Finding good data is critical for any GTM organization. As the data landscape becomes increasingly complex, selecting the right B2B data providers is crucial for achieving business success.
According to one survey, 66% of B2B and B2B2C marketers say improving data quality is a key part of their go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Additionally, data quality is crucial when developing AI tools, such as custom chatbots or AI-powered sales agents.
As a signal-based orchestration platform, Warmly integrates with over 25 leading data providers, and our team rigorously assesses approximately 20 new providers monthly.
To hone and refine our process, we interviewed 20 Demand Generation leaders who have purchased data from hundreds of B2B data providers in their careers, developing our Data Vendor Decision Framework within our Data Team.
TLDR: You should consider more than just the quality of data when choosing a data vendor. Our Decision Framework highlights six essential factors that contribute to the overall quality of a B2B data provider: data quality, data quantity, ease of use and implementation, partnerships, legality and compliance, and data cleanliness.
For each factor, we’ve provided clear, actionable steps, including pre-work, evaluation methods, and key red flags to be aware of.
By evaluating all six factors for each vendor you’re considering, you’ll gain a complete picture of quality and reliability.
Six Factors to Consider When Choosing a B2B Data Provider
- Quality of data
- Quantity of data
- Ease of Use & Implementation
- Partnership Meter
- Legality & Compliance
- Cleanliness & Data Integrity
Resources
Email us at [email protected] for a sample CSV of Test Data for testing company-level matching for Website Identification.
Email us at [email protected] for a sample CSV of Test Data for testing person-level enrichment for Outreach.
1. Quality of Data
The quality of data has a direct impact on business decisions, making it a key consideration for organizations.
Pre-work
Prepare test data, including examples from current vendors and internal sources. Include ideal customer matches and some incorrect data as a control test.
- Ensure that the test data represents your industry, target audience, and business use case.
- Consider including data from multiple sources to compare accuracy across different providers.
Evaluate
What percentage of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) data does the provider match? Ensure they do not validate incorrect data.
- Request sample reports and conduct manual spot checks on key data points.
- Assess whether the provider offers validation mechanisms to minimise inaccuracies.
Why It Matters
No data source is perfect. A provider that correctly identifies 60% of your ICP is performing well. Unrealistically high match rates can indicate low-quality data (they are truly guessing to achieve high results).
- High match rates may indicate that the vendor employs unreliable data aggregation techniques.
- False positives can be more damaging than missing out on some matches. Imagine sending a sales rep to work hundreds of false positive leads that never convert; that’s a massive waste of time.
Red Flags
If a provider claims matches on obviously incorrect data, it's a major warning sign.
- Look for transparency in their data sourcing and cleansing methodologies.
- Avoid vendors who do not disclose their data verification processes.
2. Quantity of Data
When assessing data volume, consider:
Pre-work
Generate a large sample set (10k+ leads or IPs) for enrichment.
- Ensure the sample includes a diverse range of potential customers.
- Include identifiers like company names, domains, and other referenced data.
Evaluate
How much of your sample set does the provider match?
- Assess both absolute match rates and coverage within your target market.
- Compare results across multiple vendors to benchmark performance.
Why It Matters
Higher match rates indicate a broader reach, even if some leads fall outside your ICP.
- Some vendors specialize in niche datasets, while others offer broader but less precise data.
- A good vendor provides balanced depth and breadth of data.
Red Flags
A provider offering only one match per lead lacks depth. The best vendors provide multiple options ranked by confidence level.
- Ensure the vendor ranks and segments the data appropriately.
- Look for metadata that indicates data freshness and reliability (for example, a timestamp of the last time that data point was validated).
3. Ease of Use & Implementation
Even high-quality data is ineffective if it is challenging to implement.
Pre-work
Review technical documentation and plan a testing timeline.
- Refer to the API documentation for clear integration instructions.
- Look at case studies or testimonials about implementation experiences.
Evaluate
Do they offer flexible APIs, real-time updates, and timely flat-file deliveries?
- Assess data refresh frequency and latency.
- Verify if they support standard data formats (e.g., CSV, JSON, XML).
- Observe how quickly they communicate with you during the testing phase.
