How to Automate Cold Calling Lead Generation (Programmatic Contact Enrichment via API)

Cold calling remains one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers and drive sales. However, the success of your cold calling efforts heavily relies on the quality and accuracy of your prospecting data. And sourcing quality B2B data isn't easy.

Manually sourcing contact information for your prospects is not only time-consuming but also often results in outdated or incorrect data.

You might spend 15 minutes searching the web only to end up with generic company phone numbers that lead to a dead end. And even if you do manage to find decision maker phone numbers, the process is hardly scalable.

Existing B2B data providers offer a solution, but they come with their own set of drawbacks. Subscription costs can be high, and the data quality isn't always reliable. You might end up paying a premium for bad data.

Also, traditional B2B data providers often lack the flexibility and integrability that modern sales teams need. Their data is typically siloed off in proprietary platforms like web applications or Google Chrome extensions, making it difficult to integrate into your existing workflows and sales tools.

The solution? Programmatic lead generation via API.

What is an API and how can it help with cold calling?

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of protocols and tools that allow different software applications to communicate with each other.

With an API, you can automate the entire process of finding, enriching, and updating your prospects.

Imagine being able to automatically feed fresh leads directly into your CRM, enrich your existing database with up-to-date phone numbers, or trigger personalized outreach based on real-time data changes, and beyond.

With an API, all of this is possible.

But not just any API works

You need a B2B enrichment API. And not just any B2B enrichment API will give you fresh quality data for a cost-effective price.

That's where Proxycurl comes in.

We've already gone through the hassle of scraping a massive amount of B2B data and matching it up to identifiers, such as LinkedIn profiles, and we offer this data through a REST API. With it, you can make HTTP requests to retrieve specific data points, such as a prospect's direct phone number, email address, job title, company information, and more.

You can also use our API to search for prospects based on specific criteria, such as industry, location, job title, or beyond.

Let me explain how:

Programmatically enrich your existing prospects with contact information

For starters, with our Personal Contact Number Lookup Endpoint, which is part of our Contact API, you can enrich social media profiles (LinkedIn, X, Facebook) with their respective personal phone numbers.

No more guessing games or leaving voicemails that never get returned--just a direct line to the people you need to talk to.

There are several ways to query our API (any programming language of your choice), but one of the easiest ways is to use a simple cURL GET command such as follows:

curl \
    -G \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer Your_API_Key_Here" \
    'https://nubela.co/proxycurl/api/contact-api/personal-contact' \
    --data-urlencode 'linkedin_profile_url=https://linkedin.com/in/elon-musk' \
    --data-urlencode 'page_size=0'

cURL can be easily installed (and may already be depending on your operating system) and used on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

After cURL made an HTTP GET request to our Personal Contact Number Lookup Endpoint, it then returned a phone number:

{
    "numbers": [
        "+1123123123"
    ]
}

You could do many, or even thousands of profiles at the same time. ChatGPT, some simple Python, and a CSV file could accomplish it for you.

Not bad, right? It didn't take being a rocket scientist either.

💡

Note: Want to test this yourself? You can create your Proxycurl account for free right here and grab your key from the dashboard.

We can also help with finding interesting prospects

Now, let's say rather than enriching an existing prospect you've already found, you want to find some new prospects. We can also help you with that.

Namely, our Person Search Endpoint will help here.

The Person Search Endpoint allows you to search through our entire dataset of hundreds of millions of profiles (LinkDB) and filter with several data points, such as:

Job role
Education
Current company
Country, city
Skills
And beyond

Using cURL again, let's say we're looking to target HR tech companies:

curl \
    -G \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer Your_API_Key_Here" \
    'https://nubela.co/proxycurl/api/v2/search/person/' \
    --data-urlencode 'country=US' \
    --data-urlencode 'current_role_title=hr OR human resources OR people OR talent' \
    --data-urlencode 'current_company_industry=Human Resources' \
    --data-urlencode 'current_company_employee_count_min=50' \
    --data-urlencode 'current_company_employee_count_max=5000' \
    --data-urlencode 'skills=recruiting OR talent acquisition OR employer branding OR diversity' \
    --data-urlencode 'page_size=10'

The above query would search our massive dataset and find you any matching prospects that fit your search criteria, returning the results like follows:

{"results": [{"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/fox-boswell-65874874", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-jiaqi-wang-601777b4", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-hughes-1bb661b8", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ir-bistok-r-s-nadeak-829588107", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/devon-edmisten-02001468", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/geet-matharoo", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/darenwardatgluereply", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}

And continuing on, full of LinkedIn profile URLs, which you could then enrich with contact information like phone numbers from there using our respective Personal Contact Number Lookup Endpoint above.

