plan. You can also add your favorite enrichment tools by API – including ZoomInfo, Kaspr, Cognism, Lusha, and many more.

Cost-Effectiveness

At a cost of €13.3 for processing 100 contacts, Surfe came in 2nd in terms of price. This price point, combined with its high find rate and robust feature set, positions Surfe as the most cost-effective solution for businesses looking to enhance their email outreach strategies without incurring excessive costs.

Which is the Best Waterfall Enrichment Tool?

When selecting the best waterfall enrichment tool for your business, it’s crucial to weigh factors such as accuracy, integration capabilities, cost, and additional features that aid sales workflows. Each tool we examined — Surfe, Enrow, Lemlist, Fullenrich, and BetterContact — presented unique strengths, but our comprehensive study revealed a clear frontrunner.

Surfe distinguished itself as the leading choice for businesses seeking to maximize their email outreach efficiency. With a stellar 95% find rate, Surfe not only surpassed its competitors in accuracy but also provided exceptional value at €13.3 for 100 contacts. It had the highest find rate at the 2nd lowest price – not much more needs to be said.

But beyond find rates and cost-effectiveness, Surfe’s integration with LinkedIn makes it especially valuable for sales teams. This feature allows users to manage CRM contacts and deals directly from LinkedIn, streamlining operations and ensuring that CRM data is consistently updated and accurate.

Given its superior performance, reasonable cost, and advanced features that simplify the sales process, Surfe is the optimal choice for companies looking to enhance their email strategies. Investing in Surfe means investing in a tool that offers more than just email finding; it’s a comprehensive solution that equips sales teams to improve engagement, boost conversion rates, and achieve better sales results overall.

Let’s wrap it up!

By now, you should know everything there is to know about waterfall enrichment tools. Unlike traditional methods that rely on a single data source, waterfall enrichment tools use a cascading approach, checking multiple databases sequentially to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data collected.

We set up a fair study to compare five leading tools in this category: Surfe, Enrow, Lemlist, Fullenrich, and BetterContact. We tested each tool by running the same set of 100 contacts through them under identical conditions, focusing on both the find rate and the cost-effectiveness of each service.

The results were clear: Surfe emerged as the top performer. With a remarkable 95% find rate at a cost of €13.3 for 100 contacts, Surfe found valid, professional email addresses but also demonstrated cost-effectiveness.

This particular waterfall enrichment tool also has an integration with LinkedIn and its capability to manage CRM data directly from the platform significantly streamline the sales processes.

By choosing Surfe, businesses equip their sales teams with a powerful tool that maximizes productivity, minimizes data inaccuracies, and ultimately drives better engagement and conversion rates.

Waterfall Enrichment Tool FAQs

What specific features does Surfe offer to manage CRM data directly from LinkedIn?

Surfe enhances CRM management directly from LinkedIn with features that streamline contact handling and data accuracy. Once integrated, Surfe enables users to:

• Add Contacts to CRM: Users can add LinkedIn contacts to their CRM with a single click directly from their LinkedIn profiles.
• Update CRM Records: Surfe detects changes in a contact’s profile, such as job moves or new roles, and updates this information in the CRM automatically.
• Sync Conversations: Any interactions or messages exchanged on LinkedIn can be synchronized to the CRM, ensuring that all communication logs are up-to-date and easily accessible.
• Find email addresses and phone numbers: Surfe’s intelligent waterfall enrichment tool provides access to the best databases globally, searching them one-by-one until they find the details you’re looking for.

How does Surfe ensure the validity of email addresses it finds?

Every time Surfe finds an email address, it runs the contact data through ZeroBounce to check for validity. This ensures that the target inbox is not only valid, but also being actively checked. As such, you can be sure that your lead’s eye’s will fall upon your email, giving you the highest chance of conversion.

Can Surfe integrate with CRMs other than those mentioned, like Zoho or Microsoft Dynamics?

Yes, Surfe offers flexible integration options. While it directly supports major CRMs like Salesforce, Pipedrive, and HubSpot, Surfe can also connect with other CRM systems such as Zoho or Microsoft Dynamics via Google Sheets. Users can link Surfe to a Google Sheet, and then set up a Zapier automation to transfer the data from Google Sheets to any CRM. This setup provides a versatile pathway to accommodate various CRM platforms.

Are there any scalability options for Surfe as business needs grow?

Surfe is built to scale with your business needs. For large-scale operations, Lighthouse by Surfe allows users to upload and enrich contact lists that can range from hundreds to thousands. This capability ensures that as your business grows and the volume of your outreach expands, Surfe can handle the increased demand efficiently.

What measures does Surfe take to comply with data protection regulations like GDPR?

Surfe takes data security and compliance very seriously, adhering to strict protocols to ensure alignment with GDPR and other privacy laws. They are ISO27001 certified and GDPR compliant. Detailed information on Surfe’s security measures and compliance can be found on their security page: Surfe Security. This includes data encryption, regular security audits, and ensuring that all data handling practices meet legal requirements.

Does Surfe offer any trial period or free version for first-time users?

Surfe encourages new users to experience their platform firsthand without immediate commitment by offering a two-week free trial. Additionally, Surfe provides a free plan that includes limited daily and monthly enrichments, catering to users who have minimal requirements or who wish to test the service further before opting for a paid subscription.