Prospects often tell us that list building isn’t really part of the program with other outbound vendors. They either pay extra for it or are asked to bring their own list. We build the list ourselves in every program we run, because the quality of the list sets the ceiling for everything your SDR does afterward.
David Kreiger, president of SalesRoads, walked through how we build your list, and why it matters, in the video below.
How Do Most Outbound Vendors Handle List Building?
Most outbound vendors treat list building as an add-on: they charge extra for it, or they ask you to bring your own list. This is what prospects tell us about the vendors they’ve talked to.
Even when a vendor builds the list, the process is often thin. A common version pulls from a single database, filters by job title and industry code, and calls the result a list. A list built that way gives your SDR a starting point, but it can’t confirm that the contact still works at the company or that the company fits your ICP.
How Does SalesRoads Handle List Building?
SalesRoads builds your list as part of every program, from day one, because we treat it as essential to the work. It is not an add-on, and it doesn’t require you to source your own data. Your SDR launches from a list we built to your criteria.
Our data team builds your list in four stages: ICP definition, multi-source data pulls with cross-checks, AI agent review, and a suppression-list scrub.
How does your ICP shape the list?
Your ICP sets the filters for everything that follows. We start with the types of companies you want, the titles that matter, and the signals that tell us a company is ready to buy. Every later step checks records against those criteria.
How do we pull and verify the data?
Our data team pulls from 14 or more premium sources and cross-references them against each other. The cross-checks include:
- comparing phone numbers across databases;
- confirming on LinkedIn that each contact still works at the company;
- filtering by firmographics and technographics specific to your criteria.
Cross-referencing catches records that a single database would pass along unchecked, such as an outdated phone number or a contact who has left the company.
How do AI agents check ICP and persona fit?
We build a minimum of two AI agents for your program, because some records don’t fit cleanly through regular filters. Each agent handles one level of review:
- The account agent checks each company’s website, LinkedIn page, and Google footprint to confirm it fits your ICP, beyond what the filters alone can tell us.
- The persona agent, trained on your target personas, reviews each contact’s LinkedIn profile and title once we’ve pulled contacts at those accounts. It confirms these are the people you want us talking to.
How do we protect existing relationships?
We scrub the list against your suppression list, so your SDR never calls someone you already have a relationship with. Customers, active opportunities, and other contacts you don’t want touched are removed before outreach starts.
What Does the Finished List Deliver?
The finished list gives your SDR 98 percent or higher delivery accuracy and contacts they can have a productive conversation with. Your SDR launches from it on the 16th business day of the program. We keep refreshing and updating it continuously throughout the program, so the list your SDR works from stays current as contacts and companies change.
Why Does List Accuracy Matter So Much?
Every inaccurate record is a wasted dial, so list accuracy sets the share of your SDR’s calls that can become conversations. At 90 percent accuracy, one dial in ten goes nowhere. At 98 percent, it’s one in fifty. That eight-point difference cuts wasted dials by 80 percent, and every dial recovered goes back to your SDR as a real conversation.
Your SDR is only as good as the list you hand them. Your best rep on the phones will still get nowhere if the list is stale, the titles are wrong, or the company doesn’t fit your ICP. Many programs get this wrong, and it’s why we don’t treat list building as an afterthought.
