Buyers are increasingly demanding more targeted lists of b2b information, and successful companies are building business models based on accuracy and timeliness, rather than just bigger data points. This set of product rankings takes a look at some of the leading sales and marketing intelligence services rather than just bigger data points. The emphasis for these products is based on sales and marketing workflow, ranging from “clean” or verified data at one end, through building highly segmented target lists that integrate with customer relationship management tools (CRMs), to providing “sales triggers” or time- or event-based indications on when to approach a contact. Outsell takes a look at some of the leading sales and marketing intelligence services in this set of product rankings.

1. Sales and Marketing
Intelligence Services
1
Number
ONE
RANKED
SALES
INTELLIGENCE
D&B
SALES & MARKETING
SOLUTIONS
Products included in this analysis
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B): D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions
NetProspex: NetProspex
OneSource: iSell
Salesforce: Salesforce Data.com
Zoom Information: ZoomInfo
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) has licensed this report from Outsell, Inc., with the right to distribute it for marketing
and market education purposes. D&B did not commission this report, nor is this report a fee-for-hire white paper.
Outsell¹s fact-based research, analysis and rankings, and all aspects of our opinion were independently derived
and D&B had no influence or involvement on the design or findings within this report. For questions, please contact
us at info@outsellinc.com.
Product
Ranking
Advancing the Business of Information
December 18, 2013

2. Table of Contents
Why This Topic 3
Methodology 3
Rating Definitions 5
Target Market and Users 5
Outsell’s Bottom Line 6
Outsell Overall Rankings at a Glance 7
Product Quality and Performance (65 Points)
9
Product Quality and Performance: Key Takeaways
10
Sales (20 Points) 13
Sales: Key Takeaways 14
Service (15 Points) 17
Service: Key Takeaways 18
Suitability 19
Imperatives for Information Managers and Buyers
19
Appendix 20
Sample Scoring Sheet 20
Table of Contents for Tables & Figures
Figure 1. How Sales and Marketing Intelligence Products Rank
7
Figure 2. Product Performance Rankings 8
Figure 3. Product Quality and Performance Rankings
10
Table 1. Overview of Quality and Performance Key Takeaways
11
Figure 4. Product Sales Rankings 14
Table 2. Overview of Sales Key Takeaways
15
Figure 5. Product Service Rankings 17
Table 3. Overview of Service Key Takeaways
18
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
2

3. Why This Topic
In the past few years, the company information portion of the B2B information segment has shifted
its focus: Gone are efforts to compile mega-lists of company names and contacts in an effort to
accumulate more names than the competition. Buyers are increasingly demanding more targeted
lists, and successful companies are building business models based on accuracy and timeliness,
rather than just bigger data points. The emphasis for these products is based on sales and marketing
workflow, ranging from “clean” or verified data at one end, through building highly segmented
target lists that integrate with customer relationship management tools (CRMs), to providing “sales
triggers” or time- or event-based indications on when to approach a contact. We take a look at
some of the leading sales and marketing intelligence services in this set of product rankings.
Methodology
We define sales and marketing intelligence services as those that provide their client with accurate
and verified company information, along with contact names at those companies. A useful model
for evaluating these intelligence services is to separate their functionality into three areas:
1. Provide contact information on companies, along with the capability to “cleanse” a client’s
existing contact data, and the ability to enrich a client’s data with additional targeted contacts.
2. Filter and segment the contact data by a multitude of factors such as company size (e.g.,
revenue, employees, growth), geography, industry, or other factors (e.g., minority-owned,
public/private, SIC or NAICS code, etc.); individual job title, level, or function; and keywords
or events.
3. Provide ancillary information about companies (e.g., news, press releases, social media
mentions, financial data, industry/market background, etc.) or individuals (e.g., news, social
media mentions, biographical data, etc.) as context for refining the sales or marketing effort
and to initiate “sales triggers.” We also considered the ease of use of workflow tools — for
example, to build a list, or to integrate with CRMs or sales force automation tools.
Sales and marketing are the primary functional roles for these intelligence services, but because
of their rich company and individual data these tools can also provide insight or clues for business
development, market analysis, human resources, strategic planning, and competitive intelligence.
The data cleansing function also supports IT efforts.
As part of our review, each company gave us an online demo of its product, along with a demo
password with which we could set up sample queries and test product features (Data.com did
not give us a demo password, but we were able to run our demo searches via webinar). We
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
3

