Building an effective and high-quality sales lead database begins with gathering reliable data. And enterprise companies have unique access to immense volumes of raw data which, when filtered, organized, and skillfully analyzed, can offer your company a competitive advantage, if you know how to apply it correctly.
In this post, we’ll go over some business data basics and show you how you can make it work for your sales and marketing teams.
Business Data 101
Business data is any piece of data which relates to the identity and operations of a given organization. Business data includes a wide variety of information and can include details on personnel, expenditure and revenue information, market statistics, customer statistics, marketing data, etc.
[Learn More: Firmographic Data]
Business data can also include minor pieces of information such as weekly meeting minutes, stock photos a company plans to use, what employees are having for lunch, etc. Literally any piece of data may prove relevant to your marketing efforts.
Types of business data and what they mean
There are 5 broad categories of which business data might fit into. Let’s talk about what those are.
- Process data includes business resource flow such as finances, raw materials, cash, etc. It also includes information about business operations such as efficiency, redundancy, product or service sales, timing of various processes, etc. This type of data is most commonly gathered internally by the business itself through ERP and POS systems for the purpose of increasing efficiency and improving operations.
- Observational data includes any data gathered by watching and recording the actions and habits of clientele or potential customers. This is typically categorized as “behavioral data.” In a brick-and-mortar business this would mean literally observing a browsing customer, noting what they look at, and what they purchase. On digital platforms this includes tracked data including page views, clickthroughs, and site navigation habits.
- Biological data as it is available to businesses today most typically includes fingerprints, retinal scans, and vocal and facial recognition gathered through security features on smart devices and internal business solutions. More broadly this might also include medical information such as blood type and medical history, or demographic information including sex and racial background.
- Personal data includes information relating to specific individuals. It can include demographic information such as age, race, education, and income as well as behavioral information including personality, buying habits, and preferences. In B2B sales interactions, personal data can be useful in facilitating face to face conversations between company representatives.
- Public data includes readily available as well as legally unprotected information which may be accessed via a public platform. This can sometimes involve personal data as well as behavioral data gathered from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. This can also mean corporate information and firmographic data which an organization has published on their various digital platforms.
How to incorporate business data into sales strategies
In B2B interactions, specific firmographic data can be leveraged to identify quality, qualifying leads and generate personalized messaging in your marketing materials. Following are a few tips on how to use these points to your advantage.
Company size
Knowing the physical footprint, number of employees, and geographic reach of a target business will help you scale your marketing and contact efforts. This datapoint will also tell you how to scale the delivery of your product or service based on the projected needs of your potential client.
Company type
Understanding the industry and market context of your target business will further illustrate what needs they might have, and how you will be able to fill that need. Selling your product or service requires you to have some understanding of how it could be used by your potential client, and communicating that to their rep.
You will also need to scale and personalize marketing and sales conversion efforts based on whether the target business is a B2B or B2C company, as the two will have distinct needs and use cases for your product.
Cloud infrastructure
Understanding how your service or product will fit into your potential client’s structure will allow you to further personalize marketing materials and create a better pathway between initial contact, sales conversion, and implementation. This will enable you to communicate your understanding of the logistics of incorporating what you have to offer into your target’s current business operations.
Alexa rank
The Alexa Rank is another datapoint for a business’ digital platforms which demonstrates their popularity and service volume by tracking discreet daily visitation. This tells a business how much interaction they have, and how much potential business they have access to, and is an important factor in scaling marketing and sales conversion efforts on their part. Having this information about a target business allows your organization to categorize a lead based on potential business as well as actual sales statistics and revenue.
Social handles
Tracking your potential client’s social media presence and interaction allows you to more precisely target marketing materials which both engage said client as well as engage other clients in similar industries.
Using Intricately to leverage business data into leads and sales
Intricately is a comprehensive data management platform that converts raw business data into actionable information in easy-to-read formats. Using Intricately to track and categorize your business data will allow you to efficiently create effective marketing strategies and generate sales leads that actually result in a sale. Request a demo today to see if Intricately is right for you.
Want to know more about behavioral data? Check out our information on B2B behavioral data and what it can tell you about a company.
