Guides: B2B phone and email data
Each guide answers one precise question, with its method and its sources. The first page of each topic is the place to start.
Connect rate and phone data quality
- Connect rate: the only metric that matters in B2B cold callingA 100% coverage rate is worth nothing if half the numbers are wrong. Here is how to measure a provider's real connect rate before you sign anything.
- Cost per usable contact: what B2B mobile data really costsPublished prices run from $102 to $936 per thousand mobiles. Here is why that spread tells you almost nothing, and how to compute what you actually pay.
- What "verified phone number" actually means from a data vendorFive different checks hide behind one word. Here is what each one proves, and the single question that tells you which one your vendor runs.
- Is this mobile number still active, and how would you knowFour ways to check a mobile before you dial, what each one actually proves, and why the strongest check answers a different question than the common one.
- How to test a B2B data provider before you signA two-week protocol on your own sample, with the scoring grid, the formulas, the thresholds and a spreadsheet to download. Applies to Listar too.
- B2B data coverage by country: what actually determines itWhy a US-built tool collapses in Europe, why the number of sources decides coverage, and how to measure a provider's coverage on the markets you sell into.
- TCPA and B2B cold calling: what applies to mobile numbersB2B cold calling is legal in the US, but mobile numbers get no B2B carve-out under the TCPA. Where the line sits, and what a purchased list cannot give you.
- UK B2B cold calling: PECR, the CTPS and what you must screenYou can cold call UK businesses without consent, but the legal form of the business decides which register applies. Fines rose 35-fold in February 2026.
- MCP server for sales: build lists and get verified mobiles in one flowWhat an enrichment MCP can and cannot do, the tool calls involved, how credit spend is capped, and the security questions to settle before you connect one.
Data provider comparisons
- B2B data providers: who actually holds the dataSeveral tools sold as competitors resell each other. Here is the real supply chain, what each vendor publishes, and the four things none of them publish.
- ZoomInfo alternative: what you can verify before you switchZoomInfo publishes no price, no phone accuracy figure and no contract term. Here is what it does publish, what it does not, and what to ask before renewing.
- Cognism alternative: what the published figures actually sayCognism publishes more method than most vendors, and its headline study has arithmetic problems. Here is what it publishes, what it does not, and what to ask.
- Apollo alternative for phone data: what the credits actually costApollo publishes 98% email accuracy and no phone accuracy figure at all. Its credits page shows the mobile price as a blank. Here is what the docs say instead.
- Lusha alternative: the most transparent vendor, and its one gapLusha publishes per-country volumes with a counting rule and a date, which almost nobody does. Its own accuracy figures do not reconcile with each other.
- Clay alternative: when you only need the phone numbersClay is infrastructure, not a data vendor, and its free plan excludes phone enrichment entirely. Here is what it costs and when it is the wrong shape.
Enrichment in the CRM
- Enrich HubSpot or Salesforce with verified mobiles, nativelyBoth CRMs have a native way to trigger enrichment when a contact is created. Which mechanism, what tier it needs, and why Zapier is the worse option.
- The CRM field schema for mobile enrichmentAlmost every integration writes back only the number. Seven properties are needed, and two of them decide what you spend next month.
- Triggering enrichment without burning creditsEnriching every contact created is the default setting and the most expensive one. Five conditions, and what each vendor's billing policy actually does.