on assignment zoominfo

Zoominfo Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

Updated: Aug 28, 2024, 7:10pm

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Our Verdict

ZoomInfo is a leading go-to-market software that is used to help unify and streamline sales, marketing, operations and talent acquisition. It’s best known for helping businesses find their next lead and convert them into a customer—without simultaneously managing numerous software tools and platforms. It offers four solutions: SalesOS, MarketingOS, OperationsOS and TalentOS, making it a comprehensive and versatile software. However, we put it to the test with our hands-on ZoomInfo review to help you decide if it’s the right solution for your business.

• Solid data source for prospective customers
• Accurate contact information, including phone and email
• Valuable intent data
• Advanced data search provides a granular view
• Provides data cleanup assistance
• Numerous workflow automations
• Free trial requires a live demo
• Free “plan” is limited to 10 contacts
• Lacks pricing transparency
• Paid plans are expensive
• Its interface can be clunky
• Filtering could be better
• It has a data destroy clause
• Involves a learning curve

Table of Contents

Zoominfo: at a glance, how zoominfo works, zoominfo core features, what sets zoominfo apart, zoominfo pricing and plans, zoominfo setup, zoominfo ease of use, zoominfo security, zoominfo customer service and support, the fine print, zoominfo alternatives and how they compare, who is zoominfo best for, frequently asked questions (faqs).

• ZoomInfo is a Vancouver-based data and software company that provides data for business use.
• It is a leading go-to-market solutions provider that is globally known as a top B2B data provider.
• Businesses choose ZoomInfo because it helps eliminate friction in the process of finding leads.
• It stands out for its breadth and quality of data, including intent information and the ability to access granular data.

Businesses spend a lot of money trying to reach the right people and generate quality leads. However, even with the best advertising strategies, that doesn’t always mean that ads are reaching decision-makers in your target audience. With ZoomInfo, businesses can get a hold of direct contact information for their target audience, which helps to reduce—if not eliminate—the bulk of the time-consuming lead generation process.

ZoomInfo is not lacking when it comes to cons. To start, it lacks pricing transparency and not only does it not publish its pricing on its website, but it does not provide pricing upon requesting it. For example, we used its “get pricing” call-to-action button on its pricing page and provided an email address, only to receive an email from a sales rep asking to set up a video call. On top of that, its pricing structure is a bit complex because it’s based on a variety of factors such as how many users you plan to have, how many contacts you wish to acquire and your industry. Pricing aside, it’s time-consuming to set up and involves a fairly steep learning curve so users need to be willing to invest ample time to be able to use ZoomInfo properly.

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ZoomInfo compiles a database of over 321 million contacts using a variety of sources, such as public records, annual reports, business websites and data scraping, as a means to collect information that is not publicly available. This data is then organized so that ZoomInfo users are able to search for contacts that are within their target audience and collect qualified leads. This saves businesses a great deal of time as it helps to bypass the time-consuming and often very expensive process of lead generation.

Aside from its contact database, ZoomInfo also offers a variety of services, such as SalesOS, MarketingOS, OperationsOS and TalentOS, which further help streamline, organize and automate various business processes. While each of these services works a bit differently, they all help reduce the number of different software systems businesses need to provide a centralized platform that operates more efficiently.

The core feature of ZoomInfo is its ability to provide qualified leads to businesses. Additionally, it also offers a variety of features that center around improving the efficiency and effectiveness of sales, marketing, operations and talent acquisition teams. Regardless of which ZoomInfo service you are interested in, each serves to cut down the number of various tools and software you need to effectively run your business.

ZoomInfo’s most well-known feature is its SalesOS software, which serves as its database where users can search for contacts and companies. It includes advanced search features, such as filtering as well as intent to help make the process of identifying contacts who are not only in your target audience, but are likely to be a well-qualified lead. SalesOS also includes sales automation tools, to help keep contacts organized and route leads to appropriate salespeople, as well as conversation intelligence for data-driven insights into live sales calls and sales workflows to help effortlessly move prospects through the sales pipeline.

MarketingOS

The MarketingOS software from ZoomInfo is an all-in-one account-based marketing (ABM) solution. With advanced B2B intelligence, it helps businesses more quickly convert qualified leads into sales. It achieves this in a few ways. First, through data-driven insights, such as buyer intent, which can help businesses gauge a contact’s interest and likelihood of becoming a customer. It also offers cross-channel advertising, which helps businesses launch targeted display and social ads with sophisticated ad targeting so that your ads only display to your target audience. On top of that, it also has website chat and web form enrichment, which powers modern web forms for increased lead generation through online forms.

MarketingOS and SalesOS integrate to create a sales-generation machine. Together, the two find and qualify leads, which are then routed to sales agents to give them the opportunity to focus on the best leads and drive the most sales—without spending as much time on sourcing, qualifying and converting leads.

OperationsOS

ZoomInfo’s OperationsOS is its data management and automation solution. It offers data deduplication—including automated data deduplication using customized rules, data cleaning to remove any duplicate data, standardizing data across each contact, removing bad leads and creating targeted contact segments for targeted marketing and sales purposes. It also has data enrichment and lead routing capabilities to help ensure that leads arrive to the right salespeople.

Another feature of ZoomInfo is its talent acquisition tool, TalentOS. Similar to its database that is used to source qualified leads, and its marketing software that is used to help communicate with leads, TalentOS provides a talent search and candidate outreach. This includes employer branding to help build a recognizable recruitment funnel, as well as ATS (applicant tracking system) integrations, such as Greenhouse, Zoho Recruit, Salesforce, JazzHR, Lever and more.

ZoomInfo stands out for its vast contact database that pulls from a variety of sources, including publicly available websites, public records and annual reports and hidden information through the use of data scraping. However, what’s different about ZoomInfo is that it’s not your average contact database provider. Unlike others that simply scrape and sell information, ZoomInfo maintains its contacts, provides both email and phone numbers and offers a variety of features and tools to help businesses more effectively qualify, foster and convert leads.