4. also spoke at length with product managers and marketing leads for the products tested. We ran
several test searches (and multiple ad hoc searches) on a variety of companies and individuals.
Typical searches included: 1) We attempted to identify companies in the market research space
with less than 300 employees in California; 2) We attempted to identify director-level or above
managers of corporate information centers within Fortune 1000 companies in the US and Canada.
This search proved to be an excellent differentiator because that job function/title varies widely
and is not typically included in the pre-populated menus of job titles. A systematic analysis of the
data accuracy (e.g., point-by-point verification of company/individual information) was beyond the
scope of this review, although we did look for anecdotal evidence of accuracy.
Our criteria for product selection in this business category were to cover a selection of well-known
players. We chose the following competitive firms’ products to review:
1. D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions
2. NetProspex
3. OneSource iSell
4. Salesforce Data.com
5. Zoom Information
These are not the only firms that fall in this category, but they are the ones that best fit our criteria,
and they responded to our requests for information. For example, InsideView did not respond to
our attempts to obtain information. Also, D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions is an “umbrella” term
used to include three of the company’s flagship products: Hoover’s, D&B360, and D&B Direct,
since they essentially share the same product functionality but differ in how they are delivered
to the customer (i.e., as a stand-alone product, cloud-based integration with a CRM, and as an
application program interface [API]).
Each product is evaluated, scored, and rated in three areas for a total of 100 points:
1. Product Quality and Performance (65 points)
For this set of offerings, we define product quality as one that is broad in contact and company
data, with multifaceted search capabilities and the ability to refine and segment existing searches.
We evaluated data-cleansing capabilities where applicable, and we looked for ancillary company
information as well as mobile options, analytics, and exporting capabilities. We also evaluated how
well the product achieves its mission and its suitability for its target market.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
4

5. 2. Sales (20 points)
For the sales-facing function, Outsell examines the website for comprehensiveness and clarity,
assesses pricing transparency, and randomly calls 1-800 numbers and speaks to sales staff. A
combination of in-house staff and qualified mystery shoppers makes these 1-800 calls to eliminate
vendor bias. In this area, we evaluate sales staff responsiveness, professionalism, and product
knowledge, as well as pricing transparency and quality and clarity of the product website.
3. Service (15 points)
In assessing service, Outsell performs an on-the-record interview with the vendor to determine
training, product implementation assistance, and support. We also make random calls to customer
support to ask for product assistance. In addition, we are looking for free training options and for
overall comprehensiveness of product support.
Rating Definitions
We rate each of these areas on a scale of 100 with 60 being poor and 100 outstanding, detailed
below. A sample scoring sheet is included in the Appendix.
Poor
Fair
Good
Excellent
Outstanding
60
70
80
90
100
Falls well short
of the category
standard.
Falls somewhat
short of the
category standard.
Meets the standard
for the category of
this product.
Exceeds the
standard for the
category of this
product.
Far exceeds the
standard for the
category of this
product.
Source: Outsell analysis
Target Market and Users
We evaluate all products in this report from the enterprise buyers’ and end-users’ perspectives.
The orientation of our review is to assist buyers in selecting or buying products that best meet
their needs, and therefore Outsell assessed the product version geared toward professional and
power users. In some instances, buyers are purchasing the product for functional roles such as
marketing, public relations, or competitive intelligence, so we naturally take those other roles into
consideration in our evaluation.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
5

6. Outsell’s Bottom Line
The products in the category of sales and marketing solutions are geared to address two
fundamental areas for every company: business needs and information management needs. In
this case, business needs can be defined as market analysis, customer acquisition, and sales
productivity. Information management needs are related to those business needs, but in a broader
sense because they include multiple stakeholders (e.g., not just sales and marketing, but finance,
product development, operations, information technology, management, etc.). The structure,
analysis, processing, and usage of information within an enterprise inform activity across those
multiple stakeholders and include external data (i.e., from third-party vendors) and internal data
(i.e., customers, sales, product usage, etc.)
The products we reviewed in this report attempt to solve challenges in both of those areas.
From a business needs perspective, the products have solutions focused on identifying sales
and marketing prospects — market segmentation, list building, and productivity triggers. For
information management, the emphasis is on the data — analyzing existing data, cleansing it by
removing incorrect data, enriching it by correcting it, or enhancing it by adding fresh data.
Our two top-rated products in this category, Salesforce Data.com and D&B Sales & Marketing
Solutions, share more than just the honors — they also share the company data from Dun &
Bradstreet’s extensive data holdings of over 225 million companies across 200+ countries via a
licensing partnership. As expected, both companies emphasize quality and depth of D&B data
in their value positions, and they have robust prospecting tools, supplemented by analytics, sales
triggers, and background information.
OneSource iSell has partnerships with a variety of sources (e.g., Acquire Media, LexisNexis,
CorpData, Morningstar, etc.) to source news and financial information about the companies and
individuals in its database. These partnerships result in comprehensive news feeds, which iSell
uses for its strong sales trigger functionality. OneSource also has a data management solution,
and although it is not part of the iSell product, they can be packaged together.
Zoom Information has probably the most detailed background information on individuals within a
company, with links to websites and snippets of published articles. The rich detail would be better
if it were supplemented with current news feeds, which is a curious omission given Zoom’s reliance
on technology-enabled data gathering, although the company has plans to add that in the future.
Although NetProspex scored the lowest in this group, this is primarily due to its lack of depth
when it comes to ancillary company information (e.g., news, company background information,
financials, etc.) and sales triggers. The company’s focus is more on data management and quality
— as part of its ongoing quality assurance efforts, NetProspex claims it makes between 600,000
and 1 million outbound phone calls per month (via contractors) to verify their contact information.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
6

