Sales Prospecting

Think of any company in the world. What type of company is Tesla? And Apple? What about Spotify?

Most likely, you can use basic firmographics to describe those companies. You know their industry, their location, and probably, have a rough idea of their number of employees and revenue. That's good enough... or is it?

In today's world, basic firmographic data doesn’t often reflect clear differences in needs or current situation. This is the reason why modern salespeople are increasingly relying on other data points when defining their ideal customer profile and focusing on sales prospecting.

Firmographics, a type of company information, has significant value to salespeople who target companies in a specific industry or a chosen size-range as it allows them to quickly filter promising prospects out of a longer list of potential customers. However, firmographic data doesn’t reveal enough details about a company's organization and current situation to help you find those hidden gems you should go after right now.

If you’re a salesperson in the forefront, you combine firmographics, technographics (data showing a company’s online profile and tech stack, etc.) and trigger events. 

In this article, we’ll go through what firmographic data is, when it’s useful during sales prospecting and when it simply doesn’t provide you as a salesperson with enough information to help you distinguish a rock-solid prospect from a mediocre one.

Technology leaves footprints that other technologies can track and follow. While looking for new sales opportunities, these footprints can tell you a lot about a company’s current needs and help you determine whether it’s worth it for you as to spend your time cultivating that lead or not.

If a company is using a technology that your software integrates seamlessly with—or if they show an obvious positive attitude to modern technology—they are more likely to welcome a sales call from you. Insights about a company’s tech stack and website technology not only helps you find out whether a company is likely to need your solution or not, it can also help you tailor your pitch better.

If you’re struggling to find new sales opportunities, consider these five tried-and-tested modern methods the next time you prospect.

“Data-driven” is a popular term in the business world these days and it makes sense why: data is the helping hand that decision-makers have been needing. Data helps you troubleshoot your organization, understand your performance, and make better business decisions. It can’t come as too much of a surprise then that data is also of huge benefit for salespeople! By using the right data, salespeople will know whom to contact, when to contact them, and why to contact them. Knowing these things is part of what makes data an invaluable resource for the modern salesperson.

Today’s buyers don’t take kindly to spammy salespeople giving unsolicited cold calling with offers that fit their business poorly. That's why putting some thought into your sales prospecting makes sure you're spending your time wisely and making more sales.

We might live in an ‘automation era’, but that doesn’t mean all things get from point A to B by themselves. It’s up to logistics companies to provide all the transportation that is needed in our very much globalized world.

But transport and logistics face challenges. Such as prospecting, finding sales opportunities, or even completely new customers. Because, how do you find companies that need your logistics services now or in the near future? In this article, you will learn the best ways to prospect in the logistics sector.

Look, generating lists of prospects fitting your target industry, company size and title is easy. But calling blindly through prospect lists with a generic pitch just doesn’t cut the mustard in modern B2B sales. a crowded space like recruitment and staffing. In those first five seconds of a cold call or first three lines of an email, you’ll have to win that prospect over with a well-informed argument no other sales rep came up with.

You need sales intelligence.

When the going gets tough, the tough test new ideas. In the recent weeks of economic downturn, many business owners have been forced to look for alternative ways to bring in revenue. And one of the most popular ways has been going digital: leaping into the unknown and setting up an ecommerce website, or doubling down on an existing one.

In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, a canned sales pitch is more likely to lead to the person on the other side of the line hanging up on you mid-sentence than an encouraging "please, tell me more."

Company data is the solution to fixing poorly targeted sales efforts. When you only connect with companies when there's a data-driven reason to do so, and tailor your messaging according to the prospect’s situation and needs, you'll significantly improve your hit rate in every step of the sales process.

Salespeople and gold miners have a lot in common. No, I don’t mean the tireless ambition, the deep-rooted desire to be successful, and the unstoppable drive for precious minerals. Instead, salespeople and miners share one key activity: prospecting.

The terms prospect, lead and buying signal are all well-known to B2B sales professionals, but their differences can be unclear. In part, the reason is that different CRM and marketing automation providers are using the terms in different ways. That's why we feel a clarification between prospect, lead and buying signal, and their roles in sales process, seems appropriate.

Our definition is very close to the framework used by HubSpot among others, and helps unify the conversation within a sales team, and further enhance sales and marketing alignment, or smarketing. Be sure to clarify sales terminology in your sales playbook!