Outsell Product Ranking: Sales & Marketing Intelligence Services

Sales and Marketing Intelligence Services

Advancing the Business of Information

December 18, 2013

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B): D&B Sales & Marketing SolutionsNetProspex: NetProspexOneSource: iSell Salesforce: Salesforce Data.comZoom Information: ZoomInfo

ProDuctS IncluDeD In thIS AnAlySIS

Productranking

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) has licensed this report from Outsell, Inc., with the right to distribute it for marketing and market education purposes. D&B did not commission this report, nor is this report a fee-for-hire white paper.Outsell¹s fact-based research, analysis and rankings, and all aspects of our opinion were independently derived and D&B had no influence or involvement on the design or findings within this report. For questions, please contact us at [email protected].

1RANKED

Number

ONESALESINTELLIGENCE

D&BSALES & MARKETING

SOLUTIONS

mailto:info%40outsellinc.com?subject=

© 2013 Outsell, Inc. 2

table of contentsWhy This Topic 3Methodology 3Rating Definitions 5Target Market and Users 5Outsell’s Bottom Line 6Outsell Overall Rankings at a Glance 7Product Quality and Performance (65 Points) 9Product Quality and Performance: Key Takeaways 10Sales (20 Points) 13Sales: Key Takeaways 14Service (15 Points) 17Service: Key Takeaways 18Suitability 19Imperatives for Information Managers and Buyers 19Appendix 20Sample Scoring Sheet 20

table of contents for tables & Figures Figure 1. How Sales and Marketing Intelligence Products Rank 7Figure 2. Product Performance Rankings 8Figure 3. Product Quality and Performance Rankings 10Table 1. Overview of Quality and Performance Key Takeaways 11Figure 4. Product Sales Rankings 14Table 2. Overview of Sales Key Takeaways 15Figure 5. Product Service Rankings 17Table 3. Overview of Service Key Takeaways 18


Why This Topic

In the past few years, the company information portion of the B2B information segment has shifted its focus: Gone are efforts to compile mega-lists of company names and contacts in an effort to accumulate more names than the competition. Buyers are increasingly demanding more targeted lists, and successful companies are building business models based on accuracy and timeliness, rather than just bigger data points. The emphasis for these products is based on sales and marketing workflow, ranging from “clean” or verified data at one end, through building highly segmented target lists that integrate with customer relationship management tools (CRMs), to providing “sales triggers” or time- or event-based indications on when to approach a contact. We take a look at some of the leading sales and marketing intelligence services in this set of product rankings.

Methodology We define sales and marketing intelligence services as those that provide their client with accurate and verified company information, along with contact names at those companies. A useful model for evaluating these intelligence services is to separate their functionality into three areas:

1. Provide contact information on companies, along with the capability to “cleanse” a client’s existing contact data, and the ability to enrich a client’s data with additional targeted contacts.

2. Filter and segment the contact data by a multitude of factors such as company size (e.g., revenue, employees, growth), geography, industry, or other factors (e.g., minority-owned, public/private, SIC or NAICS code, etc.); individual job title, level, or function; and keywords or events.

3. Provide ancillary information about companies (e.g., news, press releases, social media mentions, financial data, industry/market background, etc.) or individuals (e.g., news, social media mentions, biographical data, etc.) as context for refining the sales or marketing effort and to initiate “sales triggers.” We also considered the ease of use of workflow tools — for example, to build a list, or to integrate with CRMs or sales force automation tools.

Sales and marketing are the primary functional roles for these intelligence services, but because of their rich company and individual data these tools can also provide insight or clues for business development, market analysis, human resources, strategic planning, and competitive intelligence. The data cleansing function also supports IT efforts.

As part of our review, each company gave us an online demo of its product, along with a demo password with which we could set up sample queries and test product features (Data.com did not give us a demo password, but we were able to run our demo searches via webinar). We


also spoke at length with product managers and marketing leads for the products tested. We ran several test searches (and multiple ad hoc searches) on a variety of companies and individuals. Typical searches included: 1) We attempted to identify companies in the market research space with less than 300 employees in California; 2) We attempted to identify director-level or above managers of corporate information centers within Fortune 1000 companies in the US and Canada. This search proved to be an excellent differentiator because that job function/title varies widely and is not typically included in the pre-populated menus of job titles. A systematic analysis of the data accuracy (e.g., point-by-point verification of company/individual information) was beyond the scope of this review, although we did look for anecdotal evidence of accuracy.

