ZoomInfo vs Lockley: which suits UK prospecting?

ZoomInfo and Lockley answer different questions. ZoomInfo is a large US-centred sales intelligence service built around contact data: verified emails, direct dials, company profiles and, as paid modules, intent data. Lockley chooses the companies. Each morning it gives a small B2B sales team a short list of UK companies to call, with the public record that says why now. If you need a large contact database across many markets, ZoomInfo is the closer fit. If you sell in the UK and need a dated, checkable reason to call a named company this week, Lockley is.

Neither is a verdict on quality. They are different jobs, and the budgets involved are very different.

What ZoomInfo does well

ZoomInfo describes itself as a cloud-based sales intelligence service providing verified contact data, buyer intent signals, technographic information and workflow automation to sales teams. Third-party reviews credit it with very large contact coverage in North America, and cite figures in the hundreds of millions of professional profiles, though those figures come from reviewers and not from an audit.

It suits a sales operation with a dedicated administrator, several seats and a need to build and enrich large lists, especially in the US and Canada. Intent data, website visitor identification and conversation tools are available as separate add-ons.

Where UK teams should test it

Several UK comparisons say ZoomInfo's coverage outside North America is thinner and that users report quality there does not match domestic data. One reviewer says full international coverage requires an additional paid add-on. These are third-party claims, so the sensible step is a test: ask for a sample of fifty UK companies in your sector and check the contacts you receive.

ZoomInfo does not publish prices. Reviewers report annual contracts with a multi-seat minimum, with typical spend well above the cost of a small-team subscription, but the figures vary between sources, so get a written quote before comparing.

What Lockley does well

Lockley reads UK public registers and postings every night: Companies House (officers, charges, filings), Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, job postings from Adzuna, planning registers and each company's own website. Each finding links to the record it came from, so a seller can check it before calling.

It starts with a free scan of the buyer's own website, which builds a private page of companies worth calling for them. A 9am email brief carries the morning's top three companies in full, with Call, Tomorrow and Pass working from the email. Coverage at launch is the United Kingdom.

What Lockley does not do

Lockley does not sell contact lists or bulk email data, and it does not send email on the customer's behalf. If your process needs thousands of exported contacts, Lockley is not that tool.

ZoomInfo and Lockley side by side

Which should a UK team choose?

A small UK team that sells to British companies and has no one to administer a large database will usually find a short, evidenced list easier to act on than a large contact database. A larger or international team that needs contacts at scale will find ZoomInfo's breadth more relevant, provided UK quality holds up in a test.

Whichever you use, calls to UK businesses remain subject to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, including checks against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service.

Questions