B2B Data Providers in Germany: Company and Contact Lists

Companies wanting to do business in Germany turn to Cognism for two main reasons:

• They use a global data provider and need a regional database to fill in gaps in German market coverage.
• Or their legal teams require compliance with strict GDRP rules which their current provider lacks.

Cognism is a leading B2B data provider in Germany, known for following strict compliance protocols, including GDPR.

In this article, we’ll show you how Cognism compares to other vendors and walk you through the best ways to expand into the DACH market.

1. Cognism

Cognism provides the highest quality B2B data in Germany, including B2B emails, phone-verified mobile numbers, and intent data powered by Bombora.

With 2 times more European contacts than other providers, it’s a leader in EMEA data. Unlike other providers, Cognism offers unrestricted access to regional databases, enabling you to prospect in different EU markets.

Compliance

Cognism database adheres to the strict privacy rules in Germany and other European countries (GDPR) to ensure our customers receive data that's within the bounds of the law. It means:

• Screening mobiles against do-not-call lists in Germany and 10+ other countries*.
• Collecting only B2B emails and notifing them to let people know how their data is processed.
• Achieving SOC2 type II compliance ISO 27001 & ISO 27701 certification.

*Our phone database is checked against multiple Do Not Call (DNC) registries in the UK (TPS and CTPS), Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Sweden, Belgium, and around the world, including the DNC lists US, Canada, Australia. We are working towards registering in other DNC registries around the world.

Verified mobiles: Diamond Data®

Cognism has the largest global mobile numbers database.  It includes a premium phone-verified mobile dataset (Diamond Data®) and verification service on-demand to reach and win more qualified prospects in less time.

If you're cold calling in Germany, you can increase connect rates by 3x and reach 9 in 10 prospects using these numbers.

If you can't find your prospect's phone number, you can request that Cognism's data team verify it.

With Diamond Data® for outbound prospecting, teams don't have to worry about the quality of data affecting thier ability to hit quota. This in turn, saves them a huge amount of time and enables them to book more meetings.

Integration and ease of use

Cognism offers superior integrations with CRMs and sales enablement tools. If you're a Salesforce, Outreach, or Hubspot user, you'll find it easy to integrate the data into your systems.

• Two-way Salesforce integration to easily check if an account or contact is in Salesforce and avoid duplicates.
• Customisable import mappings for Salesforce to upload lists of Leads, Contacts and Accounts. 
  
• Log in using your username or SSO.

Cognism’s browser extension is a must-have tool for enriching LinkedIn profiles and Sales Navigator lists.

Companies like Drift, use it to speed up prospecting by 5 times thanks to the ability to automatically export contacts to CRM and sales engagement tool at a click of a button. 

Pricing

Pricing is designed to overcome a scarcity mindset.

• Unlike other providers who limit or charge extra for access to B2B data in Germany, Cognism offers full access to global data.

• All packages include unrestricted views and individual & page-level exporting (up to 25 records at a time), subject to a generous fair-use policy.

• Licences are priced per user. It means Cognism is suitable to individual prospectors as well as sales teams that require list building and bulk exporting.

What do customers say?

Filipa Enes, Sales Administrator at simpleshow based in Berlin, their German sales team struggled with ZoomInfo’s data quality in the DACH region. They also hit a bottleneck when manually exporting leads to Salesforce.

The DACH sales team consists of sixteen account managers, four inside sales reps and three BDRs. They target DACH 500 accounts and occasionally approach SMBs.

They booked a demo with Cognism, and here are the results:

Another Swiss-based company, Certifaction, switched to Cognism after using a local German data provider to fuel their ABM campaigns.

Before Cognism, they couldn't accurately filter down the database to their ICP: senior tech decision-makers, like CTOs, CIOs and CSOs in enterprises across Germany.

The results they get now?

2. Dealfront

Dealfront is another GDPR-compliant B2B data provider for Europe created after Echobot and Leadfeeder merged.

