A B2B database for your sales team
Updated 17 October 2026 · 6 min read
A B2B database is raw material for a sales team. Its value comes from how well you can cut it into segments and how cleanly it lands in your CRM.
Below is a workflow from choosing a database to the metrics of your first campaign.
Choosing: capabilities you need
Decide what the database must allow before you buy.
- Filtering by sector, region, size and legal form
- Record count and price visible before payment
- A sample from the same slice
- XLSX and CSV export
- Registry code as a unique key
CRM import without a mess
Always import the registry code as its own field and use it to prevent duplicates. Tag every record with source and date so you know later which list produced which results.
Campaign and metrics
Split the database into segments and run a separate sequence per segment. Measure deliverability, reply rate and meetings per segment to see which slice deserves expansion.
Three ways to obtain contacts
Each approach has its place depending on volume.
- Manually from websites — accurate but slow, fine for dozens of contacts
- Public lookups one at a time — good for verification, not for list building
- A filtered database — the right tool for hundreds or thousands of contacts
1. Narrow the segment
Pick one sector, one size band and one region. A target group of 300–800 companies is ideal — large enough for statistics, small enough for a concrete offer.
Four quality criteria
If one is missing, the whole campaign result suffers.
- Coverage — how many rows actually carry a contact
- Freshness — when the dataset was last refreshed
- Segmentability — whether you can filter by sector, size and region
- Traceability — whether every row has a registry code for verification
How big a list you actually need
Work backwards: if you need 5 new customers a month, meeting-to-customer conversion is 25% and reply rate is 4%, you need roughly 500 contacts a month. Buy that volume, not 50,000 rows.
1. Describe your ideal customer profile
Look at your best existing customers and find what they share.
- Which sector do they operate in?
- How many employees and how much turnover?
- Where are they located?
- What legal form do they use?
- Which problem did they solve with you?
1. Describe your ideal customer
Look at your five best customers and write down their sector, size, location and reason for buying. That is your first filter set.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between a B2B database and a contact list?
- A database adds business data (industry, size, location) on top of contacts, which makes segmentation possible. A plain contact list does not.
- Is there a monthly fee?
- No. You buy the slice you need, once.
- Can I refresh the database later?
- Yes, build a new extract with the same filters whenever you want current records.
- What share of companies have a public email?
- It varies by sector. The composer shows how many records in your slice carry an email before you buy.
- How many follow-ups should I send?
- Three to four emails, 3–5 days apart, works well in Estonian B2B.
- Are business contacts personal data?
- A company's general contact is not personal data in the same sense. A named work email is, and requires legitimate interest plus an opt-out.
- How often should a sales database be refreshed?
- At least twice a year, or quarterly if you send actively.
- How many business customers are in my target group in Estonia?
- The composer shows the exact number as soon as you set filters.
- How large should a target group be?
- Start with 300–1,000 records per segment, measure replies, then expand.
Build your list and try it for free
Choose an industry, county, and company size, see the record count and price instantly, and download a free 50-row sample.