How CRM Data Enrichment Work for People
Configure exactly what gets enriched, when it triggers, and how LinkedIn data maps to your People fields. Under the hood, Breakcold runs a waterfall enrichment engine that finds valid B2B emails and phone numbers as powerfully as dedicated tools like FullEnrich or BetterContact.
Overview
People enrichment in Breakcold automatically pulls data from LinkedIn profiles and fills in your contact records. You control when enrichment runs (on record creation, on updates, or manually), what data points are fetched, and where each piece of data lands in your fields via field mappings.
The People record list — enrichment keeps contact data complete automatically.
What Is Waterfall Enrichment?
Waterfall enrichment is the technique the best data tools use to maximize how many valid emails and phone numbers you actually find. Instead of asking a single data provider (which might not have the contact), Breakcold queries many providers in sequence and stops as soon as one returns a valid result:
- Emails → we cascade through 20+ providers to find a valid, verified B2B email address.
- Phone numbers → we cascade through 12+ providers to find a valid mobile/phone number.
Each provider has different coverage. One might know a contact the others don't. By "waterfalling" down the list — trying provider 1, then 2, then 3, and so on until a match is found — you get a dramatically higher hit rate than any single source could deliver. This is exactly how dedicated waterfall tools like FullEnrich or BetterContact work, except it's built directly into your CRM, so there's nothing extra to connect or pay for.
Why it matters:
- Higher coverage — 20+ email sources and 12+ phone sources mean far more contacts get found than a one-provider lookup.
- Live, real-time data — every lookup is run fresh against the providers at the moment of enrichment, not pulled from a stale, months-old static database. You get the contact details as they exist today.
- Verified results — emails are validated so you're not filling your CRM with guesses or catch-all addresses that bounce.
- No extra tools — you don't need to buy and wire up a separate enrichment service; it runs natively inside Breakcold.
Enrichment Rates
Hit rate depends on the input signal you give Breakcold:
What you want | Signal you need on the record | Typical hit rate |
|---|---|---|
Phone number | LinkedIn URL of the person | 75%+ |
B2B email | Full name + company website URL | 70%+ |
The more accurate the input signal (LinkedIn URL for phones, full name + website for emails), the higher the match rate. Records missing these signals will enrich at lower rates.
You Only Pay for What We Find
Waterfall enrichment is pay-per-result. You are only charged when a valid email or phone number is actually found and returned. If none of the 20+ email providers (or 12+ phone providers) return a valid result, you pay nothing for that lookup. There's no charge for empty searches — so running enrichment broadly across your list carries no wasted cost.
Step 1 — Access the People Enrichment Settings
- Go to Settings → Enrichment. This is the global enrichment settings page where People and Company enrichment are both enabled.
- Under Automatic Enrichment Settings, click Open settings next to People to open the People-specific enrichment configuration.
The global Enrichment Settings page — click "Open settings" next to People to configure enrichment triggers, targets, and field mappings.
The People Enrichment Settings Page
The People Enrichment page is divided into three sections: Automatic Enrichment (when it triggers), Enrich Targets (what data to fetch), and Field Mappings (where the data lands).
The People Enrichment page — configure automation triggers, enrichment targets, and field mappings all in one place.
Automatic Enrichment Triggers
You can set enrichment to fire automatically under two conditions:
Trigger | When it fires | |
|---|---|---|
Enable on new person | Auto-triggers enrichment as soon as a new person record is created. | |
Enable on person updates | Auto-triggers enrichment when tracked fields (like LinkedIn URL or email) are updated on an existing person. | |
Both triggers can be toggled on or off independently. For each trigger, you also control which data points to enrich and their token cost: | ||
Enrichment target | Token cost | What it fetches |
---- | --- | --- |
Work Email | 1000 tokens | Professional email address (found via 20+ provider waterfall, charged only when found) |
Personal Email | 4000 tokens | Personal email address when available |
Phone | 8000 tokens | Phone number associated with the profile (found via 12+ provider waterfall, charged only when found) |
Search LinkedIn | 1000 tokens | Find LinkedIn profile URL |
Person metadata | 0 tokens | LinkedIn profile data (headline, bio, location, company, and more) |
Enrichment triggers and targets — toggle each data point on or off for both "on new person" and "on person updates" triggers independently. |
Field Mappings — Core Profile Data
Field mappings define how LinkedIn profile attributes are written into your Breakcold fields. Each row maps a source attribute (from LinkedIn) to a target field in Breakcold.
