Ranga Kaliyur

ZoomInfo is an industry-leading B2B go-to-market platform that helps teams identify and connect with their target audience through account and contact-level data, but that’s not all. They are actively working on changing their position in the market from a data provider to an end-to-end market software company. Hence, it’s essential to understand the details of ZoomInfo’s latest offerings, prices, and updates. But that raises the question: how do ZoomInfo pricing plans work? What does ZoomInfo cost? And is ZoomInfo really worth it? 

This article highlights everything you need to know about ZoomInfo, including ZoomInfo pricing, overview, alternatives, and more.

TL;DR

• ZoomInfo pricing is entirely quote-based, with annual costs ranging widely and commonly starting at $25,000 for small teams.
• Credits are central to its pricing model, with each search or contact reveal consuming varying amounts; additional credits cost extra.
• ZoomInfo Copilot adds AI capabilities, including real-time account insights, conversational queries, and automated outreach.
• Strong competitors like Apollo, Lead411, and Cognism offer viable alternatives with free tiers, transparent pricing, and solid feature sets.

ZoomInfo Overview: What is ZoomInfo? 

ZoomInfo is an end-to-end go-to-market software company that is one of the most extensive contact and company-level intelligence databases for sales marketing use cases. ZoomInfo is divided into four broad products:

• SalesOS: Contact & company search, sales automation, conversation intelligence, workflows
• MarketingOS: Cross-channel advertising, buyer intent insights, website chat, form enrichment
• OperationsOS: Data cleansing, data enrichment, lead routing
• TalentOS: Talent search, candidate outreach, employer branding

SalesOS is the most popular product in the ZoomInfo lineup, and with good reason: ZoomInfo's impressive database spans 321 million active professionals at 104 million companies. This, in combination with its advanced search filters, real-time alerts, and integration capabilities, makes ZoomInfo an attractive platform for sales marketing teams. However, it is generally considered a premium product, often out of reach for smaller teams seeking cost-effective intelligence solutions.

ZoomInfo Pricing

ZoomInfo's pricing is complex and varies based on several factors. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is offered through a custom, quote-based structure, making it necessary to engage directly with the company to estimate costs.

Key factors influencing ZoomInfo pricing include 

• features, 
• licenses, 
• credit usage, and 
• contract length and terms. 

The number of features required, credit usage, and contract length significantly impact the overall cost.

Credits in ZoomInfo are consumed whenever an action is performed, such as viewing or exporting contact information—higher credit usage results in higher costs, requiring effective credit management to avoid unexpected expenses.

Comparing ZoomInfo pricing with competitors like SalesOS reveals a custom quote-based structure with an average annual expenditure of around $30,000. SalesOS offers more transparent pricing tiers with lower entry points, but higher-level plans can approach the costs of ZoomInfo's mid-tier offerings.

Use cases have shown that the high costs, sometimes upwards of $30,000 annually, are justified by significant ROI through improved lead generation, data enrichment, and overall sales performance.

How Much Does ZoomInfo Cost?

ZoomInfo's pricing is tailored to specific user requirements and usage, focusing on providing high-quality data and sales intelligence functionalities. Businesses should explore different pricing plans, utilize free trials, compare costs with alternatives, and use diverse data providers to optimize cost and performance in their sales intelligence efforts.

Our teams also spent a considerable amount of time talking to some existing ZoomInfo customers, and we found that the pricing was majorly based on:

• Seat-based minimum pricing
• Consumables or credits which can be bought on an ad-hoc basis

Some customers pay approximately $25,000 annually for about eight seats, while others pay $58,000 for about 21 to 23 seats. We also found that customers usually achieve a 50% discount after negotiations.

ZoomInfo Credits

ZoomInfo offers various pricing plans, each with a specific number of credits under each plan. If you need more credits, you can purchase them as needed. This credit-based system allows users to access particular contact and company information from its database for lead enrichment. Users can collect specific data with each credit, such as work email address, phone number, job title, etc. However, the credits required may vary depending on the type of information requested. 

For example, basic contact details may consume fewer credits, while more comprehensive data, like technographic information, requires additional credits.

Limitations of ZoomInfo Credit-Based Model

1. Purchasing Credits Can Increase Costs

Each credit opens a set of specific information needed for lead enrichment. Once the credits are exhausted, users have to purchase additional credits. This can be expensive for certain companies with extensive data requirements or budget constraints. 

2. Missed Opportunities

Limited credits may restrict the number of leads and opportunities a company can pursue. This affects growth, which is particularly challenging for expanding organizations or those in competitive markets.

3. Impact on Sales Engagement

Sales reps usually engage with multiple decision-makers and influencers within a target account. Each contact’s information requires additional credits, and sales reps might be unable to reach out to multiple people in the same organization. This restriction can limit the depth of engagement and reduce the chances of sales influencing the purchase decision.

New Launch: ZoomInfo Copilot

ZoomInfo has launched Copilot, an AI-powered solution designed to assist sales teams in closing deals more efficiently and effectively. Copilot leverages AI technology to provide valuable insights from ZoomInfo's B2B data, aiding sales professionals in making informed decisions and taking prompt actions. The platform aims to transform sales operations by enhancing productivity and accuracy in engaging with qualified leads at the right moment.

Key Features of ZoomInfo Copilot:

• Buying Groups: Copilot creates buying groups of individuals aligned with ideal customer profiles based on real-time signals from various sources like websites and case studies. This feature streamlines lead prioritization and ensures efficient engagement with prospects.
• Account Summaries: By aggregating first- and third-party data, Copilot provides detailed overviews of specific accounts, including pain points, upcoming deals, and key contacts. These summaries equip sales professionals with a comprehensive understanding of prospective customers, enhancing their preparation for interactions.
• Copilot Chat: This conversational AI system offers instant answers about specific accounts, enhancing the speed and accuracy of decision-making during customer interactions.
• AI Email Generator: This tool assists users in creating personalized and targeted emails at scale, optimizing the outreach process and saving time for sales professionals.