Our criteria for product selection in this business category were to cover a selection of well-known players. We chose the following competitive firms’ products to review:

1. D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions

2. NetProspex

3. OneSource iSell

4. Salesforce Data.com

5. Zoom Information

These are not the only firms that fall in this category, but they are the ones that best fit our criteria, and they responded to our requests for information. For example, InsideView did not respond to our attempts to obtain information. Also, D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions is an “umbrella” term used to include three of the company’s flagship products: Hoover’s, D&B360, and D&B Direct, since they essentially share the same product functionality but differ in how they are delivered to the customer (i.e., as a stand-alone product, cloud-based integration with a CRM, and as an application program interface [API]).

Each product is evaluated, scored, and rated in three areas for a total of 100 points:

1. Product Quality and Performance (65 points)

For this set of offerings, we define product quality as one that is broad in contact and company data, with multifaceted search capabilities and the ability to refine and segment existing searches. We evaluated data-cleansing capabilities where applicable, and we looked for ancillary company information as well as mobile options, analytics, and exporting capabilities. We also evaluated how well the product achieves its mission and its suitability for its target market.


2. Sales (20 points)

For the sales-facing function, Outsell examines the website for comprehensiveness and clarity, assesses pricing transparency, and randomly calls 1-800 numbers and speaks to sales staff. A combination of in-house staff and qualified mystery shoppers makes these 1-800 calls to eliminate vendor bias. In this area, we evaluate sales staff responsiveness, professionalism, and product knowledge, as well as pricing transparency and quality and clarity of the product website.

3. Service (15 points)

In assessing service, Outsell performs an on-the-record interview with the vendor to determine training, product implementation assistance, and support. We also make random calls to customer support to ask for product assistance. In addition, we are looking for free training options and for overall comprehensiveness of product support.

Rating Definitions We rate each of these areas on a scale of 100 with 60 being poor and 100 outstanding, detailed below. A sample scoring sheet is included in the Appendix.

target Market and usersWe evaluate all products in this report from the enterprise buyers’ and end-users’ perspectives. The orientation of our review is to assist buyers in selecting or buying products that best meet their needs, and therefore Outsell assessed the product version geared toward professional and power users. In some instances, buyers are purchasing the product for functional roles such as marketing, public relations, or competitive intelligence, so we naturally take those other roles into consideration in our evaluation.

Fair

70

Poor

60

Good

80

Excellent

90

Outstanding

100

Falls well short of the category standard.

Meets the standard for the category of this product.

Exceeds the standard for the category of this product.

Far exceeds the standard for the category of this product.

Falls somewhat short of the category standard.

Source: Outsell analysis


Outsell’s Bottom LineThe products in the category of sales and marketing solutions are geared to address two fundamental areas for every company: business needs and information management needs. In this case, business needs can be defined as market analysis, customer acquisition, and sales productivity. Information management needs are related to those business needs, but in a broader sense because they include multiple stakeholders (e.g., not just sales and marketing, but finance, product development, operations, information technology, management, etc.). The structure, analysis, processing, and usage of information within an enterprise inform activity across those multiple stakeholders and include external data (i.e., from third-party vendors) and internal data (i.e., customers, sales, product usage, etc.)

The products we reviewed in this report attempt to solve challenges in both of those areas. From a business needs perspective, the products have solutions focused on identifying sales and marketing prospects — market segmentation, list building, and productivity triggers. For information management, the emphasis is on the data — analyzing existing data, cleansing it by removing incorrect data, enriching it by correcting it, or enhancing it by adding fresh data.

