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Interactive eBook · Sales Intelligence
The SalesIntelligencePlaybook.
Your inside advantage, thanks to Account Intelligence. Find the right accounts, reach the right people, and start every conversation with something worth saying.
Up to 80%better response rates with the key learnings in this playbook
~30%of the average seller’s time actually goes to selling
44–84%higher response rates when you leverage Connections
Where does your selling week disappear?
Pick one. We’ll mark the chapters that matter most for you.
Chapter 01 · The art of the sale
Sales, Data, and Account Intelligence
Buyers have raised the bar. Sales is no longer a numbers game, and going in blind no longer works.
— min
01
The B2B seller’s challenges
The challenges faced by B2B salespeople are stacking up, and buyers have raised the standard for what they expect from sellers. When 90 percent of decision-makers don’t respond to cold calls or emails, how are sales teams supposed to win if they’re going in blind?
Self-check
Which of these are you up against?
Tap every challenge you face today.
Pressure index: 0 of 6.
Figure 1 · Interactive
Going in blind vs. going in with intelligence
This is what most reps know before a first call. Tap each tile to uncover what they’re missing, or switch on Account Intelligence.
?
Halvorsen Freight GroupLogistics · sample account
IntentUnknown
LeadershipUnknown
Tech stackUnknown
NewsUnknown
Buying groupUnknown
ConnectionsUnknown
HF
Halvorsen Freight GroupLogistics · sample account
Intent surge+38%Researching fleet telematics this week
Leadership changeNew CFOStarted Monday; budgets under review
Buying group4 of 7Members already engaging with your content
Connections3 pathsYour coworkers know their CIO
Tap a tile to reveal its signal
You’re seeing 0 of 6 signals.
And numbers… numbers don’t lie
82%
of B2B decision-makers
think sales reps are unprepared.
57%
of sales representatives
are meeting or exceeding their quotas.
Salespeople are fighting endless friction to reach the right contact, and only about half manage to do it effectively. And buyers can (and will) be choosers.
The solution is simple: salespeople need a way to stand out. How? You guessed it. Intelligence. The kind that gets you in the door at the right time, in front of the right person, with the knowledge to make buyers see you as their top option.
Lowering the volume
Historically, the more prospects a salesperson reached out to, the higher the odds of meeting quota. Today, sales is no longer a numbers game. You still measure activity and hit targets, but the volume approach is just a good way to get your number or email address blocked by more people.
With a daily quota of calls or emails, most conversations (if answered) will be short, vapid, and lead to dead ends. Bring quality into the fold and you can make fewer attempts, focused on the prospects more likely to engage.
Sellers often look for MORE to land SOME. They should focus on buyers that fit their , then blow them away with relevant insights from the first interaction.
Fewer, better conversations
88 percent of B2B buyers only buy when they see a salesperson as a trusted advisor, yet just 32 percent describe sales as a trustworthy profession. Show your value early in the conversation.
The need for digital transformation
The fourth State of Sales Report from Salesforce captured the Covid era (from 2020), when B2B sellers worldwide faced the challenges of a self-isolated world. In short:
79%
of sales reps
had to quickly adapt to new ways of selling.
73%
of sales leaders
said sales technology needs changed significantly since 2019.
43%
of reps
spent too much time discovering a prospect’s needs.
Asked for their top short-term tactics, sales leaders, inside reps, and sales ops managers all ranked “improved data quality and accessibility” second. “Personalized outreach” made the top five for every sales role, including outside reps.
Study after study arrives at the same place: sellers need digital transformation, and tools that drive them (and with them) to disrupt a stale sales landscape.
Golden insights before the first call
The new winning sales formula
To improve the customer experience, we have to change the seller’s experience too. Imagine if you could:
Focus on prospects more likely to give a resounding yes, and know from the start that they have the final say on investments.
Get introduced to the prospect so you don’t start the relationship from scratch.
Know the recent events creating challenges or opportunities the buyer hasn’t spotted, and you’re a knight in shining armor instead of a money-hungry salesperson. Personalization tactics are known to boost conversion rates by about 10 percent.
