What to Say When a Prospect Asks How You Got Their Info
Tell the prospect exactly where you got their information, in one short sentence, rather than deflecting or apologizing. Most legitimate cold outreach uses publicly available sources — a company website, a professional directory, a business listing, or a public LinkedIn profile — and saying so plainly builds trust, while vague or evasive answers make people suspicious and more likely to report you.
Tell them plainly where the information came from — a public source, a directory, or a business listing — and offer to remove them if they'd rather not hear…
This question comes up constantly in cold outreach, and how you answer it matters more than most people assume. A prospect who asks isn't necessarily hostile — often they're just curious, or mildly annoyed and testing whether you'll be straight with them. The honest, specific answer almost always lands better than a dodge.
Why honesty is the better strategy, not just the ethical one
People are more forgiving of being contacted than they are of feeling misled. If you say "I found your email on your company's website" or "your listing came up when I was looking for businesses in your area that do X," that's verifiable and unremarkable — it's exactly what they'd expect a salesperson to do. If instead you're vague, change the subject, or imply a personal referral that didn't happen, you've turned a mildly annoying moment into a trust problem. People who feel lied to report the message as spam; people who feel informed usually just tell you to stop or move on.
A simple structure for the answer
- Name the actual source, briefly. "I pulled your contact from your company's public team page" or "I found you through a directory of [industry] businesses in [region]." No need to over-explain the process.
- Say why you reached out, in one line. Tie it to something specific about their business, not a generic pitch repeated verbatim.
- Offer an easy out. "If this isn't useful, just let me know and I'll take you off my list." This single sentence does more to de-escalate than anything else you can say.
What you should avoid is pretending the contact was more personal than it was ("a mutual friend mentioned you" when that isn't true), or getting defensive about the question. Both responses escalate a neutral moment into a bad one.
How this connects to compliance, not just tone
Separately from how it feels, being able to state your source matters for compliance. Most cold email rules require that your message not be deceptive about who is sending it and generally expect the sender to have a legitimate basis for contacting the recipient — a public business address reached through ordinary prospecting qualifies; information obtained through clearly improper means does not. If you can't actually say where the information came from because it wasn't obtained properly, that's a signal to fix your sourcing process, not just your script.
What this looks like in practice
| Prospect says | Weak response | Better response |
|---|---|---|
| "How did you get my email?" | "Oh, it was just floating around online" | "I found it on your company's contact page" |
| "Who gave you my number?" | Silence or deflection | "Your business is listed in a directory of [industry] companies in [area]" |
| "Did someone refer you to me?" | Implying yes when no | "No, I reached out directly — I thought your business might be a fit for X" |
What to take away
- Answer the question directly and briefly; don't deflect or imply a connection that doesn't exist.
- A specific, verifiable source (website, directory, public listing) is reassuring; vagueness is what triggers spam reports.
- Always pair the explanation with an easy opt-out — it defuses most friction in one sentence.
- Being able to honestly state your source is also a basic compliance check on your own lead sourcing process.