Our two top-rated products in this category, Salesforce Data.com and D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions, share more than just the honors — they also share the company data from Dun & Bradstreet’s extensive data holdings of over 225 million companies across 200+ countries via a licensing partnership. As expected, both companies emphasize quality and depth of D&B data in their value positions, and they have robust prospecting tools, supplemented by analytics, sales triggers, and background information.

OneSource iSell has partnerships with a variety of sources (e.g., Acquire Media, LexisNexis, CorpData, Morningstar, etc.) to source news and financial information about the companies and individuals in its database. These partnerships result in comprehensive news feeds, which iSell uses for its strong sales trigger functionality. OneSource also has a data management solution, and although it is not part of the iSell product, they can be packaged together.

Zoom Information has probably the most detailed background information on individuals within a company, with links to websites and snippets of published articles. The rich detail would be better if it were supplemented with current news feeds, which is a curious omission given Zoom’s reliance on technology-enabled data gathering, although the company has plans to add that in the future.

Although NetProspex scored the lowest in this group, this is primarily due to its lack of depth when it comes to ancillary company information (e.g., news, company background information, financials, etc.) and sales triggers. The company’s focus is more on data management and quality — as part of its ongoing quality assurance efforts, NetProspex claims it makes between 600,000 and 1 million outbound phone calls per month (via contractors) to verify their contact information.


outsell overall rankings at a GlanceFigure 1 provides our overall rankings for this competitor set and summarizes our analysis. In this Product Ranking, we use the “forced ranking” method to highlight differentiation among the products and to provide guidance on performance.

Instead of merely adding up the points in each of the three sections (product quality, sales, and service) we assessed the products in each main section and awarded a value for position versus its peers. For example, the leading product in the “Content & Critical Attributes” category received a 1 value, the second place received a 0.9 value, third place received a 0.8 value, etc.

Figure 1. How Sales and Marketing Intelligence Products Rank

Content

Search and Navigation

Features

Sales Experience

Website

Pricing

Support

Training

AdministrativeFunctionality

Total Score

D&B

96

NetProspexZoom

InformationOneSource

iSell

11.0

14.0

40.0

Salesforce Data.com


4.5

3.6

8.8

7.2

4.0

2.7

93

11.0

14.0

36.0

5.0

4.0

8.8

7.2

3.6

3.0

91

9.9

12.6

36.0

4.5

4.0

8.8

8.0

4.0

3.0

89

8.8

14.0

32.0

5.0

4.0

11.0

7.2

4.0

2.7

80

9.9

14.0

24.0

4.5

4.0

9.9

7.2

4.0

2.7


Figure 2 displays how products from this peer group compare to one another. The five products are plotted on the x axis based on their average sales and service score (with 1 lowest on the left and 5 highest on the right); and on the y axis based on their quality and performance score (with 1 lowest on the bottom and 5 highest on the top). Products that scored highest on both measures fall into the upper right of the graphic.

Figure 2. Product Performance Rankings

D&B Sales & Marketing Data.com

Zoom Information

OneSource iSell

NetProspex

Performanceand Quality

Sales and Service


1 2 3 4 5

5

4

3

2

1


Product Quality and Performance (65 Points) To assess product quality and performance, we evaluated the product’s strengths in three core areas:

Content (40 points): We considered criteria such as the size of the database of companies and contacts, number of job titles and functions per company, depth of contact records, data quality assurance methodology, and update frequency. In addition, we identified whether and to what degree features are provided in the services. These key features are:

�� Integration with CRM components;

�� Depth of company information;

�� Database management/cleansing/enriching services;

�� Ancillary company information;

�� Sales triggers.

Search and Navigation (14 points): We evaluated the ease of use and the intuitiveness of user interface, display of results, the ability to filter and segment by different criteria, and additional features such as availability of search and usage tips.

Enterprise-wide and Innovative Features and Intangibles (11 points): We looked for value-added features like mobile access, the ability to share and export data, and data analytic tools to help analyze the customer base. We also considered how well the product performed against its stated mission.

