As B2B marketers seek to leverage external data at all phases of the buyer journey and the distinction between two categories of data providers — aggregators and enrichers — blurs, they need to understand how, why, and when sellers need particular kinds of data to help deals progress. The concept of a funnel that goes from "hard" data to "soft" data as the opportunity progresses offers B2B marketers an approach to deliver data that sellers can use, evaluate current investments in third-party data, and differentiate between increasingly similar providers.