Prospecting is an essential tool every salesperson should master. This practice is key to developing the sales pipeline by helping salespeople focus on the right accounts or target customers.
One study found that sales reps mention that prospecting and lead qualification are huge barriers to success. Fifty-one percent of the respondents claim to experience struggles finding these leads regularly.
They can become successful at this by investing in a prospecting tool that will direct them in the right direction when generating leads and securing sales.
Prospecting Tool Features to Look For
When looking for a prospecting tool to invest in, make sure they have the following features:
Sales intelligence
Sales intelligence provides managers and executives with data to gain insights into the selling cycle. It provides the visibility to identify the best-performing salespeople and the worst-performing ones.
A good prospecting tool with a robust sales intelligence feature allows you to view real-time historical data on leads generated by each rep.
CRM integration
Customer relationship management (CRM) allows the sales team to track their business contacts and personalize communication. Integration is critical so team members can view customer data better and synchronize it across all systems. An integrated system maximizes your time and resources. With it, you can export data from one system and use it with other features.
With more time spent on customers, leads can become a solid customer base. As much as 73 percent of customers prefer to engage with businesses using personalization.
Email finder
Email marketing remains an effective way to reach more leads, with 78 percent of marketers getting good results with relevant content. However, looking for valid email addresses of prospects can take time and effort. Make the process easier by using an email finder tool. This allows the sales team to get their target customers’ business or personal email addresses.
Even with the right tools, marketers may still struggle to get the results they want from their email marketing campaigns. Make sure you know the dos and don’ts of cold email marketing so you can get the most out of the automation solutions you have.
Dialer
B2B salespeople still use cold calling to reach out to their customers. However, its effectiveness depends on the technique. Still, having this as part of your arsenal is a good strategy. A dialer is a system that allows you to call leads and prospects. It’s a great way to ensure you’re reaching out to the right people.
Dialers can automate the process and allow team members to document the outcome. This feature is also helpful in sending out broadcast messages, SMS, and push notifications, which can generate leads. You can also use it in other ways. For example, if you know someone who has yet to respond to your email, you can use the dialer to reach potential clients without searching for them manually.
Reporting analytics
Prospecting will only be useful if salespeople get valuable data and insights into their lead-generation techniques. A prospecting tool should have reporting analytics to give the team an understanding of their sales process and areas where they can improve.
The reporting analytics module allows users to analyze their data in various ways, such as:
- Forecasting sales based on historical trends
- Reviewing top performers’ profiles and making recommendations for further training/development
Invest in a Feature-Rich Prospecting Tool
Prospecting is always challenging. However, with the right tool, you can use your time more efficiently to nurture leads and eventually convert. Before you choose one, understand what each feature does, and how it will benefit your business.