Additionally, there are many different search parameters you can use with our Person Search Endpoint.

Such as enabling enrichment by using enrich_profiles=enrich which would instead of just returning you LinkedIn profile URLs, also return you a structured JSON result back of their LinkedIn profile such as this:

{"results": [{"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemasri-nagaraj-923a56a3", "profile": {"public_identifier": "hemasri-nagaraj-923a56a3", "profile_pic_url": null, "background_cover_image_url": null, "first_name": "Hemasri", "last_name": "Nagaraj", "full_name": "Hemasri Nagaraj", "follower_count": null, "occupation": "Principal Consultant", "headline": null, "summary": "Associate Consultant - Talent Acquisition at AVTAR Career Creators", "country": "US", "country_full_name": null, "city": null, "state": null, "experiences": [{"starts_at": null, "ends_at": null, "company": null, "company_linkedin_profile_url": null, "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Principal Consultant", "description": null, "location": null, "logo_url": null}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 6, "year": 2017}, "ends_at": null, "company": "Avtar Career Creators", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/avtar-career-creators", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Associate Consultant - Talent Acquisition At Avtar Career Creators", "description": null, "location": "India", "logo_url": null}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 12, "year": 2015}, "ends_at": {"day": 1, "month": 5, "year": 2017}, "company": "Avtar Career Creators", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/avtar-career-creators", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Junior Consultant - Retailing, Insurance, Ites Practice, Banking, Bpo", "description": "Experience in handling End to End Recruitment for BPO, ITES, IT, Retail, Insurance, Banking, Manufacturing, FMCG industry", "location": "India", "logo_url": null}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 12, "year": 2013}, "ends_at": {"day": 1, "month": 12, "year": 2015}, "company": "Crossdomain", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/crossdomain", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Process Associate", "description": null, "location": "Bangalore, Karnataka, India", "logo_url": null}], "education": [{"starts_at": null, "ends_at": null, "field_of_study": null, "degree_name": "Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelors", "school": null, "school_linkedin_profile_url": null, "school_facebook_profile_url": null, "description": null, "logo_url": null, "grade": null, "activities_and_societies": null}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 1, "year": 2016}, "ends_at": {"day": 1, "month": 1, "year": 2016}, "field_of_study": null, "degree_name": "Master of Business Administration, Masters", "school": "Academy of Management Studies", "school_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/school/academy-of-management-studies", "school_facebook_profile_url": null, "description": null, "logo_url": null, "grade": null, "activities_and_societies": null}], "languages": [], "accomplishment_organisations": [], "accomplishment_publications": [], "accomplishment_honors_awards": [], "accomplishment_patents": [], "accomplishment_courses": [], "accomplishment_projects": [], "accomplishment_test_scores": [], "volunteer_work": [], "certifications": [], "connections": 500, "people_also_viewed": [], "recommendations": [], "activities": [], "similarly_named_profiles": [], "articles": [], "groups": [], "skills": []}, "last_updated": "1970-01-01T00:00:00"}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/naman-kaur-573ba05a", "profile": {"public_identifier": "naman-kaur-573ba05a", "profile_pic_url": null, "background_cover_image_url": null, "first_name": "Naman", "last_name": "Kaur", "full_name": "Naman Kaur", "follower_count": null, "occupation": "Human Resources Recruiter at Elite Hr Practices", "headline": null, "summary": "IT Recruiter Elite HR Practices Oct 2012 \u2013 Till Date , New Delhi 1. Handling IT Requirement. 2. Understanding the requirement 3. Generating the candidates using various sources through job portels, references, in Database. 4. Screening & Short listing the resumes according the client requirement & requested skills. 5. Primarily conducting the telephonic interview (Check it out their communication skills, project experience, cost, Notice period, Attitude & other related Factors) 6. Coordinating the end to end interview process. 7. Coordinating with my team lead getting the feedback regularly. 8. Maintaining the Database making the new additions regularly. 9 Closing the Positions 10.Client Handling, as a SPOC of different companies.", "country": "US", "country_full_name": null, "city": null, "state": null, "experiences": [{"starts_at": null, "ends_at": null, "company": "Elite Hr Practices", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/elite-hr-practices", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Human Resources Recruiter", "description": null, "location": "Irvine, California, United States", "logo_url": null}], "education": [], "languages": [], "accomplishment_organisations": [], "accomplishment_publications": [], "accomplishment_honors_awards": [], "accomplishment_patents": [], "accomplishment_courses": [], "accomplishment_projects": [], "accomplishment_test_scores": [], "volunteer_work": [], "certifications": [], "connections": 500, "people_also_viewed": [], "recommendations": [], "activities": [], "similarly_named_profiles": [], "articles": [], "groups": [], "skills": []}, "last_updated": "1970-01-01T00:00:00"}, {"linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/patty-woolcock-ba1b47", "profile": null, "last_updated": null}