7. Outsell Overall Rankings at a Glance
Figure 1 provides our overall rankings for this competitor set and summarizes our analysis. In
this Product Ranking, we use the “forced ranking” method to highlight differentiation among the
products and to provide guidance on performance.
Instead of merely adding up the points in each of the three sections (product quality, sales, and
service) we assessed the products in each main section and awarded a value for position versus
its peers. For example, the leading product in the “Content & Critical Attributes” category received
a 1 value, the second place received a 0.9 value, third place received a 0.8 value, etc.
Figure 1. How Sales and Marketing Intelligence Products Rank
D&B
Salesforce
Data.com
OneSource
iSell
Zoom
Information
NetProspex
Content
40.0
36.0
36.0
32.0
24.0
Search and
Navigation
14.0
14.0
12.6
14.0
14.0
Features
11.0
11.0
9.9
8.8
9.9
Sales
Experience
8.8
8.8
8.8
11.0
9.9
Website
3.6
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
Pricing
4.5
5.0
4.5
5.0
4.5
Support
4.0
3.6
4.0
4.0
4.0
Training
7.2
7.2
8.0
7.2
7.2
Administrative
Functionality
2.7
3.0
3.0
2.7
2.7
Total Score
96
93
91
89
80
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
7

8. Figure 2 displays how products from this peer group compare to one another. The five products
are plotted on the x axis based on their average sales and service score (with 1 lowest on the left
and 5 highest on the right); and on the y axis based on their quality and performance score (with
1 lowest on the bottom and 5 highest on the top). Products that scored highest on both measures
fall into the upper right of the graphic.
Figure 2. Product Performance Rankings
5
D&B Sales & Marketing
Data.com
Zoom Information
4
NetProspex
OneSource iSell
Performance
and Quality
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
Sales and Service
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
8

9. Product Quality and Performance (65 Points)
To assess product quality and performance, we evaluated the product’s strengths in three core
areas:
Content (40 points): We considered criteria such as the size of the database of companies and
contacts, number of job titles and functions per company, depth of contact records, data quality
assurance methodology, and update frequency. In addition, we identified whether and to what
degree features are provided in the services. These key features are:
Integration with CRM components;
Depth of company information;
Database management/cleansing/enriching services;
Ancillary company information;
Sales triggers.
Search and Navigation (14 points): We evaluated the ease of use and the intuitiveness of user
interface, display of results, the ability to filter and segment by different criteria, and additional
features such as availability of search and usage tips.
Enterprise-wide and Innovative Features and Intangibles (11 points): We looked for valueadded features like mobile access, the ability to share and export data, and data analytic tools to
help analyze the customer base. We also considered how well the product performed against its
stated mission.
We evaluated mobile functionality as part of the enterprise-wide features set. To assess mobile
capabilities, we first determined whether the product is available via mobile devices, and if so,
if the vendor offers it via an HTML5-enabled website or apps, or both. We determined if the
vendor made full or only partial content and/or functionality available on the mobile site, and if the
user had the option to configure preferences to automatically display the most frequently used
content or favorite tools in a mobile-friendly format. We assessed how well the vendor understood
its customers’ mobile needs to better optimize its mobile users’ experience. We also found out
whether the vendor assessed any additional fees for accessing its product via a mobile device.
Note that for all of these products, especially when it comes to advanced or “power” searching, the
primary users are accessing the product on a desktop, not on a mobile device. While some of the
products have full-featured mobile sites, we did not penalize vendors that did not have all of their
“bells and whistles” available via mobile, nor did we give mobility any additional score.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
9

