10 Best Clay Sales Automation Agencies (clay.com)

Most sales teams are drowning in banal, repetitive tasks. 

They’re manually hunting for prospects, painstakingly copying and pasting information between systems, and staying late to send follow-up emails that rarely get responses.

If you’re here, we are sure this sounds familiar. 

The harsh reality is that most sales and revenue teams waste about 60% of their time. We know it because we used to be salespeople ourselves. 

Most sales teams don’t know how to leverage modern technology and data properly, and their sales results are suffering because of it. 

Now, if you are reading this article, that means you know the power of Clay and are seeking experts to help you build your sales systems around it. 

Or, you’re observing the trend where companies are turning to Clay sales automation to streamline their prospecting efforts and build more efficient sales processes. 

To keep it short, unlike traditional sales tools that operate in silos, Clay works as the central hub system for your entire sales operation. 

The platform’s key advantages include:

1. Multi-provider data enrichment: You get access to comprehensive contact information from multiple sources through integrations 
2. AI-powered research and personalization: You can generate insights and personalized messages at scale
3. Workflow automation: You can create complex, conditional workflows without coding
4. Integration capabilities: It lets you connect with CRMs, email tools, and other sales platforms
5. Intent data utilization: You get to set up systems that identify and act on buying 
6. And much, much more. 

It’s a dynamic, no-code data platform that connects all your sales intelligence in one place and allows you to hit your total addressable market (TAM) with little manual work. 

But implementing sales workflows around Clay requires expertise. That’s where sales automation agencies come in. 

Let’s explore the 10 best Clay sales automation agencies that can transform your outbound sales process from a time-consuming nightmare into a streamlined revenue machine.

The list will include our agency, Utmost Agency. 

We will break down our entire process so that you can both understand the value of Clay and the outcomes of our service and Clay for your business.  

Let’s get started.

Note: Struggling to connect with decision-makers in your target market? We’ll run a completely done-for-you outbound campaign and automate your sales prospecting process to generate a pipeline with prospects ready to engage on autopilot. Book a 15-minute call now to discuss your unique business needs and discover our flexible packages.

10 Clay sales automation agencies to consider

Here are the top 10 Clay sales automation agencies that can help your business leverage this powerful platform to its fullest potential. 

Please note: These agencies are not ranked in a particular order

1. Utmost Agency

As salespeople in the trenches, we (Andrew and Colin) experienced firsthand the frustration of watching businesses invest heavily in outbound services and systems that prioritized “running campaigns” over operational efficiency and sustainable results. 

We worked at sales agencies where we saw client meetings end with promises that couldn’t be fulfilled through conventional approaches.

That’s how we came up with the idea of developing a comprehensive sales approach that touches on both outbound and inbound functions while combining strategic targeting with operational efficiency to deliver consistent results—ALL RUNNING ON AUTOPILOT.

Let’s break down our 4-step process and show you how we provide our clients with a fully automated and functional outbound and inbound sales system that’s consistently and predictably bringing in leads. 

Utmost Agency’s Clay-powered sales automation system

Now, Clay is at the center of the systems and workflows we build. 

As Stevie Case, CRO at Vanta, puts it: “Clay should be an essential pillar of every company’s GTM stack, enabling outbound built on the highest quality data foundation possible. Now you can automate hours of manual research so sales teams can focus on selling.”

But for us, it goes beyond the outbound sales functions. We believe what makes us successful and also sets us apart is our deep understanding of both the technical aspects of Clay and the strategic elements that make sales outreach effective. 

So, here’s what we do.

Step 1: ICP development, TAM identification, and precision targeting within Clay

We’ve learned from experience and talking to a lot of start-up owners that most businesses struggle to define their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with the precision needed for effective outbound campaigns.

That’s why our process begins by interviewing key stakeholders from your company to understand the core value of your product or service and the specific pain points you set out to solve.

We then build a central Clay database that serves as the command center for your entire outbound operation. 

Within Clay, we create smart table structures that allow us to:

• Import and analyze your existing data points

Most companies that have been in the market for some time are usually sitting on some data, no matter the source or the value; that’s where we start. 