The profile example above containing "occupation": "Human Resources Recruiter at Elite Hr Practices" as a key data point, of course.

You can see all of the possibilities in terms of additional parameters available with our Person Search Endpoint on our documentation here.

But finding the right prospects and their respective phone numbers is just the first step in cold calling.

To really maximize the results of your cold calling, you'll want to utilize the rich data available through our API to personalize your cold calling outreach.

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Note: If you're interested in a no-code option that's capable of everything mentioned in this article (contact enrichment, search, etc), check out Sapiengraph, our Google Sheets extension that allows you to pull fresh B2B data directly into a spreadsheet.

Using personalization for the ultimate cold call

One of the biggest mistakes sales reps make when cold calling is using a generic, one-size-fits-all script. In today's noisy sales landscape, that simply doesn't cut it anymore.

Prospects are bombarded with cold outreach every day. If you want to stand out and actually get them to engage, you need to demonstrate that you understand their specific situation and needs.

That's where the power of personalization comes in.

For example, let's say you're selling a marketing automation platform. With our API, you can enrich your prospects with information like:

Job title
Work history
Skills
Location
Summary of the individual
Education
The size and industry of their company
Recent company news and events
Beyond

...and with these insights, you can tailor your pitch to speak directly to the prospect's challenges and goals.

So, instead of a generic opener like, "Hi, I'm calling from MarketCo and we offer marketing automation software," you could say something like:

"Hi Sarah, I noticed that ACME Corp recently raised a Series B and is rapidly expanding its marketing team. Congrats! I imagine with that growth, implementing the right automation tools is probably a big priority for you right now. Many of our other clients in the SaaS space have found our platform really helpful for scaling personalized campaigns without adding headcount. I'd love to learn more about ACME's specific needs and share some relevant case studies. Do you have 15 minutes to chat next week?"

See the difference?

By using just a little bit of prospecting data in your script, you show that you've done your homework and understand their needs. You're not just pitching a product, you're offering targeted solutions to their problems.

And the more relevant and personalized your outreach, the more likely prospects are to actually engage and take a meeting.

In fact while we're talking about enrichment, let me show you one more of our most notable endpoints here:

General prospect enrichment

Outside of using the enrichment parameter on our Person Search Endpoint, if you already have a social media profile URL like a LinkedIn URL on your prospects, you can also use our Person Profile Endpoint to return structured and enriched data of your prospect.

And on this endpoint, if you're using our use_cache=if-present endpoint, we can guarantee it was scraped within 29 days, often live. It also has a personal_contact parameter, and if you choose to enable that, you could also pull their phone number through this endpoint as well.