These features collectively empower users to work smarter, predict leads more accurately, streamline processes, and enhance customer engagement. ZoomInfo Copilot represents a significant advancement in sales technology, offering a comprehensive AI-driven solution to help businesses thrive in competitive markets.

Read more about Copilot from ZoomInfo’s CEO, Henry Schuck:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-gtm-ai-introducing-zoominfo-copilot-zoominfo-ef91c/

Why Do Businesses Use ZoomInfo?

ZoomInfo is one of the most popular B2B sales intelligence and GTM tools today — and with good reason. Albeit not without its limitations, ZoomInfo delivers certain unequivocal advantages over its competitors. Here’s why people use ZoomInfo over alternatives:

1. Robust North America sales intelligence data

With over 320 million business contacts and 100 million companies in its database, ZoomInfo provides one of the most comprehensive sales intelligence platforms today. This holds especially true for data on companies and professionals in North American geographies. Here’s how ZoomInfo’s volume of data breaks down as of Oct 2023:Rest of the World (Excluding North America):

• 104 million email addresses
• 45 million mobile numbers
• 27 million direct phone numbers

North America:

• 70 million email addresses
• 49 million mobile numbers
• 43 million direct phone numbers

Given that approximately half of ZoomInfo’s large data is North America-focused, this is a key plus point for GTM teams with primary audiences in the US, Canada, and other North American regions.

2. Comprehensive go-to-market ecosystem

1. Comprehensive go-to-market ecosystem 

ZoomInfo is an all-encompassing GTM ecosystem catering to a broader range of sales and marketing cases. Teams looking to identify anonymous website visitors can benefit from ZoomInfo’s enrichment tools, which reveal firmographic data on otherwise hidden traffic. In addition to providing company and contact data, ZoomInfo offers:

• Sales (Email) Automation
• Conversation Intelligence
• Cross-channel Advertising
• Buyer Intent Insights
• Website Chat
• Web Form Enrichment
• Data Deduplication, enrichment, and cleaning
• Lead Routing
• Talent Search
• Candidate Outreach
• Employee Branding

All in all, this means that unlike other growth-stage sales intelligence platforms, Zoominfo is an all-encompassing GTM ecosystem to cater to a wider range of sales and marketing use-cases. 

3. Industry-leaders and product maturity 

ZoomInfo has been an industry leader in sales intelligence for several years, consistently improving its offering by refining its database, expanding its functionality, and enhancing customer experience. In 2023 alone, ZoomInfo achieved 100+ #1 rankings and 254 Leader Ratings in G2’s Fall Report. For the 11th quarter in a row, ZoomInfo has led the Enterprise grids for Marketing Account Intelligence, Account Data Management, and Lead Intelligence.

Is ZoomInfo Worth It?

There’s no doubt that even ZoomInfo’s basic plans are relatively steep. And given the several add-on options, the cost can quickly spiral. Whether ZoomInfo is worth it for you or your organization depends on your needs, goals, and budget. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Data requirements: Do you need contact-level data or account-level data? Do you need high-level firmographics or more granular data? Depending on your requirements, there may be better choices than ZoomInfo.
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2. Data accuracy: ZoomInfo is known for providing relatively accurate and up-to-date data. However, evaluating the data quality in your specific industry and target market is still essential.
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3. Features and Functionality: Consider whether the features ZoomInfo offers align with your goals and if they provide a competitive advantage for your sales marketing efforts.
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4. Cost: ZoomInfo's pricing can vary widely depending on your organization's size, the access level, and the specific features you require. Consider your budget and whether the potential benefits outweigh the costs.
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5. UX & CX: Ease of use and user experience are important factors. An intuitive and easy-to-navigate platform can increase efficiency and user adoption. Additionally, consider ZoomInfo's level of customer support.
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To determine if ZoomInfo is worth it for your organization, it's recommended that you request a demo, explore their free trial (if available), and gather feedback from current users in your industry. Additionally, consider your specific goals and how well ZoomInfo aligns with your strategies for lead generation, sales outreach, and business growth.

Also, read Factors vs ZoomInfo: Pros and Cons.

ZoomInfo Competitors and Alternatives

ZoomInfo is definitely in the forefront of B2B data solutions. That being said, there are several ZoomInfo alternatives worth considering — each with their own pros and cons ZoomInfo is definitely at the forefront of B2B data solutions. However, several ZoomInfo alternatives are worth considering, each with pros and cons. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Lead411
• Apollo
• Seamless
• LeadIQ
• Cognism

Here’s how their prices compare per account and per seat:

Also, check out Koala alternatives.

Zoominfo customer ratings comparison

Here’s a breakdown of how ZoomInfo customer ratings compare to its competitors (As of April 2024).

Is ZoomInfo Worth the Price? A Closer Look

ZoomInfo does not offer fixed pricing. Instead, it builds custom quotes based on team size, feature requirements, and usage patterns. For many small to mid-sized teams, the starting point lands around $25,000 per year. In some cases, the total climbs much higher depending on how the platform gets used.

The credit system drives much of the pricing. Each time a rep views or exports a contact, the platform deducts credits. Some actions require more credits than others. Once a team exhausts its credits, it needs to purchase more, which can push costs up quickly.

ZoomInfo Copilot introduces AI features that aim to improve efficiency. It provides real-time account insights, recommended actions, and even generates personalized emails. These tools promise speed and accuracy, although they also introduce more layers to manage.

Other tools offer similar capabilities at lower or more transparent price points. Apollo, Lead411, and Cognism often appeal to teams looking for clearer plans and flexible options. While they may not match ZoomInfo in every area, they often provide enough to justify the switch.

FAQs on ZoomInfo Pricing and Alternatives

1. Is ZoomInfo free or paid? 

ZoomInfo is a paid product, but they offer a free trial if you’d like to try it out before finalizing your purchase.