This isn’t a dream; it’s already reality. With the not-so-secret weapon we call , sellers activate our intel inside their existing CRM through tools like the Sales Intelligence Cloud, to spot opportunities earlier, reach out with relevance, and drive revenue.
Let’s dig into this a bit more.
Chapter 02
The Truth About Data
What Account Intelligence is made of, how it’s kept clean, and why no one’s data adds up to 100 percent.
— min
02
Letting the data do the talking
Account Intelligence is the amalgamation of B2B data that combines your with insights. Deployed, it gives revenue teams what they need to find opportunities earlier, progress deals faster, and make the buyer journey smoother for sellers and the buying committee alike.
A bird’s eye view of Account Intelligence
Demandbase combines first-party data with third-party data from over 40,000 editorial, news, financial, and social sources. The raw data is and transformed into trustworthy Account Intelligence.
40,000+data sources
47Mcompanies
100M+contacts
750industries
180countries
Figure 2 · Interactive
What kind of data are we talking about, exactly?
Select a circle to see what flows into Account Intelligence.
Start here
Four layers, one view of the account
Your own signals meet market data in the middle, where they’re matched to accounts and kept clean over time.
For the 14 data types, see the Smarter Go-To-Market™ Powered by Account Intelligence eBook.
Loop · Process
From raw signal to Account Intelligence
Swap in a micro-video by setting data-video-src on this frame.
Loop · 0:06
It never adds up to 100 percent
Account Intelligence is at the core of everything Demandbase offers, so we put real care into sourcing, ethics, hygiene, and integrity. Yet the hunch-junkies stuck on Rolodexes and spreadsheets are reluctant to let the data do the talking. Why? Here’s a sample argument.
That said, our data quality is, by far and large, the highest across the board: higher accuracy and fill rates for key like employee count and revenue. We even ran an experiment with one of our customers to show how our match rate stacks up against other providers.
New data is validated and triangulated across multiple sources as soon as it arrives. Contact accuracy is verified continuously, and users can flag anything that slips through the cracks.
P.S. For the nitty-gritty, The Data Cloud Playbook covers data types, sourcing, quality, and uses.
The B2B Seller
Chapter 03
Sales Teams, Dream No More
Insights that give you a competitive edge, in one single pane of glass.
— min
03
Insights that give you a competitive edge
Sales Intelligence Cloud puts Account Intelligence at your fingertips so you can find more of the right prospects at the right time, engage more deeply, and win more, faster.
It provides three types of information: company data, people data, and insights. The devil is in the details, so let’s see how each one improves your response rates.
Figure 3 · Interactive
Here’s a simple math exercise
Start from a cold call with no insights, then stack layers of intelligence.
Before you build it: which layer do you think catalyzes the highest leap?
2.5%Response rate when cold-calling with no insights.
Figures as reported: 2.5% baseline;8 +6–8% with company and contact data;9 about +28% with insights;10 +44–84% with Connections.11 Light band = reported range; bars are not compounded.
The odds of a response get astoundingly better as you add insights. But wait, there’s more: import your LinkedIn, Gmail, or Outlook contacts, find relationship opportunities (Connections), and your response rate climbs by a whopping 44–84 percent. Yes, really.
This is the tip of the iceberg. You only ever see about 11 percent of an iceberg. The rest is below water. Ready for the remaining 89?
Figure 4 · Drag to explore
The remaining 89 percent
Lower the waterline to see what sits beneath the overview.
11%visible
Company dataPeople dataInsightsFamily treesWatchlistsAgentsConnectionsChrome extensionCRM syncData flagging
OverviewEverything
One single pane of glass
Your most precious commodity is time, so Sales Intelligence Cloud interfaces with your CRM. See the dashboard inside your CRM; no stitching across platforms.
You may find Sales Intelligence Cloud has more, or more current, data than your CRM. With the Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics integration, update your CRM with our company and contact data.
Do you love your CRM?
We’ve got your integration covered
CRM · Account recordEmbedded panel
AccountHalvorsen Freight
OwnerYou
StageDiscovery
Sales Intelligence · inside your CRM
Contacts3,214
Intent surges12 this week
Connections27
Company data, people information, and insights at the click of a button.