We evaluated mobile functionality as part of the enterprise-wide features set. To assess mobile capabilities, we first determined whether the product is available via mobile devices, and if so, if the vendor offers it via an HTML5-enabled website or apps, or both. We determined if the vendor made full or only partial content and/or functionality available on the mobile site, and if the user had the option to configure preferences to automatically display the most frequently used content or favorite tools in a mobile-friendly format. We assessed how well the vendor understood its customers’ mobile needs to better optimize its mobile users’ experience. We also found out whether the vendor assessed any additional fees for accessing its product via a mobile device.

Note that for all of these products, especially when it comes to advanced or “power” searching, the primary users are accessing the product on a desktop, not on a mobile device. While some of the products have full-featured mobile sites, we did not penalize vendors that did not have all of their “bells and whistles” available via mobile, nor did we give mobility any additional score.


Figure 3 shows our ranking for product quality.

Figure 3. Product Quality and Performance Rankings

Product Quality and Performance: Key takeawaysAll of the products reviewed offered two key components — data cleansing/management and list building for prospecting. Doing a systematic analysis of the validity of the data sets from each company is beyond the scope of this report, but anecdotal evidence points to inconsistency. A quick glance at the Outsell, Inc. entry for each product revealed numerous errors in personnel (despite claims they were recently “verified”), although the basic company information was generally accurate. This is not surprising because of employee turnover in all companies, but the claims of “validated” and “verified” should be taken with a grain of salt.

In terms of list building, all of the products used consistent processes of applying filters. In our test search of identifying directors of corporate information centers, it in all cases it was necessary to continually refine the filtering process because the term “information” is tied to so many other titles and job functions — e.g., information technology, security information, privacy information, systems information, etc. Results varied widely with the different products, and point to the difficulty of targeting prospects if the title isn’t clear cut — i.e., CEO, or VP Marketing.

Content:40 Points

Search and Navigation:14 Points

Features:11 Points

Total Score 5960 56 55 50

28

7

1311

910

13

10

13

353637 36

13

9


D&B NetProspexZoom

InformationOneSource

iSellSalesforce Data.com


Table 1. Overview of Quality and Performance Key Takeaways

D&B Salesforce Data.com

OneSource iSell

Zoom Information NetProspex

Content Claim 103 million companies

Optimizer tool to cleanse, identify companies and append data

Extensive background on companies

Solid analytics to assess customer database

Integration with SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle CRMs, and pre-packaged for Eloqua

D&B Direct’s API can integrate with multiple products

Broad and flexible sales trigger capability

Claim 40 million “validated” contacts

Company data is sourced from D&B

Contact data is via crowd-sourcing model from Data.com Connect

Clean tool for data cleansing and management

Extensive background on companies

Analytics tool to assess customer database

Built together with Salesforce, to ensure unified platform


Claim 41 million contacts

Sources from multiple data providers

Analyze data from all providers for data fusion

Good background on companies

Integration with Salesforce, Microsoft, and Oracle CRMs


Claim 65 million contacts

Crowd-sourced and web-based data

Extensive web-based background on individuals and companies, although no current news feeds

Data management and enhancement services

Integration with Salesforce

Sales trigger capability is limited

Claim 26 million “verified” contacts

Crowd-sourced data from users in exchange for contacts

Workbench product to assess, clean, and enhance clients’ data

Integration with Salesforce, and contacts can be exported into other CRMs

Background on individuals and companies is minimal

No sales trigger capability

Search and Navigation

Extensive filters to segment searches

Clear navigation and interface









Features ”Light” version optimized for mobile

Browser version and optimized for iPad

Mobile version on near-term product roadmap

”Light” version optimized for mobile

Currently no mobile version, “light” version on the roadmap for 2014

Mobile version on roadmap for 2014

Source: outsell analysis


D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions emphasizes cleansing and assessing clients’ data, as well as analyzing it. The analytics tool is especially useful in that it allows a client to assess its customer base or markets by industry, size, geography, and potential, which helps in identifying prospects. The data hinges on the well-known D-U-N-S number, a common standard for identifying companies and corporate families, which is also useful in integration with other enterprise systems such as finance and marketing. As expected, there is extensive background data (e.g., news, history, financials, etc.) on companies and industries, and setting up sales alerts is easy. The solutions draw on Hoover’s extensive background data (e.g., news, history, financials, etc.) on companies, and industry overviews to assist sales and marketing. List-building follows a logical progression, with multiple ways to segment and filter.

