Buyer's guide

Before you renew your data contract

A renewal date is a good moment to ask what you are actually paying for. Here is what to export before you leave, how notice periods and auto-renewal work, what you get to keep, and how to work the pipeline you already own instead of re-buying it.

If you're paying to re-enrich contacts you already own, or your reps keep calling dead numbers, read on. If what you actually need is more leads, that's a prospecting tool, not us.

What to export before you leave

Do this first, while you still have full access. Once a contract lapses, the export you meant to run can stop being available. Pull everything that is yours into a file you control.

  • 1Your contacts, with every field. Names, emails, phone numbers, titles, organisations, and anything else attached to the record.
  • 2Your notes and activity. The history your team built up, so the relationship context does not leave with the subscription.
  • 3Your custom fields. Anything you added yourself is yours to take. Export it in a format that will import cleanly, which usually means CSV.

How notice periods and auto-renewal work

Most B2B data contracts renew automatically. There is usually a notice window before the renewal date, and if you miss it the contract rolls over for another term. The two things to find in your own agreement are the renewal date and the length of the notice period, because together they tell you the last day you can decide.

Diarise that date now, with a reminder a few weeks ahead of it. Business contracts do not carry the automatic cancellation protections that consumer ones do, so the terms you signed are the terms that apply. If the sum is significant, it is worth taking proper advice before the window closes. This guide is general information, not legal advice, so check your specific contract.

Your data, and what you get to keep

Draw the line clearly. The contacts you uploaded and the records your team built are yours, and you should walk away with them. What ends with the contract is your access to the provider's own database, which you were renting rather than owning.

So export your own contacts and your enrichment results before the renewal date, and treat the wider database as something that stops when the subscription does. The value you keep is the clean, current picture of the people you already have a reason to talk to.

Anyone can hand you a score and ask you to trust it. Here is what Datuma actually checks

  • Duplicates are caught across every list you have ever uploaded, at £0.00, before enrichment spends a penny.
  • Every work email is checked at the mail server.
  • Every contact is checked against the live profile on the day you upload, and every phone number against the live network, as standard.
  • Your customers, partners and competitors are pulled into their own file and kept out of your prospecting list, so nobody contacts them by accident.
  • People who look to have changed role or organisation are flagged as follow-up opportunities, with their previous organisation and title attached.
  • And a person confirms every close call, so nothing changes without you.

The 0 to 100 Trust Score is just the summary of those checks. That is how you work the pipeline already sitting in your CRM, and buy only the net new leads you genuinely need.

Renewing a data contract, common questions

Can I cancel a B2B data contract before it renews?
It depends on your agreement. Most B2B data contracts renew automatically and have a notice window before the renewal date in which you can give notice to cancel. Find the renewal date and the notice period in your contract, and diarise the point at which you need to decide. Business contracts do not carry the same automatic cancellation protections as consumer ones, so read the terms and take advice if the amount is significant.
What should I export before leaving a data provider?
Export everything that is yours while you still have access. Your contacts with all their fields, your notes and activity history, and any custom fields you created. Save it as CSV so it will import cleanly elsewhere. Do this before your access ends, because once the contract lapses you may lose the ability to export.
Is my data portable when I leave?
The contacts you uploaded and the records you built are yours to take. What ends with the contract is your access to the provider's own database. So the practical rule is to export your own data and your enrichment results before the renewal date, and treat the provider's proprietary records as something you were renting, not something you own.
What is the alternative to re-buying a data subscription?
Work the pipeline you already have before you buy more of it. The contacts already in your CRM can be deduplicated, checked live, and scored, so you spend only on the net new contacts you genuinely need rather than renewing access to a database wholesale. That is the case for cleaning what you own first, then topping up.

Clean the pipeline you already own, free

Before you renew, upload a sample of the contacts you already have. Datuma deduplicates them, checks them live, and scores every one from 0 to 100, so you can see what re-buying would actually get you. Your first 100 contacts are free.

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100 contacts · 5 minutes