How to Choose the Best Sales and Marketing B2B Data Provider

Data is the fuel that helps the revenue engine of B2B organizations to run as they should, and the best B2B businesses know that really well. It is indispensable to your brands’ success. After all, B2B data is the backbone of your branding strategy. Today, B2B brands are grappled with the problem of low ROI or poor campaign results. While there are several reasons for it, bad data tops the list.

One of the ways to deal with low-quality data is to invest in a B2B data company that offers accurate, verified data and matches your ideal data partner profile. Partnering with a data provider also allows you to make the most of your dollars invested, and to leverage your marketing intelligence in a way to improve data integrity, increase targeting accuracy in marketing, and close deals faster. Often the greatest B2B data providers in the market are empowered with the best-in-class Martech tools. They fuel your lead generation endeavors by the contact data of your target persona. This data is stored in a B2B database which allows marketers to harness the intent data of the customers through several platforms. Personalized content in the form of an email newsletter or a well-written blog blended with the power of email marketing also helps the marketers fuel their lead generation endeavors. When using email marketing capabilities for lead generation and targeting the key decision-makers, the prime focus of the B2B solution provider should be to abide by the privacy policy to safeguard the interests of the intended audience group in the accordance with the international norms and laws such as GDPR and CCPA. A carefully articulated email strategy allows marketers to establish measurable goals and then work relentlessly to measure and optimize those goals.

But then the main question that arises is: how to identify a top B2B solution provider? If you’re asking the same question, the following guide will help you answer it. Here are five things to consider when evaluating B2B companies to fuel your marketing & advertising endeavors & to figure out the pioneer ones:

1. Clearly articulate your needs and goals

This is a critical step in the process. Be very clear with what you want to achieve with the data you're looking for. If you don't, it will not only be challenging for you to find a data partner that fits your needs but also for the provider to meet your requirements. Let it be known if you need data:

• That covers your targeted prospects and customers so you could create an ideal customer profile or buyer persona
• That contains net new contacts so you could further enhance and strengthen your existing database
• That includes specific data points about particular accounts or contacts to successfully close a deal or run a sales/marketing campaign
• That comprises technographic, firmographic, intent, demographic, or other insights to feed your sales and marketing teams with
• That will help generate leads from a specific industry, qualify and prioritize leads better, or give a complete view of prospects

Of course, you may have other requirements and goals specific to your business. Don’t forget to add them to this list. Having said that, the top sales solution providers will always be proactive in understanding your needs and offering apt solutions to fulfill them.

2. Analyze the provider based on key factors

Use an exhaustive research process to determine if the company that you’re considering is able to meet your requirements. By asking specific questions to the vendor, you’ll be better positioned to ascertain whether it is the right one for your business. For example, you can ask the provider:

• If its data is CCPA or GDPR-compliant, or if it adheres to any other specific data protection and privacy regulations you need compliance for
• If it follows responsible and legal data collection methods, or if it uses reputable and not dubious data sources
• If it has data for the industries, markets, audience segments, or types of accounts and companies your business targets
• Which features and integrations and what data points it offers within different plans
• What makes its data different from what you already have, or why you should invest in its database

It is also important to find out if the company of your choice has any hidden terms and conditions, like subscription auto-renewal, in its contracts. Always look for transparency in your relationships.

3. Look for topnotch data quality and coverage

Did you know? 75% of companies that reduced their investment in data quality witnessed a decline in sales or marketing performance. Furthermore, sales departments lose 550 hours and $32,000 per salesperson because of bad prospect data. Considering these statistics, it makes sense to invest in a company that offers the highest-quality data.

However, what makes great B2B data providers stand out from the competition is their ability to offer the finest data coverage. After all, is it really worth partnering with a firm that maintains top data quality, but doesn’t have the data you need? Here are some crucial questions to ask a B2B data provider:

• How accurate is your data? (Leading providers maintain at least 95% data accuracy)
• Is your data human-verified or machine-processed? (Human-verified data tends to be more accurate and reliable than machine-processed data)
• How often do you reverify or update your database? (Look for a more frequent data verification program as data decays at a rate of 70% annually)
• What if I don’t find the data points I need? Do you provide customized data? (Look for specific or granular data filters to determine what you exactly want.)
• Do you offer data enrichment and cleansing services? (Look for both automatic and manual options)

You can also question whether they offer international contact and company data before you can analyze the information & decide which one will be the most suitable one for your company. Know that the top data vendors are keen to offer some data-related support to help you explore international markets.

4. Check the pricing for data services

Pricing is one of the most significant factors to consider when looking for a B2B data partner of your choice. While it is often said you get what you pay for, don’t shy away from negotiating the quoted price or asking for additional benefits. At the end of the day, you want to sign the top deals and be able to justify the data purchase to your boss.

Request a trial or demo, or ask for a data sample to have a sense of the data services you’ll receive for the quoted price. See if you and other internal stakeholders are satisfied with what is covered in the selected plan.

• Avoid making hasty decisions, and take time to review the price quote of each B2B data provider you’re considering
• Share the quotes with and seek the feedback of stakeholders responsible to choose a data partner
• Read reviews and ratings on sites like G2, Gartner, TrustRadius, and Capterra. These sites also allow you to compare different providers based on various factors, not just pricing
• Reconfirm if you’re really getting what the B2B data provider has promised within the quoted price
• Check for any offers or discounts so you could further trim down the final pricing without compromising on your data requirements

Ask the provider if its plans are flexible, how early you need to notify to renew your subscription, if there are any subscription cancellation charges, etc. Get all your pricing-related questions answered before you sign the contract.

5. Go for a top-class customer service

When choosing the top-class data providers, ensure that you give equal significance to customer success among other factors. Considering that most data contracts are signed for a year, you’re likely to use the services of the same provider for that long period. This makes assessing customer service even more important when selecting a data partner.

Ask the B2B data provider beforehand:

• What type of customer service you should expect and what will it exactly include?
• What will be the turnaround time for general as well as specific requests like on-demand research?
• When can you call the customer support team? Is there a chat or email service available?
• Will you receive onboarding, training, and troubleshooting support? Can you use any online resources?
• What is the customer support team size? Can they handle a surge in service requests? How efficient are they in attending to urgent requests?

To assess the customer service of a B2B data provider, you may also want to check online reviews, its net promoter score, or, if possible, contact one of its existing customers. Check if the support staff is polite, supportive, empathetic, knowledgeable, experienced, and really cares about customers.

Wrapping Up

Data can either profit or ruin your branding endeavors. Consider it as the lifeblood of your business that powers your efforts to drive visible tangible results. With that said, it is as critical to finding the right B2B data partner as using top-quality data. If the source of your data is not according to the prescribed standards, how can you expect to have the best-quality data?

By analyzing B2B data vendors based on the key aspects discussed here, you can be sure of finding the top-class one for your business. It’s better to thoroughly examine a provider before signing the contract. Don’t get blown away by a big brand name; determine whether the provider you’re considering is worth spending your hard-earned money on.

Investing in a data company may seem like a burden on your budget. However, when you partner with a to-class B2B data provider, your business starts reaping rich benefits in terms of ROI, time, efficiency, and resources.

Author Name - Ariana Shannon

LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariana-shannon-a68b4a106

Bio - Ariana Shannon is the Marketing Director at SalesIntel.io. SalesIntel provides the most accurate and affordable b2b contact data available for sales and marketing teams.