Item: D&B Hoovers
Rating: 8
Author: Tate McIntyre

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For a company like mine that constantly needs to be verifying business-related data, D&B Hoovers is an excellent tool and one we'd recommend. We evaluated many other tools for this purpose, and D&B Hoovers was the one best equipped to enable us to create very segmented lists using the dozens of filters they offer, including industry type, revenue, location, employee size, and even job title with/without verified email addresses. Given D&B's legacy as a top provider of business data, it's natural that Hoovers is the best tool for these specific reasons.

Pros and Cons

Granular segmented lists.
Smart lists that dynamically update automatically.
Verified data.
CRM integration.

Cost per record.
Better phone numbers.

Return on Investment

Generating industry-specific lists and targeting key contacts at each company via email.
Identifying target audience sizes for marketing campaigns.
Verifying business and contact data.

Company Data

We are thrilled with the wide array of filters D&B Hoovers offers us to make our searches as broad or granular as we desire. There is a robust amount of company data for the vast majority of records we come across. There is also a lot of strong data at the individual contact level, including emails, though we'd prefer if phone numbers for these contacts were available as well.

Contact Data

As email continues to be a primary way to reach out to potential prospects, we love the option to isolate our contacts with or without verified email addresses. However, many people are also more responsive to phone calls and -- as time goes on -- text messages. D&B Hoovers primarily offers general company phone numbers along with contact info, rather than mobile phones or direct office phone lines. This severely limits how we are able to distribute potential lead lists to our sales team.

Alternatives Considered

ZoomInfo and Crunchbase

Neither of these options is nearly as robust as D&B Hoovers in terms of the sheer amount of business data they offer when searching and generating lists. However, Crunchbase offers the option to reach out directly to prospects through its platform, which is quite valuable, and they both offer more viable phone numbers than D&B Hoovers.

Key Insights

Do you think D&B Hoovers delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with D&B Hoovers's feature set?

Yes

Did D&B Hoovers live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of D&B Hoovers go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy D&B Hoovers again?

Likelihood to Recommend

D&B Hoovers is very well suited for generating segmented lists, pulling out the contacts associated with each business, and generating lists of verified emails. It is also useful in terms of syncing these lists with Salesforce (or other CRMs I'm sure) so the contacts are easy to view on the sales side. We would prefer if there were more phone numbers (other than general business numbers) for the individual prospects to maximize our chances of being able to reach them via methods other than email.

Lots of great data available, but there are limitations on how you can use it

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with D&B Hoovers