Closely vs. Data.com (discontinued) vs. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Closing rates increase up to 25% when using Closely’s automated outreach platform. Closely gives you the ability to reach out to the exact people who are interested in your offer. You can set up the entire campaign, and then Closely will take over everything else. You can choose your message and deliver it using email or text. Sometimes the interface can be a little slow. I would suggest doing some testing before committing to this tool. Closely saves time, which is important to me. I have been using it for about a month now, and I have noticed that my close rate has increased by 25%. I am able to focus on building my list instead of doing the tedious task of emailing people.

Incentivized

There are many scenarios that make data.com well suited, but most specifically, it works very well when looking for contacts within a certain zip code. You can sort and find information about these contacts and pay by points. This helps because you are able to pick and choose which you want to pay for.

Incentivized

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is hands down the best tool for identifying targeted contacts or leads. You can drill down on a company and look at its entire workforce, or search by the exact title that is your key target. The information is up to date, as people tend to keep their LinkedIn profiles current. In terms of other marketing functions LI Sales Navigator is extremely limited. BUT if you are looking to identify contacts for prospecting purposes, then this tool is what you need.

Incentivized

• I have not had any issues with LinkedIn filters.
• The inbox feature is like a mini-CRM.
• Closely now has a chrome extension adding more functionality.

Incentivized

• Data.com is a great way to find out accurate revenue and employee numbers for companies across various industries.
• Data.com's filtering capabilities allow our team to quickly find the ideal prospects to reach out to.
• Data.com, being owned by Salesforce, allows for a seamless integration into our CRM. This saves us an incredible amount of time and ensures data accuracy.

Incentivized

• Search Functionality: LinkedIn Sales Navigator has one of the most powerful search functions. The filters are not unnecessary and some are very well thought of. You can drill down to finding a needle in a haystack of 20000 employee company when it comes to using LinkedIn Sales Navigator if done in the right manner.
• Smart Links: Gone are the days of attached Decks. One can simply create their deck online using this feature on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or even upload an existing ppt. A smart link is shareable as well as trackable for opens and clicks.
• Fewer Clicks: With a single click, I can filter out decision-makers in any company. With a single click, I can import contacts from LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Salesforce. Lesser clicks are actually less stressful if you think.

• Automated Birthday messages
• Automated congratulations of milestones

Incentivized

• Some contacts can be old. Perhaps they could consider validating some that are older than 5 years.
• They don't always detect duplicate companies. For example, I've added the same company twice before, I don't understand how they allow that, or prevent others from adding duplicates. It doesn't happen very often,, only occasionally.
• Sometimes data.com will "autocorrect" a job title incorrectly. For example, entering "Director of People & Culture" will autocorrect it to "Director of peopleandculture" If you don't catch it, it looks pretty bad for the next person who wants to view the contact.

Incentivized

• Inbox needs work - too much confusion around your LinkedIn inbox and Sales Nav inbox
• Sorting - need a better, faster way to sort by for prospect lists and account lists
• Only voluntarily shared information. No cross checking or using API’s like a ZoomInfo

Incentivized

This question is a no-brainer. The tool is the industry standard for anyone tied to sales and marketing. The name "LinkedIn Sales Navigator" is synonymous with streamlining relevant customer and account data in an easy to use format that is actionable and intelligent. The focus on continuous improvement and richer means of communicating with customers and prospects is evident each time new features are rolled out. The social component of the tool even includes a gamification component to ensure that peers remain relevant among each other, which is refreshing and enjoyable for those who engage the tool on a daily basis.

Incentivized

Very intuitive to use and I've never had any confusion with features. Anyone can create an account and use the platform simply by adding a contact or company into the database to earn points. It's a great option if you don't have budget for lists or pay services. It is easy to use and anyone can benefit from it.

Incentivized

Overall, it's very user-friendly. It's hard for a tool to make sorting through loads of data easy, but Sales Nav does this very well. Its advanced search features enable us to be selective in finding the right people to talk to and connect with.

Incentivized

Whenever I've had a question their support has responded pretty quickly and gives me exactly what I am looking for. I have not had any technical issues so I can't speak to issues there, but as far as general questions from a free user they have impressed me with how quickly they get back to me and the thoroughness of their answers.

Incentivized

I would recommend LinkedIn Sales Navigator entirely. It has been the most user-friendly tool to use starting off in a sales role. I genuinely enjoy the navigation of the tool and how easy it is to save lists and see job changes within those lists. Generating leads and finding the most up to date information on prospects is all housed within this tool.

Incentivized

I am unsure of the rollout, as I was not involved. I was an early adopter, and I have had a lot of success with the tool personally at multiple organizations, but I have no idea whether the implementation process encountered any errors. I can personally say that it works, and that I have not encountered significant issues with the tool since adoption, although a few issues like messages showing up as being unread even though they have been opened have been an on-again/off-again issues throughout the past few years. Overall, the company is doing a great job, and our implementation seems to have been effective.

Incentivized

Adobe Workfront may not be the direct competitor of Data.com, but for the services I was using, Workfront looked a little better when it comes to the user interface. But Data.com definitely had more powerful features & better integration capabilities. Also, it was easier to play around with the customer journey in Data.com as compared to other tools I have used in the past.

Incentivized

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is much more valuable than Dice or Cognism, as we do most of our prospecting on LinkedIn. Therefore, it means we can build lists of our prospects based on activity, connections, and buying intention. With Cognism and Dice, you cannot do this as they do not work alongside the LinkedIn platform and, therefore, lack the functionality that is essential to what we are using the platform for.

Incentivized

• 25% increase on close rate
• Additional social channel to nurture leads
• Countless hours saved

Incentivized

• The positive impact is gaining more direct contact information for hiring managers.
• Another positive factor is that it is completely free. You gain points for contact information when you add contact information.
• Since it is a free resource, there are no real negative impacts.

Incentivized

• Helped warm up a few leads that I was having trouble getting in touch with via phone and email
• Allowed me to better identify the key stakeholders at companies I was targeting
• Kept me up to date on what was happening with my prospects and their companies.

Incentivized