B2B database providers hold massive significance in today’s highly digitised and data-driven corporate world. A company’s database quality determines its sales performance, revenue, and growth. A competent data analytics team is necessary to obtain crucial insights, even for businesses that compile and maintain in-house databases. The role of a B2B database provider has greatly evolved. Far beyond mere data-sellers, database management agencies facilitate a multitude of crucial services today, such as:-
- Database Enrichment, Cleansing, Formatting, and Validation
- Providing Marketing Intelligence and Sales Enablement
- Data Analytics, Sales Forecasting, and Predicting Market Trends
- Market Research and Segmentation for Better Personalization
- Prospecting and Lead Scoring for Account-Based Marketing
- CRM Management for Retention and Remarketing
Significance of Top B2B Data Providers for Modern-day Businesses
Capturing the attention of digitally-savvy target audiences is an ongoing challenge for businesses. Unlike a decade ago, prospects prefer to get in touch with businesses only after they have made up their minds. Without a solid demand generation strategy, the scope of influencing them is minimal. In this context, top B2B data providers help businesses adopt a proactive approach toward prospecting and targeting. Moreover, having a ready-to-pursue list of qualified prospects helps sales personnel become more proactive and productive. The modern-day role of a B2B database provider can be assessed as follows:-
1. Precision-based database compilation and management have become necessary for success across most B2B verticals.
2. Reliable data is the core of Account-Based Marketing. Devising personalised marketing messages is impossible without the required data points, subsets, and filters.
3. Maintaining data integrity is a monumental task best outsourced to experts. Burdening the in-house team with database management will adversely affect sales/marketing performance.
4. Industry standards, privacy compliance, and best practices for data sourcing and database security should be ideally handled by experts.
5. The category-wise segregation and sorting of B2B data is yet another core competence of top B2B data providers. Company details are outlined with firmographics, chronographic, and technographic data points. Similarly, the database of individual decision-makers is specified with demographic details, intent data, and psychographic profiles.
Checklist to Select the Right Database Services
The B2B database industry is expanding rapidly. There is a robust presence of data sellers, resellers, brokers, contact list providers, database subscription providers, data analyst agencies, data management agencies, and more. SMEs and start-ups with limited know-how can find it quite perplexing to identify the right database services for their business. The following checklist highlights the important points to make the apt choice:-
1. The first thing to ask them is where and how they source their data. The right agency will provide detailed insights in line with the data industry best practices.
2. Check for deeper aspects like industry and niche coverage, features, integrations, and customised solutions.
3. Enquire about the cost structure and evaluate the ROI in terms of the sales goals and contractual/guaranteed deliverables.
4. Assessing the freshness of the database is paramount. Purchasing outdated contact information is the biggest faux pas for B2B start-ups.
5. Matching the target criteria, sales objectives, and ICP is important while purchasing a database. Even if the reviews/ratings of the database provider are good, you should confirm specialisation in the specific sector or niche.
Maximising the Usability of a B2B Database
Purchasing a B2B database is a big investment for most businesses and cannot be frequently done. Hence, top management’s primary aim should be maximising its usability and productivity. Only then can they derive maximum value for money from the outsourced database. These pointers will certainly be handy in this aspect:-
- Ensuring a centralised database system along with a secure backup.
- Suitably incorporating new CRM data with suitable enrichment and validation protocols.
- Real-time updates and regular cleansing to avoid data decay.
- Utilising data-led insights not just for prospecting but trends forecasting and revenue operations.
Conclusion
Viable data lays the foundation for all the important sales and marketing activities. Before looking for any database vendor, businesses need to have pinpoint clarity on their sales objectives. Defining the ICP for each product/service category is also a prerequisite to availing of the right database services. The right B2B database expert is not just a vendor but a perpetual partner in revenue generation and business growth.
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