The idea is to learn from the data you already have. 

So, we connect your CRM (through Clay’s native integration or via n8n.io), website visitors, and LinkedIn followers directly into Clay tables. 

This isn’t just about gathering data; the ICPs we find here have already engaged with your business in some way. 

So, going after them first means your campaigns start with warm intelligence rather than cold outreach. 

As well, doing so lets us better understand the ICP and how to best win them.

• Identify contextually relevant data sources

After the learning stage, we want to go all-in on your outbound campaigns. So, next, we start thinking about data sources.

For each client, we determine the most relevant external data sources based on their specific ICP and target market. 

Most of the so-called outbound experts here simply rely on popular options like Lusha, LinkedIn Sales Nav, or Apollo without doing any deep research or considering your ICP, we DON’T. 

For us, it only makes sense to use a data source if it fits your ICP and target market. 

But more often than not, the popular data source tools we just mentioned aren’t specialized enough. 

And they only provide great results if you search companies using broad search parameters like “companies in North America generating over 1 million USD YoY”. 

Once your ICP gets specific or niche, then their outputs become poor at best. 

So, here for your campaigns, we’d ask you if you currently have great customers, and then use a tool like PandaMatch.io to find lookalike ICPs. 

We love PandaMatch because it allows us to find matching ICPs down to the last detail. 

Or, we use a tool like TryTelescope.io to find super niche ICPs. It’s pretty much like ChatGPT on steroids for finding niche-specific ICPs.  

Both tools natively integrate with Clay, so it’s easy to bring all the data we scrape. 

More importantly, we know that the best place to find your ICP isn’t always on conventional “data source” tools but on industry-specific information platforms. 

For example, we had a client that offers event technology for companies that are hosting events. 

That’s a way too specific niche, and no sales data tool can provide you with the perfect ICP. Also, we had to consider the fact that the ICP’s validity is time and event-bound. 

So, for this specific ICP, we had to scrape event directories like 10times to find companies that are hosting events and then check them against the ICP.

Even here, nothing is done manually. 

When we need to scrape information from a source that we wouldn’t necessarily classify as a data source or which isn’t a tool we use, Clay’s Chrome extension or the Instant Data Scraper Chrome extension. 

With these, we pull the data directly into our Clay tables. 

• Apply multi-level filtering and enrichment

Within Clay, we create multi-layered filtering workflows that go far beyond basic criteria like company size or industry. 

For example, for our client targeting event hosts, we built Clay automations that verify if companies are actually hosting events, confirm exhibitor counts, and check for sponsor presence—all automatically.

On the other hand, we connect Clay to enrichment tools like LeadMagic.io, Hunter.io, FullEnrich, and FindYmail to populate contact information. 

At the same time, we continuously validate against do-not-contact lists, contact validity, and deliverability through integrations with services like BounceBan, DeBounce.io, and ZeroBounce.

So, at this stage, we’ll have a fully enriched Clay table with all the ICPs we are going after and the information about them. 

Now, it’s time to create the outreach messages and launch the campaigns, which takes us to the next step. 

The business outcome for you: You eliminate wasted outreach to irrelevant prospects. Your sales team reaches out only to high-potential leads who match your precise ICP criteria, and it significantly increases conversion rates and reduces sales cycle time.

Also, as you can see, every workflow and step we take is multi-layered with more than one tool to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

Step 2: Multi-channel outbound outreach automation orchestration through Clay

Where most agencies simply set up email sequences and call it a day, we build comprehensive multi-channel outreach orchestration systems that connect Clay with specialized execution platforms. 

Here is how we do it, and basically what you get:

• Automated message personalization at scale

Within Clay, we leverage ChatGPT or Claude.ai’s native integrations to generate personalized messages based on prospect data points we have sitting in our Clay table from Step 1. 

Instead of generic templates, each prospect receives messages tailored to their specific situation. 

For example, for our event software client, we created separate message pitches for events with sponsors versus those without—all automated within Clay’s workflow.