Why It Matters
Quick, seamless integration indicates vendor maturity and minimizes operational delays.
- A well-structured API or easy import process reduces engineering effort.
- Smooth onboarding is a sign of a strong customer support team.
Red Flags
A lack of clear service-level agreements (SLAs), low uptime commitments, or slow response times can signal potential future problems. Any vendor that has been around for less than three years.
- Ensure the vendor commits to 99.9% uptime for API reliability.
- Confirm their response times for technical support inquiries.
4. Partnership Meter
Even the best B2B data providers can struggle to build strong relationships with their customers. However, partnership quality can be a significant factor in your overall experience with a data vendor.
Pre-work
Conduct reference checks.
- Speak with current or former customers about their experience.
- Research vendor reputation on platforms like G2 or Capterra.
Evaluate
Are they invested in long-term success, or do they prioritize short-term profits?
- Look for signs of continued innovation in their roadmap.
- Assess whether they provide strategic support beyond just selling data.
- Quiz them on their strengths and weaknesses. Are they honest about their shortcomings?
- Will they work with you to get started (pay-as-you-go) and understand volume-based usage, and help you stabilize known costs in the long run (e.g., switch to an unlimited data model once you know usage)?
Why It Matters
Trust and alignment are crucial. The best vendors are partners, not opportunists.
A good vendor should offer flexibility, training, and collaborative problem-solving. Avoid companies that rely on opaque pricing or aggressive upselling.
Red Flags
Extremely low pricing often indicates high customer churn and a lack of commitment.
- Include a mandated 90-day migration window in contracts to protect against sudden service drops.
- Ensure contract terms include exit flexibility without penalties.
- Look for vendors who offer long-term engagement strategies (e.g., multi-year contracts).
- If they cannot confirm contractually, they will never sell your data to others.
5. Legality and Compliance
Data sources must be legally obtained. To verify compliance:
Pre-work
Request and review legal documentation, including Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) and privacy policies.
- Confirm compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other relevant regulations.
- Ensure vendors provide explicit consent and opt-out mechanisms.
Evaluate
Confirm compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations. Ensure transparency in data collection.
- Look for certifications such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
- Verify whether they regularly update their compliance processes (e.g., which privacy lawyers do they work with to stay informed about new and upcoming privacy laws).
- Ensure they’re a registered data broker and have them send confirmations of registration for each state for the current calendar year (as of 2025: California, Vermont, Oregon, and Texas).
- Understand their opt-out processes for individuals who wish to have their data removed or hidden.
Why It Matters
Protects your company from legal risks and maintains customer trust.
- Data privacy violations can lead to hefty fines and reputation damage.
- Transparent vendors provide audit trails and clear accountability.
Red Flags
Vendors unwilling to provide documentation or those with vague sourcing details should be avoided.
- Avoid companies that lack a dedicated Data Protection Officer (DPO).
- Ensure they disclose data retention and deletion policies.
6. Cleanliness and Integrity
Clean data is essential for accurate insights. To evaluate cleanliness:
Pre-work
Request documentation on data validation, update frequency, and duplicate detection.
- Verify if they conduct manual review processes in conjunction with automation.
- Verify how frequently their datasets are refreshed.
Evaluate
What processes are in place to maintain data accuracy and integrity?
- Look for machine-learning-driven duplication and validation techniques.
- Assess whether they offer enrichment tools to improve data quality.
Why It Matters
Outdated or incorrect data can lead to misinformed business decisions and wasted resources.
- Clean data ensures higher accuracy in targeting and analysis.
- Efficient data hygiene practices reduce manual cleanup efforts.
Red Flags
No clear strategy for removing outdated information or for a lack of regular data quality audits.
- Avoid vendors who cannot articulate their data hygiene process.
- Ensure they provide transparency into error rates and data refresh cycles.
Evaluating B2B Data Providers
The best data vendor isn't necessarily the cheapest or the one with the most data; it's the one that aligns best with your needs and prioritizes a long-term partnership.
Leaders should focus on quality, quantity, ease of use, partnership, legality, and cleanliness to make informed vendor selections.
