Waterfall enrichment isn’t about replacing your stack—it’s about making sure Lusha is the first call in it. By starting every form submission with verified enrichment, you keep friction low for prospects, maximize the quality of data for your team, and reduce dependency on patchwork solutions.
Every RevOps leader knows the trade-off: shorter forms mean more conversions, but fewer fields mean less context for sales. On the other hand, long forms give you the data you need—but at the cost of abandoned submissions.
Waterfall enrichment is how advanced teams square that circle. Instead of forcing prospects to fill every field, the workflow starts with an enrichment API call. If the system can enrich the data automatically, the form stays short. If not, only the missing fields are exposed or a fallback provider is triggered. The result? Higher conversions without sacrificing completeness.
How the waterfall works
At its simplest, a waterfall enrichment workflow looks like this:
1. Form submission starts → Prospect enters minimal info (e.g., name + business email).
2. Lusha API called first → Contact and company enrichment attempted in real time.
3. If enriched successfully → Hide remaining fields, auto-route to CRM, trigger follow-up.
4. If enrichment fails → Either:
- Expose only the missing fields to the prospect, or
- Pass the request to a fallback provider for a second attempt.
5. Lead routed → Enriched + complete data is synced to CRM/marketing automation for scoring and assignment.
Why start with Lusha
- Higher first-pass coverage: Lusha’s verified direct dials and business emails deliver a high hit rate out of the gate.
- Real-time speed: Sub-200ms API response times keep forms fast and frictionless.
- Signals baked in: Beyond core fields, Lusha can surface buying signals (like job changes or funding) that help with immediate qualification.
By leading with Lusha, you maximize the chance that your form stays short and that your sales team gets a complete, accurate record right away.
Building it in Zapier or Make
You don’t need to write custom code to set this up. A simple or Make flow can look like this:
- Trigger: New form submission (HubSpot, Salesforce, Webflow, etc.)
- Action 1: Enrich via Lusha API
- Filter: If “contact found = true,” sync enriched record to CRM → assign to rep → trigger sequence.
- Else: Route to fallback step (e.g., Clearbit, in-house DB, or expose fields in form).
What to measure
If you’re rolling out waterfall enrichment, track these KPIs to prove value:
- First-pass coverage % → % of leads fully enriched by Lusha alone.
- Form conversion rate → How many prospects submit when only short fields are shown.
- Deliverability/connect rate → Valid emails and working direct dials.
- Cost per enriched record → Compare against fallback providers to quantify ROI.
A real-world benchmark
Teams using waterfall enrichment often report 20–30% higher conversion rates on lead forms compared to static, long forms. Even more importantly, Sales gets faster access to qualified, enriched records—reducing lead-response times from hours to minutes.
Takeaway
Waterfall enrichment isn’t about replacing your stack—it’s about making sure Lusha is the first call in it. By starting every form submission with verified enrichment, you keep friction low for prospects, maximize the quality of data for your team, and reduce dependency on patchwork solutions.
Ready to see it in action? Explore Lusha API enrichment and build your first waterfall workflow today.
FAQs
Waterfall enrichment is a workflow that uses multiple data providers in sequence. Lusha is called first to enrich leads automatically, if coverage isn’t found, the workflow either falls back to another provider or prompts the prospect to manually complete missing fields.
By leading the waterfall with Lusha, you maximize first-pass coverage with verified direct dials, business emails, and company data. This keeps forms short and conversions high, while ensuring your CRM gets clean, accurate data right away.
Yes. Platforms like Zapier, Make, or n8n allow you to set up waterfall enrichment with a few clicks. Lusha provides ready-to-use integrations so you can connect form submissions to enrichment and routing automatically.
The bulk API can process up to 100 records per request. For large-scale enrichment, you can batch requests or build workflows that handle async processing.
The most important metrics are first-pass coverage (how many records Lusha enriches on its own), form conversion rate, email deliverability/connect rate, and cost per enriched record.
Not if built correctly. Lusha’s API responds in under 200ms on average, which means prospects don’t experience lag. Fallback steps only trigger if enrichment isn’t successful.