Here's an example using cURL:

curl \
    -G \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer Your_API_Key_Here" \
    'https://nubela.co/proxycurl/api/v2/linkedin' \
    --data-urlencode 'linkedin_profile_url=https://linkedin.com/in/johnrmarty/' \
    --data-urlencode 'personal_contact_number=include' \
    --data-urlencode 'use_cache=if-recent' \
    --data-urlencode 'fallback_to_cache=on-error'

Which returns a similar JSON result, such as the Person Search Endpoint with the enrichment parameter, but also includes contact information:

{"public_identifier": "johnrmarty", "profile_pic_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C5603AQHaJSx0CBAUIA/profile-displayphoto-shrink_800_800/0/1558325761562?e=1720051200&v=beta&t=rNrh9lwaFpks3-BT90EvJz-UmC28IONAFMxI52y2yAo", "background_cover_image_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C5616AQH9tkBTUhHfng/profile-displaybackgroundimage-shrink_350_1400/0/1614530499400?e=1720051200&v=beta&t=8owZfJSpPKhBGpqPxKufol56_rk6N0gwYnSVHhcZ2EY", "first_name": "John", "last_name": "Marty", "full_name": "John Marty", "follower_count": 261634, "occupation": "Co-Founder at FF Real Estate", "headline": "LinkedIn Top Voice", "summary": "Most people go through life lost, disengaged, and unhappy at work and in their lives - I'm on a mission to solve that.\n\nI spent 10 years as the founder of Axxis Audio, an electronics company that grew to multi-million dollar sales, which I sold in 2012. At that time, I funneled my earnings into the creation of an Internet of Things company, but numerous factors lead to its demise after 2 hard fought years. \n\nAt 31, I was penny-less, had a baby on the way, and had zero job prospects (despite applying to 150 companies). My desperate situation led me to take a job at Best Buy for $12 an hour while reinventing myself through the completion of an MBA at the University of Colorado, and a 6-month software development boot camp. \n\nAfter graduation, I landed at American Express as a Senior Product Manager and then got poached by Amazon in 2017 (because of my LinkedIn profile). My journey has led to a deep sense of perspective, humility, and purpose that I draw on to help others find clarity, meaning, and happiness in their careers and lives. \n\nCheck out my website for details on my Mindset Reset Podcast, Public Speaking, Consulting, or my free 40 page LinkedIn guide\n\nhttp://www.johnraphaelmarty.com/\n\nFAQ's\n\nQ: Can you speak at my Company, University, event or podcast?\nA: I'd love to! I've shared my message on the future of employment, breaking into big tech, and my personal story of reinventing myself and discovering my sense of purpose (and how you can too!).\n\n\u2611\ufe0f  YouTube Channel #1 (John Marty) : http://www.youtube.com/c/JohnMarty-uncommon\n\u2611\ufe0f  YouTube Channel #2 (Tech Careers for non-engineers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC900gMMPLwRGGXSTW1gdZHA\n\nFUN FACTS:\n\u2611\ufe0f I am an Avid cyclist and runner, and I just started learning to skateboard a half-pipe.\n\u2611\ufe0f Into the Enneagram? - I'm a #3 (The Achiever)\n\nLETS CONNECT:\n\u2611\ufe0f Email: [email protected] (don't forget that \"R\"....The other guy gets my emails all the time)", "country": "US", "country_full_name": "United States of America", "city": "Seattle", "state": "Washington", "experiences": [{"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 8, "year": 2021}, "ends_at": null, "company": "FF Real Estate", "company_linkedin_profile_url": null, "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Co-Founder", "description": "Our mission is to provide everyday people seeking financial freedom long before the age of 65 with the ability to contribute to real estate projects that were only accessible in the past for a select few wealthy individuals.", "location": null, "logo_url": null}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 1, "year": 2021}, "ends_at": null, "company": "Mindset Reset Podcast", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindset-reset-podcast/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Founder", "description": "We dive into the mindsets of the world\u2019s foremost thought leaders and turn them into actionable insights so that others can discover greater happiness, success, and fulfillment.\n\nhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindset-reset/id1553212607", "location": "Denver, Colorado, United States", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C560BAQF9QJVQm3SOvA/company-logo_400_400/0/1630654774302/mindset_reset_podcast_logo?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=sJxL8TYqnNMHsrRarkpnhDf7MQiRGtQqmED83pJI0fc"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 1, "year": 2017}, "ends_at": null, "company": "YouTube", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/youtube/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Youtube Content Creator - \"John Marty\"", "description": null, "location": "Seattle, Washington", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D0BAQEfoRsyU4yUzg/company-logo_400_400/0/1631053379845/youtube_logo?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=Lc9cCqZK4kAqpxsUAHZXGEue-VFFcqTw02X_rMC3NSI"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 3, "year": 2017}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 3, "year": 2021}, "company": "Amazon", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Sr. Manager of Product", "description": "I had a mix of roles at Amazon from Sr. PM to Sr. Manager of Product\nTwo years were spent on Marketplace Product Quality and 2 years in New Business Innovation", "location": "Greater Seattle Area", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C560BAQHTvZwCx4p2Qg/company-logo_400_400/0/1630640869849/amazon_logo?