CRM · Account summarySide panel
AccountHalvorsen Freight
Websitehalvorsen.example
Sales Intelligence
WatchlistsAgentsConnections
The same data, one click away inside Dynamics 365.
Sales Intelligence Cloud · web appStandalone
55,205,545 companies114,860,663 people
SearchIndustry, revenue, size…
SavedLists & searches
A standalone web app, so you can prospect directly from it.
What you see is what you get
Each data set was designed to clear a specific hurdle in the sales process. Flip each card to see the solution.
Next, see how these three data sets power the dashboards, Watchlists, Agents, and Connections, plus the Chrome extension for prospecting on LinkedIn and the web.
Let’s start with the basics.
Chapter 04
Company Data, People Data, and Insights
The dashboards, the Chrome extension, and the three features that let you sell at your best and automate the rest.
— min
04
How deep do you want to go?
Company data
A one-stop shop for everything you could need to know about a company. Select each tab in the dashboard.
Figure 5 · Interactive
On this dashboard, you can see…
A simplified mock-up with sample data.
Company overviewSample data
People data
Zeroing in on a company is step one, but companies don’t buy products. People do. From the People dashboard, filter on the attributes that lead you to the right contact.
Subsidiary or parent? Once you’ve sold to one subsidiary, it’s easier to sell to the others or the parent. Without the hierarchy, cross-sell runs on hunches, and accounts are harder to assign. Accurate family trees avoid assignment conflict.
Choose from 25 job functions, including IT, operations, sales, HR, and marketing, or search by title.
Narrow to senior executives, managers, directors, VPs, board members, C-level, or any combination.
Keep outreach inside your territory.
Filter for verified emails, mobile numbers, or office numbers, depending on how you’ll reach out.
Figure 6 · Try the filters
Find the right contact
Fictional contacts at a sample account.
8 of 8 contacts match
Insights: better than the morning newsletter
Timing can make or break a pitch. Historically, gauging the right moment to approach an account took a lot of research.
Salespeople spend about a third of their time selling, and in the State of Sales report, reps singled out one time sink: research.
Over 80 percent of sales reps spend time daily or weekly monitoring information sources to inform their selling.
42 percent of those reps say they spend too much time discovering a customer’s needs.
Salespeople get paid commission for sales, not research. With Sales Intelligence Cloud, relevant news lands in your inbox when you want it. It’s like having your own newsagent, literally.
Figure 7 · Filter the feed
News, filtered by Agent
Toggle Agents to change what lands in your feed. Headlines are fictional.
Our customers are data heroes, too.
With over 100 million people and 47 million companies in the system, the one constant is change. Our AI is pretty phenomenal, and so are your insights, so you can flag typos, changes, incomplete data, or outdated information on any company or contact. (You rock, and you know it.)
Linking with LinkedIn
We all use LinkedIn for networking and prospect screening. Bring it together with Demandbase’s Account Intelligence and you never manually enter account or contact data into your CRM again, even while prospecting on LinkedIn or the web.
In short: install the Sales Intelligence Cloud extension for Chrome, click its icon on any LinkedIn profile or company site to see contacts and insights, and sync them to your CRM.
Search for the Sales Intelligence Cloud extension in the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome.
Click the icon on any prospecting page to see company or people insights.
On LinkedIn, get a contact’s job function, email, and phone, and sync them to your CRM.
On a company website, get all the current “About” information in one snapshot.
It’s not enough to know who to target. Know who else is in the buying group, why and when to reach out, and how to engage through shared connections. A personalized, insight-based call shows clear value.
Sell at your best, automate the rest
Watchlists, Agents, and Connections
So how’s your screen time? Whether you’re outbound or inbound, you’re constantly hunting for companies and contacts that match your ICP. Done manually, it’s slow and inconsistent.
A Smarter Go-To-Market™ strategy means spotting opportunities earlier, reaching out with relevance, and converting faster. Three features make it happen.
Pssst! Account Executives, SDRs and BDRs, Account Managers: this is the part you’ve been waiting for.
