What a business email list actually contains
The search says email list. What a sales team needs is a way to reach someone: a name, a role, a company, a phone number that rings in the right place, and an email address when there is one. Every file is made of two kinds of line, and they are not the same product.
| Kind of line | What it holds | When it is the right choice |
|---|---|---|
| A company line | company name, address, phone number of the company or site, website, activity | you want every business of a trade in an area: every painting contractor in a state, every hotel in a city |
| A person line | first name, last name, job title, company, a phone number that reaches them, and their work email when it exists | you want a role: the finance director, the head of IT, the practice owner |
Two questions settle most disputes before they start. What exactly counts as a line? And which lines do you pay for? At Premium Data a line is billed only if it carries a phone number. A line without one is never billed, even when it is delivered.
Where business contact data comes from
There is no single source. Each one gives part of the answer, and each one has a gap.
| Source | What it gives | What it does not give |
|---|---|---|
| Company registers (Companies House in the UK, the business register in each European country) | the companies, their registered address, their activity code, their status | no phone number, no email, rarely a named contact |
| Official statistics (County Business Patterns in the US) | how many establishments there are, by industry and by area | no names at all: it is a count, not a list |
| Professional registries (the NPPES file of US healthcare providers) | named practitioners, their specialty, their practice location | only for the professions they cover |
| Map listings | the establishment, its address, its main phone line | the person behind the phone |
| Professional profiles | the person, their title, their employer | a phone number, most of the time |
A file that only uses one of these sources has the gap of that source. That is why two vendors can quote very different numbers for the same target, and both be honest: they are not counting the same thing.
Building it yourself: the steps, and where they break
You can build a business list on your own. Here is the path, and the trap at each step.
1. Write the target in plain words. Every dentist in Texas is a target. Healthcare SMBs is not: nobody can count it. 2. Count it on a register or an official table. This is the number every later step is measured against. The trap: an activity code is not a trade. A code can hold several trades, and a trade can sit under several codes. 3. Pull the companies. The trap: a company is not an establishment. A chain with forty sites is one company and forty phone lines. 4. Find the person, if you need one. The trap: titles vary. Finance director, CFO, head of finance and finance manager may or may not be the person you want. Decide before you start which titles you accept. 5. Find a phone number and an email. This is where most of the cost sits, and where most lists come back half empty. 6. Check they are still there. People change jobs, and a list starts to wear the day it is built. 7. Remove the people you already work with. Calling a current client from a cold list is the fastest way to lose trust. 8. Keep the trace. Where each line came from, and when it was checked: your prospects can ask you, and in Europe the law says they can.
It works. It takes time, several paid tools, and a method for each step. Most teams stop at step 5.
Buying one: what to check before you pay
- What is a line, in writing? Company or person, and which fields.
- What is billed? Every line delivered, or only the lines that carry a phone number?
- What happens to a wrong line? Refunded, credited, replaced, or nothing? On what proof, and within how long?
- Where does the data come from? A seller who cannot name its sources cannot help you answer a prospect who asks.
- Do you own the file? Or are you renting access that switches off when you stop paying?
- Can you remove your current clients before delivery?
How Premium Data builds a list
- Built on the day you order it, on the target you described, not pulled from an old stock.
- Three checks: the company, the person, then whether the person is still there.
- You pay only for lines delivered with a phone number, and never more than the ceiling you set.
- A wrong line is refunded, at the price you paid for it, when you show the proof: a call recording, a hard bounce, a public profile. Within thirty days of delivery.
- The file is yours. No subscription, no credits that expire.
- The count is free. We count your target in a 30 minute call, and you call one line of it with us before you pay anything.
What we do not do: lists defined by a recent event, such as a new appointment or a site opening. That is a different job, and we tell you during the call.
Browse business lists
| Browse by | What you will find |
|---|---|
| By role or trade | physicians, pharmacists, architects, finance directors, heads of IT, and the other lists we are asked for most |
| By location | businesses of a trade in a state, a region or a city |
| By company size | small businesses, mid-sized companies, and what small means in each country |
| United States | the public sources, and the rules for calling and emailing businesses |
| United Kingdom | Companies House, and the TPS and CTPS screening rules |
The rules, in two sentences per country
- United States: most business-to-business calls are exempt from the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, while commercial email follows CAN-SPAM, which makes no exception for business email. Detail on the United States page.
- United Kingdom: business calls must be screened against both the TPS and the CTPS. Detail on the United Kingdom page.
- European Union: prospecting professionals can rest on legitimate interest, provided the contact is related to their job, they are told where their data came from, and they can object at any time.