How to Buy Cell Phone Numbers List for B2B Outreach

In B2B sales, the ability to reach decision-makers quickly and efficiently can make or break your outreach efforts. However, getting past gatekeepers within an organization can be exhausting, and waiting for prospects to respond to cold emails is a surefire way to miss your revenue targets. 

Primarily due to the rise of remote and hybrid work, decision-makers have become increasingly mobile and harder to reach through traditional channels (work phones, email, etc.). As a result, cell phone numbers have emerged as a critical tool for effective prospecting. These direct lines of communication can dramatically improve your ability to connect with potential customers, nurture leads, and ultimately close business.

However, acquiring and utilizing cell phone numbers for your outreach requires a careful balance of data quality, legal compliance, and thoughtful planning. 

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about effectively purchasing and using cell phone number lists in your outreach to ensure that your prospecting efforts are powerful and professional. 

Key Considerations Before Buying Lists of Cell Phone Numbers

Buying a cell phone numbers list is a bit murky and fraught with potential risks; however, the rewards of connecting with more decision-makers are well worth the effort. When buying a cell phone number list, choosing the right provider can mean the difference between seeing success and ROI or angry “no’s” and even lawsuits.

Before you make any purchases, you should aim to gather as much information as you can about your future provider, including: 

Data Accuracy & Recency: 

On average roughly 30% of the total U.S. total workforce changes jobs every year. This makes the accuracy and recency of the phone numbers (or any B2B contact data for that matter) critical to the success or failure of your campaigns. A poorly maintained phone list will have you wasting time, energy, and resources calling folks who have moved companies, been promoted, or are no longer in the market for your solutions. To combat this, look for a data provider that uses rigorous verification processes and update processes to maintain the accuracy and currency of their data.

Privacy Compliance: 

In a world of increasing consumer privacy, compliance with local and global protection laws is non-negotiable. Failure to comply with regulations can irreparably damage your brand image and result in millions in fines. Choose providers that are transparent about their compliance measures. In general, providers that do comply with any regulations will provide clear statements and documentation on how they ensure their data adheres to all relevant regulations. Here are a few to look out for: 

• TCPA and CAN-SPAM Act: Verify that the provider complies with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and CAN-SPAM Act. These regulations govern how businesses can contact individuals on their mobile devices and require specific permissions and opt-out mechanisms.
• GDPR and CCPA: These two regulations apply if you’re dealing with international clients or residents of California specifically, you have to make sure your provider’s data complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These regulations determine how the sale, handling, and use of personally identifiable information (like a cell phone number) can be used by a business. 

Targeting & Filtering: 

To get the most out of your cell phone number list, you should be calling buyers that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). To achieve this, look for a provider that offers segmenting capabilities such as industry, job titles, company size, geographic region, etc. Most providers do have some degree of filtering. Some providers upcharge for filtering and some include it with the price of the subscription, so dig around and explore which provider has exactly what you need to be successful.

Provider Reputation: 

Buying a cell phone number list is an exercise in trust. You’re staking your company’s reputation, time, and money on a provider delivering on their promise. In your search for the right b2b data provider, look for those with a proven track record of delivering high-quality data and ongoing support even after the sale. Review websites like G2, Capterra, Realreviews io and Trust Radius are good places to start, but also read through a company’s case studies to see how they’ve helped companies like yours. Reach out to your professional network for information from colleagues or acquaintances who have worked with a specific provider previously.

Pricing: 

Of course, we’re always proponents of quality over everything, but realistically, budgets are a large factor in any purchase decision. When looking to onboard any potential provider, ask about or research their pricing plans. Do they charge a flat monthly fee for unlimited access? Is their pricing tiered or usage-based? Do they charge extra for integrations or specific use cases? All of these questions will help you understand if they will be a good fit for your needs as your company continues to grow.

Top 5 Providers of B2B Cell Phone Number List

Now that we’ve established what separates the good from the bad, here are a few top providers of cell phone number list you can utilize for B2B outreach: 

1. SalesIntel

Overview: SalesIntel provides a high-quality database of privacy-compliant B2B cell phone number list, enriched with human-verified data. SalesIntel offers detailed firmographic filters like company size, revenue, employee count, location, funding, and more that vastly improve the prospecting process. SalesIntel also provides intent data to help you identify the perfect time to reach out.

Pricing: Plans start at $69/month for individual licenses and $199/month for teams. SalesIntel also offers custom pricing plans for large teams working at scale.  

Key Features: 95% accurate human-verified data, technographic information, intent insights, seamless CRM integration, research-on-demand team for more targeted lists, and a 4.3-star rating on G2.  

2. Data Axel Genie

Overview: Data Axel Genie provides access to millions of B2B contacts from public sources, other data providers, user-submitted data, and proprietary research. Data Axel also offers advanced targeting features including title, credit rating, zip code, and more that make forming connections with potential prospects incredibly easy.

Pricing: Pricing starts at $149/month, but they also offer custom pricing and a free trial.

Key Features: Email and direct mail integrations, in-house creative, PPC, and telemarketing services for those looking to outsource their campaigns. 

3. ZoomInfo

Overview: ZoomInfo’s B2B database provides access to over 209 million professional profiles and 13 million business profiles with demographic and firmographic traits such as name, job title, company name, location, and more.

Pricing Plans: ZoomInfo does not publicly share its pricing, however various (unconfirmed) sources around the internet have stated pricing ranging from $7,000-15,000/year.