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=Kl4OmP2UYQHWMJ0JFzgESXelV5EcD1cNQqDsrvfZ_yo"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 1, "year": 2020}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 1, "year": 2020}, "company": "Product School", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/school/product-school/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Featured Speaker", "description": "Product School is a global leader in Product Management training with a community of over one million product professionals. As a featured speaker, I help inspire the next generation of Product Managers to create innovative products and apply best practices in their work.", "location": "Seattle, Washington, United States", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D4E0BAQGODY7RuiroaA/company-logo_400_400/0/1688233590665?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=5DWHgxc4Twq5v6Qi3tF3I9w1zXXxytKl0saLAEvVsvY"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 7, "year": 2015}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 3, "year": 2017}, "company": "American Express", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-express/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Senior Global Product Manager", "description": null, "location": "Phoenix, Arizona Area", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D0BAQGRhsociEn4gQ/company-logo_400_400/0/1631367875582?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=W2_ZLifgygTQiN_C2IxeIg453ChanIE0ZgbUe80KCWE"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 3, "year": 2014}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 7, "year": 2014}, "company": "Mile High Automation, Inc.", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/mile-high-automation-inc-/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Sr. Product Manager", "description": "Mile High Automation is a Smart Home Technology (Internet of Things) software and hardware development company. Our mission is to flawlessly develop and deliver impeccable software, hardware and system design for the high-end consumer market nationally and internationally. \n\n\u2022  Performed a short term change management engagement to lead a 12 member cross functional team through a major strategy and vision transition\n\u2022  Developed an international supply chain that increased profit margin by 30% on core products\n\u2022  Conceptualized, implemented, and rolled out a CRM that led to a 15% higher month over month close rate; trained sales team on newly created key performance indicators to maximize growth\n\u2022  Developed, implemented and oversaw a training process that scaled to 180+ national subcontractors\n\u2022  Translated user stories into detailed product requirements documents that the software development team used to build new features and functionality \n\u2022  Developed benchmarks for customer service, sales, and traffic conversion to maximize profit", "location": "Denver Colorado", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E0BAQHofg3toK4P7A/company-logo_400_400/0/1631345561176?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=HbLfcyc2bQC7r1EbCHdoVnqxWuaX5p5t9sYCe72b1Z0"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 2, "year": 2012}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 5, "year": 2014}, "company": "EOS Controls", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/eos-controls/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "Founder/ Chief Operating Officer", "description": "A Smart Home Technology (Internet of Things) software and hardware development company specializing in the mid to high-end condominium market in the United States and South America. \nEOS Controls supports the advancement of affordable and easy to user smart home technology through a network of non-traditional sales channels of architects, designers, and contractors. \n\n\u2022  Coordinated engineering, design, and marketing strategy for the launch of 6 iOS apps\n\u2022  Led a 5 member product team of engineers; conducted daily stand-ups and weekly design review meetings\n\u2022  Managed and prioritized product backlog for development Sprints as well as tested products before release\n\u2022  Effectively placed products through non-traditional distribution channels by identifying and developing relationships with over 100 national and international builders, architects, and designers", "location": "Miami, Florida", "logo_url": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C560BAQFV1hvbuwyU-A/company-logo_400_400/0/1631302568978?e=1722470400&v=beta&t=R7-7AUws3dDFnQGtQpAimIKu0JZQlhOZ4s5BXlIZwPw"}, {"starts_at": {"day": 1, "month": 11, "year": 2002}, "ends_at": {"day": 31, "month": 1, "year": 2012}, "company": "Axxis Audio", "company_linkedin_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/axxis-audio/", "company_facebook_profile_url": null, "title": "President/Founder", "description": "Specializing in Smart Home Technology - Home Automation, Internet of Things\n\n\u2022  Raised $10,000 in investment to develop a home theater and home automation sales and installation business that grew to multi-million dollar sales (sold the company in 2011)\n\u2022  Developed mission-centric training, responsibility, and accountability framework \n\u2022  10 Direct Reports\n\u2022  Responsible for resource planning, scheduling, and project management \n\u2022  Filled the role of HR and developed a team building program for 10 direct reports, that included formal training, personal and professional peer support, mentoring and professional development; 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It's safe to say it's pretty easy to get access to the B2B data you need.