2. How much does ZoomInfo cost? 

ZoomInfo’s pricing is largely based on:

• Seat-based minimum pricing
• Consumables or credits which can be bought on an ad-hoc basis

3. How do ZoomInfo Credits work?

Each search or data access action consumes a specific number of credits based on the depth of the information requested. Basic details may cost fewer credits, while more detailed or enriched data can use more credits.

4. How much does ZoomInfo cost for one person?

ZoomInfo's pricing is not mentioned upfront on its website. However, users have reported on a Reddit thread that the pricing plans are primarily structured for teams. A minimum of $14,995 can be paid annually for up to three users with 5,000 credits. 

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5. Can I use ZoomInfo for free?

ZoomInfo does not offer a free version of its platform. Access to its database requires purchasing a subscription. 

Looking to learn more about Lead Forensics pricing, features, and more? The following article provides a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know about Lead Forensics pricing. 

Lead Forensics is a popular B2B website visitor identification tool that reveals anonymous companies visiting a website and surfaces relevant contact details (Email, Phone numbers, etc) within those companies for outreach and targeting. Lead Forensics is used primarily by B2B marketers, sales folk, and agencies to leverage existing website traffic to drive sales revenue and marketing ROI. 

Lead Forensics Pricing & Plans

Lead Forensics offers two plans: Essential and Automate. Essential is designed for small to medium sized businesses to identify anonymous businesses viewing your website, unlock relevant contact data (phone numbers, mail ID, etc) and manage existing leads. Automate offers all this, plus additional features such as custom workflows, sequence actions (or as they call it, The Orchestrator), advanced CRM integrations and Fuzzy matching algorithm to maintain data hygiene. 

Here’s a detailed feature overview of how the two plans compare to each other:

Source

Note that:

• Lead Forensics offers a 7-days free trial
• Lead Forensics does not offer a free plan

Unfortunately Lead Forensics does not openly reveal its pricing details. You’ll have to reach out to their sales team for an accurate quote based on your requirements and scale. That being said, we’ve dug deep to find what we can about Lead Forensics’ pricing:

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Lead Forensics pricing runs between around $250 to several thousand per month, depending on the volume of website traffic. Multiple reviews also highlight that obtaining contact data (phone numbers, email addresses, etc) cost an additional fee on top of the monthly platform subscription fee

To be fair, the few reviews that do provide hints into Lead Forensics pricing are…well, unhappy customers. Ignoring their not-so-great opinions of the product, we can see that Lead Forensics charges these users approximately £209 + vat per month (or $260/mo) and $500 per month respectively. 

“To ensure a right sized solution for each of our clients, our pricing model is based upon relevant B2B traffic to a website or specified web pages. We offer a free trial period to ascertain the traffic volumes over a one week period. After which time, we will produce a bespoke proposal tailored to your business and your visitor traffic levels. We are committed to producing the right package and proposal for your business, which is why we don't have an off the shelf pricing model.” - Lead Forensics

Lead Forensics Reviews

Lead Forensics claims to maintain one of the world’s largest B2B IP-databases. But how do Lead Forensics customers find the platform to be on a day-to-day basis? Here’s what reviews have to say about user experience with Lead Forensics: 

In Summary 

Lead Forensics Benefits:

• Intuitive onboarding 
• Customer support

Lead Forensics Drawbacks: 

• Data inaccuracy
• Cost

Lead Forensics Rating:

• G2: 4.3/5
• Capterra: 3.4/5 
• TrustRadius: 2.6/10

Lead Forensics Alternatives

There are several account identification and intelligence solutions out there. Here are a few common Lead Forensics alternatives to consider:

• Factors.ai - for data-accuracy and advanced analytics, scoring, and attribution 
• Leadfeeder (Now Dealfront) - for EU-centric account intelligence
• Clearbit - for accounts and contact level intelligence

Factors is a leading account intelligence solution that helps B2B teams identify, qualify, and convert anonymous website traffic. Factors works with industry-standard data partners to provide accurate, cost-effective account intelligence. Why Factors over Lead Forensics? 

• Better data: Factors identifies up to 64% of anonymous traffic — that’s 27% more accounts than the closest alternatives. 
• Better intent signals: Factors stands out from alternatives in that it captures intent signals (ad views, impressions, page views) from LinkedIn and G2 in addition to website activity for holistic account engagement tracking.
• Better deals: While Lead Forensics doesn't openly reveal prices, internal demos reveal that Factors provides far more cost-effective plans. Learn more here: factors.ai/pricing
• Better analytics: Factors is built upon strong analytics and attribution foundations. As a result, it provides granular website tracking, path analysis, timelines, and more. 

Lead Forensics Pricing Plans

Lead Forensics offers flexible plans tailored to different business sizes and needs.

1. Pricing Tiers:
- Essential: For SMBs, includes visitor identification, contact details, and lead management.
- Automate: For enterprises, adds CRM integration, customizable workflows, and AI-driven sequencing.

2. Key Features:
Anonymous visitor tracking, advanced lead insights, and automated engagement workflows.

3. Pricing Estimates:
Ranges from $200 to $2,000+ per month based on traffic and feature requirements.

For accurate pricing, businesses should contact Lead Forensics directly to receive a customized quote.

FAQ

1. What does Lead Forensics do? 

Lead Forensics tracks business IPs to identify anonymous website traffic at an account-level. Once a visiting company has been identified, Lead Forensics also shares relevant contact information such as mail IDs and phone numbers to streamline outreach and targeting. 

2. What is the lead forensic code?

The Lead Forensics code is a tiny piece of code placed on a business website. It’s this code that enables users to identify websites visitors’ business IP addresses. This IP is then matched with an IP database to reveal business names and properties.

Leadfeeder and Albacross are well established lead generation platforms that help B2B teams identify, enrich, and convert anonymous website traffic. There’s no doubt that both tools are great at what they do — but which one is the right choice for you? And might there be an even better alternative? 

This blog highlights everything you need to know about Leadfeeder vs Albacross — and why you might want to consider Factors.ai as well. 

Leadfeeder vs Albacross - Pricing

Before diving into features, benefits, and limitations, let’s get the most obvious consideration out of the way: pricing. 