10. Figure 3 shows our ranking for product quality.
Figure 3. Product Quality and Performance Rankings
DB
Salesforce
Data.com
OneSource
iSell
Zoom
Information
NetProspex
Content:
40 Points
37
36
36
35
28
Search and
Navigation:
14 Points
13
13
11
13
13
Features:
11 Points
10
10
9
7
9
Total Score
60
59
56
55
50
Source: Outsell analysis
Product Quality and Performance: Key Takeaways
All of the products reviewed offered two key components — data cleansing/management and
list building for prospecting. Doing a systematic analysis of the validity of the data sets from each
company is beyond the scope of this report, but anecdotal evidence points to inconsistency. A
quick glance at the Outsell, Inc. entry for each product revealed numerous errors in personnel
(despite claims they were recently “verified”), although the basic company information was
generally accurate. This is not surprising because of employee turnover in all companies, but the
claims of “validated” and “verified” should be taken with a grain of salt.
In terms of list building, all of the products used consistent processes of applying filters. In our
test search of identifying directors of corporate information centers, it in all cases it was necessary
to continually refine the filtering process because the term “information” is tied to so many other
titles and job functions — e.g., information technology, security information, privacy information,
systems information, etc. Results varied widely with the different products, and point to the difficulty
of targeting prospects if the title isn’t clear cut — i.e., CEO, or VP Marketing.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
10

11. Table 1. Overview of Quality and Performance Key Takeaways
DB
Content
Salesforce
Data.com
OneSource
iSell
Claim 40 million Claim 41 million
contacts
“validated”
contacts
Sources from
Company data multiple data
Optimizer tool
is sourced from providers
to cleanse,
DB
identify
Analyze
companies and
data from all
Contact data
append data
providers for
is via crowdsourcing model data fusion
Extensive
background on from Data.com
Good
Connect
companies
background on
companies
Clean tool
Solid analytics
for data
to assess
Integration with
cleansing and
customer
Salesforce,
management
database
Microsoft, and
Oracle CRMs
Integration with Extensive
SAP, Microsoft, background on
Broad and
companies
and Oracle
flexible
CRMs, and presales trigger
Analytics tool
packaged for
capability
to assess
Eloqua
customer
database
DB Direct’s
API can
Built together
integrate
with Salesforce,
with multiple
to ensure
products
unified platform
Broad and
Broad and
flexible
flexible
sales trigger
sales trigger
capability
capability
Claim 103
million
companies
Zoom
Information
NetProspex
Claim 65 million Claim 26 million
“verified”
contacts
contacts
Crowd-sourced
and web-based Crowd-sourced
data from users
data
in exchange for
Extensive
contacts
web-based
background on Workbench
individuals and product to
assess, clean,
companies,
and enhance
although no
clients’ data
current news
feeds
Integration with
Salesforce, and
Data
contacts can
management
be exported
and
into other
enhancement
CRMs
services
Integration with
Salesforce
Sales trigger
capability is
limited
Background on
individuals and
companies is
minimal
No sales trigger
capability
Features
Extensive filters
to segment
searches
Extensive filters
to segment
searches
Extensive filters
to segment
searches
Extensive filters
to segment
searches
Extensive filters
to segment
searches
Clear
navigation and
interface
Search and
Navigation
Clear
navigation and
interface
Clear
navigation and
interface
Clear
navigation and
interface
Clear
navigation and
interface
”Light” version
optimized for
mobile
Browser version ”Light” version
optimized for
and optimized
mobile
for iPad
Mobile version
on near-term
product
roadmap
Mobile version
Currently no
mobile version, on roadmap for
2014
“light” version
on the roadmap
for 2014
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
11

