Many businesses often copy popular ideas without thinking. Instead of carefully analyzing and adjusting their processes, they quickly adopt new concepts without question. As a result, the previous “great idea” gets discarded before it even has a chance to succeed.
The evolution of business data
I have seen the same trend of popular ideas in the data industry. Every business begins with a common need – data. All organizations require contacts to make money. In the past, that meant relying on lists. As list services grew in popularity, more data services appeared in that space. As more companies started creating lists, they set themselves apart from others by promoting the concept of niche lists. Business leaders’ data needs followed the trend once more.
Next the push came for businesses to get more contacts per company. Some brands led the charge by offering businesses more information than any other service before them. Unfortunately for those businesses, much of the data found had been aging.
The next idea centered on the desire for fresh contact information. Business card trading services promised a solution. In reality everyone shared their worst contacts and kept the best for themselves. While fresh information could be found, key decision makers, or truly valuable information, could not.
The next evolution occurred when data aggregators entered the marketplace. These aggregators collect data from multiple sources, put it together, and gain some intelligence through that process. While the data may be somewhat better than their predecessors, data aggregators depend on databases of static, aging information.
Concurrently, businesses have wanted access to more knowledge per contact and have turned to social networking sites such as LinkedIn to provide access to that data. While it is feasible to use LinkedIn to connect with somebody, the time it takes to get those connections working can often be significantly longer than the requirements of the business demand.
Eventually, businesses realize they want it all
Good data, more contacts per company, fresh contact information, social data – all flowing seamlessly into your CRM. A comprehensive solution using automation tools enables the creation of exclusive niche lists. They, you can pull the best information from the live web to gather the freshest information available for multiple contacts at each company – including social data – and effortlessly integrate it into your CRM process.
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