Salesforce Data.com has two core products: Clean and Prospector. Its 2-year-old partnership with D&B allows the company to source from the D&B database, which means it also uses the D-U-N-S number as an identifier. A third component, Connect, (which is a reworking of Salesforce.com’s Jigsaw acquisition) uses the crowd-sourced model for acquiring new contacts as well. Data integrity is maintained by data stewards and is updated continually. The D&B connection gives Salesforce Data.com the same extensive company background data, and it uses third-party news sources for sales triggers, as well as integration with Salesforce.com’s social component Chatter. As with other products reviewed, list building logically employs a segmentation/filtration process.

OneSource iSell is the only company we reviewed that does not source its own contact data. Instead, it relies on a network of providers (including NetProspex, D&B, social media sites, etc.) The company employs a data fusion model, constantly analyzing sources for accuracy, richness, and timeliness, and a data team reviews the data sources for overall precision. The company profile and news pages are robust — again, it partners with multiple sources to provide news, timely events, financial data, and industry trends. For particular industries and companies, OneSource provides extensive background information (e.g., industry dynamics, talking points, SWOTs, buzzwords, key terms, etc.) that is helpful for sales/marketing functions. Compiling prospect lists is straightforward, and an added feature is that lists can be sorted by “prospectability,” meaning a recent event (e.g., executive promotion, funding, large sale) has occurred that might indicate a propensity to buy.

Zoom Information uses a novel approach to source its contact data. In addition to crawling websites for company and contact data, in return for free contacts Zoom lets users download an Outlook (and Google Apps for Business) plug-in to scour users’ e-mail on a continual basis to identify current names, titles, and contact information. While privacy devotees may shudder, Zoom claims that over 150,000 users of the plug-in are currently active, and that keeps its data timely and accurate. Zoom also offers data cleansing and management services. Like the other products under review, building a prospect list is done via a series of logical filters. One feature that is quite handy is a “web reference” tool to use with people or company searches (e.g., to search for CFOs who might have been recently involved with IPOs), although a lack of a current news feeds hinders the product in the areas of alerts/triggers, and the company plans to add that feature.


NetProspex’s value proposition is the clean, accurate data it offers. The company prides itself on the accuracy of its contact data, which is constantly being verified by outbound phone calls and e-mails. The assessment service helps clients measure the completeness of their contact data and analyzes it to ensure it aligns with its clients’ business strategies. In addition to data assessment and cleansing, NetProspex also sells contacts to enrich a client’s data. Building a prospect list is straightforward with the SalesProspex tool, though the background information on individuals and companies is minimal, and there are no time- or event-based news triggers for sales or marketing. The lack of these critical features is the main reason NetProspex scored low in this category. However, in our test search for executives at corporate information centers, NetProspex returned the best results out of all the products under review.

Sales (20 Points) We evaluated the following attributes to assess the sales function and experience:

Sales Experience (10 points): Outsell contacted each company’s sales personnel, both openly and anonymously, and evaluated them on responsiveness, professionalism, and product knowledge.

Website (5 points): In reviewing the website experience, we evaluated the ease of navigation, the quality of product descriptions, the availability of contact information, and the overall look and feel.

Sales Pricing (5 points): Our goal was to understand the degree of transparency in each company’s pricing models. In reviewing pricing, we looked for publicly available information around pricing fees and subscription models. If pricing information was not available via the company’s website, we contacted the vendor by e-mail or telephone to determine if it would be willing to provide a rule of thumb on the costs for enterprise licenses, workgroup licenses, individual licenses, or the method on which the product is priced (e.g., by seat, by yearly fee, etc.) and we then evaluated their responses. Figure 4 shows the ranking for sales.


