Whether you’re in sales or marketing, your life probably revolves around some sort of prospecting list. There are several ways in which a company could obtain such a list. Off the top of my head, here are just a few:
- A file of personal contacts that has been built over the years by literally recording the information for each person with whom you’ve had contact
- Accessing lists by territory or customer status from your CRM
- Purchasing a list from a list vendor
- Using a smart prospecting tool to intelligently search for like companies, industries and contacts which have good indicators for being interested in your business
Now, of the 4 ways I’ve listed (and I’m sure there are a dozen more), which of these seems to be the best use of a sales person or marketer’s time? What’s more, which one of these is going to give a truly accurate depiction of the companies and contacts who are in the right industry and have a need to buy?
For argument sake, let’s say you can get the same information using any of the above methods at a point in time. The information is only accurate for that one point in time. After a week or even a day in some cases, the information you pulled is no longer relevant, accurate, or actionable.
As we move into an era of more intelligent prospecting, it is becoming apparent that we can no longer be mass marketers. We have to be very strategic, very insightful, very targeted in our approaches and be able to achieve this at scale. This includes having access to the most recent information available. Because it would be impossible to manually stay on top of all the data that’s being churned out each day, we have to rely on tools that will aggregate, correlate, weight, and score this information for us on an almost continuous basis.
Imagine the power of your sales and marketing teams when they are equipped with the right contacts, the right business information, the latest news, and the most recent company interactions at their fingertips. The power of prospecting becomes exponentially easier, faster, and more profitable for your company.
By Cari Zoch, Marketing Manager, Brand Communications & Social Media at Avention
Cari has over 15 years of Marketing Communications experience and has spent the last 3 years focusing on the ever-evolving world of social media. Prior to joining Avention, Cari was the Global Social Media Manager at LifeSize, a Division of Logitech, and built their social media program from the ground up. Cari is an avid Longhorn football fan (yes, even this year!), and enjoys acting, spending time with her daughter, and taking advantage of all the wonderful outdoor activities Austin has to offer. Visit www.avention.com and follow us on Twitter @AventionInc.
