B2B Data

For B2B sales teams, data is all-important. Gaining new customers relies on having a pipeline of accurate data. B2B lead generation - the act of nurturing and converting prospects into becoming buyers of a product or service - is dependant on good quality up-to-date data.

Data in the form of contact details: names, email addresses, phone numbers, companies. In many instances, the data that sales reps are working with is not of sufficient quality; poor quality data undermines sales effectiveness. In the B2B sector, it’s estimated that CRM and contact data decays at a rate of up to 70% every year. This can cause numerous problems for B2B sales teams attempting to generate outbound leads - in short, they end up wasting a lot of time focusing on the wrong leads.

B2B data challenges

Why does B2B data decay? The answer is simple and obvious: time! As time goes by, businesses and personal circumstances change. Every day, people change jobs, are promoted or move companies. According to research from the BBC, a UK worker changes employers every five years on average; it’s even shorter in the USA, where the average worker stays with a single employer for just over four years.

Businesses too change over time. They merge or are acquired, change their company name or location. Email conventions change. A company may open up new offices or shut others down. All this adds up to a vast quantity of contact and CRM data that goes out of date almost as soon as it’s recorded.

The four types of B2B data

How then can sales teams and managers improve the quality of their B2B data? Most B2B companies are limited to only using three dimensions of data. They are:

Demographic Data

The first dimension of data is related to personal and geographical characteristics. It includes information such as name, email address and personal address.

Firmographic Data

This second dimension of data is related to company information. It includes elements such as company name, location, industry, number of employees and revenue.

Technographic Data

The third dimension of data is concerned with the technology a company or person uses, how long they’ve been using it for, and what benefits they gain from it.

Cognism provides these three dimensions of B2B data, plus the crucial fourth dimension - which is:

Chronographic Data

This literally means - time! The fourth dimension of data relates to the life events and changes that occur as time progresses. For example, it can include:

When a manager is promoted to a Head of Department role.
When an employee leaves one company and joins another.
When a business relocates to a new office in a new city.
When an organisation secures funding from investors.

Chronographic data is vital because it highlights the events that can trigger a sales or marketing opportunity. It is invaluable for B2B salespeople, as it can pinpoint when a prospect would be most likely to buy a product or service.

Why choose Cognism?

Cognism is the perfect choice for salespeople looking to power their sales operation with higher quality B2B data. It allows B2B sales teams to:

Explore a global database of business profiles and companies.
Launch multi-step outbound campaigns targeted at your ideal buyer personas.
Enrich the data in your CRM so your sales reps are always working with the most accurate information.
Ensure compliance with the GDPR by utilising data that conforms to the necessary legislative demands.

Cognism's B2B data solutions

Cognism Prospector is a GDPR compliant data solution, powered by our patented Revenue AI technology. It provides B2B salespeople with a more efficient way to prospect B2B leads, producing contact data at scale and streaming new opportunities into the funnel.

Cognism Refresh is a powerful platform for managing all your data enrichment needs. Cognism’s pioneering Revenue AI seeks out and targets stale data, filling in any missing gaps in your CRM records and providing you with valuable, actionable information on your target prospects and accounts.

Use Cognism’s native interface or integrate our B2B data solution with your preferred CRM, including major providers such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics and Pipedrive.