12. DB Sales Marketing Solutions emphasizes cleansing and assessing clients’ data, as well as
analyzing it. The analytics tool is especially useful in that it allows a client to assess its customer
base or markets by industry, size, geography, and potential, which helps in identifying prospects.
The data hinges on the well-known D-U-N-S number, a common standard for identifying companies
and corporate families, which is also useful in integration with other enterprise systems such as
finance and marketing. As expected, there is extensive background data (e.g., news, history,
financials, etc.) on companies and industries, and setting up sales alerts is easy. The solutions
draw on Hoover’s extensive background data (e.g., news, history, financials, etc.) on companies,
and industry overviews to assist sales and marketing. List-building follows a logical progression,
with multiple ways to segment and filter.
Salesforce Data.com has two core products: Clean and Prospector. Its 2-year-old partnership
with DB allows the company to source from the DB database, which means it also uses the
D-U-N-S number as an identifier. A third component, Connect, (which is a reworking of Salesforce.
com’s Jigsaw acquisition) uses the crowd-sourced model for acquiring new contacts as well. Data
integrity is maintained by data stewards and is updated continually. The DB connection gives
Salesforce Data.com the same extensive company background data, and it uses third-party
news sources for sales triggers, as well as integration with Salesforce.com’s social component
Chatter. As with other products reviewed, list building logically employs a segmentation/filtration
process.
OneSource iSell is the only company we reviewed that does not source its own contact data.
Instead, it relies on a network of providers (including NetProspex, DB, social media sites, etc.)
The company employs a data fusion model, constantly analyzing sources for accuracy, richness,
and timeliness, and a data team reviews the data sources for overall precision. The company profile
and news pages are robust — again, it partners with multiple sources to provide news, timely events,
financial data, and industry trends. For particular industries and companies, OneSource provides
extensive background information (e.g., industry dynamics, talking points, SWOTs, buzzwords, key
terms, etc.) that is helpful for sales/marketing functions. Compiling prospect lists is straightforward,
and an added feature is that lists can be sorted by “prospectability,” meaning a recent event (e.g.,
executive promotion, funding, large sale) has occurred that might indicate a propensity to buy.
Zoom Information uses a novel approach to source its contact data. In addition to crawling
websites for company and contact data, in return for free contacts Zoom lets users download
an Outlook (and Google Apps for Business) plug-in to scour users’ e-mail on a continual basis to
identify current names, titles, and contact information. While privacy devotees may shudder, Zoom
claims that over 150,000 users of the plug-in are currently active, and that keeps its data timely
and accurate. Zoom also offers data cleansing and management services. Like the other products
under review, building a prospect list is done via a series of logical filters. One feature that is quite
handy is a “web reference” tool to use with people or company searches (e.g., to search for CFOs
who might have been recently involved with IPOs), although a lack of a current news feeds hinders
the product in the areas of alerts/triggers, and the company plans to add that feature.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
12

13. NetProspex’s value proposition is the clean, accurate data it offers. The company prides itself on
the accuracy of its contact data, which is constantly being verified by outbound phone calls and
e-mails. The assessment service helps clients measure the completeness of their contact data and
analyzes it to ensure it aligns with its clients’ business strategies. In addition to data assessment
and cleansing, NetProspex also sells contacts to enrich a client’s data. Building a prospect list is
straightforward with the SalesProspex tool, though the background information on individuals and
companies is minimal, and there are no time- or event-based news triggers for sales or marketing.
The lack of these critical features is the main reason NetProspex scored low in this category.
However, in our test search for executives at corporate information centers, NetProspex returned
the best results out of all the products under review.
Sales (20 Points)
We evaluated the following attributes to assess the sales function and experience:
Sales Experience (10 points): Outsell contacted each company’s sales personnel, both
openly and anonymously, and evaluated them on responsiveness, professionalism, and product
knowledge.
Website (5 points): In reviewing the website experience, we evaluated the ease of navigation, the
quality of product descriptions, the availability of contact information, and the overall look and feel.
Sales Pricing (5 points): Our goal was to understand the degree of transparency in each company’s
pricing models. In reviewing pricing, we looked for publicly available information around pricing
fees and subscription models. If pricing information was not available via the company’s website,
we contacted the vendor by e-mail or telephone to determine if it would be willing to provide a
rule of thumb on the costs for enterprise licenses, workgroup licenses, individual licenses, or the
method on which the product is priced (e.g., by seat, by yearly fee, etc.) and we then evaluated
their responses. Figure 4 shows the ranking for sales.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
13

14. Figure 4. Product Sales Rankings
Zoom
Information
Salesforce
Data.com
NetProspex
OneSource
iSell
DB
Sales
Experience:
10 Points
8
6
7
6
6
Website:
5 Points
4
4
4
4
3
Pricing:
5 Points
5
5
3
3
3
Total Score
17
15
14
13
12
Source: Outsell analysis
Sales: Key Takeaways
As with other Outsell Product Rankings, sales personnel demonstrated fairly solid product
knowledge. Differences crept in with the mixed ability of the different sales team members to
probe for our needs and to convey the product’s value proposition, instead of just running through
product features. In addition, in three out of five companies, the sales personnel we spoke with
had little knowledge of their competition and thus were not able to differentiate their own product.
In our opinion, knowing the competitive differences among products is crucial to an effective sales
process.
Table 2 gives a high-level view of the key points for each of the five products.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
14

