Data.com…It Just Makes Sense

[#1]

During the past several years, I have been using Jigsaw to gain intelligence about potential prospects. I have searched for companies by industry, geography, and size. I have found contacts in those companies by searching for job titles, keywords, and management levels. All of this effort in order to obtain the holy grail of prospecting…the corporate email address and a direct-dial phone number. However, unlike list providers and other like-minded vendors, I have been doing this all at no cost to my company!

Just imagine my delight when I was asked to be a guest blogger and provide a first-hand account of not just a new chapter, but what I feel is a new era for Jigsaw. As of today, Jigsaw will now be known as Data.com http://bit.ly/n7plD2.  Why Data.com? Thinking about how I use this service; to gain intelligence about companies and contacts, the name Data.com just makes sense. In the end, we must get smarter about potential and even current customers. The only way to do that is to develop intelligence necessary to generate effective sales and marketing strategies. Strategies come from intelligence, intelligence comes from data. Data.com? It just makes sense.

Just a few moments ago, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, introduced Data.com. This announcement is launched and supported from a springboard of over 45,000 attendees at the #DF11 keynote address! After the announcement, people around me began tweeting - I am certain about their excitement of Data.com. Data.com is the convergence of the contact information held in Jigsaw with the company information from D&B! The demo was incredible and was met with enthusiastic applause. The possibilities of listening to our customers and prospects is beyond what I could imagine. This will further enhance our ability to shorten sales cycles, close deals faster, and maintain a pulse of the market. This is a great new era with a service I have loved over the years!

We all understand that in order to gain an edge over the competition and remain ahead of the game, we have to employ the right tools. I believe Data.com is not only the right tool, but is the backbone of any effective strategy. We all have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. As an active member of the Data.com community, I am honored to provide this first-hand perspective of this exciting announcement.

Now, go find your next customer in Data.com!

Rich Murphy (Granbit)

[#2]

Nice job Rich

[#3]

Way to go, GB!

[#4]

Kudos Granbit!

Thanks for the update!

It sounds like you're having a blast!       Congrats!

[#5]

Thanks Hecko, KD, and Stingray! The post was my pleasure.

[#6]

Nice, congrats Rich. 

[#7]

Rich! Good work, sir. We all love the Jigsaw... and now we love the Data!

[#8]

The new logo is killing me, and I'm still unclear if they're going to drop the Jigsaw name entirely. Right now this website has 3 names in the logo - Salesforce, Data.com, and Jigsaw. It's not very clear what the strategy is, and the new logo looks like Linkedin's and everytime I scroll to the top of a page it makes me think I've accidentally dragged to select an image, thus turning it blue. I explored Data.com a bit, and it looks like it costs money, so I'm wondering if Jigsaw. or just the basic contact information that Jigsaw has always provided (now Data.com contacts by Jigsaw?), will remain free.

[#9]

To keep the discussion going, this morning I participated in a panel discussion with two other Rainmakers while at Dreamforce. During the last two hours of the 4-day event, we still brought in a crowd of about 40 people in our briefing room. During the Q&A portion, we had a line of 5 people deep at the microphone waiting in line to ask the panel questions about our use of data.com. When our hour was up, we had a crowd of about another 5-6 people around the panel asking us even more questions. We were eventually asked to leave the room! It was very exciting and humbling all at the same time. To think about where Jigsaw was 5 years ago, and where it is today, is incredible. I'm on a plane right now, and I am overhearing a conversation by two other attendees about how cool the integration of data.com is going to be with salesforce.com. The conference is over, and people are still talking about it. Fun stuff!

[#10]

i want to thank js for sending me to dreamforce - what an experience in terms of learning what salesforce is all about. you folks are class - picked me up in a limo at the airport -(same back) & my corner suite rm. had a nice view of the city. 

the opening key note was like a rock concert, loud. marc benioff, the ceo blew me away with his 1 hr. + presentation - all without an apparent cue card set up & never missed a word or beat. my feet still hurt a bit from all the walking, but that's ok. 

the closing keynote w/google's eric schmidt was quite interesting - & his interviewer, again marc benioff seemed as skiiled as anyone. the coming integration of d&b into js (data.com) is a **bleep** of a coup' - i might find myself using my 4million + pts sooner than later.

again thanks to js for flying me, feeding me, housing me & transporting me to a teriffic learning experience.

(wish i knew about the js meetup today)

[#11]

Granbit: This rainmaker fleece had people approaching me left right and center all week long asking about jigsaw, talking about how they use it, inquiring if I was a real rainmaker.. On the flight from San Fran to Vancouver I sat next to a lady and we talked about data.com as well. Now here I am awaiting my next flight to Kelowna and lo and behold, there are a couple of other DreamForce attendees in the lounge with me as well and again, data.com got brought up! Truly an amazing time and I am glad I was able to meet as many of you as I could.

hesh: I enjoyed our ride to the airport, hope your flight went smoothly! Like I said, I still have 3 hours left before I finally get home and I was at the airport at 10:40AM

[#12]

yeah redtact i was thinking about you when i got home, knowing you had 3 hrs. to kill. had a 3 hr. layover last week myself- hate'em!

glad to have met ya! safe travels the rest of the way!

[#13]

Really powerful comments here full of rich and colorful details around the buzz and excitement of Data.com.  Thank you to our wonderful Rainmakers who joined us, met up with us at the meetup.tweetup.dreamup Tuesday night (who also organized a local user group meet up for September during the event), who presented with the Data.com teams and shared their Customer Hero stories, and all of you who shared your excitement through all our social channels.  You are a huge part of our Data.com family and we appreciate every ounce of your participation, feedback and contributions.

Here's to you all and the future of better and more accurate data to come.  Cheers to you.

[#14]

i'll tell ya jigsawgal those cupcakes at the meetup were the best i ever had - & i do mean ever.

[#15]

Joe091: "I'm wondering if Jigsaw. or just the basic contact information that Jigsaw has always provided (now Data.com contacts by Jigsaw?), will remain free."

I share Joe's concern. Small business, struggling to keep afloat in this morass of an economy, need every little edge we can get.   I guess I'd understand if there were going to be some premium features/data that we could opt in to buy, but keeping the basic data "free" (or rather earned by contributions) would sure make sense.

[#16]

@Joe091 and @CyberSleuth1

Yes--contact information on data.com contacts (formerly JIgsaw) will still be free, as long as you contribute data to earn points!

We value our community and your contributions and don't want that to stop!

-shannon

[#17]

This is all very exciting. I cant wait to see how the changes will be reflected in the future.

[#18]

OMG hesh you were at the meetup??? Where were you hiding???

[#19]

He was obviously in hiding, because I never saw him. Wait a minute, I didn't know what he looked like to begin with.

Hesh,

I was looking forward to finally meeting you and I regret not running into you there!

GB