Understand that we don’t always write entire pitches with AI. Sometimes we only use AI to create parts of the message or double down on winning formats. And here are some of the replies we get from this:

So, at this stage, our Clay table is ready and filled with all-around information about each prospect and the messages for the outreach.  

• Email and LinkedIn outreach synchronization

First, email. Here, we start by checking and making sure our table includes essential fields like first name, email, company, and any personalized variables needed for the campaign. 

We then push our table from Clay to Instantly.ai and add it to the campaign. Both tools integrate, so all we do here is select the appropriate workspace, email account, and campaign we want to push leads to. 

Next, we map the Clay fields to the corresponding Instantly custom variables. Once pushed, Instantly will start sending outreach emails based on the campaign flow we’ve set up. Here is an example of campaign we are currently running. 

For every client, we are typically running several campaigns, aggregating the data different points and learning for each campaign further maximize the results.

To report results back into Clay, we add another column, select the “Instantly Campaign Status” integration, and match each lead by email. 

This pulls in live metrics like delivery status, opens, clicks, and replies, keeping your outreach loop fully automated and traceable. 

Also, our Clay workflow automatically identifies when prospects use Outlook (which has lower email deliverability) and triggers LinkedIn outreach instead to ensure no prospect falls through the cracks.

And now, automated LinkedIn outreach. 

Here again, we check all information in the table to make sure all our enriched data with the necessary LinkedIn fields like full name, job title, company, and LinkedIn profile URLs is OK. 

Since Clay and Periodix don’t have a native integration, we use n8n.io to connect the two. 

First, we create a webhook in n8n and set it to receive data from Clay. In Clay, we create another webhook and paste in the n8n webhook URL. 

We then configure the webhook to send relevant fields from the Clay table. In n8n, we set up a workflow that analyzes the incoming data, then uses the Periodix API to push leads into a LinkedIn campaign. 

We map the incoming Clay data to the Periodix contact fields, then trigger the appropriate sequence inside Periodix. 

To sync campaign performance back to Clay, we extend our n8n workflow to fetch campaign stats (e.g., connection requests sent, replies received) and call a Clay webhook to log the results in new columns for ongoing visibility.

• Cold calling enablement

Here, we prepare your internal sales team with generated contacts and enriched details (through the many integrations we mentioned earlier), conversation starters based on intent data garnered in Clay, and key insights from our outreach campaigns. 

These insights flow directly from Clay to your CRM as cold calling openers, making your sales team’s lives easier and conversations more effective.

The business outcome to you: Your prospects get consistent, relevant messaging across every channel. 

And more importantly, instead of disjointed outreach attempts or campaigns, you get a cohesive outbound sales and lead generation strategy that works naturally across email, LinkedIn, and phone.

Here is what the workflow and the tools involved looks like:

Keep in mind, nothing is set in stone. The tools to be used and the workflows all depend on your business and your growth needs.

Note: Struggling to connect with decision-makers in your target market? We’ll run a completely done-for-you outbound campaign and automate your sales prospecting process to generate a pipeline with prospects ready to engage on autopilot. Book a 15-minute call now to discuss your unique business needs and discover our flexible packages.

Step 3: Automated intent data monitoring + automated outreach

This is where our Clay expertise truly shines. While most agencies talk about “intent data,” they’re typically referring to basic article views or IP address tracking from tools like Cognism or Bambora. 

For us, intent data means information that truly ties the ICP or the buyer persona’s action, behavior, content consumption, or business dynamics to buying or needing your solution. 

The value of this workflow is that it ensures that you get the low-hanging fruit in your target market before your competitors even know they’re out there. 

Here’s the system we set up to monitor, scrape it, and reach out in real-time. 

We use a combination of tools, depending on your business, including Clay, PhantomBuster, Apify, Trigify, and n8n to create fully automated prospecting systems that help businesses identify and engage leads at exactly the right moment. 

Each tool plays a specific role in gathering data, enriching it, and triggering outreach, so your sales team can focus on closing deals instead of chasing cold leads. Here are a few scenario examples. 

• We monitor job postings for hiring signals

This is an example of how we get some of our clients here at Utmost Agency. We set up daily monitoring of job boards like LinkedIn using PhantomBuster, which acts like a digital assistant that scans the internet for relevant job listings. 

