Quote:
Originally Posted by Relentless
Just a quick note... D&B may be great for ancillary research of big companies, but be very careful about using it for smaller businesses. I've known several business owners who delayed filing info with D&B for an entire down period, only to report better numbers in the following period than should have been allowed on record (construction companies are especially notorious for gaming D&B reports). It definitely has some uses, but it's not a panacea, and I'm surprised by how often bean-counters in an accounting department think it's the equivalent of auditing a vendor's books. In reality it's a lot like Alexa... very accurate for the top 1000, but once you get down past the top 5% it becomes very inaccurate in a lot of instances.  |
I agree with that. For instance, our tire company has not sent anything to D&B. And I have seen examples where they were completely wrong.
A few years ago, we looked up a well established company we were going to do business with. I had visited them, and my litmus test is the parking lot of the company. If I see it full, with decent cars it usually means the company is doing fine. D&B had an analyst call me and warn me strongly not to extend any terms that they were on the ropes.
I didn't believe it and pushed him to look deeper. He did, turns out that the parent company had gone through a bunch of litigation. The division we were working with was doing fine and they changed their recommendation. From that point, we always send a VP to visit a new customer. Eyes on..