Figure 4. Product Sales Rankings

Sales: Key takeawaysAs with other Outsell Product Rankings, sales personnel demonstrated fairly solid product knowledge. Differences crept in with the mixed ability of the different sales team members to probe for our needs and to convey the product’s value proposition, instead of just running through product features. In addition, in three out of five companies, the sales personnel we spoke with had little knowledge of their competition and thus were not able to differentiate their own product. In our opinion, knowing the competitive differences among products is crucial to an effective sales process.

Table 2 gives a high-level view of the key points for each of the five products.

SalesExperience:10 Points

Website:5 Points

Pricing:5 Points

Total Score 15

Zoom Information

17 14 13

D&B

12

OneSource iSell

NetProspex

6

3

44

35

4

5

4

668 7

3

3

Salesforce Data.com



Table 2. Overview of Sales Key Takeaways

Zoom Information Data.com NetProspex OneSource

iSell D&B

Sales Experience

Did not respond to e-mail inquiries

Immediate response to phone inquiries

Able to explain value proposition

Good product knowledge

Understood competition and product differentiation

Responded to e-mail inquiries in one hour


Sales able to explain value proposition

Adequate product knowledge

Not clear on competition or product differentiation

Did not respond to e-mail inquiries


Sales able to explain value proposition

Very good product knowledge

Understood competition and product differentiation

Responded to e-mail inquiries within 14 to 24 hours


Good product knowledge and probed for needs

Able to explain value proposition


Responded to e-mail inquiries in 48 hours


Trouble explaining value proposition and differences between products


Receipt of follow-up sales information was delayed and required numerous attempts to contact sales

Usefulness and Completeness of Vendor Website

Clear, well-structured

Extensive details on features





Good explanation of data management processes


Good product description

Multiple offerings slightly confusing

Good description of products, although some products seem to overlap

Sales Pricing Pricing published on site

Pricing published on site

Not published on site, but provided on phone





All of the product websites were generally informative. Data.com and Zoom Information were both well-structured with clear product descriptions and pricing, which improves their scores in this category. The Hoover’s component of D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions has a lot of product information but is somewhat confusing — searching for a sales prospect product points to OnDemand List Building, Lead Builder, Hoover’s Subscriptions, Integrated Contact Solutions, etc.

Detailed pricing is available on Zoom Information’s website. Pricing for ZoomInfo Pro is based on two criteria: number of records required and number of end-users. For instance, the site quotes a price of $7,995k for 10 users and 10,000 records downloaded. There is also a handy online tool for a prospective client to calculate a price based on the number of users and downloads required. When speaking with sales, it was clear that there was flexibility around pricing, but the model and indicative price points are transparent.

Salesforce Data.com also has clear pricing on its website. Charges for both data cleaning and prospecting products are quoted per user per month. Data.com Clean is $25 per user per month (for all CRM users), and Data.com Prospector costs $125 per user per month for 300 leads each month. Prospector allows unlimited viewing of all account data and contact data — for prospecting and targeting individuals and accounts without limits. The 300 users/month is for importing the contacts into Salesforce. The premium versions of these products cost $35 and $165 (300 leads) per user per month, respectively. Additional prospector leads over the 300 records limit can be purchased at 50 cents each. Data.com Connect lists can be acquired for a range of packages (350/759/3,600 contacts) — all charged as an annual fee, with an option to buy additional records at a nominal $1 or 50-cent fee, depending on the package. The sales team indicated there is some flexibility around pricing depending on the customer, their needs, and volume of use.

NetProspex offers two services: prospecting and data management. The SalesProspex tool is based on annual subscription charges per seat (with scaled discounts for higher volumes of end-users) based on usage limits of 200 screen views per day per seat and 1,200 downloads per annum. The pricing model for other products is all volume based with the exception of the Data Health Scan (DHS), which is free. DHS is a full health scan of what a database looks like — e.g., it is tested for e-mail deliverability, phone connectability, duplicates, incomplete data, and spam traps. The cleanse-and-append process is where filling in any of the incomplete data from the health scan comes in to play. The pricing is per record and will vary depending on how complete or incomplete the database is. List purchasing can be priced from 15 cents/contact to $1/contact, depending on exact requirements. Customers purchasing more than 2,000 contacts are entitled to pricing discounts.