When a company posts a role like “Sales Development Representative”, we understand based on our service that it means they have needs for a sales solution and are looking to grow their sales activities. 

So, we’d want to reach out and offer them our solution of boosting their sales pipeline without adding more headcount to their team. 

Even better, their sales reps can now move away from the core, tedious sales functions and focus on closing deals. 

The point is that the information suggests they could benefit from our solution. So, we want to connect with them right then and show them how we can help. 

So, we set up PhantomBuster to scrape this data and automatically push it into Clay. Clay automation enriches leads in real time, finding key contacts like the Head of Sales or Hiring Manager and verifying their email addresses thanks to the workflow from Step 1.

Next, it (Clay) it generates a personalized message that speaks directly to their hiring challenges based on the intent data we pushed into it from PhantomBuster off personalized messages, and reaches out either through LinkedIn or Email (Step 2), we choose.

• We track funding rounds for scale-up opportunities

For clients who sell to high-growth startups or scale-ups, we monitor funding news from platforms like Crunchbase or TechCrunch. 

Understand that this is a very broad example, and the point is that when businesses are typically growing, they need solutions. 

In business terms, that means you reach fast-growing companies right when they have new capital to spend and are looking for scalable solutions.

A more specific example here is if we have a client who sells cybersecurity solutions, and we see a company in the IT space raise money, it signifies that they’ll be growing, and we will potentially need (more) cybersecurity solutions like our client’s, so we want to reach out.  

So, we do this using RSS feed readers, custom scrapers via Apify, or automated workflows built in n8n. 

When a company in your target industry secures funding, that information is sent to Clay. Clay enriches the profile with team info, company size, and tech stack to qualify the lead. 

Then, we automatically trigger outreach explaining how your product or service supports growth. Here again, this happens through the combination of the first two steps from above. 

• We set up competitor acquisition alerts for churn timing

When businesses that compete with you in your target market get acquired, some of their customers often re-evaluate vendors and look for other solutions. So, we set up our system to see this, capture it, and send it to Clay, and the workflows in Steps 1 and 2 unfold again. 

Here, we use RSS feeds and Apify to track news about your competitors. When such an event is detected, a webhook sends the alert to n8n, which relays it to Clay. 

Clay enriches the lead (e.g., who the client of your competitor is), and we launch messaging that positions your offering as a better, more stable alternative.

• We track industry-specific triggers via real-time news monitoring

In niche markets, we build custom workflows for tracking specific business signals. 

For example, for one of our clients offering AI-powered furnishing solutions, we used Apify to monitor online publications that report new real estate projects. 

When companies in the real estate business acquire new properties, it means they’ll need furnishing solutions, a perfect opportunity for our client. 

So, when a new property is announced, the data is automatically pushed into Clay, where we find the developer, enrich their contact info, and trigger a tailored outreach campaign that positions our client as a solution partner.

This way, our client stays one step ahead of the competition by identifying and reaching leads before they even start searching for solutions.

The business outcome for you: You enter sales conversations at precisely the right moment when your prospects are seeking or need your solutions. 

For your business, this timing advantage means shorter sales cycles, higher conversion rates, and deals that close at higher values because you’re addressing immediate needs.

Another way to look at this is that you’re creating a system that constantly watches the market, finds high-intent leads, personalizes the approach, and engages them with zero manual effort. 

It turns what used to be a team of SDRs into a 24/7, data-driven revenue engine.

Step 4: Automating inbound lead qualification and sales handoff with inbound-outbound outreach

Even with a steady stream of inbound leads, many businesses struggle to make the most of them. The issue isn’t getting leads—it’s what happens next. 

For most businesses we encounter, qualification is slow, inconsistent, and often disconnected from sales reality. Many still rely on manual or semi-manual qualification workflows. 

As a result, high-potential leads sit idle, reps waste time on unqualified prospects, and the opportunity to strike while the lead is warm disappears.

So, we made sure our Clay automation system extends beyond the typical outbound sales functions to facilitate inbound lead qualification as well. 

