Do you believe people searching is Googling with style? It might be time to upgrade that thinking. Platforms like LinkedIn only show about 30% of a person’s online footprint, while email formats aren’t standardized, even within the same company.
Tools that surface org charts, tech stack signals, or internal hiring patterns? That’s where the action happens.
Contact finding is stitching together obscure and hidden data points – like subdomain clues or cached team pages – to surface the right John Smith from 17 lookalikes. It’s digital reconnaissance, not digital intrusiveness.
The flow of finding folks
If you’ve been watching closely, the true people search landscape has shifted in just the past five years. According to recent research, the average business professional conducts 17 people searches per month. That’s a lot of digging for details that should, theoretically, be easy to find.
The true genius of people searching comes from knowing which specialized tools to use for which specific purpose.
Tool highlight
Wiza
Wiza has emerged as one of the standout tools for finding accurate business contact information:
- Wiza specializes in finding verified email addresses and phone numbers, particularly useful when you’re trying to connect with potential clients or partners.
- It integrates smoothly with LinkedIn and can pull contact details from profiles even when they’re not publicly displayed.
The data we’re leaving out in the open
Your professional online presence leaves approximately 15 times more trackable data than your personal accounts.
Why?
Because professional networks, industry publications, conference attendee lists, and business registrations are all publicly accessible and frequently updated.
The bread and butter of effective people searching lies in understanding the interconnected nature of professional data.
When someone updates their job title on LinkedIn, they also typically update their company email signature, professional association membership, and sometimes even their personal social media to reflect the change. Each update creates a new data point that makes them more findable.
The ethical wrestle of professional searching
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: ethics. When does legitimate professional research cross the line into something more problematic?
The generally accepted standard among business professionals is the “public professional information” boundary. This means:
- Fair game: Business email addresses, professional social media profiles, published work content, conference participation, and company directories.
- Questionable territory: Address history, family member information, and financial details.
The tool for the job
Hunter.io
Hunter represents an ethical approach to contact finding:
- The platform focuses exclusively on finding business email addresses based on company domain names and professional roles, steering clear of personal information entirely.
- It also provides transparency through its confidence score and source references for each email address, allowing users to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of the data before using it. This promotes responsible outreach and reduces the risk of spam or privacy violations.
Zeroing in on value
One of the lesser-known challenges in professional people searching isn’t finding information – it’s verifying it. With approximately 30% of professional contact details becoming outdated every year, even the most thorough search can lead to dead ends.
A tool that comes in handy
Clearbit excels at cross-referencing information from multiple sources to provide verification scores for contact details:
- Higher scores indicate a greater likelihood of accuracy, saving professionals from the embarrassment of reaching out to outdated contacts.
- It also enriches contact profiles with firmographic data – such as company size, industry, and tech stack – helping sales and marketing teams better segment their outreach and personalize messaging.
The patterns that turn into results
The flavor of effective people searching lies in how you structure your search.
- Start broad, then narrow: Begin with general professional information before focusing on specific details.
- Cross-reference multiple sources: Never rely on a single platform or database.
- Use time-bounded searches: Looking for information published within specific time frames.
- Leverage professional adjacency: Find people through their colleagues, conference participation, or industry associations.
Searches across borders
What works for finding professionals in North America often fails completely in places like Japan, where business card exchanges remain the primary mode of contact sharing, or Germany, where privacy laws create significant barriers to publicly available information.
A tool for global searches
For international business research, ZoomInfo provides some of the most comprehensive global business contact information (at a premium price point):
- Their database spans over 100 countries and includes verification processes tailored to regional information standards.
- It also offers filtering by location, industry, job title, and company size – making it easier to segment and target the right prospects in global markets.
Building your search methodology
The mark of a researcher lies in developing a systematic approach that yields a consistent ROI. Here’s a framework used by many business development professionals:
- Define exactly what you need (contact information, professional history, current role details, etc.).
- Identify the most likely primary sources for that information.
- Prepare alternative search paths when primary sources fail.
- Establish verification protocols for any information found.
- Document your successful search paths for future reference.
This methodology has shown victory in niche B2B contexts – like account-based sales or sourcing for hard-to-fill roles – where identifying mid-level decision-makers can lead to faster engagement and higher response rates.
In these instances, targeting the overlooked connectors within an organization often proves more impactful than going straight to the top.
It’s called purposeful search
Did you know some companies purposely conceal their email formats or certain contacts behind dynamic web elements to dodge automated scrapers? Tracking purposeful search means learning to spot smokescreens and using tools like subdomain sniffers or tech stack analyzers to peek behind the curtain.
Plus, with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA tightening the screws, ethical searching is a survival skill. The best searchers know that sustainable success comes from respecting boundaries, while still unearthing the professional data that drives deals and recruitment wins.
Aim to know when to dig and reorient, and how to leverage the abnormal cues.
Your mission?
To find the right contacts with legal finesse.
Frequently asked questions and answers
Are paid people search tools really worth the investment for professional use?
For consistent professional needs, yes. Free tools often provide outdated or incomplete information, while premium services like Wiza, ZoomInfo, and Clearbit offer verification features and integration capabilities that justify the cost through time savings and increased accuracy.
How often should I verify contact information before using it?
Best practice suggests verifying contact information that’s more than three months old, especially for high-value business communications. For critical communications, verification immediately before use is recommended regardless of when the information was obtained.
What’s the most common mistake professionals make when conducting people searches?
Relying on a single source or platform. Professional researchers consistently find that cross-referencing information across multiple specialized tools yields significantly more accurate results than deep diving into a single platform, no matter how comprehensive it claims to be.
How do I stay compliant with privacy regulations when conducting people searches?
Focus exclusively on professional, publicly available information. Document your information sources and purpose for collecting the information. When in doubt, consult your organization’s privacy policies or legal team, especially when operating across international boundaries where regulations differ significantly.
What’s the appropriate way to reference how I found someone’s contact information when reaching out?
Transparency builds trust. A simple “I found your contact information through [professional source]” acknowledges your research without making the person feel like they’ve been extensively investigated. Avoid mentioning multiple sources or detailed search methods, which can create discomfort.
One Response
Very informative article and review!