What Problem Was This Automation Built to Solve?
The organization relied on cold outreach to find new clients, but their process was entirely manual. Reps would sift through their CRM looking for contacts they had not spoken to in a while, build a prospect list by hand, and then cross-reference an external sales database to verify that phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses were still current.
The stakes were high because their outreach strategy included physical mailers. Sending a package to the wrong person, or to someone who had already left a firm, added up quickly in wasted cost. Keeping contact data current was a constant, time-consuming challenge.
Once a validated list was ready, the team still had to load it into an email sequence and schedule follow-up calls. The whole process was taking several hours a day and, because it was manual and ad hoc, it was not happening consistently.
How Does the Prospect List Building Automation Work?
The solution connects multiple data sources into a single prospect list building tool that runs automatically each day. The system is configured with a rotating industry schedule. For example, Monday focuses on the legal sector. Each day's run uses a defined set of filters including minimum and maximum employee count, industry, job titles, and any hot lead signals the team wants to prioritize.
How Does It Verify That a Contact Is Still at the Company?
Rather than relying solely on a third-party lead database, the automation also scrapes the company's own website to check whether the contact appears in any contact pages or about us sections. If the person is no longer listed, the system attempts to suggest a replacement. This step is critical for the physical mail component of the outreach campaign.
How Are Contacts Scored and Rated?
Every contact is evaluated against an Ideal Client Profile (ICP) to measure how well the lead fits the target client criteria and to confirm that all required outreach fields are populated. Each record is then rated, and the full enriched list is made available for export from the main dashboard.
How Does the Sales Team Receive the Daily List?
At 7:00 a.m. each morning, the automation posts a message to the sales team's Microsoft Teams channel. The message includes a download link for that day's prospect list, which reps can import directly into the CRM. The run history is also stored in the tool so sales managers can review what was pulled on any given day.
Phase two of the project will connect the automation directly to the CRM so the list is imported automatically, removing even the manual download step.
What Permissions and Controls Are Built In?
The tool includes role-based access. Sales reps can log in and retrieve their daily list. Sales managers have additional access to view run history and adjust settings, such as swapping out industry verticals when a segment has been exhausted. For example, if the legal vertical has been fully worked, a manager can substitute in automotive and the new vertical drops into the weekly rotation immediately.
How Do Teams Track the Cost of Running This Automation?
The team requested visibility into what the automation costs to operate. A cost tracking component was built in that displays daily API usage and AI token consumption so the team can see exactly what each run costs. Early results show the cost is low relative to the hours of manual work it replaces.
What Were the Key Results?
The automation delivered improvements across three areas. First, time savings: a task that previously took several hours a day now requires only a few minutes to download and import the file. Second, consistency: the list building now happens every single day on a fixed schedule rather than whenever someone had time. Third, accuracy: contact data is enriched and verified against both external databases and live company websites before the list is delivered.