Five checks that make a B2B demand generation product comparison honest

What to take away

Most teams start a B2B demand generation product comparison by collecting feature lists, which is the mistake that makes the whole exercise unusable later.
Start with the decision you are buying against, then score only the products that can meet it.
Treat regulatory duties as screening criteria, not footnotesan unverified claim can sink a supplier before price is discussed.
Record your scores and the evidence behind them, so a colleague can audit the choice months later.
A comparison you cannot defend is worse than no comparison, because it locks in spend.

Why feature lists fail first

Feature lists feel efficient. They let you line up ten products in an afternoon. The problem is that they answer a question nobody asked: which product has the most boxes ticked.

Write the decision first

What is the buying decision?

Yes

keep product in shortlist

drop before demos

Write the decision down in one sentence and keep it in front of you.

A team paying £400 a month, for example, wants fewer, better-qualified leads from live-call outreach. That rules out half the market before you open a single demo; each product must then earn its place against that sentence, so weak options drop out before the demos.

The method behind this is set out in our guide to review and comparison methods for demand generation, which explains how to turn a buying decision into scoring criteria.

Screen for legal and data duties

Before scoring features, check whether each product can be used lawfully in your market. This is where comparisons quietly go wrong. A product can be excellent and still unusable in your market, and no scoring model will reveal that.

Legal and data duties screen

Can it be used lawfully in your market?
Confirm Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 duties
For live-call outreach, check ICO guidance
Supplier must describe consent, screening, record keeping

Competition and consumer rules now bite on conduct as well as contracts. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 is the reference point for how those duties are framed, and it is worth a supplier confirming how they apply to their model.

If any part of the product involves live-call outreach, the rules are specific. The ICO publishes guidance on direct marketing using live calls, covering consent, screening and record keeping. A supplier who cannot describe their process against that guidance is a risk.

Judge the claims, not the deck

Marketing copy is written to persuade. Your job is to separate a claim you can check from a claim you cannot.

Ask for the underlying evidence: which metric, measured how, over what period. If the answer is a case study with no numbers, score it low. A named metric with a period attached is checkable. A percentage with no denominator is not.

Pre-publication review is available for your own campaign material too. The ASA's Copy Advice service lets advertisers check copy before it runs, which is useful when you are comparing how suppliers handle claims.

What evidence should you ask for?

Ask for the metric, the measurement method and the period covered. If a supplier cannot name all three, treat the claim as unverified.

How do you compare two similar products?

Score both against the same written decision and criteria. Where scores tie, prefer the supplier whose evidence is easier to audit.

A five-step comparison sequence

Write the buying decision in one sentence, including budget and channel.
Turn that sentence into four to six weighted criteria.
Screen every product against legal and data duties before scoring features.
Score the survivors, and attach the evidence for each score.
Set a review date and note what would change your mind.

The fifth step matters most. Products change, and a comparison that cannot be revisited becomes a story you tell to justify a decision you already made. A written note of the decision, the criteria and the evidence takes an hour. It saves far more when a colleague asks why this supplier and not the other one.

If your shortlist includes agencies rather than software, the questions shift. Our companion piece on agency reviews in England covers what to ask when the deliverable is people and process, not a licence.

Common questions

How many products should a comparison cover?

Three to five is usually enough. More than that and the scoring becomes superficial, which defeats the purpose of comparing at all.

Should price be a criterion or a filter?

Treat it as a filter first. Remove anything outside your budget, then score the remainder on fit and evidence.

When should you re-run the comparison?

Re-run it when your buying decision changes, when a contract is up for renewal, or when a supplier's evidence no longer holds.