For this, we build a system that completely transforms this experience. Using tools like Clay, RB2B, Apify, n8n, and PhantomBuster, we create a fully automated engine that qualifies, enriches, and routes inbound leads to sales in real time. 

And because this system builds on the data scraping, enrichment, and outreach workflows we’ve already implemented in steps 1 and 2, the transition from “interested prospect” to “personalized sales conversation” becomes almost instant.

Here is how it works.

Inbound lead qualification and outreach automation workflow

When someone fills out a contact form, downloads a guide, or signs up for a demo, depending on the tool that captured the engagement, their data is instantly pushed into Clay using Apify or n8n. 

There’s no delay, no manual import, and no risk of leads falling through the cracks. From there, our system does something most marketing teams can’t do at scale. It enriches every lead with the same rigor and depth as our outbound prospecting workflows.

Because we’ve already built robust workflows in Clay for outbound (Steps 1, 2, and 3) that scrape job posts, monitor funding news, identify hiring managers, and personalize outreach, we can apply the same logic to inbound leads. 

This means the moment a lead comes in, we can immediately know:

• What company they’re from, how big it is, what they do, and what tech they use
• Who else is on their team, who the decision-makers are, and who we should talk to
• Whether they’ve recently raised funding, are hiring aggressively, or show other signals of urgency

Instead of building something from scratch for inbound, we simply plug your inbound traffic into the same enriched intelligence engine we use for outbound. 

That foundation not only makes inbound qualification easy but far more intelligent and effective than traditional scoring methods.

So, once the lead data is enriched, we make Clay apply a custom scoring model based on factors that matter to your business. 

We can include firmographic data (company size, industry, location), behavioral signals (like which pages they visited or whether they attended a webinar), and role-based attributes (such as seniority or department). 

But more importantly, we can weight and score each of these elements to customize the logic for each campaign.

For example, a VP of sales at a funded SaaS company who views your pricing page will instantly score as sales-qualified. Meanwhile, a junior marketer at a small services firm will be flagged for nurturing. 

This allows your sales team to focus only on high-fit, high-intent leads with no guesswork, no spreadsheets, no bottlenecks.

The best part is that once a lead is marked as sales-qualified, we don’t just hand it over; we equip your sales team to win. 

Our Clay workflow automatically generates a full lead dossier that includes everything the rep needs to know: company size, growth trajectory, decision-maker contact info, recent signals (like hiring or funding), and even LinkedIn links or social activity. 

Depending on how you assign leads, we can route them by region, vertical, seniority, or rep availability.

Each rep receives an immediate notification via Slack, CRM, or email so they can act fast while the lead is still engaged. 

And because the outreach templates we built for outbound are already live in the system, reps can launch a highly personalized, context-aware message in seconds. 

Marketing-qualified leads will be automatically added to a nurture sequence. And irrelevant leads will be filtered out without wasting a second of your team’s time.

Transforming your social engagement into sales conversations

So, your company has social pages that generate a ton of engagement.
Excellent!

One of the most underutilized inbound signals is social media engagement, especially on LinkedIn. 

We use PhantomBuster to track who engages with your posts (likes, comments, shares), then send that data to Clay. From there, our enrichment and scoring engine kicks in just like it does for form fills.

For example, if a Head of People from a 200-person company likes two of your posts about onboarding and employee retention, our system picks that up, enriches their profile, and evaluates their intent. 

If they match your ICP and show strong engagement, they’re immediately surfaced to sales with a pre-written message referencing the exact content they engaged with. If they’re not quite ready, we can drop them into a nurturing flow or send a connection request.

The value here is timing and relevance. Most teams don’t track this kind of engagement at all—and even if they do, it’s manual and slow. 

We’ve automated the entire pipeline from social interest to sales conversation, creating a new stream of warm leads that previously went unnoticed.

Note: Struggling to connect with decision-makers in your target market? We’ll run a completely done-for-you outbound campaign and automate your sales prospecting process to generate a pipeline with prospects ready to engage on autopilot. Book a 15-minute call now to discuss your unique business needs and discover our flexible packages.

