# B2B data enrichment: how to fill in missing CRM data without creating duplicates > B2B data enrichment: what information to add, which sources and tools to use, and how to avoid duplicates in your CRM. Source: https://scalon.fr/en/blog/b2b-data-enrichment --- [← The blog](/en/blog) Guide · Prospecting Enriching your data means filling in the records you already have without creating duplicates in your CRM, rather than simply importing another file. By [Nicolas Morillot](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-morillot-22b656174/) · Co-founder of Scalon The short answer Enriching a B2B database means filling in the missing details on your CRM records (industry, headcount, address, phone number) and updating outdated ones. Find each record by its SIRET number (the French ID of a business location), then add the data with its source and date. In 2026, according to Insee (France's national statistics office), the Sirene registry supplies part of this as public data. Get the list of businesses in your market, with the contact details available: tell us which one. Published on October 23, 2026 ## In this article - What is B2B data enrichment? - What types of data enrichment are there: people or business locations? - How do you enrich your data without creating duplicates in the CRM? - What data sources can you use to enrich a B2B database? - Is data enrichment GDPR-compliant? - Enrichment tools, purchased file or custom market map: which to choose? ## What is B2B data enrichment? The database here is your CRM or the spreadsheet where your customers and prospects live. The missing information (industry, headcount, address, phone number, the contact's job title) comes from internal sources, such as your own interactions with customers and prospects, or external ones, such as a public registry or a data provider. In French, the term is "enrichissement de données." Why enrich your database? For sales and marketing teams, a complete record gets used every day. A record without an industry listed cannot be assigned to a segment. A record with no phone number is no use to any sales rep. Data enrichment therefore lets you choose who to call and launch a prospecting campaign without outdated addresses. It doesn't find new prospects: it completes the records of the ones already in your file. ## What types of data enrichment are there: people or business locations? The first type of B2B data enrichment covers people: job titles, direct email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles. Many data enrichment tools focus on this contact data. It identifies a person, so it falls under the GDPR and comes with its own obligations, detailed below. Scalon doesn't do this work. Its data covers the other category: business locations, independently of LinkedIn. A business location is a place where a company operates: a store, a workshop, or an office. A company can have several. The SIREN number (the French company ID) identifies the company (the legal unit), and the SIRET number identifies each of its locations. A single company can have several shops: one SIREN number for the company, one SIRET number for each shop. In the CRM, that's one account or several, depending on who your sales reps call. Insee's Sirene registry attaches information about the company to these IDs: - the NAF code (the French activity classification code), also called APE code, which describes the industry; - the employee headcount, which indicates the company's size; - the revenue bracket. Then add the location's contact details: its address, main phone number, generic email address, and website. These types of data are enough to segment a local market for a marketing campaign and assign each account to the sales rep responsible for managing it. ## How do you enrich your data without creating duplicates in the CRM? The risk of enrichment isn't the empty field. It's a duplicate: an account created again during import, with its own history and assigned sales rep. Database cleanup therefore happens before data is added, not after. Here is the method in five steps, starting with the expected result. **A fictional example.** Your CRM already has the restaurant "Le Bistrot des Halles," with its SIRET number but no phone number. The file you're importing contains a row with the same SIRET number and a phone number taken from the restaurant's website: add that number, its source, and its verification date to the existing record instead of creating a new account. The history and the assigned sales rep stay in place. If several rows match, or if the SIRET numbers differ, set the row aside and check which location it refers to before the import. 1. **Choose the fields to fill in.** List the missing information that is really used. For example: industry for marketing segmentation, phone number for calls, headcount to target prospecting. A field nobody uses creates unnecessary maintenance work. 2. **Choose the ID that finds the right record.** This is the matching key: the field that says "this row and this record are the same business location." The SIRET number plays this role; the SIREN number is the fallback when the company has only one location. Check the SIRET number for the location your sales reps call: it may differ from the number for the company's headquarters. In our October 2026 test, the relevant location's SIRET number differed from the headquarters' number for more than one in six companies (see "Method"). If your file doesn't have SIRET numbers yet, look them up first by checking each location's name and address ([finding a company's SIRET number](/en/blog/find-siret-number)), and set uncertain cases aside. 3. **Match before importing.** Compare the file with the CRM's accounts and contacts using this key. Then classify each row as an existing record to update, a new account, or a duplicate. [Deduplication](/en/blog/deduplicate-database) happens at this step, never after the import. 4. **Review the edge cases by hand.** A chain with several locations, two similar company names, a closed location: no automated rule can resolve these cases with certainty. 5. **Write down the source and date of each field.** This keeps the enriched data verifiable and makes it clear what to replace during the next update. With HubSpot or another CRM, the logic doesn't change. Compare the incoming file with the CRM records, then complete the records that match. For sales teams, the result shows up in reporting: one account, one history, one owner. At Scalon, the [matching key is agreed before delivery](/en/roles/revops), and the file arrives already matched to your database. **Prospecting local businesses?