Alerts that find you, wherever you are
Watchlists
Keep your eye on the prize
Group the companies and people you follow by what matters to you, like proximity to being in market or ICP fit for a product. Watchlists round up their insights in the News Feed or your inbox.
Frequently Viewed: tracks what you view most, automatically.
Static: the one you add companies and people to by hand.
Automated: tracks companies by criteria, like “All Accounts I Own.”
PFPortside Freight4 of 7 buying group engagedEngaged
Agents
Mission possible
Agents are search bots that retrieve news and events about the companies and people you care about. Watchlists decide who you watch; Agents decide which news you hear.
Standard: 18 predefined bots, on by default, each one switchable.
Team: the fan favorite, tailored by your and shared across your team.
Custom: built from your own keywords and criteria.
40relevant stories this week, instead of 80 to sift through
Connections
A helping hand to break the ice
Import your LinkedIn, Gmail, and Outlook contacts and the platform matches them against executives in the database. A match means a relationship, direct or through their company, so you can request a warm introduction.
Find decision makers through connection filters.
Ask for referrals for a faster response.
Start conversations from real common ground.
44–84%
higher response rates when you leverage Connections
Your connections stay private to your company. They’re never shared or resold.
Watchlists · Choose a type
Automatically tracks the companies or people you view most frequently. No setup needed.
May end up your favorite: you add companies and people to it manually.
Tracks companies by the criteria you specify, for example “All Accounts I Own,” “All Open Opportunities I Own,” or “Custom Criteria.”
Walkthrough · Loop
Create a Static Watchlist
Plays automatically. Pick any step to jump to it.
Micro-video slot: drop a 6–10 s MP4/WebM screen loop here (muted, looping, captioned) to replace the animated walkthrough.
Hot tip: add a company to a Static Watchlist from its overview page. Click the eye (Follow) button; it turns into a checkmark once you pick the Watchlist(s).
More setup, step by step
On the People Details page, click the Follow (eyeball) icon below the person’s name.
Select as many Watchlists as you like from the drop-down.
Select the Watchlist on the Manage Watchlists page.
Click the X next to the person or company.
Notifications are daily by default. Switch to a weekly summary, or turn them off and use the News Feed.
Go to Manage Watchlists.
Select the Watchlist.
Click Alerts and adjust.
Changes save automatically; click Close.
Click your Account icon (your first initial), then Manage Agents.
Scroll to Standard Agents, deselect the types you don’t want, and click Save.
Scroll to Custom Agents and click + Add a Custom Agent.
Add keywords and filters for the topic, then click Save.
Connections: get a helping hand to break the ice
One last callback, we promise. Remember the exercise that showed how much you could raise your response rate? The highest leap came from Connections.
We’ve all received a cold pitch that felt forced and shut it down. If a friend or coworker introduced you instead, you’d be much more open. That’s the power of Connections.
Figure 8 · Interactive
Find a warm path to the decision maker
Pick a connection category. The network shows the shortest warm route from you to the CIO. People and companies are fictional.
Pick a category
We’ll trace the warmest route from you to Nadia Brooks, CIO at Halvorsen Freight.
We suggest importing contacts quarterly. Your connections stay private to your company and to you.
Setting up Connections
Once you import contacts, Sales Intelligence Cloud uses them to find ways into target companies and people, across four categories:
Work history: referrals through previous employers and coworkers.
Education: referral networks through fellow alumni.
Reference accounts: employees at companies you’ve done business with.
Personal connections: your direct LinkedIn, Gmail, and Outlook contacts.
More than ever, it’s all about who you know.
Knowledge check · 5 questions
Chapter 05 · Conclusion
It’s the era of self-service, but we’re still here for you
— min
05
Even with the most detailed manual in hand, you may still have questions, or want to explore what your CRM data can do with Account Intelligence.
We’ll show you the way, and you choose your own adventure.
Help on your schedule
Smarter GTM™
The ultimate pipeline accelerator
With Account Intelligence activated in the Sales Intelligence Cloud, you can optimize prospect screening, improve your response rate, and have deeper, insight-based conversations where your value is abundantly clear.
