Myth #1: More Data Is Better

You have the best, biggest database in the universe: your database allows you to access over 200 million company records, and 30+ million contact profiles. That's huge collection of data. To put it into perspective, the population of working adults in the US is roughly 150 million. With so much data, the possibilities are endless; your sales representatives will always have someone to call.

85% of companies in the US employ less than 15 people.
The numbers don't vary much as you travel across the globe.

If your target audience is micro-business, and you're not looking to expand to bigger companies, then your database is perfectly suited.

But if you're hoping to expand into bigger seas, your database simply won't get you there. Unless you aspire to reach very small businesses, you're going to waste a lot of time sorting through useless data. If someone dumped 200 million business cards into your cubicle, would you be overjoyed or overwhelmed?

Chances are, you focus on companies that hired their 16th, 17th, and 30th employees long ago. And here's why: a very small company will typically earn very small revenue, and a company with very small revenue is not storing a cache of money to spend on your products and services. They're probably not buying very much at all, and it's more likely that they're not buying anything at all. The most interaction your team may have with them is a response to a marketing campaign.

If you believe that the size of your database correlates to the success of your sales team, your representatives will contact 199 million companies with no budget, total revenue under $500,000, and 2 or 3 employees. Does your company have the sales budget to send your representatives digging at the bottom of a vast, unwashed barrel of irrelevant companies?

Here's another statistic to consider: 99.7% of all Americans are employed by small businesses.
Again, this statistic is very similar to European statistics.

The 30+ million contacts that you started out with seems like a big number, but if you're looking for people who work for the big dogs, you really only want a list of 90,000.

When you slice the pie a little slimmer, you'll find that only 1/3 of all employees at any company are decision makers who control budget. Regardless of what size company you target, you want to be in contact with the decision making tier of the organizational chart: the 1/3 of employees with executive, c-level, director, and manager titles. Why? Do you think the receptionist and the janitor are going to make the decision about whether or not the company has budget for your product or service? Unless you're buying mops and magazine subscriptions for the waiting room, probably not. Two thirds of all employees in your 30+ million person contact database will not control budget. They may help you reach those who do, but why move your way up the funnel to find the right contact, when you could just start with the right contact?

So do the math: out of 30+ million contacts, only 30 thousand are decision makers at companies with significant budget.

When it comes down to it, the companies and contacts that your reps are contacting will make or break your sales team. You need data, but the reality of data is that you need the right data for your team, not just a lot of data. You can drown your sales reps with 200 million business cards, and they'll spend an entire day surfacing one golden lead. So who are your reps calling? The shift manager at an obscure computer retail shop, or the Senior VP of Sales Operations at a multi-billion dollar technology corporation?

How much data are you sorting through?

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