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Your team isn’t underperforming. Your data is.
Every bounce, every ignored email, every lead slipping through the cracks… it usually starts with missing or outdated contact details. No job title, wrong email, no LinkedIn—how do you expect reps to close deals with that?
Waterfall enrichment solves this at the source. By pulling lead data from multiple sources in sequence, it fills every gap in your CRM and ensures you always have the best available information. No more guessing, no more time-wasting. Just clean, enriched, usable data that helps teams close more, faster.
What is Waterfall Enrichment?
Waterfall enrichment is a sequential data enrichment strategy that queries multiple providers one after the other to fill in missing contact details like emails, phone numbers, job titles, and LinkedIn URLs.
If the first data source fails to return the information, the request automatically moves to the next, and so on, until a match is found or the provider list is exhausted. This ensures higher match rates and better accuracy than relying on a single vendor.
Unlike traditional enrichment, waterfall logic doesn’t waste time or budget on failed queries—it’s optimized for completeness and cost-efficiency.
Why Waterfall Enrichment Matters?
Bad data costs businesses time, money, and pipeline.
- 30% of B2B contact data decays annually (SalesIntel, 2023)
- Poor data quality wastes 21% of sales reps’ time, equivalent to 1 day per week (Salesforce Research, 2024)
- Companies with enriched CRM data generate 44% more SQLs than those who don’t (Clearbit, 2023))
If your contact database is full of holes, your outreach fails before it even begins.
Waterfall enrichment fixes this by:
- Increasing enrichment coverage to 85–95% (vs. ~60% with single-source vendors)
- Reducing bounced emails and fake names
- Improving segmentation and scoring
- Making cold outreach and workflows way more efficient
When to Use Waterfall Enrichment
Use waterfall enrichment if:
- You’re running outbound campaigns and see bounce rates above 5%
- You rely on LinkedIn scraping tools that often miss emails or phone numbers
- Your CRM or sales engagement tool has hundreds of incomplete profiles
- You want to enrich contacts without paying twice for failed lookups
It’s especially useful for SDR/BDR teams, RevOps, and anyone managing large lead lists or inbound pipelines.
Waterfall Enrichment Tools Compared
1. folk CRM
Type: Collaborative CRM
Best for
Startups, agencies, sales teams managing multi-channel outreach
folk CRM natively integrates waterfall enrichment into its contact records. It pulls from multiple sources, de-duplicates entries, and keeps profiles automatically enriched and up-to-date. The enrichment happens in the background—no manual imports or API work needed.
Pros
- Native CRM + enrichment combo
- Real-time enrichment and deduplication
- Great UI, shared contact lists, automated workflows
- Affordable and scalable
Cons
- No free plan
- Best suited for small to mid-size teams
Pricing
From $20/user/month
2. Clay
Type: Data enrichment + outreach platform
Best for
Ops-heavy teams, power users, growth hackers
Clay connects to over 100+ data sources and lets you build custom enrichment flows using drag-and-drop logic. Their waterfall system is powerful and flexible—but it has a learning curve.
Pros
- Extremely customizable
- Huge number of data sources
- Enrichment, scoring, and outreach in one tool
Cons
- High starting price
- Overkill for simple enrichment use cases
- No built-in CRM
Pricing
From $134/month
3. Surfe
Type: Chrome extension for LinkedIn enrichment
Best for
Reps working on LinkedIn every day
Surfe (formerly Leadjet) turns LinkedIn into a data-enriched CRM. It uses a waterfall model to find emails and phone numbers, showing results in real time. It integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, and others.
Pros
- Fast and lightweight
- Great UX for LinkedIn-based prospecting
- Triple-verified emails
Cons
- Requires Chrome and LinkedIn
- Per-seat pricing
Pricing
From $29/user/month
4. FullEnrich
Type: API-first enrichment
Best for
Developers, product teams, large-scale enrichment
FullEnrich offers a clean API that lets you pipe in data and get waterfall-enriched results. It’s great for platforms that need enrichment baked into onboarding, scoring, or lead qualification.
Pros
- Clean documentation
- High enrichment rates
- Works at scale
Cons
- No user interface
- Technical setup required
Pricing
From $29/month
5. BetterContact
Type: Lightweight enrichment platform
Best for
Solo founders, budget-conscious teams
BetterContact connects to 20+ enrichment sources and supports waterfall sequencing. It’s simple to use and cost-effective—perfect for low-volume enrichment.
Pros
- Straightforward interface
- Cheap and effective
- Bulk CSV uploads
Cons
- Not built for automation or scale
- Limited integrations
Pricing
From $15/month
6. Lemlist
Type: Outreach tool
Best for
Users already running cold email campaigns
Lemlist added waterfall enrichment inside its campaigns to boost reply rates. It integrates basic enrichment during lead import, pulling emails and LinkedIn URLs.
Pros
- Embedded into outbound campaigns
- Reduces manual prep
- Seamless with cold email flows
Cons
- Limited to email data
- Less control over sources
- Expensive compared to focused tools
Pricing
From $55/month
F.A.Q.
What is waterfall enrichment?
Waterfall enrichment is a method that queries multiple data providers in sequence to complete missing contact details. If the first source fails, the system moves to the next until a match is found or all options are exhausted.
Why use waterfall enrichment instead of a single provider?
It improves data coverage and accuracy by avoiding reliance on one vendor. Match rates typically increase from ~60% to over 90% when using a waterfall strategy.
How does waterfall enrichment work in a CRM?
Modern tools like folk CRM integrate waterfall enrichment directly into the contact database. The system automatically enriches, deduplicates, and updates contacts with verified data across multiple sources.
What data can be enriched with waterfall logic?
Most platforms enrich emails, phone numbers, job titles, company info, LinkedIn URLs, and firmographic data. Some tools also support custom fields and enrichment scoring.
Conclusion
Waterfall enrichment is the fastest, most effective way to clean, enrich, and scale your contact data. It increases coverage, boosts deliverability, and eliminates the blind spots that kill outbound performance.
Here’s what matters:
- Use multiple providers—never rely on one
- Enrich inside your CRM or sales workflows
- Choose tools that balance quality, automation, and cost
For teams looking to combine enrichment, CRM, outreach, and automation in one smart system, folk CRM offers one of the most compelling options in 2025. It’s fast, collaborative, and built for real-world sales workflows.
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