B2B data, or business-to-business data, refers to any information that benefits B2B companies, particularly their sales, marketing, and revenue operations teams. This data includes account and contact information for company decision-makers with purchasing power, and is essential for activities such as lead generation, outbound sales, and analytics, ultimately leading to more effective and efficient revenue generation.
There are five essential types of B2B data:
Leveraging B2B data for sales success involves a combination of strategies and best practices. To make the most of your B2B data, consider the following:
Ensuring the accuracy of B2B data is crucial for effective sales and marketing efforts. To maintain data accuracy, businesses should consider the following techniques:
B2B data privacy and compliance issues are increasingly important as businesses collect and utilize data to enhance their sales and marketing efforts. Adhering to data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is crucial to avoid potential financial and reputational damage.
To address these challenges, businesses should implement strict data storage guidelines and data governance practices to minimize the risk of data breaches and ensure the privacy and safety of the data they access.
Marketo is a marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to manage lead generation, nurturing, email marketing, and analytics.
Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, including upsells, downgrades, and churn.
Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.
Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.
Process Builder is a Salesforce automation tool that lets you create 'if/then' business processes with a user-friendly visual interface.
Webhooks are automated messages sent by an app when a specific event occurs. They push real-time data to another app's unique URL.
The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy where marketing and sales collaborate to target and convert high-value accounts.
Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how a system behaves under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.
A sales coach is a mentor who trains and guides sales reps to enhance their skills, boost performance, and ultimately close more deals effectively.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.
Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.
Learn about B2B data erosion, including causes of B2B data decay, strategies to combat data erosion, & measuring the impact of data erosion.
Closed opportunities are potential deals that have concluded. They are categorized as either 'closed-won' (a sale was made) or 'closed-lost'.
Outbound sales is when reps proactively contact potential customers through cold calls or emails to generate leads and build a sales pipeline.
Learn about business continuity, including understanding key components, steps to ensure continuity, common challenges, & best practices.
Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.
A product champion is an internal evangelist who drives a product's adoption and success by ensuring it solves real problems for their team.
End of Day (EOD) refers to the close of business hours. It's a common deadline for tasks and reports to be completed before the workday ends.
Sales partnerships are strategic alliances where two companies co-sell products to expand their reach, generate new leads, and increase revenue.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
A consumer is an individual or entity that buys products or services for personal use, not for resale. They are the final user in a supply chain.
An elevator pitch is a short, memorable summary of what you do, designed to be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator.
Workflow automation uses rule-based logic to run a sequence of tasks that would otherwise require manual human effort to complete.
A headless CMS is a back-end content repository that delivers content via API to any front-end, decoupling the content from its presentation layer.
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers before issuing a more detailed proposal.
Closed Won is a CRM status for a sales deal that has been successfully concluded, resulting in a signed contract and a new customer.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
Learn about buyer, including identifying your ideal buyer, understanding buyer's journey, & evaluating buyer decision processes.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that centralizes customer data to help manage interactions and nurture relationships.
ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) represents the maximum revenue a company can earn by selling its product or service in a specific market.
Accounts Payable (AP) is the money a company owes its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit. It's listed as a current liability.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools a company uses to sell products, defined by the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
GDPR compliance means following the EU's strict data protection laws to ensure the secure and lawful handling of personal data.
CRM integration connects your CRM software with other tools, creating a unified system for all your customer data and business processes.
Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.
Data appending is the process of adding new data fields to your existing database records to enrich and complete your information.
A use case is a detailed description of how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal, outlining the steps from start to finish.
AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.
A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
Lookalike audiences are groups of potential customers who share similar characteristics and behaviors with your existing, high-value customers.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.
The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.
Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.
A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.
A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales specialist who finds and qualifies new leads, building a pipeline for the sales team.
Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.
Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and exchange information.
A Point of Contact (POC) is the designated individual or department that serves as the main hub for information and communication on a matter.
Inside sales is a remote sales process where reps sell products or services via phone, email, and other digital tools instead of in person.
Direct sales involves selling products directly to consumers in a non-retail setting, such as at home, online, or person-to-person.
Ramp-up time is the period a new hire takes to get fully up to speed and become a productive member of your go-to-market team.
A canary release is a deployment strategy where new software is rolled out to a small user group first, minimizing risk before a full release.
Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.
Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.
Retargeting marketing is a digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand online.
No Cold Calls is a sales strategy that replaces unsolicited calls with warm outreach to prospects who have already demonstrated interest.
Digital advertising is the practice of delivering promotional content to users through various online and digital channels like social media or search engines.
A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.
GPCTBA/C&I is a sales qualification framework for understanding a prospect's goals, plans, challenges, timeline, budget, and authority.
Key accounts are a company's most valuable customers, vital due to their significant revenue contribution and strategic importance for growth.
An account is a company or organization that you're targeting for sales. It can be a prospective, current, or even a past customer.
Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.
Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.
Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any form of content, like images, videos, or text, created and shared by users on online platforms.
Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.
A cold email is an initial outreach sent to a potential customer with whom you've had no prior contact, aiming to introduce your business.
Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.
Programmatic advertising uses AI and real-time bidding to automate the buying and selling of digital ad space, targeting specific audiences.
Customer centricity is a business approach that puts the customer at the heart of every decision, aiming to build loyalty and long-term value.
Objection handling is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns or hesitations about a product or service to move a deal forward.
Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.
Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.
Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the predictable income a company expects to receive from its customers over a one-year period.
Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.
Cross-selling is a sales tactic of encouraging customers to purchase products or services that are related to what they're already buying.
Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.
Sales enablement content refers to the materials and tools that empower your sales team to engage prospects and close deals more efficiently.
Learn about B2B sales, including key strategies for B2B success, types of B2B sales models, & B2B vs. B2C sales: understanding the differences.
An Account Executive (AE) is a sales professional responsible for closing new business deals and managing existing client relationships to drive revenue.
Dynamic pricing is a strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands and other factors.
An Account Development Representative (ADR) identifies and qualifies new business opportunities, creating a pipeline for account executives.
Intent data tracks a user's online behavior—like searches and site visits—to identify signals that they are ready to make a purchase.
X-Sell, or cross-selling, is a sales strategy of selling additional, related products or services to an existing customer base.
Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.
Firmographics are descriptive attributes of organizations, used to segment companies by characteristics like industry, size, and location.
White labeling is when a company puts its own branding on a product or service that was actually produced by a different company.
A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system of integrated software that businesses use to manage and automate their core day-to-day processes.