Field guide
Validate a prospect sample before scaling
Twenty carefully checked accounts teach more than a large unreviewed list.
Account databases can help research, but records need verification against the actual ICP. Track why an account qualifies, what is uncertain and what must be excluded.
Decision brief
Use a small sample to expose data errors
Before buying more records, check a small candidate set against the written ICP. Verify basic organization facts, current relevance, duplicates and disqualifiers. Keep a field for the evidence used and the time required to repair each record.
Do not combine account validation with the decision to contact a person. The latter requires separate review of contact basis, exclusions, message relevance and owner capacity.
What to do first
- Choose 20 candidate accounts from one segment.
- Check company fit and one relevant trigger from reliable sources.
- Record missing, outdated or conflicting information before any outreach.
Run a small comparison
- Select 20 candidate accounts from one narrow segment.
- Mark fit, missing facts, stale facts and disqualifiers.
- Compare usable-account rate and correction time with a manual source.
Questions to resolve
- Which errors change the fit decision?
- How much work does each usable record require?
- Who approves the final shortlist?
How to read the result: A source is useful when it yields accurate, explainable candidates efficiently, not when it exports the most rows.
What this does not justify
- Infer contact permission from record availability.
- Hide bad-fit accounts in a large denominator.
MeasureValidated fit rate and data correction rate
Stop or revise whenDo not scale when key fields remain unreliable.