Leadfeeder Pricing

Leadfeeder [Now Dealfront]’s pricing plans start at €139/mo (or ≅$150/mo) and is scaled based on the number of accounts you wish to identify and enrich. Here’s how pricing plans are scaled at Leadfeeder:

Note that Leadfeeder also offers a free plan with barebones features that’s limited to up to 100 companies identified with only 7 days of data storage. While this plan will almost certainly be insufficient, it’s a great way to get started for free. 

Albacross Pricing

Albacross does not openly reveal as much about its pricing plans, but it’s fair to say that they are at least comparable to Leadfeeder. Here’s what we do know about its pricing: 

Albacross paid plans start at €79/mo (or $83/mo). Like Leadfeeder, it is scaled up based on the number of accounts you choose to identify and enrich. 

Both Leadfeeder and Albacross offer 14-day free trials. While it seems that Albacross has a marginal advantage in terms of pricing, it’s only fair to determine which product is the better fit based on features, benefits and limitations as well. 

Leadfeeder vs Albacross - Features

Let’s explore how Leadfeeder and Albacross compare in terms of features

Shared Features

Given that Leadfeeder and Albacross are direct competitors to each other, it’s only natural that they share product features and use-cases. Here’s a breakdown of a few core, common features between the two tools: 

1. Company identification

Company identification is at the core of what both products do. Rest assured, Leadfeeder and Albacross are more than capable of accurately identifying and enriching anonymous accounts visiting your website. More context, around this:

Leadfeeder/Dealfront likely wins the spot for the best Europe-specific company data. The now Germany-based company claims coverage of over 66M+ companies across the world, with nearly half of that being from Europe alone. Within its European coverage, it provides deep data (sourced from national trade registers and chambers of commerce) in certain geographies:

Albacross does not openly share as much about its database but is likely comparable to Leadfeeder. In fact, Albacross claims to have built out the largest proprietary IP-to-company mapping database globally with over 100+ B2B attributes. This, however, is challenging to verify without the numbers. 

2. Filtering, segmentation & scoring

Of course, not every account visiting your website would be sales-ready ICP companies. To help break through the noise, Leadfeeder and Albacross offer comprehensive filtering, segmentation, and lead scoring functionalities. 

This helps automatically filter total identifies traffic down to a few in-market, high-fit accounts based on their firmographic properties (industry, revenue, headcount, etc) and engagement levels (page views, clicks, etc)

3. Integrations

Leadfeeder and Albacross provide a wide range of integrations with CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce), MAPs, Slack/MS Teams, and other everyday go-to-market tools. In addition, integrations with Zapier helps both tools push data back into any other solution that they don’t natively integrate with. 

Integrations are an important consideration when choosing a lead generation tool as it helps eliminate tedious, manual workflow management and empowers automated trigger based actions such as real-time Slack alerts, LinkedIn ads retargeting, CRM updation, and more. 

Of course, there’s more to it than just this. But the previous three points cover the crux of what both platforms help with: account intelligence and activation features. Now, let’s look at why you might want to choose one over the other.

Why Leadfeeder over Albacross?

1. Contact database 

Although Albacross also provides contact data (mail IDs, phone numbers, etc) based on the accounts visiting your website, it’s only included as part of its premium tier plans. Leadfeeder, on the other hand, provides access to over 200M+ contact-level data points across the board. Note that neither tool can tell exactly who is visiting your website at a user-level. Instead, they provide best-bet recommendations from independent contact databases. 

2. User interface 

Based on our secondary research, Leadfeeder has a considerable edge over Albacross  in terms of user interface. While customers rave about Leadfeeder’s UI, Albacross faces some criticism over its useability:

3. Website analytics 

Leadfeeder takes another point over Albacross when it comes to website analytics. While neither tool is especially great at tracking website behavior, Leadfeeder has the advantages of form tracking, video tracking, download tracking, time-spent on page, and other, more granular metrics to gauge accounts engagement.

Why Albacross over Leadfeeder?

1. Pricing 

The most obvious advantage Albacross has over Leadfeeder is its pricing. While Leadfeeder technically does offer a few more features, Albacross is unequivocally the budget-friendly option for teams that are early in their ABM journey. If you already use a contact database such as Apollo or Zoominfo, Albacross should be a good starting point for your company identification needs.

2. Lead history 

Lead history includes activity data, source of visit, time-spent on page etc. If you’re a company with especially long sales cycles, you probably want to track lead history over several weeks, if not the entire quarter. At the moment, Leadfeeder falters in this regard while offering only up to 30 days of lead history. Albacross, on the other hand, extends history to up to 90 days. 

3. Website personalization 

Albacross offers nifty website personalization features via integration with VWO and Google Optimize to empower A/B testing based on the nature of accounts visiting your website. This is a valuable tool for product marketers to experiment with different positionings for different buyer personas. 

Why Factors over the rest? 

And there you have it. A run down of how Leadfeeder and Albacross compare against each other. Before dropping off however, we would be remiss without sharing a little about why Factors might make an even better fit for your lead generation and account intelligence requirement than the latter two. 

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In short, Factors does everything Leadfeeder and Albacross do — along with so much more. Here are a few clear advantages Factors has:

1. Data accuracy 

Data accuracy is probably the most important consideration when picking an intelligence tool. Without accurate data, you have nothing to work with. Factors partners with industry-leading marketing and sales intelligence solutions 6sense and Clearbit to provide unmatched identification rates of up to 64% — including highly enriched firmographics and technographics data. 

2. Lead history (again)

Maintaining lead history and account timelines for longer periods of time can be crucial to B2B teams with longer sales cycles. Leadfeeder maintains lead history for up to 30 days. Albacross maintains lead history for up to 90 days. And Factors maintain lead history — including touch points across ad campaigns, website, CRM, sales interactions, and more — for as long as 1 full year (365 days!) That's more than 4 times as long as the closest alternative.