Key Features: Access to organizational charts, direct dial phone number list, intent data, and alerts for company changes.

4. RocketReach

Overview: RocktReach provides a robust B2B database with more than 4.5B records. RocketReach offers some unique filtering capabilities including prospects’ education, years of experience, role, department, or skills (most likely scraped from social media). The platform also uses AI to continuously scan multiple sources to verify and maintain the accuracy of its contact data.

Pricing: RocketReach does offer a free trial, then plans that include phone number (not just email) start at $108/annually.

Key Features: Email addresses are included with all pricing tiers, unlimited annual lookups, and extensive integrations with all the popular sales intelligence tools and CRMs.

5. Cognism

Overview: Cognism provides a phone-verified, privacy-compliant cell phone database with millions of contact records across NAM, EMEA, and APAC markets with a claimed 87% accuracy rate.

Pricing: Cognism does not publicly share its pricing models, however, according to its website, it does offer at least two different pricing packages “Platinum” and “Diamond” (with Diamond being the higher of the two tiers). 

Key Features: Phone-verified contact data, international data coverage, advanced search, and filtering capabilities, as well as GDPR and CCPA compliance.

Best Practices for Using Cell Phone Numbers in B2B Outreach

Once you’ve chosen your provider and secured your list of cell phone numbers, now the real work begins. 

Here are some best practices to follow to maximize the effectiveness of your outreach: 

Personalize Your Outreach: By now, this should be a given for any prospect outreach, but especially if you’re taking the time to call decision-makers on the phone. Make sure you research the company and contact before reaching out (not during the call). 

Use the prospect’s name and reference relevant details about their company, industry work history, and interests to tailor your pitch to address specific pain points or opportunities you’ve identified. This will help show that you’ve done your homework and understand their business context. You should also have a clear and concise value proposition ready as well as answers to common objections or questions.

Lead with Value: This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point – every interaction you have with your prospect should offer value. Share insights, industry trends, case studies, webinars, or other useful content that can help them solve their business challenges. 

Focusing on building long-term relationships and demonstrating a genuine interest in their success rather than just making a quick sale will help solidify you as a trusted partner rather than just somebody trying to close a deal. 

Be Mindful of Timing: Timing your calls to the right time of day and day of the week can be a make-or-break factor in your phone outreach. Research from CallHippo found that among the more than 15,000 calls studied across 30+ countries, by far the best time to make a B2B cold call is Wednesday between 3 pm and 5 pm. 

You should also take into account your prospect’s time zone, not just your own. It may be 3 pm where you are, but a prospect across the country (or globe), may be fast asleep or sitting down to family dinner (i.e. times you absolutely do NOT want to be calling). 

Build a Multi-Channel Approach: Phone outreach is just one component of a well-built prospect engagement strategy. Layering phone calls into your outbound email sequence or social media outreach and coordinating with marketing to run display or social media ads with consistent messaging can help build a cohesive experience and reinforce your value proposition. For example, your full motion could look something like this:

• • Send an initial outreach email introducing your company and solution. 
  • Follow up the email with phone calls to schedule a demo. 
  • If the prospect doesn’t answer, send a text message.
  • Your marketing team runs a LinkedIn ad campaign against the list of prospects who didn’t initially convert.
  • Send a LinkedIn message to complement your email outreach. 

The more channels and touchpoints you can create with prospects, the better chance of engaging and converting them. 

Be Persistent, But Not Pushy: Here again, the same rules of sales apply, don’t rely on a single contact attempt. A study by HubSpot found that 80% of sales require five follow-up calls after the initial contact, but 44% of salespeople give up after one. If the prospect doesn’t answer, try again in a day or two, or at a different time of day (still within working hours) to demonstrate tenacity and build the relationship over time. 

However, one word of caution here. Respecting contact preferences and opt-out requests is critical to maintaining good standing in the market. If a prospect does not want to be contacted, allow them to do so by providing easy-to-use opt-out mechanisms in all of your communications and honoring those requests quickly. 

How SalesIntel Can Help

At SalesIntel, we’re proud to offer the highest number of direct dials and human-verified B2B contacts in the industry. With a comprehensive database of over 95 million verified business contacts and advanced data enrichment capabilities, we strive to provide accurate and affordable contact data to help supercharge our clients’ prospecting and lead-generation efforts. Our proprietary combination of automation and real human researchers allows us to reach 95% data accuracy for all published contact data while continuing to scale up our number of contacts. 

From Dials to Dollars

Utilizing cell phone numbers for B2B outreach is emerging as a powerful tool in any sales kit, offering unparalleled access to decision-makers and the potential to significantly accelerate your sales cycle. However, acquiring a high-quality list of cell phone numbers is often easier said than done. 

By considering a multitude of factors, including privacy compliance, recency, filtering, pricing, and provider reputation, you’ll ensure you’re building your outreach campaigns on high-quality data. Furthermore, by personalizing your outreach, leading with value, timing your calls appropriately, and being persistent with follow-up, you’ll be perfectly positioned to engage more decision-makers and build strong relationships with potential customers. With the right approach, cell phone outreach can be a cornerstone of your B2B outreach strategy, opening doors to new opportunities and driving sustainable business growth.

If you’d like to learn more about how SalesIntel can provide you with a targeted, accurate, and privacy-compliant list of B2B cell phone number lists, book a demo today!