The reason this makes ZoomInfo such a valuable tool is because it eliminates the time-consuming—if not exhausting—process of lead generation. And what’s more than that, it helps businesses use leads more efficiently in order to more quickly convert leads into sales.

ZoomInfo offers a free plan, ZoomInfo Lite, for those who use a supported version of Microsoft Outlook or Google Apps for Business. It includes 25-100 credits for the first month depending on your domain. After the first month, you get 10 credits per month. You also get access to its mobile app and Chrome extension. You are required to share your contacts in order to access the ZoomInfo lite program and only three employees are able to access the database.

In terms of its standard plans, pricing is on a custom basis and therefore varies from business to business. It’s based on a number of variables, such as number of users (or “seats,” as ZoomInfo calls them), contact volume and industry. Though it does not publish pricing, the sales rep we spoke with said that it ranges from as little as a couple of hundred dollars per month for those with one use who need minimal contacts to several thousand dollars per month for enterprise-level companies.

In our experience, the process of just signing up for its free trial was obnoxious. The reason is that in order to sign up for its free trial, users must provide their full name, a phone number and their email to which a sales representative from ZoomInfo will reach out to set up a demo call. We called ZoomInfo after not receiving an email or call within a few minutes (as its site states we would) and spoke with a sales rep who confirmed that users must complete the demo via a video call in order to access ZoomInfo’s free trial.

Alternatively, the sales rep could help users sign up for ZoomInfo Lite, its free plan; however, this “plan” is only good for four days and includes access to just 10 contacts—all in exchange for giving ZoomInfo access to your business’s contacts.

That said, once in, ZoomInfo involves a learning curve. In fact, this is the reason why it does not provide access to its platform without a walk-through with a ZoomInfo professional. Users report that it takes hours to set up a new account, and after experiencing how much time it takes just to try to access its free trial, we’re hardly surprised.

When it comes to ease of use, ZoomInfo does not receive particularly high marks. While it becomes easy to use once users become familiar with it, the problem is that it’s not very intuitive. So much so that this is why ZoomInfo does not provide access to its free trial without getting users onto a demo call with a sales rep who walks them through how to use the platform. Without this walk-through, its platform is not intuitive enough for self-guided learning. Additionally, users report that it takes hours to set up and maintain ZoomInfo, and many note that its filtering needs improvement.

ZoomInfo is committed to data security and does a good job of keeping processes in place to uphold and ensure the integrity of its data. However, while its security measures might provide peace of mind, beware that ZoomInfo has been involved in a number of lawsuits, including a class action lawsuit that said that its free “ZoomInfo Community” (now “ZoomInfo Lite”) members did not consent to ZoomInfo intercepting their contacts.

We found ZoomInfo’s sales support very unhelpful. For example, since it does not advertise its pricing on its site, we used its “Get pricing” call to action on its pricing page, only to receive emails from sales asking to set up a demo. Even after clarifying that we simply wanted pricing, it took a number of “let’s set up a call” emails before getting the information we were looking for. Granted, sales support and customer service are two different things and luckily its customer support is generally more helpful.

ZoomInfo’s customer service and support is available by phone at 866-904-9666, 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, with additional U.S. weekend coverage. You can also fill out a contact form. Customer support is based on the support plan that you purchase, however. Customers with Preferred and Platinum support plans get the above customer service, while those with the free Standard Support plan in their contract get coverage during local business hours only.

ZoomInfo also has on-demand training videos and ZoomInfo University, which provides webinars, certifications, and courses. It also has a comprehensive help center, which is helpful for those with generic questions or common issues that they would prefer to remedy on their own.

It’s worth noting that ZoomInfo Lite is available for free, but it comes with one caveat that is important to be aware of. It’s free in exchange for your business’s data—meaning in order to get access, you must share your business’s contacts with ZoomInfo. On top of that, to use ZoomInfo Lite, users must send and receive email using a supported Microsoft Outlook or Google app. It’s also not available to past or existing customers, so if you’ve used ZoomInfo before, you will not qualify for ZoomInfo Lite, which is a bit disappointing in our opinion—especially for small business owners and founders who have used it for businesses other than the one they currently operate.

ZoomInfo vs. LeadIQ

LeadIQ is a far more cost-effective alternative to ZoomInfo. While ZoomInfo’s pricing starts at around $200 per month (and may cost several thousand dollars per month depending on your needs), LeadIQ offers a free forever plan that provides up to 20 emails per week and up to 10 phone numbers per month. Its premium plans start at $39 per month, making it one of the most competitively priced providers on the market. However, one key feature that ZoomInfo has that LeadIQ lacks is intent. Granted, it’s a big price difference for a feature that may or may not make that big of a difference.

ZoomInfo vs. UpLead

ZoomInfo and UpLead are two very similar database and contact data providers. However, UpLead stands out for its affordability and pricing transparency. Unlike ZoomInfo, which fails to advertise its pricing, and ranges from $200 to over $7,000 per month, UpLead offers transparent pricing and plans that start as low as $99 per month. Unlike ZoomInfo, it does not offer a free plan. However, it does offer a free trial. It also offers technographics, just as ZoomInfo does. What this means is that users can search for contacts that use competing or complementary services. In other words, you can find out who is using a competitor’s product or service or who is using a product or service that complements what you offer.

ZoomInfo vs. Apollo

When comparing ZoomInfo to Apollo, it’s clear that Apollo is the far more affordable option that not only has transparent pricing (unlike ZoomInfo), but it also has a free plan with unlimited email credits. In terms of user experience, Apollo is far more intuitive, making it an easier platform to get to know and use. ZoomInfo is time-consuming to set up and often involves a fairly steep learning curve. In short, Apollo is generally the better choice for businesses that are looking to save both time and money.