‍3. Analytics & attribution

Factors is built upon strong analytics and attribution foundations — which means it provides far more functionality, customization and granularity when it comes to account-level reporting. Among several other features, this includes account scoring, path analysis, funnels, timelines, attribution, KPI reporting and more across campaigns, website, CRM etc.

Leadfeeder vs. Albacross: Choosing the Right B2B Lead Generation Tool

1. Leadfeeder: Offers CRM integrations, detailed analytics, and visitor tracking, starting at €139/month for 100 identified companies.
2. Albacross: Provides similar visitor identification at a lower cost (€79/month) but with fewer integrations and analytics features.
3. Key Considerations: Budget, integration needs, and depth of analytics required for lead generation.

Selecting the right tool depends on balancing cost with essential features for effective B2B outreach.

Comparison Table

To summarize, here’s a quick comparison table of all three platforms for your consideration:

There’s no doubt that B2B sales is increasingly being conducted in a methodical, scientific manner. Using a wide range of metrics and KPIs, this data-driven sales process ensures minimal revenue leakage and optimized pipeline performance. You may have heard of a few common sales metrics: customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, average revenue per user, etc.

This article focuses on a lesser known, yet enormously important metric to monitor & improve the overall health of sales: pipeline velocity. Let’s explore everything you need to know about pipeline velocity; what it is, how to calculate it, and most importantly, how to improve it. 

What is pipeline velocity? 

In short, pipeline velocity is the speed at which qualified opportunities move through the sales pipeline. 

In other words, pipeline velocity is used to measure how quickly leads are being converted into paying customers. This helps understand the efficiency of the sales process and identify areas of improvement. 

Think of a literal pipeline: if it’s chock-full of debris and leaks, the flow of water will be limited and inefficient. On the other hand, if it’s squeaky clean, a large volume of water can flow uninterrupted at maximum speed.

Similarly, a high-velocity sales pipeline results in a consistent, voluminous flow of leads and ultimately, revenue. You can see why it’s so important to keep track of this metric. 

How to calculate pipeline velocity?

Pipeline velocity is calculated using 4 other metrics:

• Opportunities - how many qualified opportunities are in your pipeline?
• Deal size - what is the average contract value of deals in your pipeline?
• Win rate - what percentage of opportunities will likely convert successfully?
• Length of sales cycle - on average, how many days does it take to close a deal? 

Here’s the most commonly accepted pipeline velocity formula:

Pipeline velocity = (Opportunities x average deal size x average win rate) ÷ length of average sales cycle (in days)

Let’s take an example. Say we have 60 qualified opportunities at various stages along the pipeline. The average deal size of these opportunities is $5000. Historically, we’ve observed a win rate of 20% and sales cycles of around 30 days. Accordingly, our pipeline velocity may be calculated as follows:

Extrapolating this, we arrive at a figure of $2000/day x 30 days for $60,000 per month. 

You may notice from the pipeline velocity formula that there are a few ways to improve pipeline velocity:

• Increase number of opportunities
• Increase average deal size
• Increase win rate 
• Decrease length of sales cycle

Each variable is a lever that may be pulled to ramp up pipeline velocity. Of course, the most obvious way is to increase the number of opportunities/leads and deal size (easier said than done!). That being said, improving the buyer experience is a low-hanging fruit that results in dramatic improvements in win rates and quicker sales cycles. 

But what makes improving the pipeline velocity so important anyway? Here are a few benefits of tracking and optimizing pipeline velocity:

Why is pipeline velocity important?

As HubSpot’s director of sales, Dan Tyre, puts it: 

“Sales managers live in fear that their pipeline is a bunch of fluff. In today’s world of instant gratification, uncovering a sense of urgency and establishing sales pipeline velocity is important because it uncovers a slow-moving, or worse, stagnant pipeline”.

1. Understand the overall health of the sales pipeline

Understanding your pipeline velocity helps keep tabs on the overall health of your sales pipeline. By knowing what works and what needs improvement, you can bring iterative, targeted changes to the sales engine. More revenue, less costs — win, win!

2. Ensure accurate sales forecasting

Measuring your pipeline velocity on a regular basis helps with accurate sales forecasting. For instance, taking the previous example, we have a pipeline velocity of $2000 per day, which can be expanded to $60,000 per month or $180,000 for the quarter. Using pipeline velocity is accurate as it’s based on real-time sales data, not estimates. 

3. Improve attribution & ROI

A powerful use-case is realized when pipeline velocity is used in tandem with attribution modeling. Picture this: each of your pipeline sources, broken down by qualified opportunities, deal size, win rate, and of course, pipeline velocity:

In combination with attribution, pipeline velocity can provide valuable insight into the most effective channels — which in turn can help guide marketing decisions and resource allocation. In this case, we see that even though paid social brings in more opportunities, it’s paid search that results in the most ROI given its larger deal size and better win rate.

Sales cycle benchmarks for SaaS

Pipeline velocity itself varies significantly based on the nature and size of the company in question. Instead, here’s a breakdown of the benchmark of length of sales cycles in SaaS

Length of sales cycle:

• Deals < $2000 ACV: 14 days
• Deals < $5000 ACV: 30 days
• Deals < $25,000 ACV: 90 days
• Deals < $100,000 ACV < 90-180 days
• Deals > $100,000 3 - 9 months

Depending on the nature of your business, your win rate should be anywhere from 5-20%. Of course, the number of opportunities and deal size is specific to your product, marketing & sales efforts. It wouldn’t make sense to maintain or refer to benchmarks in this case.

How to improve pipeline velocity?

In short, improving pipeline velocity involves eliminating points of friction along the customer journey and aligning workflows and stakeholders to ensure smooth sailing. Here are a few tactics and strategies to do so:

1. Make the most of existing traffic

Your website is a goldmine of hidden opportunities in the form of yet-to-be-converted accounts. Use an IP-based account intelligence tool (like Factors) to reveal anonymous accounts already engaging with your website, review pages, and ad campaigns. 

Given that these accounts are already familiar with your brand, they’re far more likely to convert: thereby increasing your “number of opportunities” and “win-rate”. 

