D&B Hoovers

What is D&B Hoovers

D&B Hoovers is a sales acceleration and business intelligence platform developed by Dun & Bradstreet. Its main purpose is to provide B2B sales, marketing, and research professionals with access to a massive database of companies and contacts. The platform helps users identify promising prospects, understand company structures, and engage with decision-makers through detailed data and analytics. Dun & Bradstreet, the parent company, is a long-standing American company founded in 1841, specializing in commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. D&B Hoovers combines this extensive data heritage with modern technology to create a powerful tool for driving business growth.

D&B Hoovers Features

• Comprehensive Business Database: Access to millions of company profiles and contact details worldwide, including hard-to-find information on private companies.
• Advanced Search and Filtering: Build highly targeted prospect lists using dozens of criteria such as industry, company size, revenue, location, technologies used, and job titles.
• Real-Time Triggers and Alerts: Receive notifications about key events at your target companies, such as leadership changes, funding announcements, or expansion plans, allowing for timely outreach.
• Ideal Customer Profile Analytics: The platform analyzes your best customers to identify common traits, helping you find similar companies to target.
• Corporate Family Trees: Understand complex organizational structures, including parent companies, subsidiaries, and branch locations, to map out key accounts.
• CRM Integration: Seamlessly connect with popular CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics to enrich existing data and sync new prospect lists.
• List Building and Management: Create, save, and manage custom prospect lists directly within the platform for ongoing campaigns and analysis.

D&B Hoovers Pricing Plans

D&B Hoovers typically offers customized pricing based on the specific needs of a business. The pricing structure is not publicly listed and requires contacting their sales team for a quote. Plans are generally structured in tiers that vary based on the number of user licenses, the volume of data credits for exporting records, the level of access to advanced features like real-time triggers, and the depth of integration capabilities. The packages are designed to serve different team sizes, from small sales teams needing basic prospecting tools to large enterprises requiring comprehensive market intelligence and full CRM integration.

D&B Hoovers Free Plan

D&B Hoovers does not offer a permanent free plan. However, they provide a free trial or a personalized product demo for interested businesses. The free trial allows potential customers to explore the platform's features and data with some limitations on data exports or access duration. To get access, you must contact their sales department through their website to schedule a demonstration and request trial access.

How to use D&B Hoovers

Getting started with D&B Hoovers involves a clear workflow for effective prospecting:

1. Define Your Target: First, clearly define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This includes industry, company size, geographic location, and the job titles of decision-makers you want to reach.
2. Build a Prospect List: Use the platform's advanced search filters to build a list of companies that match your ICP. You can filter by revenue, employee count, technology used, and more.
3. Identify Key Contacts: Once you have a list of target companies, explore their profiles to find the right contacts. Look for decision-makers in relevant departments.
4. Set Up Alerts: Create 'Triggers' or alerts for your most important target accounts. This will notify you of important news or changes, giving you a reason to reach out.
5. Export and Engage: Export your finalized contact lists to a CSV file or sync them directly with your integrated CRM system.
6. Personalize Your Outreach: Use the insights gathered from D&B Hoovers, such as recent company news or challenges, to personalize your emails and calls for better engagement.

Pros and Cons of D&B Hoovers

Pros:

• High-Quality Data: Backed by Dun & Bradstreet, the data is generally accurate, comprehensive, and reliable.
• Deep Company Insights: Provides detailed information beyond basic contact details, including corporate hierarchies and financial data.
• Powerful Filtering: The search and filtering capabilities are very robust, allowing for precise targeting.
• Enterprise-Ready: Strong integration options and features suitable for large, complex sales organizations.

Cons:

• High Cost: It is one of the more expensive solutions on the market, which may not be suitable for small businesses or startups.
• Complex Interface: The platform is feature-rich, which can make the user interface feel overwhelming for new users.
• Focus on Large Companies: The database is strongest for medium to large enterprises, with potentially less coverage for small businesses.

D&B Hoovers integrations

D&B Hoovers integrates with several key business applications to streamline sales and marketing workflows. Key integrations include:

• Salesforce: Sync and enrich leads, contacts, and accounts directly within your Salesforce CRM.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365: Offers similar functionality for users of Microsoft's CRM ecosystem.
• Marketing Automation Platforms: Connects with tools like Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, and Pardot to fuel marketing campaigns with high-quality data.
• Sales Engagement Tools: Integrates with platforms like Outreach and SalesLoft to push targeted lists directly into sales cadences.

D&B Hoovers Alternatives

• ZoomInfo: A major competitor with a very large B2B contact and company database, known for its direct dial phone numbers and email addresses.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: A powerful tool for prospecting within the LinkedIn ecosystem, focusing on social connections and engagement.
• Cognism: A strong alternative, particularly for companies targeting the European market, with a focus on GDPR-compliant data.
• Lusha: Primarily a contact information tool used for enriching profiles with direct phone numbers and emails, often used as a browser extension.
• Apollo.io: An all-in-one platform that combines a large B2B database with sales engagement features like email sequencing and analytics.

D&B Hoovers API

Yes, Dun & Bradstreet provides a robust set of APIs that allow developers to integrate its vast business data directly into their own applications and systems. The D&B Direct+ API is the primary way to access this data, which powers D&B Hoovers. Access to the API is typically included in enterprise-level subscriptions and is not available for free. To get an API key, you must contact the Dun & Bradstreet sales team to discuss your specific data needs and subscribe to a suitable plan.

An example API call might look like this (conceptual):

GET /v1/search/companies?name=ExampleCorp&country=US HTTP/1.1
Host: api.dnb.com
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

This would return a JSON object with detailed information about companies matching the search criteria.

D&B Hoovers Affiliate program

D&B Hoovers does not have a traditional, public-facing affiliate program where individuals can sign up for a link and earn commissions. Instead, they operate a more formal Partner Program. This program is designed for businesses such as consulting firms, technology providers, and resellers who can integrate or refer Dun & Bradstreet's data and solutions to their own clients. To join, interested parties should visit the Dun & Bradstreet website and look for the 'Partners' section to submit an application or contact their partnership team directly to discuss a potential collaboration.