Data is the fuel for your sales team’s success. You need contact data to find prospects, intent data to prioritize leads, and technographics and firmographics to determine who to contact that fits your target ICP. All your marketing and sales efforts start with being able to reach people.
Since data is integral and your revenue depends upon it, you’ll want the best there is – and that means pairing with trusted B2B data providers. But what should you be looking for as you shop around?
Here’s a list of five things you should know before selecting your B2B data provider.
1. Quality is Key
Don’t be fooled by marketing tactics, like boasting a huge database as the main reason to choose them. You’ll want to evaluate much more than the number of data points the provider has.
If there is only one thing you want your B2B data provider to excel at, it’s accuracy. The size of the database means very little if it’s not usable. Machine processed, out-of-date, missing fields, or hidden behind additional paywalls— you don’t want to pay for data that provides no value to you. If a database has 1,000 contacts for a company with only 250 employees, you’re not getting more bang for your buck. You’re getting inaccurate data to dig through.
While it’s impossible to guarantee 100% accuracy with contacts changing job titles, locations and companies, reasonable B2B data providers should reach as close to that number as possible. At SalesIntel, our contacts are human-verified. We email and call the contacts in our database to confirm their information is accurate and then reverify our info every 90 days, giving us 95% data accuracy.
If you’re still worried about the size of the database, you don’t need to worry. If we don’t have the information you need, we’ll find it for you through our Research-on-Demand feature.
2. Cold Calling Is Not Dead
While email still reigns supreme when it comes to initial sales outreach, there’s still a lot to be said about a phone call. Your sales team can personally connect with prospects, understand their pain points, and make customized solutions right away, as opposed to an email that may be sent to junk mail or ignored.
However, your sales team will struggle if they don’t have any numbers to dial. Many B2B data providers have gaps, leaving phone fields blank or filling them with the generic line for the company’s HQ – which may be sitting empty as many continue to work remotely. Getting to the decision-maker can become a huge struggle and cause call reluctance for sales.
Make sure your sales team can dial decision-makers directly. Not only will you save valuable time, but you’ll also increase your chances of deals moving forward in the sales process. As you shop around, ensure direct dial and mobile numbers are included with your solutions package and aren’t an expensive add-on from the provider. Don’t make any assumptions about what your package includes.
With SalesIntel, you can identify, dial, and connect with prospects based on the tech tools they use or have the intent to buy. This helps you avoid cold calling and contact only the prospects with a higher possibility of converting into your customer.
3. A Test Drive Is Critical
When B2B data providers are confident in their solution, you should be able to take it for a test drive. No matter which B2B data providers you consider, they should encourage or at least offer an opportunity to test and sample their data before purchasing their solution. Being forced to go in blindly is a red flag. You should be cautious. There is no way to confirm their data accuracy claims without trying it for yourself.
Sometimes it’s a live personalized demo, a week-long trial, or maybe a freemium solution where you have some free credits to work with. With SalesIntel, we offer access to our B2B data with our free Chrome extension RevDriver. With RevDriver, you can access our contact data while on LinkedIn or while browsing company websites – jumpstarting your prospecting ability.
4. Read Before You Sign
If it sounds too good to be true— it probably is. Your B2B data provider should be honest and transparent with you about what you can expect from your partnership together.
The last thing you would want is legal trouble because of the data you’re using. Double-check that the provider’s data is compliant with all laws regarding data usage. Your data provider should have detailed records of how they collect their data and what it can be used for.
Also, before you sign on the dotted line, you’ll want to check the fine print on your contracts. Certain B2B data providers may try and force you to delete their provided data if you switch vendors in an attempt to hold you hostage. They also may have you give extensive advance notice to prevent auto-renewal, leading to costly fees if you choose to cancel. You don’t want any surprises if you decide to change in the future.
5. Listen To Reviews
What are people saying about your provider of choice? You’ll want to check your provider has a good track record of providing exceptional customer service and rapid fixes. Often an issue can put your entire team on hold, so you want to ensure that you’re treated as a priority.
Read reviews on sites like G2, Capterra, TrustPilot. Are customers generally happy and satisfied? You’ll be able to see a first-hand account of the experience after the deal is closed and the honeymoon is over. Do they deliver on their promises? Even if you’re a smaller company, you’ll want a guarantee that you can talk directly to someone and get your sales team back to work as quickly as possible.
Don’t Ignore The Best Choice
The high quality of our human-verified data, along with our excellent customer service, has enabled our customers to reach new prospects they would not have otherwise. Get the support system your team needs to improve efficiency and achieve revenue growth.
Try SalesIntel to gain access to millions of human-verified B2B contacts and maximize the value of your data with features such as buyer intent signals, data enrichment, technographic and firmographic filters, and more!