2. Let visitors experience your work

As companies increasingly move towards product-led growth, it’s becoming all the more important to show, not tell. While not all products (especially those at early stages) can adopt PLG models, it’s really quite simple and effective to put up an interactive product tour on your website. This gives visitors a chance to know a little more about your work before choosing to book a demo, rather than having to go in blind. 

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Again, this likely increases the number of opportunities, reduces average sales cycle length, and improves your win rate. 

3. Document. Everything. Always.  

There’s no doubt that sales demos and discovery calls are important. But more often than not, buyers don’t have the time to sit through another 30-min. Make life easier for your sales reps, CS team, and of course, the customers themselves by introducing comprehensive documentation on everything they might need to know. 

Use-cases, How-tos, Implementation, etc, etc, etc should be easily accessible to anyone interested in your work — to mitigate the risk of unnecessary back-and-forth friction. This will certainly help reduce the length of the sales cycle. 

4. Align relevant stakeholders

A vital, yet often overlooked step is ensuring alignment across marketing, sales, CS, and the customers. This involves timely handoffs, relevant communication, straightforward pricing and product details, and clear PoCs across every stage of the customer journey. This helps both the customer and internal departments streamline the sales process end-to-end.

5. Stay on top of data & metrics 

The accuracy of your pipeline velocity metrics (and any other metric, really) relies heavily on the quality of your data. Ensure you’re regularly maintaining numbers on qualified opportunities, deal size, and length of sales cycle in your CRM so the same may be leverage for pipeline velocity measurement. 

How Factors help monitor & improve pipeline velocity

As important as it is, it can be a tedious, unintuitive chore to measure pipeline velocity — unless you have the right analytics solution, of course :) 

Factors is an AI-fuelled intelligence & analytics platform that helps teams identify, score, and track accounts across the customer journey. We’re talking about automated sales velocity calculations, flexible conversion funnels, IP-based account identification, multi-touch attribution, and more — everything you need to kickstart and refine your ABM process and…pipeline velocity! 

Accelerate B2B Sales with Pipeline Velocity Optimization

Pipeline velocity is a crucial metric that measures how quickly qualified leads convert into customers, enabling businesses to refine their sales process.

It’s calculated using four key factors:

1. Opportunities: The number of deals in your pipeline.

2. Deal Size: The average value of each deal.

3. Win Rate: The percentage of deals successfully closed.

4. Sales Cycle Length: The time it takes to close a deal.

Improving pipeline velocity enhances sales forecasting, boosts ROI, and ensures a healthy pipeline. Strategies include optimizing existing traffic, effectively showcasing products, and aligning stakeholders for smoother deal progression. AI-driven tools like Factors streamline tracking and analysis, making it easier to refine your sales process and drive faster conversions.

I recently came across an article that placed a great deal of emphasis on getting your definitions right. Of course, ‘defining’ things — roles, processes, objectives — holds plenty of value. From providing clarity and purpose to qualifying breakthrough ideas, a good definition can help teams go a long way in reaching their goals. And yet, even the most precise definitions are bound to change. 

With that in mind, this post discusses the elements that define the new and improved Revenue Marketer. In particular, we explore six pillars of Revenue Marketing and highlight the value of data, technology, and organisational alignment in effectively driving revenue growth.

But first, let’s quickly run over the fundamentals of Revenue Marketing.

Like many others, I learned about the term 'Revenue Marketing’ through Dr. Debbie Qaquish. About 10 years ago, during a transition from a long career in sales to a role in marketing, her CEO sat across her desk and posed a single question: “What are you going to do about revenue?” Long story short, this set off the development of a significant approach that transforms marketing teams from flowery cost centers to high-performing revenue machines. This approach, we've come to know as ‘revenue marketing’.

“Revenue marketing is the combined pillars of strategies, processes, people, technologies, content, and results across marketing and sales that drop leads to the top of the funnel, accelerates sales opportunities through the pipeline, and measures marketing based on repeatable, predictable, and scalable contribution to pipeline, revenue, and ROI” 

Phew. 

That was a mouth full. 

Now don’t get me wrong; this continues to remain the foundation upon which Revenue Marketing is built. But back then, the market looked very different from what it is today. We’ve had major changes that mandate an updated definition of revenue marketing. Accordingly, here are three additional challenges that redefine what it means to be a revenue marketer today.

Challenge #1 - Digital transformation

In 2011, the average number of technologies available to the marketing industry was about 150. Today, that same measure stands at an astonishing 7000. It’s becoming increasingly normal for marketing teams to employ upwards of 30, or even 40 different pieces of MarTech products. But digital transformation isn’t just about getting your hands on the hottest new tech toy. Now, Marketers have to choose between all-encompassing platforms like SalesForce and specialised best-in-class solutions for each use-case. The key challenge here is to centralise customer data and orchestrate these platforms to deliver a personalised customer experience. 

Challenge #2 - Customer centricity

It's no secret that as an industry, marketing has been progressing towards customer-centricity. Now more than ever, a firm’s customer experience signals its competitiveness in the market. Again, at the root of this change is digitalisation and technology. Digital customers are in control because your competition is now a single click away from you. Accordingly, identifying and employing the appropriate marketing channels — and distributing relevant content within those channels becomes a key challenge. 

Challenge #3 - Revenue accountability

A 2019 report by Duke University found that 80% of CMOs are under pressure to deliver ROI, revenue, and growth. However, only about a third provide any financial reports as a result of technological inaccessibility and an overall lack of training. Though we have countless programs and platforms to crunch marketing data and derive revenue metrics, they can be a little too inaccessible for marketers without analytical backgrounds to make effective use of. 

And so, we arrive at three challenges — each one based to varying extents in data, technology, and alignment  — that are driving the new definition of revenue marketing.

The new and improved Revenue Marketer 

Teams in leading B2B companies continue to transform themselves from cost centers to predictable and scalable revenue machines. Except now, they have an additional focus on digital transformation, customer-centricity, and revenue accountability. As an outcome, marketing is driving non-linear growth in a world where buyers are averse to direct sales.