15. Table 2. Overview of Sales Key Takeaways
Zoom
Information
NetProspex
Did not
respond to
e-mail inquiries
Responded to
e-mail inquiries
in one hour
Did not
respond to
e-mail inquiries
Immediate
response to
phone inquiries
Immediate
response to
phone inquiries
Immediate
response to
phone inquiries
Able to
explain value
proposition
Sales able to
explain value
proposition
Sales able to
explain value
proposition
Good product
knowledge
Sales
Experience
Data.com
Adequate
product
knowledge
Very good
product
knowledge
Not clear on
competition
or product
differentiation
Understood
competition
and product
differentiation
Understood
competition
and product
differentiation
Usefulness and
Completeness
of Vendor
Website
OneSource
iSell
Responded to
e-mail inquiries
within 14 to 24
hours
Immediate
response to
phone inquiries
Good product
knowledge
and probed for
needs
Able to
explain value
proposition
Not clear on
competition
or product
differentiation
Clear, wellstructured
Clear, wellstructured
Clear, wellstructured
Clear, wellstructured
Extensive
details on
features
Extensive
details on
features
Extensive
details on
features
Good product
description
Good
explanation
of data
management
processes
Sales Pricing
Pricing
published on
site
Pricing
published on
site
Not published
on site, but
provided on
phone
Not published
on site, but
provided on
phone
DB
Responded to
e-mail inquiries
in 48 hours
Immediate
response to
phone inquiries
Trouble
explaining
value
proposition
and differences
between
products
Not clear on
competition
or product
differentiation
Receipt of
follow-up sales
information
was delayed
and required
numerous
attempts to
contact sales
Multiple
offerings
slightly
confusing
Good
description
of products,
although some
products seem
to overlap
Not published
on site, but
provided on
phone
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
15

16. All of the product websites were generally informative. Data.com and Zoom Information were
both well-structured with clear product descriptions and pricing, which improves their scores
in this category. The Hoover’s component of DB Sales Marketing Solutions has a lot of
product information but is somewhat confusing — searching for a sales prospect product points to
OnDemand List Building, Lead Builder, Hoover’s Subscriptions, Integrated Contact Solutions, etc.
Detailed pricing is available on Zoom Information’s website. Pricing for ZoomInfo Pro is based on
two criteria: number of records required and number of end-users. For instance, the site quotes a
price of $7,995k for 10 users and 10,000 records downloaded. There is also a handy online tool for
a prospective client to calculate a price based on the number of users and downloads required.
When speaking with sales, it was clear that there was flexibility around pricing, but the model and
indicative price points are transparent.
Salesforce Data.com also has clear pricing on its website. Charges for both data cleaning and
prospecting products are quoted per user per month. Data.com Clean is $25 per user per month
(for all CRM users), and Data.com Prospector costs $125 per user per month for 300 leads each
month. Prospector allows unlimited viewing of all account data and contact data — for prospecting
and targeting individuals and accounts without limits. The 300 users/month is for importing the
contacts into Salesforce. The premium versions of these products cost $35 and $165 (300 leads)
per user per month, respectively. Additional prospector leads over the 300 records limit can be
purchased at 50 cents each. Data.com Connect lists can be acquired for a range of packages
(350/759/3,600 contacts) — all charged as an annual fee, with an option to buy additional records
at a nominal $1 or 50-cent fee, depending on the package. The sales team indicated there is some
flexibility around pricing depending on the customer, their needs, and volume of use.
NetProspex offers two services: prospecting and data management. The SalesProspex tool is
based on annual subscription charges per seat (with scaled discounts for higher volumes of endusers) based on usage limits of 200 screen views per day per seat and 1,200 downloads per
annum. The pricing model for other products is all volume based with the exception of the Data
Health Scan (DHS), which is free. DHS is a full health scan of what a database looks like — e.g.,
it is tested for e-mail deliverability, phone connectability, duplicates, incomplete data, and spam
traps. The cleanse-and-append process is where filling in any of the incomplete data from the
health scan comes in to play. The pricing is per record and will vary depending on how complete
or incomplete the database is. List purchasing can be priced from 15 cents/contact to $1/contact,
depending on exact requirements. Customers purchasing more than 2,000 contacts are entitled
to pricing discounts.
OneSource iSell is available on an annual subscription with pricing for one seat offering unlimited
use and downloads. Additional seats are charged on a reduced incremental basis. Data Solutions
(lists and cleansing) is priced on a per-record fee for match and append cleansing services on a
custom basis.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
16