The core profile fields available include:
- Full Name → mapped to Name
- First Name / Last Name → map to custom fields (or create a new field directly from this page)
- LinkedIn Headline → mapped to Job Title
- Bio → mapped to Bio
- Location → mapped to Location
- LinkedIn URL → mapped to LinkedIn
- Work Email → mapped to Email
- Personal Email → configurable
- Phone → mapped to Phone
- Avatar URL → mapped to Record Avatar
The Field Mappings table — each LinkedIn attribute is matched to a destination field in Breakcold. Click "Select target field" to assign unmapped attributes.
Tip — If a field doesn't exist yet in Breakcold, you can click "Select target field" → "Create new field and map" to create it on the spot without leaving this page.Field Mappings — Company & Extended Data
Beyond core profile fields, enrichment also pulls in company-related and social data from the LinkedIn profile:
- Company Name → links to the associated Company record's Name field
- Company Domain → maps to the Company's Website field
- Company LinkedIn URL → maps to the Company's LinkedIn field
- Company Description, Industry, Headcount, Logo URL → configurable mappings
- Country Code, Pronoun → configurable
- Is Open To Work, Is Hiring, Current Position, Current Company → configurable
Extended field mappings — company info pulled from LinkedIn profiles can be mapped directly to related Company record fields in Breakcold.
Field Mappings — Rich LinkedIn Data
Breakcold also exposes the full set of structured LinkedIn data for mapping into custom fields. These are more detailed attributes that most CRMs don't surface:
- Experiences — work history from the LinkedIn profile
- Educations — academic background
- Skills — skill list from the profile
- Languages — languages spoken
- Licenses and Certifications
- Interests, Honors and Awards, Volunteer and Awards
- Verifications, Promos, Publications, Patents
- Courses, Test Scores, Organizations, Recommendations
Rich LinkedIn data — map structured profile sections like Experiences, Skills, and Education into custom fields on your People records.
Custom fields for rich data — Rich attributes like Experiences and Skills are textarea types. To use them, create a custom Text Area field on your People object and map it here.Frequently Asked Questions
What is waterfall enrichment?
Instead of relying on one data provider, Breakcold queries many in sequence and stops at the first valid result — 20+ providers for B2B emails and 12+ for phone numbers. This "waterfall" approach delivers a much higher hit rate than any single source, the same method used by dedicated tools like FullEnrich and BetterContact, built natively into your CRM.
Is the data live or from a static database?
Live. Every lookup runs in real time against the providers at the moment of enrichment, so you get current details rather than stale data from a months-old static list.
How much does enrichment cost — do I pay for failed lookups?
You only pay when a valid email or phone number is actually found. If no provider returns a result, that lookup is free. There's no charge for empty searches.
What hit rate can I expect?
Around 75%+ for phone numbers when the person's LinkedIn URL is on the record, and 70%+ for B2B emails when you have the full name and the company website URL. Better input signals produce higher match rates.
What is the primary enrichment signal for a Person?
The LinkedIn URL is the primary signal Breakcold uses to enrich a person record. Having an accurate LinkedIn URL on the record is essential for enrichment to work correctly — and it's the key signal that drives the 75%+ phone hit rate.
Can I enrich only specific fields and not others?
Yes. The enrich targets toggles let you pick exactly which data points to fetch (Work Email, Personal Email, Phone, LinkedIn, Metadata) for each trigger independently.
What if a target field doesn't exist in my object?
Click "Select target field" in the mappings table, then choose "Create new field and map" to create the field directly from the Enrichment settings page.
Does enrichment run again if I update the LinkedIn URL on an existing record?
Yes — if "Enable on person updates" is toggled on, updating a tracked field like the LinkedIn URL will re-trigger enrichment automatically.
Can I map LinkedIn data to Company record fields?
Yes — Company Name, Domain, LinkedIn URL, and other company attributes pulled from the person's LinkedIn profile can be mapped directly to fields on the associated Company record.
How do I use rich data like Experiences or Skills?
Create a custom Text Area field on your People object (Settings → Records → People → Fields → + Add Field), then come back to the Field Mappings table and assign that field as the destination for the attribute.
Updated on: 10/08/2026