2. ColdIQ

ColdIQ helps B2B companies grow by setting up and managing outbound sales systems around Clay. They’re one of the most popular Clay sales automation agencies out there.

They handle everything from setting up email infrastructure to writing messages and finding leads. 

They also use AI to personalize messages and send them at the right time, based on signals like hiring or funding news. ColdIQ offers a solid outbound service but doesn’t connect inbound and outbound as deeply as we do. 

3. The Kiln

The Kiln is a sales automation agency founded by former Clay employees. They specialize in building scalable inbound, outbound, and RevOps systems for go-to-market teams. 

They leverage a combination of tools, including Clay, to automate sales processes, ensure that marketing data becomes actionable, and that sales outreach is hyper-personalized. 

Their services include automated outbound campaigns, CRM data cleaning, and complex lead scoring, all aimed at enhancing sales efficiency and effectiveness. 

4. Sopro.io

Sopro offers a fully managed B2B prospecting service across multiple channels like email, LinkedIn, and display ads to start sales conversations for you. 

Their team builds custom campaigns using fresh data and Clay-enhanced targeting, then sends personalized messages from your company to your ideal prospects. They handle everything from strategy to execution, so your sales team can focus on closing deals.

5. OneAway.io

OneAway.io builds custom go-to-market systems for B2B companies around Clay by focusing on automating sales tasks and cleaning CRM data. 

They specialize in creating tailored workflows using Clay and Apify to reduce manual work and increase revenue. 

6. RevPartners.io

RevPartners takes a data-driven approach to Clay implementation by focusing on measurable outcomes and continuous improvement. They help clients avoid the common pitfall of underutilizing the Clay sales tool by not exploring its advanced features.

Here’s what you get with them:

• In-depth data analysis to identify opportunities
• Custom workflow development based on business objectives
• Integration with existing tech stacks
• Regular performance reviews and optimizations

7. Afonto

Afonto is a B2B sales dev agency that delivers pre-qualified leads through AI-powered cold outreach. They manage the entire process from list building and personalized copywriting to inbox management and reply handling.

Their approach includes sending over 1,000 personalized emails daily to ideal prospects, with a 28-day trial period offering a satisfaction guarantee. 

8. Sales Automation Systems

Sales Automation Systems excels at implementing Clay consulting services that provide the expertise needed to optimize your sales processes. 

Their team of Clay experts works closely with clients to understand their unique challenges and develop tailored solutions that address specific pain points.

9. Revnuu

Revnuu offers comprehensive Clay consulting services that help businesses maximize their return on investment in the platform. They take a holistic approach to sales automation, considering the entire sales process rather than just individual components.

Revnuu’s approach includes: 

• Comprehensive sales process analysis
• Custom Clay implementation strategies
• Integration with existing tools and workflows
• Ongoing support and optimization

10. LeadBird.io

LeadBird is a B2B lead generation agency specializing in performance-driven, hyper-personalized cold email campaigns as well as Clay automations to generate demos and drive growth. 

They offer a pay-per-lead model without monthly retainers to ensure you pay only for meeting-ready leads. 

Their services include dedicated account management, lead list building, campaign copywriting, and comprehensive reporting. 

Compared to our approach, LeadBird focuses only on outbound email campaigns, whereas we integrate both inbound and outbound strategies.

Transform your sales process with Clay and Utmost Agency’s expert support

Among the top 10 agencies we’ve explored, Utmost Agency stands out as the best partner for businesses looking to maximize their results with Clay. 

And compared to most companies in the space, we offer a comprehensive sales automation and lead generation approach that combines strategic targeting with operational efficiency. 

Our goal is to ensure that you get consistent, predictable leads in your pipeline through fully automated systems across both your outbound and inbound sales functions.

Also, we’re not defined by Clay or our pre-set systems. What we do is that we take a deep look at your entire sales function and automate it as much as possible.

Note: Struggling to connect with decision-makers in your target market? We’ll run a completely done-for-you outbound campaign and automate your sales prospecting process to generate a pipeline with prospects ready to engage on autopilot. Book a 15-minute call now to discuss your unique business needs and discover our flexible packages.