The database specialises in B2B data in Germany and the DACH region. It also allows you to identify anonymous companies visiting your website and automatically send them to your CRM for sales teams to convert.

There are, however, several differentiators that may influence you to try Cognism over Dealfront.

International data

Dealfront claims broad contact data in DACH but overall, if you intend to prospect in other EU countries, Dealfront's coverage is weaker than Cognism's. According to Dealfront's FAQ section, the vendor can't "accommodate businesses whose main objective is to sell outside of Europe". With Cognism businesses get access to global data, including NAM and APAC.

Like Cognism, Dealfront is GDPR-compliant. According to their website, they check numbers against DNCs in many countries, but it's not specified which.

Intent data

Dealfront's offering of intent signals is limited to website visitor data sourced from Leadfeeder. It means the provider collects intent from a single domain and may not provide a holistic view of the German market.

If you're looking to precisely capture buying intent signals and enable reps to prioritize prospects, Bombora's intent embedded in the  Cognism platform is your answer.

It aggregates consent-based intent data from a cooperative of 5,000 B2B sites where B2B buyers search for solutions. It also considers the historical baseline or typical content consumption when calculating intent.

Customization and flexibility

Dealfront integrates with Salesforce, Hubspot and other tools to automate and track marketing campaigns. However, some users find customizations or flexibility using Salesforce fields limited. We'd recommend testing integrations during the trial period.

Dealfront doesn't integrate with Outreach or Salesloft. If you rely on these tools, check out Cognism's offering. You'll be able to immediately plug all leads from Cognism's DACH database to Outreach and add them to sequences.

Dealfront's Chrome extension's functionality is also limited. Learn more about the differences between Cognism and Dealfront.

Pricing

• Dealfront's pricing is tiered and you need to book a call with sales reps to get an accurate quote.
• It's worth enquiring whether their packages are restricted to specific regions.

3. ZoomInfo

Global data providers such as ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, or Lusha also offer B2B data in DACH. However, their coverage in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland is weaker than that of UK-based Cognism. To check the exact data footprint in your niche, we recommend trialling each vendor before signing a contract.

If you're a ZoomInfo customer investigating B2B data providers in Germany, here are some solutions for you.

Regional data provider

Depending on the size of your team, the scale of your outbound prospecting, and your budget, you may be considering different B2B data providers to serve different international markets where you’re present.

Global companies headquartered in the US and with offices in Germany often use ZoomInfo in the US but look for its European alternative to ensure sufficient coverage of the German market or a specific niche in DACH.

Complementary data provider

Other companies decide to find a supporting provider to cover German territory while still using ZoomInfo as their primary database.

The choice of the EMEA B2B data provider is a strategic decision influenced by factors such as data quality, compliance, and coverage requirements. Opting for a multi-provider approach empowers businesses to ensure in-depth and complete information about leads.

Single data provider

If you use ZoomInfo as your sales intelligence provider in Germany, but your team suffers from list fatigue (connect rates have suddenly dropped) or can’t find decision-makers in your target accounts, you may need a provider that covers all your international offices.

Cognism has a strong presence in EMEA but also covers NAM and APAC and may be a great ZoomInfo alternative for Europe. 

Cognism and ZoomInfo are both GDPR and CCPA-compliant and have a comparable coverage of mobile numbers in the US.

For example, UserEvidence switched from ZoomInfo to Cognism after conducting a “Bake-Off” test.  Amanda Newman, SDR Manager at UserEvidence, discovered that Cognism’s match rate was 98% vs 72% by ZoomInfo, and she found that Cognism returned a ton more phone numbers.

“That convinced me to make the switch to Cognism even after using ZoomInfo for about 3 years.”

Cognism also displaced ZoomInfo and LeadIQ across all Drift's global teams.

Pricing

• ZoomInfo pricing is credit-based.
• It charges extra for data outside the US. When you expand to Germany, you must buy ‘data add-ons’, such as Global Data Passports (Global, Europe, North America Plus).  

