B2B Prospecting Methods: How to Build a B2B Prospect List of a Highest Efficiency

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Why are some B2B companies rather successful in sales, and others are much less, even if we speak about very similar products or services? The answer lies in how they approach the sales process, starting from prospecting B2B lists.

According to the research conducted by Sales Insights Lab, about 50% of prospects aren't fitting well with the products and services which businesses try to sell them. That is why the prospecting process is critically important for successful sales.

In the article, I've researched the topic from different points. As a result, I'm ready to offer you some proven approaches to make your B2B prospecting process efficient.

Table of contents

1. What is contact list building?
2. A place of contact list building in the B2B sales process
3. Signs of the ideal contact list building process
4. Contact finding best practices
5. Some sources of data and their main features
6. Conclusion

What is contact list building?

In our case, contact list building is a process of gathering the base of potential buyers of your product or service. Often the process we're delving into is called B2B sales prospecting, or email list management. In both cases, these terms have an enlarged sense, but here in the article, I will speak only about the gathering process itself. 

Sounds quite simple, but in fact, the process depends on different factors and is usually rather challenging. Almost half of the salespersons asked by the HubSpot team consider this stage as the most challenging in the overall B2B sales process.

A place of contact list building in the B2B sales process

For better understanding, I offer this little infographic. It illustrates both the overall process and the place where the contact base gathering stands.

Signs of the ideal contact list building process

So, what determines the successful sales prospecting process from the mediocre one? Let’s take a closer look at the core drivers of success.

1. Widest possible reach within your case. The higher volume your list will have, the better, it's obvious. This is not about feeding the list with everything you could find. A key to success here is in using the most comprehensive sources. 

For example, the LinkedIn database is one of the biggest ever, containing more than 57M companies worldwide, which is fairly much. Using a less wide database, you will highly likely get something sketchy, missing the most suitable leads.

To be fair, there is an opposite case here, too. Almost all the best-performing databases aren't free. And the price depends on the quantity of data you grab. So, the widest reach is almost always the most expensive one, that’s why it is highly essential to take into account the budget you have before the start of your search.

2. Accurate buying persona matching. You definitely must know your potential buyer’s features earlier than you'll start building your contact list. For B2B, it is more about companies, not persons. So, you must clearly understand all the pains your potential client has, or opportunities it can catch. 

For example, software development service companies face a rather high level of competition yet equal or even higher level of demand. It results in high attention to the previous experience of the possible contractor and a relatively long buying journey. coupled with a complete lack of influence of emotions on decision-making. 

3. Start with companies, continue with people. When choosing the highest matching profiles in B2B, we first think about the companies. Then, we must determine decision-makers in each separate company, who will be the main target of our sales and marketing activities. 

Remember that from now on you should think not only about the goals and needs of the business but also about the personal intentions and needs of people occupying targeted positions. In effect, this means avoiding possible conflicts of interest between the business and the person. 

4. Use highly actual data. All the data used in your research should be as new as it is possible. Most of the existing B2B contact databases are losing their actuality fairly fast. Some of the companies you’ll find will no longer exist, and some — will be changed enough to become irrelevant to you. So, the expiration date here is just months, not years.

Contact finding best practices

Each company has its own homebrewed contact finding process. But there are some approaches proven in different niches and business domains. Below you can find those of them which are considered the most universal yet working efficiently.

— Define the sources that are fairly top for the business domain of your interest. 

LinkedIn is one of the best databases ever, without reference to the niche. But if we speak about something more special, you often need other sources to get success in your search.

For example, local businesses of many regions outside the U.S. are less presented on LinkedIn but much better in the local databases.

— Find the right words for your search.

Having the portrait of your ideal customer, do not hurry to try searching within the databases you plan to use. Firstly, you should match the features from your portrait, with the terms that are common for this given source of data. Once you’ve done it, the search results will become much more accurate and relevant to your case.

— Combine the sources to achieve better results.

When you search for any result using a single database instead of several, there is a high risk of mediocre or even devastating results. Start with the most appropriate database and then add other ones to furnish your data out.

Some sources of data and their main features

There are dozens of data sources that could be used for the contact gathering process. Below you can find a kind of comparison that definitely will be helpful.

Conclusion

As you can see, some tweaks in the B2B list building process can drastically improve the efficiency of sales. Let’s remember the main points of the article briefly.

The process of gathering the base of potential buyers is complicated by multiple decision-making episodes.

Each false decision taken here can lead to a dramatic efficiency drop.

The ideal contact list has the widest possible reach within your budget; based fully on the potential buying persona’s features; contains up-to-date data; covers different communication channels; considers both the business and personal interests of included persons.

To achieve better results, it is worth it to define the source that matches the targeted audience the best in terms of reach. Combining different sources, you'll get more decision-makers and their contact data.

There is just one stage of the sales in B2B that could be tightened up. Next time, we will cover one of the stages remaining. Stay with us and find out how to succeed in B2B sales!