ZoomInfo is best suited for enterprise-level companies seeking to supercharge their lead generation and sales processes. This is because while it is something of a data intelligence powerhouse, it also requires a large investment of your time and money to get started and it’s not likely to be best suited for smaller businesses.

While it’s a robust data intelligence provider that can serve as a sales and marketing machine, ZoomInfo is not well-suited for every business—especially not small businesses and startups on a tight budget. While it can save businesses a lot of time in the long run, it’s worth keeping in mind that you’re still buying contacts, which is widely deemed a no-no in the marketing world and one that does not necessarily equate to leads that are actually interested in your business—just those that fall within your target audience.

Those who wish to try bypassing the lead generation step without spending hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars per month could consider using a competing tool such as UpLead, Apollo, LeadIQ or a free email finder such as GetProspect, Hunter.io or AeroLeads.

Is ZoomInfo worth it?

ZoomInfo is worth it for certain businesses, but these tend to be large, enterprise-level companies with the resources to justify the price and the need to have not just contacts, but a way to quickly route and foster leads with a larger sales and marketing ecosystem. That said, the average small business will likely find that ZoomInfo is not worth its price tag that is over quadruple of many of its direct competitors.

How much does ZoomInfo cost?

According to a sales representative, ZoomInfo pricing starts at around $200 per month and increases to over $7,000 per month depending on a number of factors, such as the number of “seats” you need (users), contact volume and industry.

How reliable is ZoomInfo?

While ZoomInfo generally has high-quality contacts, users do report that they still run into contacts that are no longer in use, such as previous employees. So while ZoomInfo works to keep its database up to date, changes do happen and users do occasionally get invalid contact information.

How can I generate online leads?

Lead generation primarily falls into two categories: inbound and outbound. Outbound lead generation typically involves cold calling, mailers and other methods of getting your information directly to potential customers. Inbound leads are cultivated by drawing customers to you, by creating an online presence that encourages them to provide contact information, sometimes in exchange for exclusive offers.

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How to Build the Ultimate Sales Prospect List

If you’ve worked in sales for any length of time, you know that success depends on the quality of your sales prospect lists.

Sales is a numbers game, but most sales professionals caution against casting a wide net in the hopes of catching a sale. Instead, they find success by creating and reaching out to well-targeted lists of the most qualified prospects.

Unfortunately, identifying the right people and the best way to reach them is no simple task. It requires a deep understanding of your products and services, an extreme familiarity with your customer base, and access to the right sales tools and information.

Whether you’re new to B2B sales prospecting or an established veteran, it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends for developing strong sales prospect lists — accessing advanced buying signals , high-quality B2B data, and the best sales AI assistants on the market. 

What is a Prospect List in Sales?

A sales prospect list is a carefully curated and organized collection of potential customers that identifies likely candidates for purchasing your product or service. Your list of prospects typically includes key details such as contact information, company size, industry, and other relevant data points that help prioritize and personalize sales outreach efforts.

The effectiveness of a prospecting list is determined by the accuracy and relevance of the data, which should align with your company’s ideal customer profile (ICP) and target market. This list serves as a foundation for the sales process, enabling a structured and systematic approach to reaching out, qualifying leads, and converting prospects into customers. 

What’s the Difference Between a Prospect List and a Lead List?

A prospect list identifies potential customers that fit an ideal customer profile — but who have not yet engaged with the company. They are the targets for initial outreach efforts. 

In contrast, a lead list includes individuals or businesses that have already shown interest in your products or services through some form of interaction. This positions them further along in the sales funnel and more likely to convert. 

The main difference between the two lists lies in the stage of the sales process : prospects require initial outreach and leads are closer to making a purchase decision.

How to Get a List of Prospects: Building a Sales Lead List

1. understand your offering.

Before you can identify who your best sales prospects are, you must first understand what you’re selling. 

To be a truly exceptional sales rep, your product knowledge must surpass the basics and dive deeper into specific use cases, feature sets, and customer success stories. Not only will increasing your product knowledge improve your ability to pinpoint qualified prospects, it will help you answer difficult questions, speak confidently on calls — and close more deals. 

Sales teams often have lengthy onboarding processes. 76% of sales reps say their enablement and training helps prepare them to make their quota.

Start this process by asking yourself the following questions:

• What problem is your product designed to solve? If your product is able to solve several problems, which one appears to be the most important?
• Is there something about your product that typically helps you close difficult deals? Just as important, is there something that could cause you to lose deals?
• Could you explain how to use your product to your grandparents? To a fifth-grader? Without having it in front of you?
• What would a valuable customer say is the most frustrating part of your product or service? The most helpful?
• Would you be comfortable using the product you’re selling in your day-to-day life?

If you can’t answer these questions, seek the advice of a superior, a product expert, or a peer. The more you know about your products and services, the easier your job will be.

2. Understand Your Buyer

Understanding your buyers and the factors that drive their purchase decisions will help focus your prospect pool. 

For the purpose of creating a sales prospect list, we recommend taking a fresh look at your best customers. As you research them, it’s important to notice their common characteristics. These will help guide your efforts to create a highly-targeted prospect list.

There are multiple ways to conduct prospect and customer research, including manual data analysis, market intelligence tools , and customer surveys . No matter which research method you choose, there are certain data points you must pay close attention to.

Cornerstone Data Points

• Industry – Do your best customers work within a certain industry or set of industries?
• Company size – Do your best customers come from companies of a similar size?
• Job title – Are your buyers typically managers? Senior managers? C-level employees?
• Revenue – How much money do your customers typically earn in any given year? Is there a certain threshold level for your best customers?

