I see a lot of outreach that fails before the first message is ever sent.
You sign up for Apollo or ZoomInfo or finally succumb to the pressure and sign up for Sales Navigator, push some buttons and poof, there’s a list of prospects.
You say, “that was easy,” and you move on to the next step.
Problem is that list is probably filled with irrelevant contacts and just taking a few minutes would have caught most of them.
Here’s the thing. There’s no such thing as a perfect list. Doesn’t exist.
But one thing I can tell you as someone who has generated thousands of lists myself, taking a little time to go through the names really makes a big difference.
You don’t have to do it for everyone, but you should be spot checking names. Dig in. Look them up on LinkedIn and ask yourself, “is this the right type of person for this campaign?”
If you end up saying “no” a lot. Go back, refine your filters. Put human eyes on the list again.
Yes, obviously AI can help with this, but it isn’t a replacement for human judgement.
You may end up with a smaller list and that’s fine. Start small, get feedback, expand from there.
You don’t need to generate a year’s worth of names all at once.
Start with a week’s worth.
Get feedback. Rinse and repeat.
But if the list is bad, no amount of clever copy, dedicated outreach, irresistible offers is going to make a difference.
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