I am now taking pre-orders for my 2017 Field Guide to Sales Intelligence Vendors. This is the second edition of my book which I expect to deliver to my clients by the end of this year.
I am currently bundling in the 2015 edition with pre-orders at no extra charge. Please contact me at MLevy@GZConsulting.org if you would like to discuss a license.
Approaching the update has proven to be as big a task as writing the original edition due to the rapid expansion of the sales intelligence market and a decision to include several additional categories of vendors.
To assist purchasing departments that either purchased my book last year or performed a 2015 or 2016 evaluation, I have added profile sections covering:
- 2016 New Products
- 2016 Vendor Changes
- 2016 Functionality Changes
- 2016 Pricing Changes
- ABM Features
- ABSD Partners
The original edition focused on eleven vendors that provided either US or global markets. Coverage included the top five by revenue: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Data.com, Hoover’s, Avention, and DiscoverOrg.
This year I have added profiles on three UK-based vendors:
- Artesian Solutions
- Bureau van Dijk
- DueDil
Bureau van Dijk is one of the top global financial research and sales intelligence companies. I omitted them last year because they did not return my calls (yes, analysts may ignore you if you fail to support their research efforts). This year I will cover them whether they cooperate or not.
UK vendors, along with Avention, provide a deep set of registered company data including Directors & Shareholders; Mortgages & Charges; Gazette Status (winding down, receivership notices); and filings data. Thus, if you have a significant percentage of your sales reps in the UK (or Europe in general), it is worth understanding how US and UK sales intelligence products differ in content, functionality, strengths, and weaknesses.
A second new category of entrants is the PC/VC databases that rolled out sales intelligence services over the past year:
These products cover a smaller universe of companies (generally around one million), but focus on the fastest growing companies. Traditional sales intelligence vendors tend to be behind the curve on profiling these firms. Furthermore, they include funding and M&A intelligence, also gaps within the traditional sales intelligence space.
The third new category is Account Based Sales Development (ABSD) vendors (aka Sales Acceleration) that focus on workflow tools for Sales Development Reps (SDRs). These products provide email templates, phone dialers, cadence/workflow tools, and analytics. While not technically sales intelligence vendors, I am covering four vendors that have built partner ecosystems that include SI vendors:
- KiteDesk
- Outreach
- QuotaFactory
- SalesLoft
Finally, I added discussions of both ABM and ABSD as both topics have trended strongly over the past year as B2B firms look to adopt a more strategic approach to sales and marketing. Several firms are now positioning themselves as ABM solutions or strongly messaging around their ABM capabilities.