RevenueBase Blog

Mark Feldman November 5, 2024

How to Evaluate B2B Data Vendor Quality

Checklist: How to Evaluate a Data Provider

Use this checklist to ensure you select a high-quality data provider for your business needs.

Get a sample from the data provider:

• Request a sample of ~100 records during a live demo – Always ask for a real-time sample of ~100 records during a demo. This ensures you’re seeing the quality they offer without any manipulation.
• Ask how frequently the provider verifies the emails addresses in their database including catchall domains. 
• Confirm how frequently each contact record is updated.

Targeting accuracy evaluation:

• Verify that the companies have the specific problem your solution solves.
• Ensure you have the right filters to identify companies with the pain your solution solves. 

Data point accuracy evaluation:

• Verify contact accuracy using LinkedIn.
• Test mobile numbers by making direct calls.
• Run an email campaign to measure email quality.

Best practices:

• Don’t use email verification tools – Avoid tools like ZeroBounce for testing emails; send real campaigns instead as most email verification tools can’t verify catchall domains.
• Focus Only on Hard Bounces, Not Soft Bounces — Email tools report both hard and soft bounces, but only hard bounces matter. Hard bounces mean the address is invalid, while soft bounces are temporary issues, like an out-of-office reply. Since soft bounces are often the majority, focus solely on hard bounces.
• Get internal buy-in – Involve your head of sales (or CEO if you don’t have a head of sales) in the evaluation to ensure your targeting aligns with customers that will earn revenue for the company.
• Data updates – Ask what happens when someone leaves their job—how and how quickly does the provider update that information? Relying on outdated contacts can severely impact your campaigns.

Choosing the right B2B data provider is critical to maximizing sales and marketing success. This guide will help you understand the importance of data quality, how to measure it, and how to ensure you’re making the best investment.

Why Data Quality Matters

In B2B sales, targeting the right companies and people with accurate data is essential. Data that accurately matches your solution to the right companies and decision-makers directly impacts your revenue and pipeline efficiency. Even a small improvement—just 5% in data quality can result in a 5% increase in revenue.

Two Key Measures of Data Quality

Evaluating data quality comes down to two critical areas:

1. Targeting Accuracy: This measures how well the data provider identifies companies with the specific problem your solution solves and decision-makers who can take action. Accurate targeting ensures your sales team focuses only on the best opportunities, maximizing revenue.
2. Data Point Accuracy: This refers to the correctness of individual data elements—such as email deliverability, correct job titles, and valid mobile numbers. Accurate data ensures that outreach efforts aren’t wasted on invalid information or bounced emails.

While both measures are important, targeting accuracy has a far greater impact on sales outcomes. If your targeting is off, even the most accurate contact data won’t help you close deals. Proper targeting reduces wasted time, cuts costs, and improves ROI on campaigns.

Example: Targeting Accuracy Evaluation

Here’s an example of how you can categorize companies based on their relevance to your product. The goal is to reduce ‘No’ responses, as these represent wasted time and resources.

How to Test Contact Data Accuracy

Testing contact data ensures that the people listed are still with the companies specified, and that emails and phone numbers are valid. The following steps will help you assess the accuracy of your data provider’s contacts.

A common issue with many data providers is the difficulty of maintaining data quality over time. While it’s easy to collect data, ensuring that it stays accurate and up-to-date is far more challenging for any data provider. When a contact changes jobs, does the provider update their information? Furthermore, most people only update LinkedIn profiles when they start a new job, if at all.

The reality is that many data providers don’t have robust systems for tracking these changes in real-time. Without proper updates, data quickly becomes outdated, leading to wasted outreach efforts and poor campaign performance. With a good testing strategy, you can find out how well they actually keep data up to date.

This table shows the results of testing sample contacts.

How to Test Email Accuracy the Right Way

Many email validation tools, such as ZeroBounce, are blocked by security firewalls, which means they cannot verify around 50% of emails. Instead of relying on such tools, the best way to test email accuracy is to send a small email campaign to a sample of contacts.

Measure the hard bounce rate—the percentage of emails that are undeliverable because the address doesn’t exist. A small percentage of hard bounces is normal, but anything above 10% indicates extremely poor data quality.

Testing Mobile Number Accuracy

Test mobile phone data by calling the numbers directly. Mark down whether you reached the correct person or heard their name on voicemail. This helps ensure that mobile numbers are assigned to the right contacts.

Final Thoughts: Choose Wisely

Selecting the right data provider requires careful evaluation. Prioritize targeting accuracy—it will have the biggest impact on your revenue. Verify contact data accuracy to ensure outreach efforts aren’t wasted. Finally, be wary of providers that can’t explain exactly where their data comes from and how it’s maintained.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be better equipped to choose a data provider that aligns with your business goals. The right data provider will empower your sales team to focus on closing deals and driving growth.