Advanced Data Points

• Biggest challenges and pain points – What problem do they use your product to solve? What challenges and pain points do they experience?
• Important success metrics and goals – How do they measure success? What goals are they trying to achieve with your product? What goals have they already achieved?
• Product likes and dislikes – What do your customers like the most about your product? What do they dislike? What are their must-haves when it comes to new purchases?
• Technographics – What tools do they already use? Do they use tools or platforms that integrate with your products? Do they use a competitor’s product?
• Engagement preferences – Do your best customers prefer to engage by phone, email, social media, or in person? Is there a particular time they’re most often available? How many times does it typically take your customers to engage with sales outreach ?
• Communication styles – How do your customers talk about the industry? The market? Your product? Do they use a casual tone or a more formal tone? Do they prefer more technical conversations? Do they want you to lose the industry jargon?

Granular Data Points

• Key motivations and buying triggers – What makes this prospect purchase new products? Is there an event or set of events that signals their readiness to purchase?  
• Customer Lifetime Value – How valuable is each of your customers? How much money do they contribute over their lifetime tenure with your company? How does their value correspond with their industry and company size?
• Referral potential – What types of customers have the most referral potential? How much business does your average customer refer to you?
• Product use – What determines a customer’s likelihood of making bigger purchases, expanding their feature set, or being upsold on another offer?
• Advocacy – Is there a possibility of a preferred customer becoming a brand advocate?
• Brand value – Do your best customers lend credibility to your company because of their brand value? How does this added value impact your ability to make more sales?

3. Organize Your Information

At this point in the process, you should have two data sets. One contains important information about your products and services, the other contains important information about your best customers and ideal prospects. 

Now, it’s time to merge them into the beginnings of your B2B prospect list. To start, ask yourself one question: Who is my product made for? Or, to put it a different way, who needs my product? Using the information you gathered thus far, you must figure out the answer. 

Your final result may look something like this:

Medium-sized businesses in the manufacturing, shipping, and logistics industries that make more than $10 million in revenue annually.

The initial inquiry is typically made by someone in a management position, but a senior manager or higher-level employee often has the final say. 

This buyer often struggles to manage multiple technologies at once to streamline information regarding payments, audits, route planning, and carriers. 

Their success is based on efficiency and eliminating bottlenecks in the process, measured in time and expense. They are busy and straightforward. They prefer communicating by phone and they often want to get right to the point. 

Skip the small talk.

Your best customers often make large purchases after several important trigger events. Important triggers include the implementation of new industry regulations or any breaking news of high-profile security breaches. 

This indicates they value legal compliance and safety above all else. As you release new features and products that improve efficiency, mitigate risk, and heighten security, your best customers will have no issue spending more money with you.

Added Value

The customers who spend the most money with you are certainly valuable. But the ones with the highest customer lifetime value are often smaller businesses that spend less money, but advocate for your brand online and recommend your products to their peers.

You’ve narrowed down your research into a digestible list of target characteristics and features, but there’s still more work to do. Up until now, we’ve only talked in hypotheticals. But simply knowing what types of people and companies to target will only get you so far. 

To build the ultimate sales prospect list, you must identify the real companies and buyers who fit the mold you’ve created.

4. Identify Your Key Players and Accounts

Now that you’ve gathered and analyzed your best customer data, you have a good idea of what you’re looking for in a prospect. Where does your search begin? We recommend a combination of the following channels, outlets, and tools to build the most comprehensive prospect list:

Social Media

If you’re not using social media as part of your sales prospecting efforts , you’re missing out. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X(Twitter), have proven to be a valuable business sales tool. 

To identify qualified sales prospects on social media, consider each platform’s search functionality. Some platforms will play a more obvious role than others. Take LinkedIn for example: A B2B sales professional can conduct searches based on criteria like job title, company size, and department.

But with other platforms, you’ll have to get more creative. On X (previously Twitter), users can monitor brand mentions, keywords, and hashtags. To find qualified prospects, you should monitor words and phrases associated with the problems your product solves. Or, keep tabs on mentions of your competitors. 

As you spend more time within each platform you’ll discover quick and easy search functionality to incorporate into your prospecting efforts.

Google Alerts

We recommend using Google Alerts to receive notifications about important trigger events, brand mentions, industry news, legislation, and more.

Let’s look at a quick example. A corporate compliance training company rolls out a new course in preparation for an upcoming change in privacy legislation. After setting a Google Alert for that particular law, a sales rep with the company receives a notification that Company ABC was recently fined for not complying with the regulation.

This prompts them to not only reach out to Company ABC to pitch their new compliance course, but also to look up and reach out to Company ABC’s biggest competitors who will undoubtedly be scrambling to protect themselves from similar fines.

Job Listings

Online job boards can provide valuable insight into a company’s priorities. 

For example, if a company suddenly posts an inordinate amount of digital marketing positions, this may indicate a shift happening within their organization. If you’re in the business of selling marketing technology, this hiring increase indicates that they might be primed to invest your marketing tools.

Historical Customer and Prospect Data

As a sales professional, you know that buying decisions can change on a whim. Maybe the person spearheading a specific project left for a new job. Maybe organizational priorities suddenly shifted. Or maybe, your contact went on vacation and forgot to follow up. 

However, no matter the reason, a lost deal is rarely ever lost for good. 

We recommend combing through your historical customer and prospect data to identify deals that fell through for seemingly no reason. Just as priorities and circumstances can shift for the worse, they can also shift in your favor. Follow up with incomplete deals, former customers, and long lost prospects.

Existing Customer and Prospect Data

An easy and effective way to add new contacts to your prospect list is to ask existing customers for referrals . 

According to Harvard Business Review , customers acquired through referrals not only make more purchases compared to those who join through other methods, but also have a greater impact on bringing in new customers. Referred customers generate 30% to 57% more referrals than others, even when accounting for their overall activity.

Referrals aren’t just limited to customers either. Have you ever had a deal fall through despite building a great rapport with the prospect? Even though you don’t always secure the deal, that doesn’t always mean your efforts were a waste of time.

Prospects are often happy to recommend the names of colleagues or connections who might have a need for your product. Next time you’re on a customer call, don’t be afraid to ask for a referral.

