Comparing B2B sales leads from different database vendors is not like comparing other products or services. It might seem like a lead is a lead, but there's an important differentiator that can determine whether a contact record is a value-packed potential deal or a waste of time: its source.

If your organization is in the market for a contact database of leads, you must find a provider who can provide you with a sufficient amount of contact records. But how many leads is enough for you? Does a larger database make a vendor a better option?

It's obvious that the pricing of a B2B lead gen tool matters to your business. What isn't so obvious is how you should compare the price structures of the many different contact database options available on the market. With some companies charging monthly per user and others billing for an entire year for your whole team, it's difficult to compare the cost of sales leads vendors.

There are lots of vendors today offering huge databases of accurate contact information about companies in every industry. Each provider has different terms, costs, and user interfaces, meaning an apples-to-apples comparison is difficult.

If you aren't careful about the type of B2B lead generation companies you decide to work with, your wise investment into sales and marketing could turn into an expensive waste of time.

When a problem doesn't manifest itself right away, it can be easy to ignore. Outdated sales data is this type of problem. Like termites slowly eating away at the foundation of a home, you might not notice it immediately, but if you don't take action it will eventually bring the walls down.

If your contact data isn't accurate, you effectively have no way to contact your prospects or customers. And if you can't get in touch with your customers and prospects, how can you hope to improve your company's sales? It's a vicious cycle caused by deteriorating data

In a perfect world, every single sales record would be completely accurate with up-to-date names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Sales reps would follow up and instantly hear replies back from eager customers. Trumpets would ring out from the heavens and gold would fall from the skies.

Every company's most important sales asset is their customer file – a record of current and potential buyers. With a good quality customer database you can more effectively upsell existing customers and make sure that no prospects fall through the cracks.

Everyone has the same amount of time in their day, but why does it seem like some salespeople and business owners find success at every turn, while others languish in a sea of "we're not ready to buy yet"?

Email validation refers to a method of "pinging" an email address to see if it is valid or not. This process can help you determine which email addresses you should send to and which ones you can delete from your contact list.

Leads are the cornerstone of any successful sales process. If you don't have enough quality sales leads coming into the top of your funnel, you'll never be able to hit your sales or revenue goals. Adopting any or all of the following strategies is a great way to find people who would be a great fit for your offer.

With a low barrier to entry and potential ROI of over 4,000 percent, email marketing is still one of the most efficient ways to nurture sales leads down the buying funnel.

Bringing in new customers is the lifeblood of your business, but what happens when you run into a wall with traditional techniques? Tactics like email marketing and cold calling will work, but sometimes you need to switch things up and pursue new customers in a different way.

You can have a highly targeted, well-crafted email marketing campaign, but if you don't have the right list of people to send it to you won't get the results you're after.

There's plenty of information out there on email marketing, but how valuable is it if your list is full of outdated email addresses?

Lots of people know that having an inaccurate or outdated database will cost you time and reputation – nearly a third of all companies who had problems delivering emails say that their customer service suffered from it.

Your email list is a great source for gaining new business by nurturing clients and establishing relationships with prospects. But because of dirty data, many companies aren't getting as many sales from their purchased email list as they could be.

Lots of contact database vendors selling targeted email lists will spend plenty of time and effort trying to win your business: showing you videos, offering demos, and making big claims about their solution.

While a data solution that provides your sales and marketing teams with new leads is valuable, it's also critical to effectively integrate new data into your current CRM platform. If you can't manage the records that you purchase or collect, it's difficult to maximize your return on investment from sales data.

Over the course of 1 year business data decays at a rate of 30% and 90% of companies customer or prospect data is missing key information. The consequences for sales people and sales can be frustrating at best and disastrous at worst. Imagine the increased sales if you could eliminate bad data. Fix them and watch your Sales go up.