COMMENTS
Aah. Glad you updated it.
Smart? I'm not so sure. I think it's a bit of a deceptive lead generation ploy.
@ Peter. Smart...no brilliant. They have just changed the landscape of the data business.
PLUS even if it does generate leads isn't that also brilliant? Since when have inbound marketing techniques been a ploy? They get you to their site, you get something (in this case data but in other cases it could be white papers or graders or whatever...)and then you become a lead because you want something more from them. Sounds like sound marketing to me and one where the prospect receives value. Just MHO.
@Trish: If I'm the only commenter, you don't need to do @Peter (LOL).
I hear ya, though. I went back and read their site again and realized that they were pretty clear that it was "company data". I guess to someone who hasn't done a lot of list buying, it might seem like company data would also include "employee contact data". So, if I had read it a little more carefully before leaving my comment, I'd probably wouldn't have left the "ploy" comment.
Also, when I read your post initially in my RSS reader, it said "Free Decision Maker Data" as the title. Then, I clicked the link to leave a comment. At that point, I was going to say "no way. won't this change their business model. This is awesome." Then, I read your comment and my "this is too good to be true" suspicion kicked in.
Long story short, I'm in agreement with you...
I definitely see the value in having the company data for free. And for direct mail and cold calling, it's probably all a good salesperson needs. Right?
I do like this marketing move. It's similar to the "Freemium" model. Look that one up. It's the same idea as
www.websitegrader.com and
www.pressreleasegrader.com
Oh crap, now I don't even know if I should use your name Peter. Thanks for the tip on blog etiquette. I am still learning and I do have a great teacher!
"Freemium" - love that word. For our first freemium, go to
www.bridgegroupinc.com and you can download a FREE Inside Sales Training Benchmarking Report. It is the first in a seiries of value driven content vehicles we hope to share.
Thanks again for the lesson and for sharing.
No problem, Trish. The "@Peter" thing is certainly not a big deal. I just thought it was funny. Addressing responses is certainly a good habit in blog comments.
Here's a link to the freemium thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_business_model
For example, if you could automate a "inside sales analysis" test and put it online for free, it'd generate a lot of leads for you for your consulting services.
Trish,
We at Sales Benchmark Index have been following your Inside Sales Experts blog. We would like to offer some content your readers might enjoy – a ‘movie trailer’ for the book Topgrading for Sales, which is going to be released on June 16. To view it, please visit
www.topgradingforsales.com. Feel free to post a link to it or, if you want to host it locally, we can send you the rich media file.
Thanks in advance for considering the piece. Let us know if we can return the favor.
Cheers,
Mike Drapeau
www.salesbenchmarkindex.com
P.S. A portion of the profits generated from the book will be donated to Sales and Marketing Executives International, otherwise known as SMEI. You can learn more about them at
www.smei.org.
Trish - Nice article. implu offers quite a lot of valuable data for free as well. We really struggled with what should be free, what should be a small fee and what we should charge for a premium service.
www.implu.com/subscribe explains it in greater detail however the principle behind our structure is the following:
Free: The information can be sourced elsewhere with minimal research. e.g. company contact details, officers, board members, shareholders, common board members between companies! (look at a company Connections tab)
Silver: Do your own research, some convenience - Person contact details, complex queries, CSV downloads, vCards.
Gold: Massive convenience - save complex queries to a dashboard, Watch companies and people, get email alerts when the environment changes.
What has annoyed me about some of the players in the market is a bait and switch scenario. e.g. Under the premise that the data is free, I do lots of research, only to have to fork out money in the end. At implu we try to be very transparent and up front about the cost structure. There are no hidden or incremental costs. I suppose we'll see how the market reacts to this.
Thanks again for the feedback and recommendations!
@Mike. Loved the video. If you choose to send a copy of the book along I guarantee I will read it. If I love it I will make sure to promote it to all the Inside Sales Experts. Thanks for tuning in!