OneSource iSell is available on an annual subscription with pricing for one seat offering unlimited use and downloads. Additional seats are charged on a reduced incremental basis. Data Solutions (lists and cleansing) is priced on a per-record fee for match and append cleansing services on a custom basis.


Our experience with the D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions sales personnel was less than ideal. We were able to initially get information that D&B Direct and D&B 360 are available on a 12-month subscription for unlimited usage and the Optimizer solution for cleansing and appending is priced on a per-record basis, but we were later told that the D&B 360 pricing model is due to change because of a product relaunch to one based more accurately on the number of records required and number of end-users. We were promised an e-mail with indicative pricing for Hoover’s, but it took numerous follow-up phones calls to actually get pricing information.

Service (15 Points)In our review of the customer service function, we assessed three key areas:

Training Capabilities (4 points): We evaluated whether or not training is available, whether it is included in the product price, or if there is an additional charge.

Product Support and Troubleshooting (8 points): We looked at how flexible the company is in providing support via phone, e-mail, chat, or any other method (e.g., web forms, social media, etc.), as well as the times and days of availability. We were able to find out when a vendor would make global support offices available to a user even when a subscriber was not located in the region of the office.

Administrative Functionality (3 points): We evaluated whether or not there is the capability to monitor product usage and manage users via an online administrative dashboard.

Figure 5 shows our ratings in these areas.

Figure 5. Product Service Rankings

Training:4 Points

Support:8 Points

AdministrativeFunctionality: 3 Points

Total Score 13

OneSourceiSell

15 13 13

Salesforce Data.com

12

Zoom Information

NetProspex

2

7778

444 4

7

D&B


2223 3


Service: Key takeawaysAs in previous reports, the companies are all fairly comparable when it comes to offering training and support for their products. While “test driving” the products, we called customer support to ask questions, and generally found the service representatives professional and knowledgeable about the products. Salesforce Data.com is the only company that does not provide free training (other than online courses) and phone support with its basic support package, which affected its score in this category. Full-fledged training and support are only available with fee-based support packages.

Table 3 gives a high-level view of the key points for each of the five products.

Table 3. Overview of Service Key Takeaways

OneSource iSell D&B Zoom

Information NetProspex Data.com

Training Capabilities

Free training, client-dedicated support team, webinars, classes

Free training, client-dedicated support team, videos, live sessions

Free training, client-dedicated support team, webinars

Free training, client-dedicated support team, webinars

No free training other than online courses

Custom training available at additional cost

Dedicated “customer success manager” for implementation

Online webinars

Troubleshooting Support

Phone and e-mail, 24 hours/day worldwide

Phone and e-mail, M-F, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. CST

Phone and e-mail, M-F 7 a.m.-7 p.m. EST

Phone and e-mail, M-F 8 a.m.-6 p.m. EST

Basic support does not include phone support only e-mail

Full support at additional cost

Administrative

Functionality

Online dashboard with full usage reports

Custom reports on most active individuals/targets also available

Ability to manage users online

Custom usage reports on request

Limited usage reports available online


No online usage reports, but on roadmap for 2014

Ability to manage users online


Online dashboard with full usage reports

Custom reports on most active individuals/targets also available



SuitabilityIn determining which sales and marketing intelligence solutions best suit an enterprise or company, identifying the primary purpose is vital — is it for business needs (e.g., finding new customers, identifying target markets) or is it for information management needs (e.g., cleansing existing data, enhancing existing data sets).

The offerings from D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions and Salesforce Data.com have the most comprehensive company data, based on D&B’s extensive company information. The D-U-N-S number, which acts as a unique company identifier, is widely accepted and useful as a tool to accurately identify corporate family trees, and it is essential in matching purchased data with existing company records. This functionality is critical for sales efforts at a corporate level, less so on a local level. In our view, the D-U-N-S number is a strategic asset on which D&B can capitalize.

Several of the companies profiled (e.g., NetProspex and Zoom) offer free data analysis to determine contact accuracy, e-mail deliverability, or e-mail spam traps of existing data sets. As stated earlier, the accuracy of some of the data we looked at is questionable. In Outsell’s opinion, specific citations of data verification in data sets would be a step in the right direction (which some companies are already doing).