Are cold emails legal in Germany?

Sending cold emails in Germany is legal as long as the data subject (the recipient) has consented to email marketing or there is another legal basis, such as a legitimate interest of the controller to send emails.

The legitimate interest means you’re contacting prospects in Germany about a product or service which is genuinely appropriate for them.

That's why buying German B2B data lists from sources that have a relaxed approach to processing data may put your business at legal risk and result in steep fines, such as the £20M fine given to Experian in 2020. 

Find out more about the concept of legitimate interest from Cognism's legal team. 

Cognism prides itself on providing CCPA and GDPR-compliant, validated, accurate contact data in Germany that helps you reach decision-makers at scale without worrying about deliverability or legality.

How to generate accurate B2B email lists in Germany?

Some providers offer pre-built bulk business contact lists in Germany, which you can buy and download in a couple of minutes. However, these lists may likely contain incompliant or inaccurate emails. These providers don't offer much customization to the list you download.

The best way to obtain B2B emails of your prospects in Germany is to run the search yourself in a compliant B2B email database like Cognism. You’ll be able to create multiple email lists in the DACH region.

Here's how to search Cognism's German email database:

1. Upload a list of German companies you want to target. You can also use company-level search filters first to identify them.
2. Next, narrow your search to specific contact-level criteria using filters, i.e. job title and seniority.
3. Tailor your list to a series of concrete events by leveraging Cognism’s sales event triggers and intent data.
4. After applying all the search criteria, select the prospects you want to add to your list.
5. Save your search for future use and export the list to your preferred tool or CRM.
   

Is cold calling legal in Germany?

Cold calling in Germany is legal as long as you do it in accordance with GDPR rules. In short, you can cold call prospects in Germany and other UE countries if you have a legitimate interest to do so and if you allow them to out of future calls.

The legitimate interest can be overridden by a person's wish not to be contacted. That’s why Cognism checks phone numbers against ‘do not call (DNC) list’ in Germany - that’s a list of people that never want to receive sales calls.

How to get compliant business mobile numbers in Germany?

Cognism's commitment to providing the highest level of compliance and the most complete EMEA B2B data makes it the best business phone number provider in Germany. It's GDPR compliant and checks numbers against DNC lists in Germany and over ten other countries around the world.

It also provides a premium phone-verified mobile dataset with 87% accuracy. You can also request our data team to verify a German prospect's phone number if you can't find it in our database. It means you can speak directly to the decision-makers and save time on calling the wrong numbers or switchboards.

Check out a resource for B2B reps and team leaders who rely on cold-calling prospects. Get cadences, cold calling scripts and on-demand training. Click to access. 👇

How to build account and lead lists in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria?

To evaluate your TAM or build a list of prospective companies in Germany or other EU countries, it's best to use sales prospecting databases that enable you to run multiple searches and generate lists on demand.

Tools like Cognism Prospector allow you to narrow down your search with multiple firmographic criteria, such as territory, company size, headquarters, etc. For example, if you’re targeting manufacturing or logistics leads in Germany, you can even narrow your search down to specific cities in its industrial region, like Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, and Essen.

You can then narrow down your search using:

• Technology filters (i.e. your competitors or best integrations)
• Sales event triggers (hiring, acquisition, funding, etc).
• Intent data.

Then you can simply export the list to your CRM or a sales engagement tool and identify key prospects in those accounts.

How to evaluate a German data vendor?

If you’re looking for a data provider to cover the German market, here are some questions you might ask during a sales call:

• What is your coverage in Germany, the DACH region, and Europe?
• How many B2B contacts do you have?
• What’s your emails/mobile numbers/direct dial accuracy?
• Is your data compliant with GDPR?
• Do you provide consent-based intent data?
• What are your platform’s filtering options?
• How many cell phone numbers do you have?
• Do you integrate with my current tech stack?
• Is your platform easy to use?
• Is your customer support helpful?