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.
Cross-selling is a sales tactic of encouraging customers to purchase products or services that are related to what they're already buying.
Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to potential customers you haven't contacted before, aiming to start a business conversation.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.
A Single Page Application (SPA) is a web app that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page rather than loading new pages.
Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect who has shown interest based on marketing efforts but isn't yet ready for a sales conversation.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
AI data enrichment uses artificial intelligence to automatically enhance and update raw data, making it more complete, accurate, and valuable.
Digital advertising is the practice of delivering promotional content to users through various online and digital channels like social media or search engines.
A landing page is a standalone web page created for a marketing campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after clicking an ad or email link.
An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Retargeting marketing is a digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand online.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where affiliates earn a commission for promoting another company’s products or services.
Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.
Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.
Lead enrichment adds third-party data to your raw lead lists, creating fuller prospect profiles for more effective and personalized outreach.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, including upsells, downgrades, and churn.
A sales lead is a potential customer—an individual or organization that has shown interest in your company's products or services.
Email verification is the process of confirming that an email address is valid and deliverable, which helps improve campaign performance.
Content Rights Management involves controlling the use and distribution of copyrighted digital media to protect intellectual property.
Revenue intelligence is the process of collecting and analyzing customer data to provide insights that help sales teams make smarter decisions.
SFDC stands for Salesforce Dot Com, a popular cloud-based CRM platform that helps companies manage their customer interactions and data.
X-Sell, or cross-selling, is a sales strategy of selling additional, related products or services to an existing customer base.
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers before issuing a more detailed proposal.
Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).
Learn about B2B data erosion, including causes of B2B data decay, strategies to combat data erosion, & measuring the impact of data erosion.
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw data by adding missing information from other sources, making it more complete and actionable.
Contact discovery is the process of finding accurate contact details for potential leads, including names, emails, phone numbers, and job titles.
A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.
Consultative selling is an approach where salespeople act as expert advisors, diagnosing customer needs to provide the most suitable solutions.
Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.
Learn about behavioral analytics, including implementing behavioral analytics successfully, & key metrics in behavioral analytics.
Objection handling in sales is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns about a product or service to move the deal forward.
Sales intelligence is technology that gathers and analyzes data to help salespeople find and understand prospects and existing clients.
Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.
Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.
A product champion is an internal evangelist who drives a product's adoption and success by ensuring it solves real problems for their team.
NoSQL ("Not only SQL") databases offer a flexible alternative to relational models, excelling at managing large and unstructured data sets.
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.
CRM integration connects your CRM software with other tools, creating a unified system for all your customer data and business processes.
Copyright compliance is adhering to laws that protect creative works. It involves legally using content by obtaining permission or licenses.
User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.
The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.
Scrum is an agile framework that helps teams structure and manage their work through a set of values, principles, and practices.
Learn about buyer, including identifying your ideal buyer, understanding buyer's journey, & evaluating buyer decision processes.
Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.
Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.
Learn about B2B sales, including key strategies for B2B success, types of B2B sales models, & B2B vs. B2C sales: understanding the differences.
A Point of Contact (POC) is the designated individual or department that serves as the main hub for information and communication on a matter.
Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.
Closed Lost is a sales term for a deal that didn't go through. The prospect decided not to buy, or the sales team disqualified them.
Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.
Demand generation is the process of creating awareness and interest in your products to build a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team.
Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how a system behaves under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.
Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.
Precision targeting is a marketing strategy that uses data to identify and reach a highly specific audience most likely to convert.
A RESTful API is a web service interface that uses HTTP requests to access and use data, adhering to the constraints of REST architecture.
A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the predictable income a company expects to receive from its customers over a one-year period.
Product recommendations are a marketing strategy that uses customer data to suggest relevant products, boosting sales and customer engagement.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are websites that look and feel like native mobile apps, offering features like offline access and push notifications.
Website visitor tracking collects and analyzes data on user behavior to understand their journey and improve the overall user experience.
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect, hypothetical company that would get the most value from your product.
Customer retention refers to the strategies and activities a company uses to prevent customer churn and encourage them to continue buying.
Inside sales is a remote sales process where reps sell products or services via phone, email, and other digital tools instead of in person.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and exchange information.
Account-Based Selling is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing treat high-value accounts as markets of one, using personalized outreach.
Triggers are predefined conditions that, when met, automatically launch a workflow or action, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
A Marketing Qualified Opportunity (MQO) is a lead vetted by marketing as a genuine sales opportunity, ready for direct sales follow-up.
Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
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 channel partner is a company that works with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell their products, software, or services to customers.
The FAB technique is a sales framework connecting product features to advantages and then to the specific benefits for the customer.
A value statement is a clear, concise declaration of the unique benefits a company provides to its customers, outlining its core purpose.
GPCTBA/C&I is a sales qualification framework for understanding a prospect's goals, plans, challenges, timeline, budget, and authority.
A persona map visually outlines a target customer, detailing their goals, behaviors, and pain points to help your team build genuine empathy.
Sales Engineers blend deep technical knowledge with sales acumen, demonstrating a product's value and solving customer problems to drive revenue.
Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.
Event tracking is the method of collecting data on specific user actions, or 'events,' on a website or app, such as clicks or downloads.
An Account Development Representative (ADR) identifies and qualifies new business opportunities, creating a pipeline for account executives.
Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.
Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.
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.
Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.
Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospects are in the sales process, from the first contact to the final sale.
Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.
A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.
Sales development is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers to create a pipeline of sales-ready leads for closers.
Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.