Sales Intelligence and Data Providers

A sales professional can use social media, set Google Alerts, and skim job listings to compile the ultimate prospect list. But, without the necessary contact information, these efforts will prove to be futile.

If we could only choose one tool to use for sales prospecting, we would undoubtedly pick a sales intelligence platform. Modern B2B data providers offer a range of advanced search capabilities that allow you to enter your prospect criteria to generate a list of qualified prospects. 

But remember, it’s critical to use a variety of channels to gather prospect information and verify your data . The best sales prospect lists contain information from multiple sources.

5. Prioritize Dynamic Data

Business data is not static. People change jobs, companies are bought and sold, and products regularly evolve and expand to new markets.

This constant state of change causes the average sales prospect list to decay quickly. This can render your list unreliable in a matter of months, weeks, sometimes even days. If your sales data can’t keep up, neither will your sales team. For this reason, businesses must make fresh, dynamic data a top priority.

ZoomInfo Buying Signals 

ZoomInfo provides users with a vast array of buying signals, from straightforward to more complex. These buying signals are delivered in an organized, timely, and contextualized way so that sales reps are armed with high quality intelligence to close deals faster. Here is a comprehensive list of ZoomInfo buying signals: 

Buying Signals 

Funding: Major funding rounds in the last 90 days.

Buying Group changes: Promotions and new hires within a buying group over the past 30 days.

Key Personnel Changes: Promotions, new hires, and departures over the past 30 days of contacts you’ve previously engaged with.

Competitive Research : An account is researching a competitor or a competitive topic. 

Technologies Add/Drop (Competitor): A target company has started or stopped using a technology related to one of your competitor’s offerings.  

Technologies Add/Drop (Complementary): A target company has started or stopped using a technology related to a complimentary product.  

Product Launches: Initiatives related to the release of new products, services or features.

Partnerships: Initiatives related to service agreements, outsourcing agreements, agreement mediations, contract extensions and other collaborative efforts.

Awards: A company, product, or individual employee is being recognized in a formal capacity, including placement on “Best” and “Top” lists.

M&A: The consolidation of companies or assets through various types of financial transactions.

IPO: All efforts related to an initial public offering or a stock market launch where company shares are sold to institutional and individual investors.

Projects: All news and internal insights related to department-specific initiatives that are being planned, currently on-going, or recently completed.

Pain Points: Challenges a company or organization might encounter that could have negative impacts.

Podcasts: Challenges a company or organization might encounter that could have negative impacts extracted from podcasts with key company representatives.

Layoffs: At a company in your ICP/Account List.

Hiring Plans: Growth or reduction in the number of roles posted in a department or buying group at a company in your ICP/Account List.

Earning Call Summaries: Insights into strategic direction of public company earnings calls.

Websight Spike: A Target account recently visited pages on your websites and domains. 

Review Page Visit: Page visit of product pages.  

Account Level Intent: A target account is actively researching one of your intent topic clusters.

Personnel Signals 

Buying Group Changes: A contact in the Buying Group joined or departed your Target Account

New C-Suite : A new contact has joined the C-suite in your Target Account.

New C-Suite in Buying Group: A new contact in your Buying Group has joined the C-Suite

MPOC Departed : A main point of contact (MPOC) has departed one of your Target Accounts. 

MPOC Joined: An MPOC at a current customer moves to a non-customer, good fit company.

Podcast Mentions: A key team member has participated in a podcast with a given title.

Contextual attributes with CRM Sync

Account Fit Score: Accounts with the greatest potential for success.

Account in CRM : This company exists in your CRM

Customer/Prospect/Partner: Account Type field classification from SFDC (Customer, Prospect, Partner).

CRM Record Owner: Display CRM record owner on person profile.

Building the Ultimate Sales Prospect List

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Baltimore Orioles designate reliever Craig Kimbrel for assignment

Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel (46) returns to the dugout during a pitching change after he gave up six runs during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Craig Kimbrel reacts after giving up a two-run double to Boston Red Sox’s Ceddanne Rafaela during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel delivers during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

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BALTIMORE (AP) — Craig Kimbrel’s time with the Baltimore Orioles could be coming to an end after the struggling team designated its former closer for assignment Wednesday following the latest in a series of rough outings.

Kimbrel gave up six runs on three hits in 2/3 of an inning of relief in Baltimore’s 10-0 home loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night. Kimbrel has a 13.94 ERA in his last 11 appearances over the past month.

This season, his first with Baltimore, Kimbrel has a 5.33 ERA with six blown saves. He lost his job as closer in May.

The Orioles have lost eight of 11 games to fall four games back of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. In a corresponding roster move, they recalled right-hander Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Craig Kimbrel designated for assignment by O's

BALTIMORE -- The Orioles thought Craig Kimbrel still had “a lot in the tank,” as general manager Mike Elias put it at the Winter Meetings. There was confidence in the veteran right-hander to serve as a one-year stopgap for All-Star closer Félix Bautista , out for the 2024 season following Tommy John surgery.

For three months, it worked. Then, it went wrong.

After a near-All-Star-caliber first half, Kimbrel’s disastrous second half resulted in the 36-year-old getting designated for assignment by Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon. It marks the end of a brief-but-tumultuous tenure with the O’s for the potential future Hall of Famer.

Kimbrel signed a one-year, $12 million deal with the Orioles in December. The contract featured a $13 million team option for 2025, as well as a $1 million buyout should that not get exercised.

In the first half, Kimbrel lived up to expectations. Through July 7, he had a 2.10 ERA and 23 saves over 38 appearances.

After July 7, Kimbrel posted an 11.50 ERA in 19 outings. He went 0-for-2 in save opportunities, eventually getting replaced by righty Seranthony Domínguez , who was acquired in a trade with the Phillies on July 26.

Kimbrel’s final outing for Baltimore was the worst of his 15-year big league career. In Tuesday’s 10-0 loss to the Giants , he allowed six earned runs in two-thirds of an inning. He had never yielded more than four runs in any of his previous 836 MLB appearances.