If you’re looking for a data vendor that can pass muster, look no further than Warmly. Our dedicated data team has spent years developing our data sets and ensuring we are a great, compliant data provider for you.
How Does Warmly Stack Up Against B2B Data Providers?
1. Quality of data ✅
Warmly’s transparent data commitment means you can test our data quality with our free tier before committing to us as a data provider. Because we aggregate data from 25+ providers and cross-check it using our proprietary waterfall technique, we can validate and verify data on your behalf, ensuring it’s of the highest quality. See more in our overview of data quality.
A great example of this is our Data Quality Slider, a unique feature that lets you maximize data quality (at the expense of data quantity) if you prefer. We can also use AI to help you in scoring leads and filtering data to identify the best warm leads for you.
2. Quantity of data ✅
Warmly’s transparent data commitment means you can test our data quantity with our free tier before committing to us as a data provider. Because we aggregate data from 25+ providers and cross-check it via our waterfall technique, we can validate and verify on your behalf to give the highest quantity of data. See more in our overview of data quality.
A great example of this is our Data Quality Slider, a unique feature that lets you maximize data quantity (at the expense of data quality) if you prefer. Most of our datasets are updated daily, and some are updated weekly to ensure freshness.
Feel free to compare our data quality vectors with those of another industry-leading data aggregator, 6sense.
3. Ease of Use & Implementation ✅
With Warmly, you have complete control and flexibility over your data as you can:
- Export data via CSV.
- Export data via Webhooks.
- Push the data into your CRM.
- Push the data directly to your preferred outbound/outreach providers via our integrations (e.g., email providers like Outreach, Salesloft, and HubSpot).
We stand behind our customer reviews—see more on our reviews page and compare our Ease of Setup, Admin, and Use vectors with those of other similar services in our space.
4. Partnership Meter ✅
Warmly is a genuine partner. We’re here to offer transparent and communicative offerings that respect your time.
Our best-in-class customer service organization stems from years of experience in B2B data companies, and our RevOps and GTM experts are here to provide you with GTM consulting and GTM motion architecture, in addition to warm lead data.
We are committed to driving ROI for you every step of the way, reviewing your data and that of our dozens of data providers to help you make informed decisions about your lead generation strategies.
We ensure that all our data providers are partners and provide us with essential levers, such as migration windows, flexible pay-as-you-scale models, and assurances that they will not sell any data with signed data processing agreements.
We want you to relax while we handle the negotiations and dealings with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-party data providers.
5. Legality and Compliance ✅
Warmly is compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and SOC 2 security. Learn more at our security portal, our privacy FAQ, or email our privacy team at [email protected].
We conduct randomized privacy audits of our vendors to ensure that all vendors are registered data brokers and comply with all relevant standards.
While not required, Warmly is a registered data broker in all US states where compliance is mandated (our privacy team updates and checks this monthly).
All our data retention and deletion policies are downloadable and transparent from our security portal but from a high-level we can delete your data on demand, respond quickly to individual data deletion requests (see our compliant opt-outs here) as well as if you cease to become a customer we will delete your data within 30 days.
Contact our Data Protection Officer, Uri Steinfeld ([email protected]), with any questions.
6. Cleanliness & Data Integrity ✅
Warmly ensure clean data and data integrity as the cornerstone of how we create, collect, and distribute data. Request an NDA from your Warmly representative to gain access to our Technical Deep Dive and learn how we process data to maximize quantity, quality, and compliance.
Because we deal with many B2B data providers, we need to merge these datasets appropriately into a clean, simplified, and de-duplicated database of records. Although no data is perfect, our cleansing process is performed daily and ensures that no duplicate data is ever added to your CRM.
Warmly: Comprehensive Data for Signal-Based Selling
The checklist above should serve as your first port of call when evaluating a new data provider. As you can see, Warmly ticks all the boxes in one solution.
Our blend of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-party data ensures you get accurate, real-time, person-level de-anonymization data to help you identify your warmest leads and reach out to them immediately.
Ready to give Warmly a go?
Sign up for Warmly’s free plan and start exploring how our data can help you identify quality prospects instantly.
Or, book a demo to explore our data in more detail.
Additional Resources
These are our recommendations for continued learning on data vendor evaluation:
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