When 70-80% of business comes from relationships, getting contact details wrong burns bridges permanently
Adrian Walford has used Lusha for nearly a decade. That’s forever in software years. No switching to competitors. No shopping around when renewal time hits. Just the same tool, doing the same job, reliably.
Why? The data works.
The relationship business
Adrian works across two sister companies—The Value Engineers [a global strategy, innovation, and design consultancy] and 2CV [a global market research agency] They help major brands figure out what the end customer, be it B2B or B2C actually wants, then build strategies around those insights to drive growth. Think: developing deep insight for Bremont into new & aspiring audiences for their future growth. Understanding key moments in the Cunard cruising journey. Helping Bakkavor develop a 12SKU range for Tesco. To shaping Deliveroo’s ODG strategy across key EU markets. Or defining the strategic direction for Starbucks Reserve Brand
That level of work.
Here’s the thing about brand strategy consulting: 70-80% of business comes from relationships. A CMO you worked with at one company moves to another and brings you along. A former client resurfaces three years later with a new opportunity. Trust compounds.
Adrian’s role is new business development. He finds new logos, tracks down people who’ve moved companies, and reconnects with lapsed clients. When you’re prospecting CMOs, brand directors to innovation directors—people who can greenlight six-figure projects—you need the right contact information. Not close. Not maybe. Right.
Get their number wrong and you’ve wasted an opportunity. Get it right and you might reignite a relationship worth hundreds of thousands.
What ten years of accuracy looks like
Accuracy is probably 90 to 95%… I’m pleased with it, otherwise I wouldn’t have stuck here with it that long.
Adrian started using Lusha back in 2015 or 2016. Just the Chrome extension at first—simple, focused on getting contact details while prospecting on LinkedIn. No complexity. Just reliable data when he needed it.
And it kept working.
I’ve used it now for 10 years… And yes I’ve used a few others, but I always liked Lusha.
Over the years, his territory expanded. His prospecting needs evolved. But the accuracy held steady across Europe, Asia to the US. Whether tracking down former clients or reaching out to new prospects cold, Lusha delivered the contact information he needed to make meaningful connections.
When I’m looking at telephone numbers and contacts, generally they’re pretty good… [Lusha] just allows me to get through contacts more quickly, and more accurately.
The workflow that doesn’t change
Adrian’s approach is elegantly simple: identify a prospect or lapsed client, pull their contact information through Lusha, reach out personally.
No elaborate automation. No complex sequences. Just accurate data enabling human connection.
I have it open all the time. I did a media campaign run last week… I’ll probably email 70 to 80 people, and then I’ll follow up a week later and then I’ll add more people to the mix.
He manages everything in Excel. His business is relationship-first, not process-first. And when you’re juggling new business development for two companies across multiple markets, accuracy is everything.
Out of those 50 people, typically over 90%—in the top quartile of people who I email—are correct. That’s pretty good to me. And the telephone numbers are pretty accurate as well.
Why he never left
In SaaS, ten years might as well be a lifetime. Companies pivot. Features bloat. User experiences deteriorate. Yet Adrian never looked elsewhere.
Not because he was locked in. Not because switching was too hard. But because there was never a reason to switch.
I think it’s just a great platform… I’m sure there are other ones that may be as good, but I’m quite comfortable with Lusha.
When a tool consistently delivers on its core promise—accurate contact data, day after day, year after year—you don’t replace it. You rely on it.
Recently, on a call about this case study, Adrian discovered Lusha had evolved far beyond the Chrome extension he’d been using. Features like automated list building, job change tracking, and hiring signals were all sitting there, unused.
The extension worked. The data was accurate. That was enough.
Now, as he explores the full platform, he’s finding capabilities that align perfectly with his lapsed client reactivation strategy—especially tracking former clients who’ve moved companies. But these features are a bonus.
The loyalty was already earned.
What matters
Most B2B companies miss this: loyalty isn’t built through feature releases or pricing tiers. Loyalty is built through consistent delivery of the core promise.
For Lusha, that promise is accurate contact data. For Adrian, that promise has been kept for a decade.
In an industry where relationships are everything and first impressions are irreversible, he’s trusted Lusha with his most important asset—his network—for ten years.
Not because of flashy features or aggressive sales tactics. Because when he needs to reach someone, Lusha gives him the right information 90-95% of the time.
That’s not just a statistic. That’s a decade of trust.
And in relationship-driven business development, trust is the only metric that matters.
