Portfolio, not monogamy
No single provider wins on every attribute and segment. Maintain a small portfolio: one primary per attribute, one fallback, one validator. Waterfalls make the portfolio concrete.
Selection criteria
- Match rate on your actual inputs — trial on a 200-row sample of your data, not the vendor's demo data.
- Freshness — ask how stale contact data can be; verify with bounces over time.
- Compliance posture — data provenance and regional coverage that matches your market.
- Commercial shape — per-record vs subscription; in Clay credits vs BYO-key pricing.
Rotation discipline
Re-test providers quarterly: match rates drift. When replacing, run both providers in parallel for one cycle and compare on the same rows before switching the waterfall order.
Need help applying this?
Describe your project and the ClayForEnterprises team will review it — the resources stay free either way.