What Is Waterfall Enrichment: B2B Email & Phone Search

TL;DR:

Manual data hunting costs your sales team valuable time. Waterfall enrichment is the solution, and Surfe delivers it. With 93+% accuracy, Surfe pulls data from multiple sources to get you verified emails and phone numbers, syncing them straight into your CRM without the back-and-forth. Stop wasting time on bad data and start closing more deals faster. Start your 14-day free trial.

The Pain of Bad Data in Sales

Every sales team has experienced it: inaccurate or outdated contact data. You spend hours searching, guessing emails, or scraping LinkedIn, just to end up with dead leads or bounced emails. It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and hurts your pipeline. You know you need better data, but relying on outdated methods or single-source tools only digs the hole deeper.

Enter waterfall enrichment – the game changer for sales teams that need high-quality, verified contact data without the endless research. By pulling from multiple sources in a prioritized sequence, waterfall enrichment ensures you don’t waste time with incomplete or inaccurate data.

But here’s the catch: Not all enrichment tools are created equal.

What Is Waterfall Enrichment?

Waterfall enrichment is an advanced approach to data enrichment that takes your contact data through multiple layers of data providers in a prioritized sequence. Instead of relying on just one provider for all your information, waterfall enrichment checks multiple sources, ensuring that the data you receive is more complete, accurate, and verified. Here’s how it works:

• Sequential Search: The tool begins with the most likely, high-quality data provider and checks for the needed information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or job titles.

• Multiple Databases: If the first source doesn’t have the required data, the next provider in the sequence is queried, ensuring a broader search and higher match rate.

• Validation: Each piece of data found is then validated – making sure the information is not only accurate but also deliverable (e.g., the email address is active and not likely to bounce).

This approach is superior to traditional enrichment tools that rely on one data provider, which can result in incomplete data. Waterfall enrichment gives you better, more reliable data by leveraging multiple sources in one automated process.

The Cost of Not Using Waterfall Enrichment

Without waterfall enrichment, your sales team is stuck in the Great Data Hunt – a time-sucking cycle of searching, guessing, and hoping for the best. It’s like chasing a moving target while blindfolded, and it’s costing you more than just hours.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Manual Research: Reps spend 12+ hours/week searching LinkedIn, trying to verify job titles and check if prospects are even at the company anymore.

  • Cost: Based on average sales rep salary of $60/hour, this comes to about $3,120/month per rep in lost productivity.

• Email Guesswork: Trying to guess email formats, only to end up with bounced emails or invalid addresses.

  • Cost: On average, email bounce rates for manual guesswork are around 20%. This means your outreach efforts are only 80% effective. If your sales cycle involves a $10,000 deal per rep each month, you’re losing out on $2,000/month per rep due to invalid emails.

• One Tool, One Chance: Relying on a single tool that can’t find data? That’s a lead lost.

  • Cost: A single enrichment tool can cost up to $500/month for a small team. If it’s not finding the right data, you’re essentially paying for incomplete results.

• Disjointed Systems: Tools that don’t sync well with your CRM lead to manual data entry, increasing error rates and wasting time.

  • Cost: With poor CRM integration and data hygiene, teams can lose up to 10-15% in sales opportunities. For a team of 10 reps, this can easily add up to $6,000/month in missed opportunities.

• Outdated CRM Data: Trusting old data and sending outreach to people who’ve left the company.

  • Cost: 30% lower connect rates can result in 30% fewer deals closed, cutting into your potential revenue.

What to Look For in a Waterfall Enrichment Tool

Alright – you’re sold on waterfall enrichment. (Or at least, you’re waterfall enrichment-curious.) But before you go signing up for the first tool that promises better data, let’s get clear on what you actually need. Because not all enrichment tools are created equal. 

