In early 2022 many B2B marketers and sales teams were still deep in the process of adapting to the Great Resignation. Data accuracy had been devastated by the influx of resignations, and sales pros faced serious challenges around finding, reaching, and engaging the right decision-makers. A few months later it became clear that more than half of those who left their jobs had made a career change, and the “Great Reshuffle” became a more accurate name.

Since then, the changes have not slowed down. While AI proliferation has created new job opportunities and transformed industries, it has also led to job displacement. Now sales teams are also dealing with people's jobs actually being replaced by AI.

All of these job shifts have wreaked havoc on prospect database quality. It has become critical for sales teams to prioritize finding the right contacts and establishing new connections with the business leaders who are now making the buying decisions.

Here are four data moves that will improve your B2B sales prospecting in 2023:

1. Fix what you have

Data cleansing is the process of removing, correcting, and replacing inaccurate data. A data cleansing provider like OMI can automatically purge invalid or out-of-date data without eliminating high-value prospect records. In some cases, inaccurate records can be corrected or new data can even be added for a fuller picture of the contact.

2. Find new B2B prospects

Most organizations simply don’t have the B2B database scale and accuracy to fuel effective new customer acquisition campaigns, especially with the changing market. Third-party data offers volume and breadth, providing you with new contacts who match your ideal customer profile – across parameters such as industry, location, and size of the business, as well as individual roles, job titles, age, gender, and more.

Stick with a quality third-party provider or you may end up in the same position you started — with bad data for contacts no longer in the same position. A good standard is to look for a provider that guarantees 95% email validity for the first 30 days. Additionally, third-party data can be used alongside the first-party data you already have to fill in the gaps and give you a more complete picture of the prospect.

3. Target buyers in-market with intent data

One of the best ways to build your prospect list with relevant contacts is by utilizing intent data to find people currently searching for your solution online. Your potential customers are already giving you signs they’re looking to buy; you just have to know how to spot them. Online activity such as search engine queries, repeat website visits, and content downloads can indicate a prospect is in-market. When combined with high-quality contact data, this intent data makes it possible to reach and target those new prospects at the right time.

Because intent data has become so effective for our customers, it is one of our most in-demand tools at OMI.

4. Use an identity graph for greater omnichannel impact

Identity graphs can significantly contribute to improved sales efforts by providing valuable audience insights that enhance targeted marketing and sales strategies, such as account-based marketing (ABM). An identity graph pulls together online and offline data sets from multiple sources while adhering to privacy regulations, making it an excellent data solution to better tailor your outreach at a massive scale. The anonymized data from the identity graph is sent to a demand-side platform (DSP) to execute campaigns across devices as well as social, email, and other digital channels.

Within a data marketplace, look for data with a high identity graph match rate — the contact-to-contact match from the data provider to the graph. This indicates the percentage of users that an identity graph can find in a set of data for greater impact with omnichannel campaigns.

Today, marketers can choose to use either a “deterministic” or “probabilistic” identity graph. Deterministic graphs use matching algorithms to determine unique identifiers such as email addresses, customer IDs, or phone numbers, and then link together the various identifiers to create a unified view of an individual or entity. Probabilistic graphs use probabilities or likelihoods rather than definitive answers, which gives deterministic graphs an edge for delivering more accurate, precise and consistent results.

Accurate contact data isn’t out of reach; it just takes work and informed decision making. Teams that put in the effort, and utilize the right resources, can take back control of their prospect data and drive sales, now and with whatever happens next.

A previous version of this blog was originally published on March 16, 2022.

OMI’s high-quality B2B business contact data comes with a 95% email validity guarantee. Fortune 1000 firms and start-ups use our data to drive modern digital marketing initiatives—including intent monitoring, email marketing, ABM, and omnichannel campaigns utilizing display, social media, and more. Reach out to our team today for more information.