Okay - so far, we’ve established our basis for the contemporary definition of revenue marketing. But let’s go even further. Not only is data, technology, and alignment fundamental in defining revenue marketing; it is essential to every capability within every pillar associated with the approach as well.

Strategy

In revenue marketing, strategy involves understanding your team’s readiness for change, aligning your company’s key business initiatives, and most importantly — forming revenue synergy with sales. While a large part of this ‘getting everyone on the same page’ process involves planning, communication, and leadership; technology is playing an increasingly important role as well. Though instinct and qualitative responses can complement strategy, data, metrics, and indicators are crucial ingredients in developing accurate customer profiles and journeys. And as all three merge across sales and marketing, teams require ecosystems that are conducive to a symbiotic, well-aligned workflow. An easily accessible analytics platform (*ahem* Factors.AI) enables sales and marketing folk to speak the same language — revenue.

//Factors.AI is an AI-powered marketing analytics platform that provides critical insights into your marketing activities, decodes customer behaviour, and empowers your marketing team to focus on real strategic decisions. In short - we do all the analytical heavy lifting for you.//

Process

The process pillar isn’t dissimilar to traditional marketing. In general, Process primarily involves campaigns and data. Accordingly, there are two aspects worth highlighting — campaign management and data management.

Campaign management involves executing, tracking, analysing, and measuring digital conversions in terms of business impact. There has been tremendous progress in the MarTech space within each of these functions. Not simply to automate the process, but to derive detailed insights as well. It’s a similar story with data management. Easy access and insight into your marketing data can make all the difference in the world. Implementing this process could be as simple as consolidating all your data under a single roof or automating any recurring analysis.

//Factors.AI enables your marketing team to consolidate and crunch marketing data from across all your sources - Google, Linkedin, Facebook, and more. Our integration process is completely code-free as well. In fact, we could have your marketing team onboarded in a single week.//

People

The people pillar consists of broad capacities involving the management of people in and outside of marketing. Stakeholder alignment, resource planning, and talent acquisition are important, but talent management in particular, is an aspect worth highlighting. A firm can employ all the data and technology in the world, but if the marketing team doesn’t have sound control over these tools, they won't be of much use at all. One solution to avoid this issue is to keep things simple.

//Factors.AI is simple by design. Our platform has been tailored to make the user experience very, very intuitive. In fact, our AI-powered analytics platform does all the work behind the scenes, so detailed insights into your data becomes as straightforward as a google search.//

A training program with a specific focus on revenue marketing tools can also go a long way in improving technical fluency and ensuring your team has a good grasp of revenue-oriented data.

Customer

As a revenue marketer, it is important to understand your customer across their entire life cycle. It’s no longer sufficient for marketers to get a customer through the door and call it a day.  Revenue marketing encourages you to keep tabs on all the touchpoints a customer goes through. Additionally, a revenue marketer aims to optimize their customer data - not only to improve campaign performance but to access valuable business insights as well. A second aspect that’s closely tied to the customer is content management. The batch and blast approach simply doesn’t make the cut anymore. It’s just as important for content to be relevant to the intended audience as it is for that content to travel through the right channels.

//Multi-touch attribution, End-to-end customer insights, and Automated analysis are but a few of the several features Factors.AI has to offer. When coupled with highly customisable campaign analytics - our platform makes for a very simple, very powerful marketing tool.//

Results 

Finally, we arrive at Results. Results to a revenue marketer involves a variety of measures associated with financial outcomes (Shocker!). But it doesn't end there. Along with delivering an impressive ROI, revenue marketers also aim to accurately forecast their revenue. In essence, they construct a marketing machine that drives repeatable, predictable, and scalable revenue. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but analysing data, utilising the right tools, and ensuring organisational alignment are crucial elements at this stage. Needless to say, sufficient training and practice won’t do any harm either.

//Factors.AI’s explain feature differentiates us from the rest of the game. Along with consolidating your data and performing automated analytics, our AI-powered platform provides actionable insights in a matter of minutes.//

Over the course of this post we’ve discussed what it means to be a Revenue Marketer today, we’ve briefly explored the six pillars associated with revenue marketing, and we’ve highlighted the value of utilising data, ensuring alignment, and employing the right tools and technologies. At the end of the day, revenue marketing is a pretty straightforward idea — A well-organised, well-equipped approach that empowers marketing teams to bring in money in a predictable, scalable manner. So as a marketer, the only question left to ask yourself is this:

“What are you going to do about revenue?

The following post is the second part of our “Attribution is Broken” series.

Here’s a link to the introductory post if you’re interested.

I recently came across an Instagram ad for a shiny new pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Being the mindless sheep I am, I decided that I needed a pair. So after some light research involving a few customer reviews and price comparisons, I went ahead and bought them. From start to finish, the purchase process took me about an hour or so. Admittedly, the headphones set me back a little but who cares? I can always return them if I’m not happy right? This was a short and sweet journey that’s easily digestible by most multi-touch attribution tools. And yet, this journey takes quite the turn when marketers want to reach out to businesses instead. 

B2B purchase decisions are tricky affairs. They involve complex high-value contracts, lengthy sales cycles that stretch over several months, and limited scope for backtracking once confirmed. As a result, all B2B purchases — especially those made in technology — are critical decisions. So, to mitigate the risk of making poor purchases, organisations include multiple stakeholders across multiple departments over multiple levels of seniority in their decision-making process. As an unfortunate consequence, however, this involvement of heterogeneous stakeholders tremendously complicates the account’s journey from awareness to purchase. 

Here’s a simple example of a complex B2B sales cycle:

HubForce, a promising CRM start-up takes out a couple of ads on Linkedin and Facebook.   They also publish content in the form of blogs and host interactive webinars on a regular basis. Additionally, HubForce’s SDR team requests demo meetings from CSOs, Demand Gen VPs, and Project Managers on a daily basis through outbound emails.