When the emphasis is strictly on sales prospecting, the comprehensive external data sources of OneSource’s iSell to provide company and industry context, or the deep background on individual contacts supplied by Zoom Information rises to the top, with iSell perhaps being the better choice because of the up-to-date news alerts on companies and individuals that Zoom lacks.

Imperatives for Information Managers and Buyers

1. Understand that data is constantly changing.

All of the products tested claimed their data is “more accurate” than anyone else’s and that they go to great lengths to ensure that accuracy. To be sure, efforts are made to maintain data quality, but the reality is that it’s impossible to guarantee accuracy, and all of the products reviewed had shortcomings in this area. People change jobs, and companies evolve — staying on top of those changes is a Herculean task (and any inference to Hercules cleaning the Augean stables is coincidental).

2. Understand that building prospect lists is often a process of trial and error.

While all of the products reviewed have robust filtering and segmenting tools, unless you are searching for a clearly distinct title (e.g., CEO or CFO), many job functions have multiple descriptive titles, meaning users will need to be creative and test various search functions.


3. Understand the enterprise information needs.

Core data assets (e.g., customers, prospects, market segmentation) are a key part of the infonomics equation, and they are critical to the enterprise. Whether data management is done in-house or via a third-party vendor such as those under review, poor-quality data is a drain on resources and time. Minimizing those frustrations is essential.

Appendix

Sample Scoring SheetProduct Quality and Performance / 65 Points Maximum

Content and Critical Attributes / 40 Points Maximum

Size of product (number of companies in the database), relative to peers, 1-4 points

Number of job titles/functions per company, 1-4 points

Depth of individual prospect record, 1-4 points

Data quality assurance procedures, 1-4 points

Timeliness and frequency to update data (real time, daily, weekly) relative to peers, 1-4 points

Integration with CRMs, 1-4 points

Depth of company info (e.g., revenue, employees, SIC codes, corp. hierarchy), 1-4 points

Database management/cleansing/enriching services, 1-4 points

Ancillary company info (e.g., news, social media feeds, industry background, etc.), 1-4 points

Sales triggers (e.g., executive changes, new products/funding, etc.), 1-4 points

Search Capabilities / 14 Points Maximum

Ability to segment (by size, revenue, region, title, etc.), 1-4 points

Ease of website/ database navigation, layout, clear display of results, 1-5 points

Precision search capabilities, filtering, saved searches, 1-5 points

Enterprise-wide and Innovative Features / Intangibles / 11 Points Maximum

Mobile Access, 1-3 points

Ability to share/export data, 1-2 points

Data analytics tools (geography, industry, customer base, etc.), 1-3 points

Intangibles: How well product performs against stated mission, 1-3 points


Sales Performance / 20 Points Maximum

Sales Contact Review / 11 Points Maximum

Responsiveness of sales personnel, 0-2 points

Professionalism, (courtesy, helpfulness), 0-3 points

Explain value proposition/differentiation, 0-3 points

Product knowledge, 0-3 points

Usefulness and Completeness of Vendor Website / 4 Points Maximum

Clarity (well-written, easy to navigate), 0-2 points

Comprehensiveness (full product description and features), 0-2 points

Sales Pricing / 5 Points Maximum

Publishes pricing, explains pricing methods, 5 points

Provides generic or sample pricing, 3 points

Provides rules of thumb for pricing, 1 point

Does not publish, explain, or provide rules of thumb, 0 points

Service / 15 Points Maximum

Training Capabilities / 4 Points Maximum

Customized training is available and at no extra cost, 4 points

Customized training is available but at a cost, 2 points

No customized training is available, 0 points

Troubleshooting Support / 8 Points Maximum

Multiple methods (e-mail, phone, live chat), 0-2 points

Level of support (24/7, global, regional), 0-2 points

Speed of response, 0-2 points

Professionalism, 0-2 points

Administrative Functionality / 3 Points Maximum

Ability to monitor usage/manage users, 1-3 points

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