Kimbrel ranks fifth in MLB history with 440 saves. He’s behind only Mariano Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601), Lee Smith (478) and Kenley Jansen (446).

Right-hander Bryan Baker was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take Kimbrel’s spot on the Orioles’ active roster. The club’s 40-man roster now has 37 players.

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By Steve Adams | September 18, 2024 at 1:12pm CDT

The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Craig Kimbrel for assignment. Baltimore has recalled righty Bryan Baker from Triple-A Norfolk in his place.

Kimbrel, 36, was signed to a one-year, $13MM deal over the winter after All-Star closer Felix Bautista required Tommy John surgery last October. The club banked on Kimbrel’s track record and excellent strikeout rate helping to solidify the ninth inning, even after Kimbrel had a shaky finish to his 2023 stint with the Phillies — including three innings of NLCS work wherein he yielded four runs.

At least early in the year, Kimbrel was generally effective, even while walking a highwire. His walk rate was up, but so was his strikeout rate, and in spite of four blown saves in the season’s first half he pitched to a pristine 2.10 earned run average. As things have gone off the rails since the All-Star break, he’s ceded the ninth inning to deadline pickup and former Phillies teammate Seranthony Dominguez .

Dating back to July 14, Kimbrel has been decimated for 25 runs (23 of them earned) in 18 innings of work. He’s yielded 23 hits (five of them homers), walked 17 batters and plunked a hitter during that disastrous run. The tipping point was a six-run meltdown in last night’s loss to the Giants. Kimbrel faced eight batters, allowed three hits (two singles and a double), walked two hitters and allowed a runner to advance on a wild pitch in what was his worst and likely last outing of the 2024 season.

Kimbrel will be placed on waivers, and he’ll surely clear. He’d be ineligible for the postseason roster with another club, and a claiming team would be on the hook for the prorated remainder of this year’s $12MM salary and the $1MM buyout on next year’s club option. No team is going to make that move. He’ll clear waivers and be released, at which point the club option will be moot (though the O’s will still owe him that $1MM buyout). He could sign with any other club for the final few days of the season, but it’s possible he’ll simply wait until the offseason to seek out his next opportunity.

Kimbrel’s second half has been so gruesome that it’s overshadowed his excellent first half, but a run of two bad months shouldn’t torch any and all interest in him over the winter. He’s not the dominant high-leverage force he once was, but he still fanned 31.5% of his opponents this season and turned in a strong 11.8% swinging-strike rate. His fastball is down from an average of 95.8 mph in 2023 to 93.9 mph in 2024, per Statcast. It doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be handed a closing job this offseason, but assuming he wants to continue pitching, Kimbrel should find interest on lower-priced big league deals — perhaps with incentives based on games finished in the event that he ascends back to the closer’s role in his next destination.

Kimbrel currently ranks fifth all-time with 440 saves and is only six behind another still-active closer, Kenley Jansen, for the fourth spot on that list. Either pitcher could still catch Lee Smith for No. 3 all-time (478), but climbing north of 600 alongside Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman isn’t going to happen. In 809 2/3 career innings, Kimbrel has a 2.59 ERA, 56 wins, 26 holds and 1265 strikeouts (38.8%) to go along with those 440 saves.

64 Comments

2 hours ago

Seemed like leaving him in last night was cruel punishment.

They wore the dude out early in the season. Shoulda been splitting the saves all year. Plus he was a shaky signing in the first place. Typical O move

He could be a nice fill-in reliever next year. He’s just no longer a closer, obviously.

as long as he didn’t run out of gas again like he did this year. there was no where to hide him, even in low leverage spots, he was scary.

I’m afraid his storied career may be over here. cardiologists everywhere will have to find another way to bring in business.

He was washed up since 2021. Since then four teams have signed him thinking he was the same closer as he was before then. I wonder if another team will be suckered into signing him.

27 mins ago

Not that I want to defend his playoff performance, but he was an all star last year. Not necessarily washed up then.

Legitimately…wow!

Run – He really was THAT bad, totally handed a game to the Red Sox last week.

No, I get it. I really do, but it’s just crazy how Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde he is in a save situation and in garbage time. Sure, he was having issues closing games, too.

hell of a run, cheers,

He’s dog poop. Addition by subtraction.

Long overdue. Every bad Kimbrel outing was a reminder of just how devastating the Felix injury was. I’m very interested in seeing how this off-season goes.

Better late than never. I think most of us knew that if they kept him into October he’d single handedly torpedo their playoff run. Kudos to the team for surviving Kimbrel as long as they did.

That has to be it for his career right?

There will definitley be some teams willing to take a low-risk chance on him in the hopes he can look more like his first half 2024 self to try and filp him at the deadline. Angels, Marlins, and White Sox would have next to nothing to lose to see if he can figure something out. Maybe even the Rays take a shot and try to see if they can throw him through their pitching development machine.

Even ATL who loves their past more than anything, esp when it means that they’d get a player (that’d sell tickets) for next to nothing. They love guys with closing experience, though Kimbrel has never really worked out well pitching in relief. Is it enough for ATL to give him a try, save some cash while selling tickets and bring him back in ’25 for a last hurrah? I mean, they did for Luke Jackson — and I’m not even sure Cooperstown would let him in if he bought a ticket for a tour.

38 mins ago

He could end up somewhere, but he should put adding to his career save total out of his mind. He’ll be a 6th/7th inning guy if anything.

Kimbrel was awful for the Dodgers. Phillies saw that and gave him 10 million. He blew the NLCS for Philly. Then Orioles saw that and gave him raise. Wonder who will get duped this offseason

OMG I can hear Boone defending him already. “I know he gave up 8 runs and got no outs but I thought he threw the ball very well.”

He was also a hot mess for the White Sox. I don’t blame BAL for signing him, but they knew enough about how he staggers through innings most of the time to know they needed a plan B which they didn’t get until the deadline.