** Get the list for your market, your area and your target, ready to call. ## What data sources can you use to enrich a B2B database? In short: to check a location's identity and address, start with Sirene; for its phone number, generic email or website, look at the location's own website and its listing on an online map. Note the source and date each time. The first source is internal: CRM records, past communications, and customer billing data. They cost little. But these sources do not indicate when the data was last verified. The second source is open data (public data anyone can reuse). The data in the [Sirene registry from Insee](https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/6043016) is public. There are two exceptions: legal representatives, and the dates and places of birth of sole proprietors. On data.gouv.fr, the Sirene database is published under the Licence Ouverte 2.0 (France's open government license) in monthly snapshot files (a full copy of the database each month). [Insee's Sirene API](/en/blog/sirene-api), a software connection that lets your tools retrieve the data, provides the daily updates. Neither is real time. This dataset has its limits: some information isn't public or is missing, and you won't always fill every column. Understand these limits before promising accurate data: - some locations make only part of their information public ("partially disclosed" status): some fields may stay empty; - sole proprietors can object to the disclosure of their data; - the headcount range is often missing, and its value is several years out of date. The third source is the web: the location's website, its reviews, its photos, its listing on an online map. It tells you what the registry cannot: does a restaurant post its menu, and does an auto repair shop show that it is accredited? That leaves B2B data providers, who sell files or access. Evaluate a purchased file by asking two questions: where does each row come from, and how old is the data? Match your update frequency to the source's. Refreshing a field every day is pointless if the source changes it only once a month. ## Is data enrichment GDPR-compliant? Yes, under certain conditions. Publicly available data is still personal data if it identifies someone—for example, a company executive's name, a sales rep's email address, or their LinkedIn profile. The GDPR (the European data protection regulation) requires data that is "accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date" (Article 5). The CNIL (France's data protection authority) also asks organizations that reuse data not to process outdated information. It recommends APIs when possible, because they refresh data on a regular, automated basis. When the data doesn't come from the person themselves, you must inform them no later than one month after collection. An exemption exists if providing this information is impossible or requires disproportionate effort, according to the [CNIL's recommendations to reusers](https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/2024-06/recommandations_reutilisateurs_donnees_publiees_sur_internet.pdf). That leaves the legal basis. To enrich a prospecting file, the CNIL cites two GDPR legal bases: consent or legitimate interest. Legitimate interest assumes that people can reasonably expect this use. In B2B prospecting, the CNIL accepts legitimate interest when the message relates to the profession of the person being solicited. Scalon delivers business location data. The file provider and the company that uses it to prospect each have their own obligations under the GDPR: the CNIL details them for the broker who passes on contact details as well as for its customers, in its [recommendations to reusers](https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/2024-06/recommandations_reutilisateurs_donnees_publiees_sur_internet.pdf) (use case sheet No. 2). Need the list for your market? We send it with the contact details available, for the scope you choose. ## Enrichment tools, purchased file or custom market map: which to choose? The choice depends on what your database is missing. A B2B data enrichment tool completes a file you already own. It's useful when your account list is accurate but some fields are missing, especially contact details. We don't rank the best tools here: a test on your own records will tell you more than a comparison. A purchased file brings new prospects. Before importing it, ask where the data comes from, when it was collected and how the people concerned were informed. If you are also looking for new business locations, a custom market map starts from your target line of business rather than from a file. That's what Scalon does: each business location gets a score out of 100 showing how well it matches your target, along with a verdict and a written explanation. When reviewing the file, focus on the written explanation. The file is then matched to your CRM. The Essentiel plan starts at €2,000 excl. VAT per year, under a twelve-month license with one update per year; the Custom plan includes four or more. A setup fee is added in the first year: ask for a quote that specifies this fee and the total for the first year. No file guarantees a conversion rate. To evaluate the data before considering the price, you can [get a sample](/en/pricing) of 100 qualified business locations, free and with no commitment. ## Method The headquarters figure comes from a Scalon test published on October 14, 2026: we searched the Annuaire des entreprises (the French government's free business directory) for 2,420 companies whose correct SIRET numbers we already knew, using the names shown on Google. The details of the protocol and its limits are in the article [finding a company's SIRET number](/en/blog/find-siret-number). ## Sources - [Système national d'identification et du répertoire des entreprises et de leurs établissements (Sirene), Insee](https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/6043016) - [Base Sirene des entreprises et de leurs établissements, data.gouv.fr](https://www.data.gouv.fr/datasets/base-sirene-des-entreprises-et-de-leurs-etablissements-siren-siret) - [Recommandations pour les réutilisateurs de données publiées sur Internet, CNIL](https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/2024-06/recommandations_reutilisateurs_donnees_publiees_sur_internet.pdf) - [La prospection commerciale par courrier électronique, SMS-MMS et automate d'appel, CNIL](https://www.cnil.fr/fr/la-prospection-commerciale-par-courrier-electronique-sms-mms-et-automate-dappel) - [Règlement (UE) 2016/679 (RGPD), article 5, EUR-Lex](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679) - [Find a company's SIRET number by its name, for free, Scalon (October 14, 2026)](/en/blog/find-siret-number) The list for your market, your area and your target: we send it within two business days. More on this topic - [Deduplicate a customer file in Excel or Google Sheets, without AI](/en/blog/deduplicate-customer-file-excel) : Copy-ready formulas to catch duplicates, with no AI involved. - [Qualifying a B2B Prospect Database](/en/blog/qualify-b2b-prospect-database) : Quality criteria and how to check the contacts in a prospect file. - [B2B Prospect List: Build or Buy?](/en/blog/b2b-prospect-list) : Building your list from Sirene or buying one: both routes compared. [All articles →](/en/blog)