Why ResponseiQ Switched From ZoomInfo to Cognism

An instant callback platform provider needed a ZoomInfo alternative and used Cognism’s sales intelligence platform to: 

• Win new clients and prove ROI. 
• Set up 20+ demos per week.
  

• Access quality contact data for the UK and Europe.

• Hyper-target and connect to their ICP using the Chrome Extension over LinkedIn. 
• Improve email deliverability.

Scroll 👇 to view the case study.

The company

ResponseiQ is the intelligent callback platform that helps businesses increase inbound calls and conversions. ResponseiQ’s Callback Widget seamlessly connects sales teams to website visitors in a matter of seconds.  

Sister company InkDesk is an online marketplace connecting niche publications with relevant brands to collaborate on click-led sponsored content campaigns. 

ResponseIQ was founded by Scott Lee in 2016 and is based in London. Growing fast, it has more than 30 staff across the globe. 

The challenge

We interviewed Scott Lee, Founder & CEO of ResponseiQ and InkDesk. 

What problems was he trying to solve?  

ResponseiQ needed an alternative to ZoomInfo, which Scott found extremely difficult to work with. As a ZoomInfo customer focusing on the UK & Europe, Scott felt like an afterthought regarding data quality and customer support.  

“ZoomInfo’s B2B data accuracy is nowhere near what they think it is. I reviewed 5,000 contacts and 27% of the people weren’t even at the business anymore and many of the job titles were wrong. Another big gripe we had with them is they focus so much on the US. The UK market is just secondary to them.” 

Scott is someone who appreciates and values good customer service, an area in which he felt ZoomInfo was lacking: 

“ZoomInfo are unable to be flexible. You know you’re dealing with a billion-dollar company that doesn’t [care] about you. It reached the point where they were rude, so I decided not to renew with them for several reasons.” 

What were Scott’s next steps? 

Scott had known about Cognism for a long while and included Cognism in an evaluation of five ZoomInfo alternatives.  

“I got to the proposal stage for five different companies. When I was comparing you [Cognism] versus them, your allocation of credits per user plus the cost of the bulk credits on top led to a very attractive credit proposition for us – as well as Cognism ticking the data quality boxes in terms of the UK.”   

“And Cognism’s UI and UX is as good – if not better – than everyone else’s.”  

He added: 

“There were zero negatives with Cognism, whereas the others might not have something that I needed. Which sounds like a little thing, but when you’re using it every day, it becomes a big thing.”  

The solution

What was Scott’s experience of switching from ZoomInfo to Cognism? 

Scott found Cognism’s sales process, onboarding and customer support exceeded expectations.  

“The sales process was fantastic. It felt honest and transparent. I really enjoyed my relationship with Andre. He straight away just shot from the hip and didn’t get [upset] when I told him that I was evaluating him against others.” 

What was the onboarding experience like? 

“Onboarding was great as well. You know, with the bigger companies and bigger-ticket items like this, you get onboarded and then there’s like ten different people emailing you. For me, the fewer people you have to deal with, the better.”  

“Cognism made it clear who was who, and I never felt like I was getting fobbed off."

"One guy even gave me a demo when it wasn’t his area. He was just like yeah, no worries. I’ll just show you something, but if you want more detail, you can speak to someone else.” 

What has your customer support experience with Cognism been like?  

“My team had a bunch of questions; Cognism has been really helpful in answering them. There was a bit of confusion about when the credit is actually taken, but it all got ironed out in the first few months. If you go over the fair use policy, Cognism won’t come down on you like a tonne of bricks. They’ll talk to you like a human being.” 

“Sometimes with big companies, you’re just talking to robots and you never get the same person replying, so you never build any rapport or anything like that. Whereas I and my team have felt different with Cognism.” 

How have you been using Cognism day-to-day? 

“A feature that’s an absolute must-have and really, really valuable to us is all the different ways that you can include and exclude different bits, whether that be at the website level, the description level, or most importantly, the job title level.” 

“So you might want people from marketing, but you don’t want people if their title includes the word ‘intern’. It helps us be hyper-targeted in our go-to-market strategy.” 

“We use the Cognism Chrome Extension for ad-hoc campaigns for publishing companies. Companies like Hurst own 50 publications, making it hard to know who to email to talk about publication ‘A’. But their staff might mention which publications they deal with on their LinkedIn accounts.” 

“So we go down the LinkedIn route and utilise the Chrome Extension to identify these and get good contact data in order to reach out to them.” 

The results

How are you finding using Cognism and what impact has it had on results? 

“We’re using Cognism to pump outbound prospecting. It has helped us scale up our outbound efforts to new levels.”  

“Cognism is helping us set up 20+ demos per week, leading to multiple new clients. The ROI has been significant.” 

How does Cognism’s UK and Europe data compare to ZoomInfo? 

“Cognism is a bit more UK-first, and with your acquisition of [Kaspr] last year, [European data] is obviously not an afterthought for you guys; it’s a first thought.” 

“So when we’re prospecting for those markets, we can massively see the difference in the amount and quality of the data that you’ve got in non-US markets. Overall we’ve seen better delivery rates than ZoomInfo.” 

The top reasons why ResponseiQ recommends Cognism 

1. Better data than ZoomInfo.
2. Better customer service and sales experience than ZoomInfo.
3. Custom proposals so the financials were favourable.
4. Great international data and phone number coverage.
5. Best-in-class UX/UI.
6. Dedication to quality UK data.

“Ultimately, I’m just pro-Cognism. If you’re comparing data from Cognism against another provider, especially if you’re looking at UK and European data, it wins every time.”