The Complete Guidebook for Marketing Leaders for Choosing the Best B2B Contact Data Provider

In a data-obsessed corporate environment, it can be tough to tell who is real and who is merely manipulating the meaning of data to match their product’s value proposition. Many self-proclaimed data-driven companies try to meet this critical need, but the question is whether they are doing so appropriately. Is their focus on data collecting and analysis, or are they reacting to a trend?

GTM, ABM, and Omnichannel are just fancy terms if they aren’t powered by relevant data on the backend. However, when businesses look to acquire data for their sales and marketing engines, they have little understanding of what type of data they want, how much it costs, or who the reliable providers are.

This article will guide you through the process of purchasing B2B data by explaining essential factors, crucial categories of B2B data, and traps to avoid while choosing your data partner.

We have already discussed the steps involved in choosing the right data vendor for your business. By the conclusion here, you will be an informed decision-maker capable of confidently choosing the best solution and negotiating the greatest value for yourself. We will also share why we think SalesIntel might be that solution for you.

Always Choose Quality Over Quantity

Quality data assists organizations in better understanding their clients and increasing engagement throughout the sales process. At several levels, data is critical. Let’s take a look at some of the functions where data quality may make a significant impact.

• The Risk to Campaign ROI: 

The apparent risk of inaccurate data is that it will affect the success of your outbound operations. When you calculate the ROI for your campaigns, you presume that the data your team will utilize is correct and that you will have enough coverage to give the campaign the volume it requires. When you have erroneous, incomplete, or inadequate data coverage, the actual results will fall short of your expectations.

• Damage to Your SEO Efforts:

Accurate data provides more precise targeting and messaging, particularly in the omnichannel settings that many marketing teams strive for. Sending emails with high bounce rates is the easiest method to damage your email service provider account. High bounce rates will wreak havoc on your domain’s reputation and might halt your email marketing for months.

• Risk to Your Contact Lists:

Email marketing and cold calling are viable lead generation techniques. However, data quality can make or break your performance. 

Sometimes an organization tries to cut corners by renting or buying an existing contact list without checking it. However, errors can also occur simply because of data decay. Data naturally “goes bad” for a variety of reasons, and sending too many emails to “bad” or invalid addresses results in a high bounce rate.

For example, if a subscriber to your email list signed up with a work address, that address may no longer be valid if they move on to a different company. Any emails sent to that address will bounce, harming your email reputation. Meanwhile, wrong phone numbers waste the time of your sales team.

Given that data decays every 12-14 months, you must preserve data hygiene to maximize the effectiveness of your email campaign efforts.

• Revenue Risk: 

All of your efforts, both successful and failed, will be reflected in your revenue. Simply said, bad data will result in a loss of income. How?

Inaccurate data at any point of the sales process or in your sales funnel will lead to decreased engagement, performance, and revenues. Incorrect data has had a direct impact on the bottom line of 88% of organizations. Bad CRM data with errors will result in a loss of money on every outbound activity.

Poor data quality impedes your capacity to successfully use insights and consumes precious resources. You can’t afford to put data quality off until later.

Look Beyond the Brand Name

While there is usually a reason why a certain brand has become well recognized in an industry, it is a mistake to believe the reason always is because of the quality of their product. Many times, it comes down to finances, marketing strategies, timing, and even pure chance. For all of these reasons, it is critical not to assume a brand is the best fit simply because it is the most well-known answer.

Don’t be deceived by marketing claims. You must go beyond the brand name and independently verify data quality, get a coverage report for your desired consumer profile, examine customer reviews, validate features such as integrations, etc. You can also check complaint sites like the BBB for complaint trends and how the data supplier addresses them.

There have been several cases when clients trusted a well-known data source but were not satisfied with the data quality and customer support once they began utilizing it.

Do They Charge for Supportive Data? 

The contact database is merely one component of what data providers offer. Several more elements facilitate prospecting and help complete sales more quickly. 

Some of the features are as follows:

• Technographic Data
• Firmographic Data
• Buyer Intent Data
• Data Enrichment 
• Direct Mobile Dials

Many data providers have additional charges for specific data sets. So even if you have a license from a data provider you may have to pay extra to access mobile numbers.

For instance, work mobile numbers are notoriously difficult to locate, especially when targeting B2B organizations. Nonetheless, a few data partners have found a method for efficiently collecting work mobile numbers. 

As Direct-Work Mobile Numbers are difficult to get, most B2B data partners limit access to desk phones and business switchboards. If they have work mobile numbers, they charge a premium for the direct numbers above the minimum contract conditions. Even if data partners offer cellphone numbers, the data you purchase is often machine-processed. And, because machine-processed data lacks human verification, you cannot rely on its accuracy.

There are other options to look at such as SalesIntel’s all-inclusive license. 

Once you’ve chosen a data provider you should have full access to all contact data points (email, phone, titles, etc.) and have ownership of that data even if you decide to move on from that solution. If you’re not getting the information you need to scale your business or could be asked to remove the data you purchased from your revenue engine, then it is time for a change. 

Switch to a Reliable Data Partner

Any data partner must have a clear and accountable approach to collaborating with you. This approach keeps us committed to providing the greatest data intelligence platform for B2B go-to-market teams and motivates us to continue adding value to our B2B data. 

Here are a few major aspects that make it easier for B2B organizations to migrate to SalesIntel and that you should compare with any other data options.

1. Quality, Quantity, and More for Less

You get access to millions of human-verified B2B contacts along with the insights you need. Our data goes through a re-verification process every 90-days to avoid data decay so you can get up-to-date data every time you use it.

2. Highest Coverage of Work Mobile Numbers in the Industry

Dialing prospects’ cell phones result in astonishingly increased connection rates. According to recent ScaleX research, salespeople are 7X more likely to reach prospects when they use SalesIntel work mobile numbers.

3. Data Completeness

You can fill in the gaps in your inbound and event leads or any existing B2B data list within a few clicks with our data enrichment feature. 

Having complete data enables your marketing and sales efforts to be more focused.

4. Identify Customers with Buying Intention

Only 15% of businesses are actively looking for a certain product at any one moment. SalesIntel provides you with Intent Data that enables you to discover and reach out to businesses already seeking a solution, allowing you to skip to later buying phases and reduce your sales cycle. With Intent Data driving your sales and marketing initiatives, you can quadruple your sales pipeline expansion and achieve a marketing ROI of 300%.

5. Research-On-Demand

If you discover the data you’re searching for is not in our portal, our research team will work with you to identify your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and develop a personalized list within 2-48 hours to make sure you have the data you need.

6. Smoothest Onboarding in the Industry

Our clients have had the easiest onboarding experience in the B2B data business with SalesIntel. Most of our clients switch from another data source to SalesIntel. Our success and support teams specialize in ensuring that SalesIntel is completely integrated into your tech stack and processes, as well as your team being thoroughly educated and onboarded. 

SalesIntel’s platform is likewise designed from the ground up to be simple and easy to use. Our success stories speak for themselves when it comes to our streamlined and simplified onboarding procedure.

7. Focus on Continuous Improvement 

Our team works to improve and stay aligned with your business objectives every day. 

We have every detail your company needs for exponential development. Our great customer service, along with the high quality of our human-verified data, has enabled our customers to reach new prospects they would not have otherwise. Our team works diligently to integrate your CRM and form third-party relationships to provide the most comprehensive B2B data solution.

When all is said and done, it is never about having an expensive brand as your data partner. It is about partnering with a reliable data provider who can deliver the accurate data you need to power your sales and marketing campaigns.