How to get the most out of your cold calling

Do your research

Before each call, take a few minutes to review the prospect's enriched data.

Look for key points that you can use to tailor your pitch, like recent company events, tech stack info, or industry-specific challenges.

Prioritize relevance over volume

It's tempting to stuff your script with every piece of data you have on the prospect. But this can quickly become overwhelming and sound artificial.

Instead, pick the one or two most relevant points and focus on those. Quality over quantity.

Connect the dots

Don't just recite facts about the prospect's company. Use that information to draw explicit connections to your offering.

For instance, "I see you use Salesforce CRM. Our integration with Salesforce allows you to automatically sync lead data and activity, which could save your reps hours per week."

Keep it conversational

While a script is important, you don't want to sound like you're reading from a teleprompter.

Use your personalization data points as natural conversation starters, but be prepared to go off-script and actually listen to the prospect's responses.

By the way, generally speaking, a cold call should flow something like this:

Intro - who you are, reason for calling
Value prop - how you help similar companies solve a relevant problem
Qualification - key questions to see if they're a fit
CTA - book a meeting/demo/next step
Objection handling - acknowledge concerns, pivot to value

Be prepared to go off-script to address their unique needs. The goal is to start a dialog, not close on the first call.

Continue reiterating

Keep track of which talking points seem to resonate most with prospects, and which fall flat.

Over time, refine your cold calling script based on what's working. It's an iterative process.

Ultimately with a bit of targeting and research, instead of your cold calls getting brushed off as "just another sales call," you'll be able to start meaningful conversations that lead to real sales opportunities.

💡

Note: Interested in learning about automating cold emailing too? We're Proxycurl. Of course we have an article about that.

Recapping things

Throughout this article I talked about a lot of different ways our B2B enrichment API could help you with your cold calling. Let me recap them for you.

To begin with, you can leverage our Person Search Endpoint to build targeted cold calling prospecting lists and surface fresh, accurate leads that fit your ideal customer profile.

These dynamically generated lists can then be automatically enriched with direct-dial phone numbers, verified emails, job titles, latest work details, and quite a few of other B2B data points using our various enrichment APIs like the Personal Contact Lookup and Person Profile Endpoints.

Your existing CRM leads and downloaded lists can also be continuously enriched and kept up-to-date using these same API endpoints.

Additionally, you can set up workflows to identify "warm" prospects ready for outreach based on activity signals, fresh funding news, job changes, and other trigger events, then automatically (and manually, such as cold calling) conduct outreach.

Essentially, our B2B data can power your entire outreach efforts, and we give you the power to integrate it into your workflow however you'd like, or build whatever application you'd like to accomplish your goals best. There are no limits.

The key is to think of our API not as a separate tool, but as a core data layer that integrates into your B2B business.

The bottom line

Cold calling may be a tried-and-true sales tactic from the old days, but in today's competitive and jaded landscape, it's not enough to simply dial through a list of prospects.

To truly excel at cold calling, you need accurate contact information, fresh data on your prospects, a personalized outreach, and a focus on delivering value.

That said, said our various B2B enrichment endpoints, such as our:

...make that much, much easier.

Create your Proxycurl account

Ready for all of the B2B data and contact information you could ever need and the power to integrate it into your workflow however you'd like?

If so, then you can click here to create your Proxycurl account for free. You'll start with 10 trial credits.

After you run out we use a credit system and you could top up as little as $10 to continue using our API, for more information on our pricing, you can click here.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Have any questions about how we can help in terms of B2B data and our API? Feel free to send us an email at "[email protected]" and we'll respond as soon as possible.