ZoomInfo or Apollo? Neither.
Every day, there's a new LinkedIn post debating which 3rd party enrichment source is most accurate between ZoomInfo, Apollo, Clay, etc. It's a constant topic of discussion amongst every RevOps team as well.
However, what few realize is that the most accurate source of enrichment on prospects are actually your sales reps!
You could know a company's revenue from ZoomInfo, growth rate from Apollo, or if they are "in-the-market" for your solution from a noisy intent tool… but until your team talks to the prospect account, you have little idea on what the internal dynamics are, who the key decision makers are, and what the core initiatives are. That's the critical information you need to determine whether that account is worth focusing on now, later, or never.
1st Party Unstructured Data
To get that valuable information, your SDRs + AEs are calling + connecting with prospects, getting email replies back to their outbound, running demo / discovery calls, and opening & closing opportunities.
Through these activities, they are generating a massive amount of valuable 1st party data. However, it's all locked up in unstructured formats, such as Outreach/Salesloft email replies, call dispositions, Gong call transcripts, and notes littered throughout the Account + Opportunity sections in Salesforce.
Not only are you likely sitting on years of this data, but it continues to grow every day with each call, email, marketing campaign, and opportunity. For our customers that have been around for 5+ years, we find that they've had prior interactions (call connects, email replies, opportunities, event, etc.) with >40% of the accounts in their CRM!
Your Sales Moat
Leveraging this data to better prioritize and personalize outreach is absolutely critical to maximizing pipegen — its your 'sales data moat'. Unlike Apollo/ZoomInfo data, its the most accurate because its coming directly from the prospect. It's also a unique advantage for your company, as your competitors can't just buy this hard-earned information from another vendor.
So how are GTM teams actually utilizing this data to drive more revenue?
(A) Today, the best SDRs and AEs will spend 30-45 minutes on each account, reading through all prior interactions, developing a POV, looking at which contacts are still there/relevant, and drafting a relevant email. If you do this for each account in your book, you minimize the chances of missing out on timely follow ups and re-engagements.
(B) Given how time consuming this is, many new SDRs tend to disregard this information and hope to make it up with volume by 'spraying + praying' across a large number of prospects. This strategy occasionally works for some companies.
(C) The fastest-growing SaaS companies like Ramp, Verkada, and Modern Health are investing in Actively AI. We automate all of the steps in (A) to enable your SDRs to have that methodical account by account approach at scale across your TAM. Our AI can 1) read through all of your valuable unstructured data alongside your 3rd party data 2) ping ZoomInfo/Apollo to find more ICP prospects 3) determine which accounts & contacts are best to focus on now and 4) your rep wakes up to auto-drafted, relevant emails for the best prospects, so they can focus on calling and booking meetings.
