List Quality Scorecard

List Quality Scorecard

A CSV of 5,000 leads is not the same as a good list of 5,000 leads. This skill grades your list across 8 dimensions BEFORE you send, catching preventable waste.

Why this exists

The three campaign failure modes cold email runners hit most:

1. Bad list — the copy doesn't matter when you're emailing the wrong people
2. Unverified emails — bounces burn domain reputation
3. ICP drift — you think you're targeting VPs, but the list is mostly Managers

Each of these is catchable before you send, in 5 minutes, for free.

Inputs

A CSV with at minimum these columns:

• email — the primary email
• first_name, last_name
• job_title OR title
• company_name OR company
• company_domain (optional, derived from email if missing)
• company_industry (optional, used for ICP fit scoring)
• company_headcount (optional, used for ICP fit scoring)

Output

A markdown scorecard with:

• Letter grade (A+ to F)
• 8 dimension scores (each 0-100)
• Top 5 issues to fix
• Pre-send checklist

Usage

npx tsx scripts/score-list.ts --list=leads.csv --icp-file=client-profile.yaml --out=scorecard.md

Optional --icp-file lets the scorecard compare your list against your declared ICP filters (from /icp-onboarding).

The 8 dimensions

1. Email verification coverage (critical)

• What: % of emails validated via MillionVerifier or equivalent
• Rule: 100% of a cold list must be verified before sending. Unverified emails = bounces = dead domains.
• Score: 100 if all verified, 0 if 5% is a problem
• Score: 100 at 0%, drops linearly

3. Duplicate domain rate

• What: max # of leads from any single domain
• Rule: 1-2 leads per domain ideal. 5+ suggests you're over-indexing on one company.
• Score: 100 if avg 5

4. Title relevance

• What: % of titles matching your ICP's job title list
• Rule: Exact-match + synonym list. If 40% of your "VP Sales" list is actually "Sales Manager", you have drift.
• Score: 100 if ≥80% match, 50 if 40-80%, 0 if 10% means your Prospeo filter is too loose
• Score: 100 if 15%

7. ICP fit

• What: % of leads matching your client-profile.yaml filters on industry + headcount
• Requires: --icp-file passed
• Rule: 80%+ match, 100 if exact

8. Name quality

• What: % with both firstname AND lastname populated AND looking human
• Checks: Not all-caps, not fake names ("Admin", "Info"), not email-as-name
• Rule: 95%+ acceptable
• Score: 100 if 95%+, drops linearly

Letter grade mapping

Weighted average across 8 dimensions (verification and ICP fit weighted 2x):

| Average | Grade | Action | |---|---|---| | 90-100 | A+ / A | Ship it | | 80-89 | B | Minor fixes, then ship | | 70-79 | C | Fix top 3 issues first | | 60-69 | D | Serious cleanup required | | 5 each) — cap at 3 per domain

1. 258 leads outside declared industry filter (12%) — filter by company_industry

Pre-send checklist: [ ] Deduplicate by email [ ] Drop catch-all if >5% (reduces bounce rate) [ ] Filter out bad titles [ ] Cap per-domain concentration [ ] Re-run verifier if list shrunk >10%

## When to use

- AFTER list-building skills (`/prospeo-full-export`, `/blitz-list-builder`, `/google-maps-list-builder`, `/disco-like`)
- AFTER email waterfall (`/email-waterfall`)
- BEFORE Smartlead upload

## When NOT to use

- On a list of <100. Sample too small for reliable stats.
- On a fully static list (same every send). Check once, reuse.

## Scripts

- `scripts/score-list.ts` — the main scorecard

## What to do next

**If grade ≥ B:** `/campaign-copywriting` to write the emails. Then `/smartlead-campaign-upload-public` to launch as DRAFT.

**If grade < C:** fix the top 3 issues (from scorecard output), re-run this skill until grade ≥ B. Don't upload a C-grade list — bounces and low reply rates will damage domain reputation.

**Or wait:** if large fixes are needed (missing email verification, 30%+ bad titles), address those BEFORE spending more on email-finding or enrichment.

## Related skills

- `/icp-prompt-builder` — more surgical ICP fit scoring (AI per-company)
- `/icp-onboarding` — produces the `client-profile.yaml` this skill checks against
- `/email-waterfall` — run BEFORE this skill for verification coverage

## The 1% rule alignment

A list that scores below C-grade is very likely to produce reply rates below 1%, which violates the 1% rule (see `/email-deliverability-audit`). Catching list issues here saves you the deliverability hangover later.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [growthenginenowoslawski](https://github.com/growthenginenowoslawski)
- **Source:** [growthenginenowoslawski/coldoutboundskills](https://github.com/growthenginenowoslawski/coldoutboundskills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.