17. Our experience with the DB Sales Marketing Solutions sales personnel was less than ideal.
We were able to initially get information that DB Direct and DB 360 are available on a 12-month
subscription for unlimited usage and the Optimizer solution for cleansing and appending is priced
on a per-record basis, but we were later told that the DB 360 pricing model is due to change
because of a product relaunch to one based more accurately on the number of records required
and number of end-users. We were promised an e-mail with indicative pricing for Hoover’s, but it
took numerous follow-up phones calls to actually get pricing information.
Service (15 Points)
In our review of the customer service function, we assessed three key areas:
Training Capabilities (4 points): We evaluated whether or not training is available, whether it is
included in the product price, or if there is an additional charge.
Product Support and Troubleshooting (8 points): We looked at how flexible the company is
in providing support via phone, e-mail, chat, or any other method (e.g., web forms, social media,
etc.), as well as the times and days of availability. We were able to find out when a vendor would
make global support offices available to a user even when a subscriber was not located in the
region of the office.
Administrative Functionality (3 points): We evaluated whether or not there is the capability to
monitor product usage and manage users via an online administrative dashboard.
Figure 5 shows our ratings in these areas.
Figure 5. Product Service Rankings
OneSource
iSell
DB
NetProspex
Zoom
Information
Salesforce
Data.com
Training:
4 Points
4
4
4
4
2
Support:
8 Points
8
7
7
7
7
Administrative
Functionality:
3 Points
3
2
2
2
3
Total Score
15
13
13
13
12
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
17

18. Service: Key Takeaways
As in previous reports, the companies are all fairly comparable when it comes to offering training
and support for their products. While “test driving” the products, we called customer support to
ask questions, and generally found the service representatives professional and knowledgeable
about the products. Salesforce Data.com is the only company that does not provide free training
(other than online courses) and phone support with its basic support package, which affected its
score in this category. Full-fledged training and support are only available with fee-based support
packages.
Table 3 gives a high-level view of the key points for each of the five products.
Table 3. Overview of Service Key Takeaways
OneSource
iSell
Training
Capabilities
Free training,
clientdedicated
support team,
webinars,
classes
DB
Free training,
clientdedicated
support team,
videos, live
sessions
Zoom
Information
NetProspex
Free training,
clientdedicated
support team,
webinars
Free training,
clientdedicated
support team,
webinars
Data.com
No free training
other than
online courses
Custom training
available at
additional cost
Dedicated
“customer
success
manager” for
implementation
Online
webinars
Troubleshooting
Support
Phone and
e-mail, 24
hours/day
worldwide
Phone and
e-mail, M-F,
7 a.m.-6 p.m.
CST
Phone and
e-mail, M-F
7 a.m.-7 p.m.
EST
Phone and
e-mail, M-F 8
a.m.-6 p.m.
EST
Basic support
does not
include phone
support only
e-mail
Full support at
additional cost
Administrative
Functionality
Online
dashboard
with full usage
reports
Custom reports
on most active
individuals/
targets also
available
Ability to
manage users
online
Limited
usage reports
available online
Custom usage
reports on
request
Custom usage
reports on
request
No online
usage reports,
but on roadmap
for 2014
Online
dashboard
with full usage
reports
Ability to
manage users
online
Custom reports
on most active
individuals/
targets also
available
Custom usage
reports on
request
Source: Outsell analysis
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
18