Horrible move by the worst GM in baseball. You don’t just DA an experienced veteran reliever this late in the season. Kimbrel is a world series champion. Most of their relief staff have barely any post season experience. Pathetic

Logically, I would agree with you. Given how bad Kimbrel has been, it literally comes down to anyone else would be an improvement over Kimbrel. He was given far more opportunities after so many bad outings in Baltimore than he would have been given anywhere else.

You haven’t been watching. Kimbrel was Baaaad…

Worst GM in baseball…..from a Mets fan no less. I’m dying laughing over here.

You should be banned for being a knucklehead. Kimbrel should have been dfa in spring training. The Orioles are a very young team, who in spite of losing basically their entire rotation are still right in the chase. You are dismissed.

You can’t go into the postseason putting Kimbrel in high leverage situations. This was a good move. However, Seranthony Dominguez isn’t much improvement; still stinky, just less of a stench than Kimbrel.

Did the white Sox gm get traded to O’s lol ?

I see why you were banned.

we should listen to your rant because your team knows their stuff with worst GMs.

C’mon AA! You missed Heyward, now’s your chance to redeem yourself

A’s like to waste money on relievers and habe to appease owners by spending revenue sharing money. Sign kimbrel in no pressure for Sacramento A’s and convert Mason miller back to starting pitcher

Hey Orioles!! If the Phillies don’t want ‘em, there’s probably a very good reason

Kimbrel, Dominguez, Soto (Gregory). Elias is taking out Dombrowski’s trash!

I love Baker’s attitude. First noticed it 2 years ago when he had that exchange of pleasantries with the Blue Jay’s dugout. Dude.

According to POBO Elias, Orioles can’t find their “mojo”. They need a pick me up. I’m thoroughly convinced that Bryan has been brought up for that sole purpose. IE. stick it in someone’s ear and at the earliest opportune time. Green lighted not from Coach Hyde but from the OPACY warehouse.

Here’s hoping Elias has learned the very expensive lesson that you don’t sign one declining reliever and proclaim your bullpen work is done…. And also hoping he learns from the Rogers fiasco.

Well…..rogers had a nice outing in AAA last night if that helps…

52 mins ago

2nd time he’s done this. Late 2022 he gets the news that Tate’s injury is serious. Goes out and gets Givens. Thought it was a panic move at signing.

19 seconds ago

When did Elias proclaim his work was done? What date was that press conference? Let’s see after signing Kimbrel traded for Burnes. Claimed Matt Bowman and Burch Smith off waivers-not great but serviceable relievers. Traded for Zack Eflin at the deadline who has 6 out of 7 quality starts- and was 1 out shy for 7 for 7. Traded for Dominguez at the deadline who except for a disturbing tendency to give up home runs has replaced Kimbrel as closer. Soto has been okay after 2 awful early outings. They signed Albert Suarez as a minor league free agent last September and he has been a savior for the rotation-not counting last night. And the Rodgers “fiasco”? He’s made 4 starts. Let’s give him a few more opportunities before writing him off. And by the way Norby is 4 for his last 26 so maybe he isn’t HOF material just yet. But the main point is Elias didn’t step back and be satisfied. He made moves- some worked and others didn’t. Even Branch Rickey passed on Yogi Berra and signed Joe Garigiola instead

Kimbrel was the Orioles counterweight to the Yankees Clay “BLOWN SAVE” Holmes.

14 mins ago

Lol I honestly was expecting to see a Clay Holmes reference in the replies.

36 years old?! That screams St. Louis cardinals this season all over it

Yet I got flamed on here for saying that the Orioles still needed a closer. It’s been a heck of a career Craig!

Should’ve trade prospects for mason miller instead opted for Rogers and rotation help

16 mins ago

I’m pretty sure Miller didn’t get traded to any one. There might be a reason. The asking price was astronomically high, or they never planned on trading him. What closer that changed hands would you have wanted?

Man, the O’s are limping to the finish line, and moving on from Craig (understandably) is just another reason to believe that Baltimore isn’t going to be around long in October.

I wonder if they tried to trade for Estevez. Or if the Angels could’ve gotten a better deal from the O’s than Phillies. But they rarely trade within the AL let alone the division. Half the team has come from the NL East or Central.

Ross Atkins is feverishly pressing the “Claim” button on his MLB keyboard.

The Rays can fix him.

Well for what it’s worth a bit of gratitude.. during 2018 playoffs he helped doctors get my blood pressure/ anxiety / insomnia all in check… so for that thanks..

Man it’s just sad to see. A once dominant force looking like this. Some teams may be willing to take a flier on him next season, but Kimbrel may come to the same decision Joey Votto did where he realizes it isn’t prudent to keep playing and embarrassing himself. He did have a decent first half, but overall he’s a shell of his former self.

Age/time wins every time

He deserves a little more respect than some are giving him. He was one of the top relievers in MLB during the first half of the season. And there is no doubt he is one of greatest of all time. Love him or hate him you should respectfully cheer and give credit to his overall body of work.

About time.

53 mins ago

Getting DFA-ed by a team gunning for a #1 seed in the playoffs is really going to rub some (shouldn’t-be-voting) writers the wrong way when his HOF candidacy comes up

47 mins ago

As a Nats fan, I’ve always enjoyed whenever Kimbrel has suffered, dating back to his dominant days with the Braves. But, man, that’s rough, DFA’d two weeks before the end of the season. No need to kick him while he’s down. Odds are he’ll end up as a Nat now anyway.

40 mins ago

The run he had in his first four seasons as the closer are legendary.

273 games, 185 saves, led the league in saves 4 straight years, 1.51 ERA, 1.52 FIP, .880 WHIP, and 14.6 K/9.

What a run.

33 mins ago

It is not very often a future HOF gets a DFA.

32 mins ago

Like Shake and Bake . And My A’s helped !