Ali, who is project head at Drifter (a leading chatbot service provider), receives one such mail. Ali happens to be in the market for a CRM tool and schedules a demo with HubForce. HubForce’s sales head, Vinay, walks Ali through the several technical features they have to offer. This includes HubForce’s ability to integrate with Drifter’s current tech stack and a cutting-edge AI tool that automates a lot of Ali’s grunt work. Ali is impressed and wants to onboard Hubforce. However, he needs to run the purchase decision by his CEO, Anaiya, before making it official.

Upon hearing Ali’s rave reviews, Anaiya is curious to learn a little more about HubForce.       She reads a couple of their blog posts and digs up a few reviews written by existing customers. Being a fastidious CEO, Anaiya also schedules a follow-up meeting with Vinay. This time around, Vinay demonstrates what HubForce can bring to Drifter’s revenue and sales pipeline. Rather than zone in on technical details, Vinay focuses on HubForce’s big-picture gains instead.  Anaiya likes what she sees but wants to discuss their budget constraints with her finance chief, Albert, before signing on the dotted line.

During their weekly catch-up, Anaiya fills Albert in on the HubForce deal — specifically the pricing details. Albert isn’t thrilled. He’s of the opinion that Drifter would be overpaying for what’s essentially a roided-out excel. Upon hearing this, Anaiya decides to put the deal on hold until next quarter. During this time, Albert is frequently targeted by HubForce ads on Linkedin. He even attends one of Hubforce’s webinars on their cutting-edge, AI-powered CRM technology. Eventually, Albert is convinced of the value that the CRM platform could bring to Drifter.

As the next quarter rolls around, Ali, Anaiya, and Albert discuss the deal one last time. They weigh the pros and cons and arrive at a unanimous decision to purchase a HubForce subscription. Congratulations you guys!

Clearly, the previous purchasing process was far more complex than the case of the headphones. A nuanced web of back and forth interactions had to take place before the deal could be closed. As a marketer looking to replicate this process in a scalable manner, multi-touch attribution is your go-to tool. Attribution modelling empowers marketers to unravel their intricate customer journeys, and understand the performance of nearly every marketing activity. Attribution reveals, to a large extent, what campaigns are working, and what campaigns aren’t. In turn, marketers can make data-driven resource allocations across their marketing activities. All that being said, attribution isn’t without its challenges when it comes to dealing with multiple stakeholders.

Across the length of the previous example, HubForce depended on a variety of content, strategies, and channels to get their deal across the line. They had to sell different aspects of their products to different types of audiences. Project managers may care about practical details like integration, accessibility, and time-saving. CEOs may be interested in high-level gains like ROI, pipeline, and revenue. Finance heads want to know that they’re getting the best possible price. On top of all this, each position is filled by individuals with their own motivations and preferences. The one-on-one demo clearly worked for Ali, but Anaiya chose to perform some background research as well. Albert, on the other hand, was convinced after a couple of targeted ads and a relevant webinar. All these variables contribute to the challenges of B2B attribution:

The B2B Buyer Dichotomy

B2B marketers engage with individual contacts through personalised emails, targeted ads, etc. However, the purchase decision ultimately involves a buying committee. In the example discussed above, there are three stakeholder groups that make up the buying committee- the core buying group (Ali and his project team), the group that focuses on negotiating terms (Albert and his finance team), and finally, the group which exercises the final approval (Anaiya, the CEO).

The core buying group initiates the process by identifying the need for the product, ideates on the potential solutions, and looks for options. The group that negotiates the terms will focus more on protecting the company’s interests. This involves the members from teams like legal and finance. Lastly, the final approval stakeholder group has the final say or authority. The focus of this group is to look at the company’s larger aims and strategy implementations. 

The marketer has to align these diverse internal stakeholders during the sales journey.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Now that the different internal stakeholders within the buying committee have different core focuses, the marketer needs to adjust their approach to each group depending on what they care about. For instance, in our example, finance cares more about the pricing, while the CEO cares about the revenue and ROI, and finally, the marketing team would care about metrics like conversions, pipeline, etc.

In addition to this, the sales cycle is often complicated and non-linear. Complex B2B purchases such as enterprise software, have a lot more information for the buying committee to consider. This process becomes more drawn out with the complexity of the solution and the presence of alternatives. The multiple stakeholders in an account who have different preferences and objectives, may revisit the various stages of the buying process non-sequentially and sometimes, simultaneously. The stakeholder behavior can also be loopy where they may switch between being interested to not interested to being interested again, as we saw in our example.

Each stakeholder group keeps referring to each other in non-linear learning loops before they come to the final decision of moving forward with the purchase or not.

Invisible Touchpoints

The touchpoints in our sales cycle are of different types. While digital ads, reviews, page views are visible, there may be some that are invisible. Attribution models trying to map stakeholders might be unable to account for these touchpoints. For instance, in our HubForce example,  the finance head, who was not entirely on board with the CRM purchase, attends a webinar which finally leads to the deal being won. Data issues can arise if your CRM and marketing automation data are not flowing properly. In this case, if the impact of the webinar has not been stitched in the sales journey.

Today, most B2B marketers employ a single attribution model across a fixed timeline to derive insights from their campaign data. Sure, this approach is easy, quick, and uncomplicated. But it is also dangerously inaccurate. The issues brought on by the involvement of several stakeholders (Heterogeneous preferences and objectives, long sales cycles, loopy (back and forth) behavior of interest, and a diverse range of touchpoints) render simple attribution modelling ineffective. Instead, marketers should aim to treat each group of users independently and attempt to learn what works best for each one of them. This involves parsing out each type of customer and individually employing the appropriate model. This approach allows you to ask nuanced questions and derive genuinely actionable insights. Of course, this is a far more advanced process than an all-encompassing approach — but it’s infinitely more accurate as well. 

So what’s the solution for implementing incredibly advanced attribution models? 

Well, an incredibly advanced attribution platform of course! 

Learn more about Factors.AI cutting-edge attribution here.