19. Suitability
In determining which sales and marketing intelligence solutions best suit an enterprise or company,
identifying the primary purpose is vital — is it for business needs (e.g., finding new customers,
identifying target markets) or is it for information management needs (e.g., cleansing existing data,
enhancing existing data sets).
The offerings from DB Sales Marketing Solutions and Salesforce Data.com have the most
comprehensive company data, based on DB’s extensive company information. The D-U-N-S
number, which acts as a unique company identifier, is widely accepted and useful as a tool to
accurately identify corporate family trees, and it is essential in matching purchased data with
existing company records. This functionality is critical for sales efforts at a corporate level, less so
on a local level. In our view, the D-U-N-S number is a strategic asset on which DB can capitalize.
Several of the companies profiled (e.g., NetProspex and Zoom) offer free data analysis to
determine contact accuracy, e-mail deliverability, or e-mail spam traps of existing data sets. As
stated earlier, the accuracy of some of the data we looked at is questionable. In Outsell’s opinion,
specific citations of data verification in data sets would be a step in the right direction (which some
companies are already doing).
When the emphasis is strictly on sales prospecting, the comprehensive external data sources
of OneSource’s iSell to provide company and industry context, or the deep background on
individual contacts supplied by Zoom Information rises to the top, with iSell perhaps being the
better choice because of the up-to-date news alerts on companies and individuals that Zoom
lacks.
Imperatives for Information Managers and Buyers
1. Understand that data is constantly changing.
All of the products tested claimed their data is “more accurate” than anyone else’s and that they
go to great lengths to ensure that accuracy. To be sure, efforts are made to maintain data quality,
but the reality is that it’s impossible to guarantee accuracy, and all of the products reviewed had
shortcomings in this area. People change jobs, and companies evolve — staying on top of those
changes is a Herculean task (and any inference to Hercules cleaning the Augean stables is
coincidental).
2. Understand that building prospect lists is often a process of trial and error.
While all of the products reviewed have robust filtering and segmenting tools, unless you are
searching for a clearly distinct title (e.g., CEO or CFO), many job functions have multiple descriptive
titles, meaning users will need to be creative and test various search functions.
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
19

20. 3. Understand the enterprise information needs.
Core data assets (e.g., customers, prospects, market segmentation) are a key part of the infonomics
equation, and they are critical to the enterprise. Whether data management is done in-house or
via a third-party vendor such as those under review, poor-quality data is a drain on resources and
time. Minimizing those frustrations is essential.
Appendix
Sample Scoring Sheet
Product Quality and Performance / 65 Points Maximum
Content and Critical Attributes / 40 Points Maximum
Size of product (number of companies in the database), relative to peers, 1-4 points
Number of job titles/functions per company, 1-4 points
Depth of individual prospect record, 1-4 points
Data quality assurance procedures, 1-4 points
Timeliness and frequency to update data (real time, daily, weekly) relative to peers, 1-4 points
Integration with CRMs, 1-4 points
Depth of company info (e.g., revenue, employees, SIC codes, corp. hierarchy), 1-4 points
Database management/cleansing/enriching services, 1-4 points
Ancillary company info (e.g., news, social media feeds, industry background, etc.), 1-4 points
Sales triggers (e.g., executive changes, new products/funding, etc.), 1-4 points
Search Capabilities / 14 Points Maximum
Ability to segment (by size, revenue, region, title, etc.), 1-4 points
Ease of website/ database navigation, layout, clear display of results, 1-5 points
Precision search capabilities, filtering, saved searches, 1-5 points
Enterprise-wide and Innovative Features / Intangibles / 11 Points Maximum
Mobile Access, 1-3 points
Ability to share/export data, 1-2 points
Data analytics tools (geography, industry, customer base, etc.), 1-3 points
Intangibles: How well product performs against stated mission, 1-3 points
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
20

21. Sales Performance / 20 Points Maximum
Sales Contact Review / 11 Points Maximum
Responsiveness of sales personnel, 0-2 points
Professionalism, (courtesy, helpfulness), 0-3 points
Explain value proposition/differentiation, 0-3 points
Product knowledge, 0-3 points
Usefulness and Completeness of Vendor Website / 4 Points Maximum
Clarity (well-written, easy to navigate), 0-2 points
Comprehensiveness (full product description and features), 0-2 points
Sales Pricing / 5 Points Maximum
Publishes pricing, explains pricing methods, 5 points
Provides generic or sample pricing, 3 points
Provides rules of thumb for pricing, 1 point
Does not publish, explain, or provide rules of thumb, 0 points
Service / 15 Points Maximum
Training Capabilities / 4 Points Maximum
Customized training is available and at no extra cost, 4 points
Customized training is available but at a cost, 2 points
No customized training is available, 0 points
Troubleshooting Support / 8 Points Maximum
Multiple methods (e-mail, phone, live chat), 0-2 points
Level of support (24/7, global, regional), 0-2 points
Speed of response, 0-2 points
Professionalism, 0-2 points
Administrative Functionality / 3 Points Maximum
Ability to monitor usage/manage users, 1-3 points
© 2013 Outsell, Inc.
21

22. Jim Hydock
VP Practice Leader
T. +49 (0) 30 8639 0010
jhydock@outsellinc.com
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