The core rule: preserve the evidence state
A registry filing, map listing, weak website and form submission are different kinds of evidence. Do not flatten them into one lead score. Record what each observation proves, when it was retrieved, how it was matched and what it does not prove.
Six gates before outreach
Identity
Can the business entity, trade name and location be resolved without guessing?
Operating status
Is there current evidence the business is active—not only that a filing exists?
Digital need
Is the opportunity based on observable website, SEO or AI-discoverability evidence?
Contact eligibility
Is the contact a suitable business contact with source and verification context?
Intent
Is intent explicit and first-party, or correctly labeled as not established?
Human decision
Can a reviewer explain why this account may progress to CRM or outreach?
A defensible evidence packet
Each important field should retain the displayed value, source provider, source URL or record identifier, retrieval time, verification method, confidence state and reviewer decision. That makes correction, refresh and audit possible.
Provenance
Where the fact came from
Confidence
What is verified or uncertain
Governance
Who approved the next action
Automation boundary
Automate discovery, parsing, normalization, deduplication, technical audits, freshness checks and draft scoring. Keep humans at the points where a record changes status, becomes contact-eligible or enters an outreach sequence.
Implementation checklist
- Define source categories and their limitations.
- Store retrieval time and refresh policy per field.
- Separate digital need from purchase intent.
- Block progression when required evidence is missing.
- Record the reviewer, reason and decision timestamp.
- Retain suppression and outreach history.