How to Automate Outbound Sales (With a Data API and Four Requests)

Outbound automation is a list problem first and a sending problem second. Get a clean, sized, mailable list from an API and the rest is plumbing. This guide builds the list half in four requests.

TL;DR

• Four requests: size the audience (free), search people, look up work emails, export or hand off to your sender.
• First run takes about an hour. Reruns are one script.
• It spends about 35 LeadOcean records on the Free plan (1,000 records for life, no card).

Prerequisites

• A LeadOcean API key from the free plan, stored as $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY. Free gives you 1 key and 5 requests a second.
• curl and jq.
• A sender you already use (a sequencer, n8n, or your own SMTP). LeadOcean is the data layer. It has no sequencer, dialer or CRM.

export LEADOCEAN_API_KEY="your-key-here"

Step 1: Size the audience before you spend anything

Send the search with count=true as a query parameter and limit=1. It returns a total and no rows, so it costs nothing. meta.total is capped at 100,000.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search?count=true&limit=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jobLevel": ["VP"],
    "jobFunction": ["Sales & Business Development"],
    "country": ["CA"]
  }' | jq '.meta'

Filters are arrays, the body is flat JSON, and enum values are exact strings. Check a value first with GET /v1/enums (or leadocean_list_enum_values over MCP) instead of guessing.

If the number is too big, add a filter. If it is zero, you misspelled an enum.

Step 2: Pull the people

Same body, no count, and a limit between 1 and 100. Start with 25 so the test spends 25 records.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jobLevel": ["VP"],
    "jobFunction": ["Sales & Business Development"],
    "country": ["CA"],
    "limit": 25
  }' > page1.json

jq '.meta' page1.json

For the next page, pass meta.nextCursor as cursor. One search pages to 10,000 rows. When meta.depthCapped is true there is no nextCursor: narrow the filters instead of walking the index.

Step 3: Get a work email for the people you will contact

Search finds the person. The contact endpoints return the address. Call GET /v2/people/email/work for each person you plan to email, with the person_id each search row carries at meta.source_ids.person_id.

curl -s "https://api.leadocean.io/v2/people/email/work?person_id=PERSON_ID" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY"

The endpoint also takes linkedin_url instead (openapi.json, October 2026). The answer is data.email, data.status and data.verified_batch_date, or data: null when no address qualifies. Each v2 contact call costs one record, including a call that finds nothing, so test on 10 people first.

Read the status before you send. LeadOcean does not refund or credit back bounces. Mail verified and catch_all_valid. Treat catch_all, risky, role and derived with care. Drop invalid, spam_trap, abuse and disposable.

Step 4: Export or hand off to your sender

For a few hundred people, loop Steps 2 and 3 from a script. For a big list, use a bulk export: up to 50,000 rows a request and 500,000 a day. Bulk CSV export is not on Free.

curl -s -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/exports" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "vp-sales-ca",
    "filters": {
      "jobLevel": ["VP"],
      "jobFunction": ["Sales & Business Development"],
      "country": ["CA"],
      "emailStatus": ["verified", "catch_all"]
    },
    "limit": 5000,
    "preset": "full"
  }' | jq '.data | {id, status, requested}'

The body is filters, limit and a preset or columns list. The full preset carries up to 3 emails and 2 phones and needs the enrich scope. Poll GET /v1/exports/{id}, then fetch GET /v1/exports/{id}/download. You can also build the same export in the app at app.leadocean.io: filter builder, column picker and a price preview before you start.

To run it on a schedule, put the Step 2 request in an n8n HTTP Request node. The recipe is on the n8n integration page. Your sender takes it from there.

What you get

The sizing call in Step 1 is free over MCP too. This is leadocean_count_leads on 2026-10-21 for the same filters:

{
  "total": 5574,
  "totalIsExact": true,
  "totalAll": 18800,
  "distinctCompanies": 3873,
  "credits": 0
}

total counts mailable addresses only (verified, catch_all_valid or catch_all), the default. totalAll is the same filters with no email condition. VP-level sales leaders in Canada: 5,574 you can mail, across 3,873 employers.

A search response has this shape (response shape from the API reference, placeholder values):

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "profile_data": { "profile_full_name": "Jane Doe" },
      "contact_data": { "has_email": true, "email_status": "verified" },
      "meta": { "source_ids": { "person_id": "1234567890" } }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": 25,
    "limit": 25,
    "credits": 25,
    "nextCursor": "CURSOR_TOKEN"
  }
}

Troubleshooting

FAQ