Your sales team needs a boost, and you know that you should find some new leads. But where should you find them? And what leads will bring your team the most success? More companies are turning towards AI-generated leads to help their sales team achieve more, but is AI always the best way to go?
In this article, we will break down five myths that lead sales teams to choose AI-generated leads and break down the reasons that these myths are far from reality. Although AI-generated leads can seem like a great idea on paper, in practice, they are never quite as good as leads that are verified by a real person.
So without further ado, let’s bust some myths!
Myth 1: You Should Find a Sales Data Source With As Many Contacts As Possible
At first glance, you might think that this is a no-brainer. When you’re purchasing leads, you want to get a good return on your investment. Therefore, you should find a sales data source that will give you as many leads as possible for your money. When you start researching data sources and looking for the most leads for the least money possible, you will find that companies that sell AI-verified data sell many more leads for cheaper. So, it would seem like AI-generated leads would be your best bet.
Reality: Quantity is Not Quality
But wait for a second! What if you thought about return on investment differently. What if, instead of thinking about the leads you would receive for the money you pay, you thought about the customers you could receive. You see, these are two different things entirely: cost per lead and cost per closed opportunity.
Even if you buy many more leads with an AI-generated lead company, all of those leads will not necessarily become customers. Quantity is not necessarily quality, so buying more leads does not always lead to more customers. When buying B2B data, you should focus on finding the highest quality data possible.
SalesIntel has over 100 million contacts with email addresses and 48 million mobile phone numbers in its database. Each of these contacts has been vetted intensively, making them more valuable than the contacts in the average database fed by AI-generated data.
Myth 2: AI Verification is More Frequent Than Human Verification
This is a common one. People assume they should get their B2B data from an AI-generated database because AI can work around the clock. Therefore, the data in an AI-generated database must be verified more often, right?
Reality: Companies that Human-Verify Verify More Often
Wrong! It’s strange, but it’s true, and here’s why. The data in an AI-generated database are valued on quantity over quality. Therefore, the people running an AI-generated database will focus on generating new contacts rather than re-verifying old contacts.
This quirk is exacerbated by the fact that there are some errors that AI will not catch, no matter how many times they verify the data. It’s good to have a set of human eyes on the data before your sales staff puts it through the final verification: the sales call.
Myth 3: Human Verification Is Prone to Human Error
But we all know that people are well…human. People have off days at work, make careless errors, and sometimes just plain fall asleep on the keyboard. AI never misses its morning coffee or comes into work late. Doesn’t that mean that AI verification is better?
Reality: Human Verification is Double-Verification
Not so much. When we say human verification, we actually mean double-verification. All data that is human-verified has already been verified by an algorithm at least once. That means that you are getting the best of both worlds, the great performance of an AI and the accuracy of a human.
For example, at SalesIntel we have contacts at over 188,000 companies. Each of these contacts has been verified at least once by an algorithm before it is verified by one of our 1400+ global researchers to ensure data accuracy.
Myth 4: Human Verification is Not a Good Investment
Let’s be real though, often business investments just come down to dollars and cents. You want the best return on investment. You want to create a B2B marketing strategy that will yield you the most clients at the lowest possible cost. Marketing strategies can be expensive overall, and can you afford human-verified data when you factor in all of the other costs of a B2B marketing strategy?
Reality: Human Verification is a Strong B2B Marketing Strategy
Actually, you can. Although creating a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy can be expensive and complicated, with proper strategic planning, you can incorporate human-verified data into your marketing strategy and save money. As we mentioned above, although human-verified data can be more expensive in the beginning, it will save your company a bundle in the long run. Furthermore, investing in human-verified data is an investment in your company’s morale. Human-verified data ensures that your sales team will be happy and satisfied with their job because they will be more successful.
Myth 5: AI Are More Adaptable and Flexible Than Humans
A final myth that often leads companies toward AI-generated data is the myth of flexibility. Many people assume that because AI is not stuck in human habits, they are more flexible and easier to work with than people. Many companies think that if they have unique or specific needs for their verification then they should go with an AI-verification system.
Reality: Human Verification is Flexibility
However, this could not be farther from the truth. Companies like SalesIntel that use human verification to check their data are quite flexible. An example of flexibility comes from our verification model at SalesIntel.
At SalesIntel, we give our clients a buffet of options for the timeline of their data verification. We automatically re-verify their data every 90 days, to ensure that the data meets our standards of 95% accuracy that we promise our clients.
However, for clients in industries where data goes stale particularly fast, every 90 days is not enough. We give these clients the opportunity to operate on a different re-verification timeline. Whether they want to re-verify their data once a month or every other month, we will be flexible and accommodate their needs. Furthermore, if a client wants to verify just a few data points, they can specifically request verification on their selected data.
Where Can I Find Human Verified Data?
When you are creating your B2B marketing strategy, you should find a data source that will accommodate your company’s specific needs, have a high return on investment, and provide you with reliably good data.
At SalesIntel, we pride ourselves on meeting all of those standards and providing data that allows companies to push their B2B marketing strategy to new heights. Try out SalesIntel and see how human-verified data can help your team reach its goals.
