Jigsaw tries leveraging 'Wisdom of Crowds' | CNET News.com

TJ mentioned Jigsaw to me a while back and I checked it out, thought it was cool, but in all honesty put it on the mental backburner while I dealt with some other more pressing stuff. So I'm in a board meeting yesterday and a question is asked about where the company is building up their, impressive, pipeline of sales leads. The guy heading up sales says "we're using Jigsaw, it's the best sales tool we've ever come across, for a buck a name I can figure out who's who in any organization we want to be talking with." The critical enabler in this business appears to be the audience they have targeted, salespeople, who not only have an incentive to procure through the system but because they are coin operated they have an incentive to contribute to the system as well.

It's always a mind blower when some startup fundamentally changes the rules in any category that is assumed to be mature.

Link: Jigsaw tries leveraging 'Wisdom of Crowds' | CNET News.com.

As more salespeople have learned about the company, which has only 28 employees, it has increasingly become a relevant alternative to data giants like Dun & Bradstreet, Hoover's and Harte-Hanks, which each charge at least $1,000 for contacts database access. Thus, for Jigsaw's 17,000 users, all of whom depend on accurate, up-to-date contact information for executives at companies around the United States and the world, it is playing in what almost seems like an entirely different arena.

UPDATE: Steve's comment on this company is insightful and belongs in the post rather than just the comments.

I have to say that I was a big doubter of this when I first heard about it. But I have been seeing some evidence (including having my own firsthand experience) that this does work better than other methods of obtaining cold leads. Of course, the source of data has to *fit* in with the business model of the company using the data. Additionally, there are some standard sales process things that one needs to smooth out to use this animal. But comparatively, if one compares the data quality, yield performance, etc. against some of the factors you mention ... well I'm starting to become a believer.

Longer-term, I think better integration with sales/CRM tools will become important for this vendor.

Comments

[Steve Shu]

I have to say that I was a big doubter of this when I first heard about it. But I have been seeing some evidence (including having my own firsthand experience) that this does work better than other methods of obtaining cold leads. Of course, the source of data has to *fit* in with the business model of the company using the data. Additionally, there are some standard sales process things that one needs to smooth out to use this animal. But comparatively, if one compares the data quality, yield performance, etc. against some of the factors you mention ... well I'm starting to become a believer.

Longer-term, I think better integration with sales/CRM tools will become important for this vendor.

[Jim Fowler]

Jeff and Steve,

Thanks for the kind words. We're rolling out a major release tonight which includes Salesforce.com integration. We're looking forward to rolling out other CRM/SFA integrations by year end.