Do you find yourself asking, “How do I use tools for prospecting effectively and efficiently?”
Do you want to save money while you make money?
If you answered “Yes” to these questions, then the following tips are for you.
With the digital era culminating in an all-time high, there’s plenty of opportunities for you to use a multitude of available tools to boost your marketing campaigns and, of course, generate leads. However, there is now a separate tool for every prospecting requirement, including analytics, lead generation, and running ad campaigns.
In this blog, we will discuss various aspects of prospecting tools and how to derive maximum benefits from them.
The main idea behind using tools for prospecting is to search for the right audience for your product or service and tailor your sales funnel to ensure better conversions. If you are an agency that serves small or medium-sized businesses, not every prospecting tool out there is going to help your business.
If you are an agency that serves small or medium-sized businesses, not every prospecting tool out there is going to help your business.
At least, not the way you want it to.
To make the selection of a right prospecting tool easier for you, we, at BuzzBoard, have put together some guidelines that marketers tend to overlook.
So, without further ado, let’s jump in.
1. All-in-one Tool vs. Single Functionality Tools
This is a debatable topic. No two agencies are the same, and hence, their requirements differ as well. However, we have observed particular trends when it comes to agencies and their preference with such prospecting tools. In general, most agencies typically use a multitude of tools to find and acquire customers.
Some of these tools fulfill the following requirements:
- Firmographic-Based Segmentation
- Acquiring Contact Information
- Website Health and Audit
- Understanding the Ad Spend and Activity
- Understanding the Tech Stacks of the Business
- Competitor Analysis
With each passing week, new and sophisticated tools are making their way into the Marketing & Sales tech space. This popularity can be a good thing because your business can greatly benefit from the wide range of tools available.
However, a smart marketer would consider tightening their prospecting process to customize the tech stack according to the individual agency’s needs, budget, and other specifications that make sense for their business.
There is no one “perfect” way around using tools for prospecting. What may work for other “similar” agencies, may not work for you.
It’s always a good idea to try and test the tools before you implement them at full strength.
BuzzBoard is an Efficient Service
for Prospecting Leads.
Having BuzzBoard on ‘staff’ goes waaayyy beyond just an efficient service for prospecting leads. The folks at BuzzBoard have your back. I’m a fan! And I appreciate everything they’re doing for my small business!
Heather Holloway
Founder
Holloway Media Services, LLC
2. Don’t Use Separate Sources for Lead Gen & Prospecting
Agencies often use lead gen companies to build their database. Of course, this often results in issues of bad or incomplete data, in addition to aging data. These discrepancies make hundreds of dollars spent on acquiring lead lists go in vain. Ultimately, you lose a lot of time and effort in manual researching and prospecting dead-ends.
A smart marketer would consider investing in a paid lead gen consultant to bring verified and valid leads that fall within your product or service bracket. This way, you can specify the categories and filter out the unnecessary or invalid leads.
A smarter approach would be to shop for a tool or platform that does the job of the lead gen consultant with the added benefit of keeping your data updated at all times. This would also give you the flexibility of on-demand lead generation.
This way you are not depending on multiple sources for leads, while simultaneously saving money, time, and resources that are required to manually filter them. Additionally, you’re able to acquire valid leads for your business that are backed with research, which gives you enough intel to move further with engaged prospecting.
A smarter approach would be to shop for a tool or platform that does the job of the lead gen consultant with the added benefit of keeping your data updated at all times.
3. One Size Doesn’t Fit All
This applies especially to small and medium businesses. You have to keep in mind that a lot of tools that are available are generic in their handling of data for enterprises as well as SMBs. The same rule applies to how the data is presented for consumption. As a small business or a newbie agency, all of this may seem very confusing.
Small and medium businesses follow a very different approach to acquiring their audience because they have limited resources and/or may lack the expertise to identify the disadvantages of choosing a generic tool.
As a smart marketer, choose tools that are primed for your audience segment and help your business grow.
Steer clear of tools that may seem promising, but deliver very little or no value.
4. B2B Agencies – Helping Your Customers
If you’re a B2B agency, you could explore how you can leverage end-to-end lead gen tools and solutions. This may be helpful not only for your business, but for your customers as well, who are also in search of reliable lead gen sources.
You could be the one that offers lead gen services to your customers. If you’re an agency that your customer already trusts, building your customer base for this new segment would be a lot less complicated.
These are some smart guidelines for selecting and using prospecting tools effectively to make money and save some.
