Is your UK prospect list good enough to use?

01

Work through the problem

Salespeople spend time checking the same records, approach the wrong people and carry unresolved errors into the CRM.

1. Define the campaign

Write down the offer, sector, area, company size and decision-maker. Add exclusions such as existing customers, closed businesses or a service you do not provide. Keep this brief beside the audit.

2. Choose a representative sample

Include ordinary records and awkward cases: a group with branches, a recently changed company and a business with missing details. Record how you selected them. A convenient handful is not proof about the whole file.

3. Check company and role fit

Confirm the legal or trading business, website and location. Check whether the contact’s role fits the decision you want to discuss. Mark an unresolved match Unknown rather than guessing.

4. Inspect evidence field by field

Record a source URL and last-checked date. A company-name match does not validate its email or phone number. A mail-server response is evidence about that check, not a promise of inbox delivery or a current job role.

5. Make an explicit decision

Exclude a known mismatch. Recheck unresolved fit, missing evidence or a disputed field. Keep records that meet the criteria you agreed. Keep a suppression and removal process alongside the list.

6. Run the real workflow

Ask one seller to find a company, explain the fit and choose a next step using the sample. Check whether the export keeps the fields your CRM needs. Record the friction before buying more.

7. Review the findings

Count specific issues rather than inventing one accuracy score. Ask the provider how it will resolve the issues and when an update will be available. Keep the original sample for comparison.

02

Worked example: an accountancy campaign

A managed IT provider wants independent practices with five to twenty staff in South Yorkshire. A record has a real company and a valid-looking email, but the website describes a national group and the contact left last year. The right action is Exclude or Recheck under the campaign brief. A successful server check would not resolve either fit problem.

03

Your working sheet

Use these fields to keep the facts, decisions and next actions together.

• Campaign and exclusions
• Sample method and number of records
• Company and contact fit
• Evidence URL and checked date
• Unresolved or disputed fields
• Keep, Recheck or Exclude with reason
• Owner and action before launch

Before you use it

• Every sampled row has a reason for its decision.
• Unknown information remains visible.
• The sample findings are reported with their denominator.
• A person owns each issue that must be resolved.

See evidence on an Adapt record ↗