Here’s what you should be looking for:

• Multi-source support: if your enrichment tool only taps into one provider, that’s not a waterfall – it’s a trickle. Real waterfall enrichment stacks multiple providers, so if one comes up empty, the next one steps in. We hate to brag, but Surfe does just this by layering your preferred providers to give you maximum match rates and full coverage.
• Smart provider prioritization: some providers are better at finding emails, others at updating job titles. A good waterfall enrichment tool knows the difference – and picks the right order automatically.
• Field-level control: sometimes your CRM already has good data – and you don’t want a random enrichment tool steamrolling it. Look for a solution that lets you choose exactly which fields to update. Surfe puts you in full control, no nasty surprises…oops, you caught us bragging again! 
• Real-time and scalable options: whether you’re enriching one contact while stalking their LinkedIn (respectfully) or enriching 10,000 leads at once, your tool should adapt with you. Surfe makes it easy either way – you can enrich contact by contact, or a big list from a LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or results from Surfe Person or Contact search. 
• CRM integration: if you’re still copy-pasting enriched data into your CRM, we’re sending thoughts and prayers. A real waterfall enrichment tool should sync directly, so you can update everything in just a single click. 
• Transparent data flow: you should know exactly where your data’s coming from and how it’s enriched.

Bonus points if your waterfall enrichment tool also:

• Works where your reps work: your team shouldn’t have to juggle between 17 tabs just to enrich a contact. Sorry to mention ourselves AGAIN, but Surfe’s Chrome extension plugs straight into LinkedIn and Sales Navigator, so enrichment happens right where reps are already working.
• Gives developers what they need: if you want to enrich leads at scale via CSV, automate workflows, or just show off your Sales API wizardry, Surfe’s well-documented API has your back.

The right waterfall enrichment tool makes your reps faster, your CRM cleaner, and your pipeline a whole lot healthier – sounds nice, right? 

KPI Impact: How to Measure Success

So, you’ve set up waterfall enrichment. Next up: make sure it’s, you know, working.

Because while “better data” sounds nice, you need actual metrics to prove it’s worth the investment. Here’s how to measure whether your waterfall enrichment setup is delivering the goods:

• Match rates increase: with multiple providers working in sequence, your match rates should go up – especially for tricky roles or smaller companies where a single provider would normally tap out.
• Lead conversion rate: when you’re reaching out with the right job title, accurate email, and timely context, people actually respond. Monitor how many enriched leads turn into pipeline – it’s usually a happy surprise.
• Time saved per rep per week: estimate how much time your team used to spend guessing email formats, digging through LinkedIn, or updating CRM fields. Now subtract it. That’s the amount of time they’re getting back to actually sell.
• Meetings booked per rep: one of the earliest signs enrichment is working? Reps are booking more meetings. Keep an eye on this KPI post-enrichment – it’s often the first real “win” to show.
• Sales velocity improvement: when reps aren’t slowed down by data gaps or bounce-backs, they can move from lead to meeting – or meeting to opportunity – way faster. Compare pre- and post-enrichment funnel speeds to see the difference.
• Bounce rate reduction: bad data = bounced emails. Clean data = outreach that lands. Look at how your bounce rate improves once waterfall enrichment is running – it’s a quick, satisfying proof point.

You don’t need to measure all of these to prove waterfall enrichment is working – but even one or two solid improvements should be enough.

Why Surfe Stands Out

Surfe’s waterfall enrichment delivers exactly what sales teams need to stop wasting time and start closing more deals. With Surfe, your team gets accurate emails, phone numbers, and job titles instantly, all synced directly into your CRM. No manual work. No guesswork. Just actionable data.

By pulling from 15+ premium providers, Surfe’s waterfall enrichment increases match rates, reduces bounce rates, and guarantees higher-quality data.

Plus, it works right where your team works – in LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, with one-click CRM sync. This seamless integration means your team can focus on engaging leads, not juggling tools.

Let’s Wrap It Up!

Waterfall enrichment isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a game changer. If you’re serious about improving your sales process, eliminating time-wasting tasks, and increasing your pipeline accuracy, then it’s time to level up with Surfe.

Get your team set up with Surfe’s waterfall enrichment today and start seeing the benefits: faster sales cycles, higher-quality data, and better results.