“Hasta la vista, baby.” ~ T-100

24 mins ago

End of the road is getting closer, could be this is Kimbrel’s exit…

20 mins ago

Well at least they wised up and cut him loose before he could blow their chances in the playoffs. The dude is toast.

13 mins ago

How does Kimbrel get a ML contract next year except for, maybe, a low guarantee and incentives? The end comes for every player. Maybe it’s not yet come for Kimbrel, but..

Thank you Giants for giving Kimbrel his worst career outing and ending discussions of him being a Hall of Famer.

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Orioles Cut Former Dodgers Closer For Assignment in Huge Move

Maren angus-coombs | 1 hour ago.

• Los Angeles Dodgers

In a shocking move, the Baltimore Orioles designated former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Craig Kimbrel for assignment on Wednesday.

To take his place on the roster, right-hander Bryan Baker was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.

The 36-year-old righty signed a one-year deal with a club option in the offseason, but he struggled as the closer and ended up getting replaced by Seranthony Domínguez, who the team picked up from the Phillies at the trade deadline.

The Orioles have designated Craig Kimbrel for assignment. pic.twitter.com/mHlDBpFrnE — MLB (@MLB) September 18, 2024

The veteran closer, who is fifth all-time with 440 saves, lost his spot in July. Since taking over, Domínguez has been perfect, going 10-for-10 in save chances.

Kimbrel went 7-5 this season with a 5.33 ERA and 23 saves over 57 games, but things went off the rails Wednesday night. He gave up six earned runs in the 10-0 loss to the Giants, both career highs for him.

Before then , he’d never allowed more than four runs in any of his previous 836 major league appearances.

He compiled 23 saves and put together a strong first half but fell apart down the stretch, posting a 10.59 ERA in 18 games after the All-Star Break.

We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/01oGelj2Ty — Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 18, 2024

"The mojo that we've had has just drifted away from us the last few months," Orioles general manager Mike Elias told reporters on Tuesday . "There are reasons for it that are obvious, but a lot of it is we've got people here that are experiencing a downturn – whether it's themselves or the team."

Kimbrel, through a team spokesperson, said he’d speak with the media on Wednesday instead of after Tuesday’s game. He was dominant in the first half of the season, but things have gone downhill since July 14, right before the break. With no signs of bouncing back, it’s hard to have any confidence in him pitching during the postseason.

Craig Kimbrel ERA by month: April: 3.18 May: 2.79 June: 0.96 July: 6.52 August: 7.27 September: 22.09 DFA’ing is shocking, but I get it https://t.co/KispRcFKnm — Peter Appel (@peterappel23) September 18, 2024

“I had a tough time trying to find a spot for him on the road trip,” manager Brandon Hyde said . “He didn’t pitch for a week. ... I was hoping he could just get out of the inning, and unfortunately, there was some fatigue there at the end. The velo started getting down a little bit. Normally, he’s not out there for that long. In that type of game, I just didn’t want to use anybody else at that point, so I had to get [Matt] Bowman up. That wasn’t his normal stuff there at the end.”

If this is the end for Kimbrel, it’s not exactly a smooth ride into retirement. Once a dominant reliever, he’s been getting knocked around by hitters for months now. It’s been tough to watch — and even tougher for Kimbrel to endure.

Kimbrel went 6-7 with a 3.75 ERA with 22 saves in his only season (2022) with the Dodgers. He did not pitch for the team in the postseason.

MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State and has been a sports writer since 2008. Despite growing up in the South, her sports obsession has always been in Los Angeles. She is currently a staff writer at the LA Sports Report Network.

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Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore orioles | orioles designate reliever craig kimbrel for assignment, the likely future hall of famer had a disastrous second half of the season.

Kimbrel, 36, joined the Orioles on a one-year, $13 million deal this offseason to take over for the injured closer Félix Bautista. He compiled 23 saves and put together a strong first half but fell apart down the stretch, posting a 10.59 ERA in 18 games after the All-Star Break.

The right-hander said last week in Boston that he felt he was progressing despite the poor results.

“Overall, obviously you separate result from how things are coming out of my hand,” Kimbrel said of his two-run outing Sept. 9. “You kind of have to separate it when you talk about how it felt, because obviously the outcome of the outing last night didn’t look good but there are a lot of positives in it that I’m taking from it and taking forward and I feel like, as long as I can keep the ball coming out of my hand like I did last night, I don’t think there’ll be a lot of innings — or a lot of chances for innings — like last night to accumulate.”

His next appearance came in the form of mop-up duty Tuesday when Kimbrel allowed six runs in the ninth inning — the worst frame of the 15-year veteran’s MLB career — of Baltimore’s 10-0 loss to the Giants. The Orioles had hoped to get Kimbrel right in time for him to help them make a postseason run, but the club opted instead to cut ties with 11 games left in the regular season.

Though any team could claim the accomplished closer, who ranks fifth in MLB history with 440 saves, off waivers, he will be ineligible to pitch for anyone else in the playoffs this season. Baker, 29, took his spot on the active roster for Wednesday but right-hander Colin Selby, 26, also has a locker at Camden Yards and is on the taxi squad. The Orioles are expecting setup man Danny Coulombe (elbow surgery) to rejoin their bullpen soon.

Kimbrel was tasked with replacing the reigning Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year Award winner in Bautista, who underwent Tommy John elbow reconstruction in October. He was the lone reliever to sign a major league deal with Baltimore over the offseason and the club relied on him heavily to fill the large void left behind by Bautista.

Ultimately, the consistency issues that cropped up for Kimbrel during his stints with the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox in recent years resurfaced in Baltimore. Relying on a fastball that averaged 93.7 mph — a career low — and a curveball that wasn’t inducing the swings and misses it did at his peak, Kimbrel fell off in the second half and lost the ninth-inning role to trade deadline acquisition Seranthony Domínguez in August. Domínguez has gone 10-for-10 in save opportunities since taking over.

This article will be updated.

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