A recent survey by Gartner Inc. found that around 87% of B2B customers expect businesses to be well-informed regarding their personal preferences during a service interaction.
If anything, the aforementioned survey highlights the growing significance of personalized experiences across the business spectrum. From B2C to now B2B, modern customers are increasingly leaning towards personalized experiences as opposed to getting treated with the generic well-established business experience. This has established B2B data services as the differentiation factor between a flourishing business and a business struggling to land customers. More and more businesses are now employing data analytics and BI tools to extract personal insights on their customers from their datasets to devise personalized experiences to cater to their customers.
As a result, the number of B2B data providers has skyrocketed recently, with each promising to deliver an incredibly personalized experience for their customers. However, while the increasing number of B2B data service providers has given more options for businesses to choose from, it has severely blurred the line between personalized experience and personal privacy invasion. And as a business, you would not want to cross the line. It will not only invite the ire of authorities towards your business but will also do irreversible damage to your brand.
Thus, keeping in mind that there is a very thin line between crafting a personalized experience and a massive invasion of privacy, we jot down a few essential pointers for businesses looking for B2B data providers. These will help you keep your expectations in check regarding B2B data services. So, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
B2B Data Services: Expectations vs. Reality
Expectation: B2B Service provider will fill your business database instantly with verified data
Reality: B2B Data verification is a laborious process & takes time
Reasoning:
Any B2B data provider that makes assuring claims to fill in your business database with verified data is either lying or is using machine-verified data. In both cases, the data provided is useless to your business. Machine-verified data tend to be less accurate, even if your B2B data provider throws in tech jargon like AI-verified or ML-verified. Even though artificial intelligence undoubtedly is the future of modern business, but humans have a slight edge over AI when it comes to verifying business data. Thus it would help if you considered a right B2B data provider that claims to have human-verified data or at least have some human intervention at some stage of data verification. It’s worth mentioning that machine-verified or human-verified, no B2B data provider can promise or boast of having 100% accurate data, not at least in any legitimate way; however, human-verified data comes closer to that 100% mark. So, don’t fall for the jargon and always go for the human-verified data provider.
Expectation: Machine-verified B2B Database is Cheaper
Reality: Machine-verified B2B Database costs you heavily in long run
Reasoning:
At the outset, the prospect of having a machine-scrapped B2B database sounds rather tempting, for it comes at a lower price and can be availed almost instantly. The temptation grows even more potent when you are on a tight budget. However, while the machine-verified data invites a small investment, it will cost you much more in the long run than the human-verified database. The simple reason is that the machine-verified database is always less accurate than human-verified data. Thus, cleaning the data (emails, designations, phone numbers, Etc.) will cost you valuable company hours to make it worthwhile for any of your marketing campaigns. So, if you do not want numerous bounced emails, incorrect dials, or even wrong social media targeting, it’s wise to invest in human-verified data.
Expectation: B2B Databases are Plug-and-Play
Reality: Every B2B Database Needs Data Enrichment for it to Work
Reasoning:
The primary goal behind seeking the service of any B2B data provider is to empower the sales, marketing, and product teams with useful user data to capitalize on. Having a readily available database makes it achievable. However, irrespective of the promises made by your B2B data service provider, every database will always be a plug-and-play database. Whether the data is collected through automation tools or has been manually collected, it is bound to get stale with time. This is why every reputed B2B data provider will offer a data enrichment service to complement the accuracy and quality of the data they deliver. Whether you are procuring the data externally or have a database sitting in your CRM, you must give it timely data enrichment treatment to keep it updated and beneficial for your business. To enable timely updates, most B2B data service providers bundle their offering with a convenient data enrichment subscription to make sure that the data you are getting is business-ready at all times.
Expectation: Any B2B Data Service Provider Can Meet Your Business Needs, It’s Data Afterall
Reality: Not Everything That’s Too Good to Be True Is True
Reasoning:
When it comes to data, you can expect absolute honesty and transparency from your B2B data provider. You wouldn’t want to get into legal trouble due to your partnership. This is why it is always recommended to double-check that your data provider complies with all applicable laws and policies regarding data in your region. A good B2B data provider must provide all the details of the processes and tools they deploy to collect their B2B data. You must also go through the terms of your contracts in detail to ensure that there are no grey areas. One specific area you would want to pay special attention to is data usage terms in case you decide to switch vendors in the future. Certain vendors might require you to delete the data they have provided should you change vendors in the future. To avoid such surprises, you must go through the terms of the contracts in great detail.
To Sum Up
Investing in B2B data service is a huge business decision that requires immense due diligence and thorough advanced planning. You can’t source your business data from anywhere and anyone. Once you have decided to onboard a B2B database provider for their services, you need to make sure that you verify all their services, offerings, credentials, and the sources/methods of data collection. It would be best if you remembered that onboarding a B2B data provider is a long-term investment and requires long-term planning. So, irrespective of your expectations from your B2B data service provider, it will always be a tad different from reality, and thus be wary. And if you are finding it hard to put your finger on a reliable and trusted B2B data provider in the market, do reach out to us, and we will help you solve all your data needs. Just write to us at: [email protected], and we will have our B2B data experts reach out to you.
